Is Newt Gingrich running for president? The former House speaker has said he won't make a final decision about a campaign for the White House until this fall. But here's a big hint that Newt might be out of the game: GOP strategist Rich Galen, one of Gingrich's longest and closest advisers, announced this weekend that he's signed on as a senior advisor to former Sen. Fred Thompson, who is considering his own bid for the White House. "Assuming he gets into the race, I think Fred Thompson may well be the best combination of insider-outsider experience and possess the new kind of ideas that don't exist in either party," Galen told CNN, where he has appeared as an on-air political analyst. It's unlikely that Galen would jump to another candidate without Gingrich's blessing. Galen was Gingrich's top communications aide in the House and has been an unpaid adviser and friend since then. Last December, Galen appeared as a surrogate for a prospective Gingrich 2008 bid on a Washington panel organized by National Journal's Hotline to discuss the GOP presidential race. Indeed, the pair is so close that Galen has been considered a go-to guy for reporters looking to read the tea leaves about Newt's ambitions. Last week, Gingrich told the Associated Press that a Thompson bid would make him less likely to join the 2008 race. "If Fred Thompson runs and he does well, then I think that makes it easier for me not to run," Gingrich said. But as he prone to do, Newt still left the door open a crack, telling AP, "On the other hand, just given with you've seen with (John) McCain the last few months, how can you predict?" As for Thompson, it's anybody's guess at this point when the former Law & Order star will throw his hat in the ring. His advisers initially said he'd be in the race by mid-July, then pushed it back to August. Now rumors have Thompson entering the race by Labor Day- maybe. One thing's for sure: Fred's busy raising money for his exploratory bid--as certain a sign as any that he's really planning to run. He's scheduled to hold his first big-dollar Washington fundraiser next week.