The importance of the poli-wife

By Libby

It looks like I'm not the only one interested in Jeri Kehn Thompson. The Weekly Standard does a profile piece on Fred's meteoric rise from nowhere to become a contender in the GOP race. For all those folks who have been complaining that I had no right to bring up his wife because she's just an innocent bystander -- well -- there is this.

Thompson's wife Jeri, a savvy Republican strategist with Capitol Hill experience, asked Mark Corallo, an old friend and public relations guru, to see what he might do to raise her husband's profile in Washington. Thompson had not altogether retired from politics when he left the Senate in January 2003: He was serving as chairman of the State Department's International Security Advisory Board. He was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a member of the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission, and a commentator for ABC Radio.

Now before my critics pick up their poison pens, my point is that there are no innocent bystanders in political campaigns. Candidates routinely use their families to sell themselves. Romney has his five boys blogging on his behalf and I understand their neat-o blog is the most popular feature of his website.

In any event, my own distaste for Mr. Thompson has nothing to do with his lovely young wife. It's his politics that lost him my vote.

Thompson made clear that he intends to campaign on "big issues"--entitlement reform at home and the imperative of an America that shapes world affairs rather than reacts to them. He indicated a willingness to criticize his own party's failings, particularly on government spending. and a desire to return Republicans to their limited-government moorings. "He recognizes that a 'first principles' campaign is what the American people want," says McIntosh.

In other words he's offering four more years of the failed Bush Doctrine complete with an expansion of the corporate welfare system, to be funded by shredding the social safety net for poor people. It appears his plan is to become the new Bush, only more arrogant, if that's even possible, and with better diction.

For myself, I've had six years too much of that style of governance already and I have a feeling the 70% of Americans who hold the same view aren't going to vote for Fred either, no matter who he is married to.

(Photo shamelessly stolen from Kiko's House.)