Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi has long been one of the fiercest, funniest political reporters in the biz. He has chased down stories in Iraq and New Orleans, and he’s hung out with everyone from John Kerry to Stephen Colbert, writing about his adventures both in Rolling Stone and in his regular online column, The Low Post.

Now you get a chance to pick his brain. Next Thursday, June 21st, Matt will answer your email questions. Start sending them right now to Taibbi@RollingStone.com. Want to know what John Kerry’s really like? Is Dick Cheney actually that evil? What’s Matt’s favorite breakfast cereal? Fire away — it’s all fair game.

Al Gore may not officially be running for president (yet) but between his Oscar-nominated documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, his current book Assault on Reason, and his promotion of Live Earth (which takes place worldwide on July 7th) the man has already established himself as our nation’s undisputed leader when it comes to the environment.

In “Al Gore’s Fight Against the Climate Crisis,” which appears in our issue on stands now, the former vice president talks about the threat posed by catastrophic climate change and explains why he believes it is not too late to stop it. Listen here to three audio snippets from the interview, conducted in Gore’s office in Washington, D.C., in late May of this year.

• On why purchasing our way to a greener planet won’t solve our environmental problems but is still a good start: “We’re not going to solve this problem by buying Priuses and changing our light bulbs. But that’s not to say that buying hybrids and choosing better technology isn’t important.”

• On why caring for the environment is becoming an increasingly bi-partisan issue:
  “More and more people have been connecting these dots and I think there will be no shortage of statements from Mother Nature, if you will. April was the hottest April in the history of Europe. The hottest winter in the world’s
  history was December, January, February. Hottest year in America’s history was 2006.”

• On the sacrifices that need to be made, and explains why they aren’t really sacrifices:
  “Most, not all but most of the changes we need to make have to do with eliminating these absurdly wasteful practices that continue not because they make good sense or good economics but because of inertia. Is this important enough for us to make sacrifices? Yes, of course it’s that important. It’s the survival of human civilization.”

The open source campaign continues. This time in the form of a busty hip-hop love ballad for, you guessed it. (Via Daily Dish)
I’m not sure the sight of Obama Girl jiggling her junk in pink panties emblazoned with the letters OBAMA across the back is going to move voters in New Hampsire. (At least not move them to cast their ballots for Obama).

But damn. Nobody’s jiggling for Giuliani, that’s for sure.

The latest Rasmussen poll has Hollywood Fred in a first-place tie with Mr. 9/11 at 24 percent. That’s pretty stunning — and Thompson deserves credit. His quietly confident above-the-fray campaign has left the actor as a clean receptacle for much of the strong-brewed, none-of-the-above sentiment that’s fueling the GOP base right now.

But clearly the “Thompson epiphany” as some top conservatives are calling it, springs less of love for the Law & Order Republican, and more out of a sense of desperation among base voters who see the former Tennessee senator as the lesser of four evils. “We know that the Ronald Reagan white knight is not going to come flying down the street on his golden horse,” Bill Donohue of the Catholic League told me recently. All Republicans are hoping for at this point, he says, is a “serious-minded person, who’s pro life, not flip flopping, and shows presidential leadership skills. Thompson apparently fits the bill.”

I fear, though, that Fred’s numbers are softer than his Dixie Drawl. While Thompson may play a Reagan Republican on television, his real-life record is that of a lazy man’s John McCain. Thompson co-chaired his friend’s presidential campaign in 2000, and helped fine-tune McCain’s conservative-detested campaign finance reform law. He’s also has a well earned reputation for laziness. “I don’t do frenetic,” he said recently, predicting a low-key campaign.

“The challenge for Fred Thompson,” conservative strategist Frank Luntz told me recently, “is whether he’s passionate enough. Republicans are so afraid of losing the White House just like they lost the House and Senate that they will only vote for someone who they think desperately wants it.”

“Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy.” - A survey question to which Thompson checked yes in 1994.

“I do not believe abortion should be criminalized.” - Fred Thompson in 1996

“I was single for a long time, and, yep, I chased a lot of women. And a lot of women chased me. And those that chased me tended to catch me.” - Thompson earlier this year describing his 1985-2002 bachelorhood.

Here’s the deal about “Hollywood Fred” Thompson. It’s the same deal for most red-blooded American men who routinely bed down with women they’re not married to. Like bombing Iran, abortion is never a first, second, or even fifth choice. But it is an option that needs to stay “on the table.”

When Fred was sleeping around, abortion was not the government’s business.

Now that he’s re-married with a new batch of young kids he’s changed his tune, as seen in this FoxNews interview with Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: Abortion?

THOMPSON: Pro-life.

WALLACE: Do you want to overturn Roe vs. Wade?

THOMPSON: I think Roe vs. Wade was bad law and bad medical science…. I think it was wrong.

It’s easy to be ‘pro-life’ when you’re a settled father and family man. It’s another thing altogether to oppose abortion in absolute terms when you’re a Hollywood actor playing the field and you face the prospect of unintentionally bringing a child into the world with your latest conquest.

Not everyone wants to live out their own personal Knocked Up script. When it was relevant to him, Fred Thompson respected that choice.