STAMFORD, Conn. — In his second major outing as a presidential candidate in waiting, Fred Thompson spoke last night to the Connecticut Republican Party for its annual Prescott Bush awards dinner. It was a somewhat unlikely venue for the conservative former Tennessee senator — speaking to the Nutmeggers who send moderate Rep. Christopher Shays to Washington, D.C., year after year to work day and night for the other side — but he got the job done.

What job was that? In the quasi noncampaign Mr. Thompson is currently running, that can be a tricky question.

“I’m not here to make a pitch to you tonight,” Mr. Thompson said toward the beginning of his speech. That was a pretty big whopper. Mr. Thompson, here and at a series of GOP venues around the country, is in the middle of the pitch of his life — trying to convince the Republican Party that he’s the savior it needs to lead it back to the glory of the years of President Reagan and Speaker Newt Gingrich. (Don’t laugh … from the vantage point of the Bush years, Newt’s reign looks like a golden age.)

Last night, he had some ground to make up.

In his first outing as a quasi-noncandidate, Mr. Thompson spoke at the Lincoln Club Annual Dinner in Orange County, Calif., at the beginning of the month. The speech fell flat. It was flat and low energy, and it earned a scathing review from conservative columnist Robert Novak.

While his quasi noncampaign staffers present last night (yes, there were some) played down the Novak review, it was clear Mr. Thompson had done some retooling of his routine, keeping it higher energy and throwing in some real red meat for conservatives.

“All right, let’s get the announcement out of the way,” Mr. Thompson said to open. “‘Law & Order’ will return for an 18th season.”

“We need you for a different job!” a woman shouted from the audience.

“Could you speak a little louder?” Mr. Thompson retorted.

He started with some decidedly non-red meat, praising Mr. Shays, who was supposed to be at the dinner last night but had to be in Washington to vote. He then noted Senator Lieberman’s support for Mr. Thompson’s investigation into the Clinton-China fund-raising scandal in the 1990s, disclosing that he was “proud” to have given money to Mr. Lieberman’s campaign (which one wasn’t specified).

But then he moved on to what the audience was there to hear.

“After eight years in Washington, I longed for the sincerity of Hollywood,” Mr. Thompson said, referring to his departure from the Senate, in what’s becoming a standard line. “That’s no joke my friends.”

And then, on the topic of the day, immigration, he let loose. “We are now living in a nation that is beset by people who are suicidal maniacs,” Mr. Thompson said, laying into the recent proposed compromise, engineered by Senator McCain, that would provide legal status to millions of currently illegal immigrants while ostensibly strengthening border enforcement. “We’re sitting here now with essentially open borders.”

“They don’t get it that putting it on a piece of paper anymore, even passing it into law, does not convince the American people that they will do what they say they’re going to do,” Mr. Thompson thundered.

And if Mr. Thompson had harsh words for his Republican friends on the immigration deal, he had much harsher words for the Democrats on the war in Iraq. “We look at our friends on the Democratic side who have clearly decided not what is best for their country, but what is best for the Democratic Party, and how they might get additional votes in future elections,” he said.

“Our choice is where we will fight,” Mr. Thompson said, echoing President Bush’s familiar line about fighting the terrorists there, so as not to have to fight them here. All the Democrats want to debate, he said, is “the date of our surrender.”

Agree or disagree, these were the words of a man ready for a fight. If folks weren’t ready to believe it after Orange County, they should be after Stamford.

Talking to a likely Thompson staffer ahead of the speech, I said I hoped he’d get in the race and shake things up. The staffer said, coyly, “I think you’ll get your wish.” I didn’t push for a date and time. But this guy’s ready to go for it.