Jeri Thompson, Political Powerhouse Spouse

This pretty much settles Jeri Thompson, in spite of Juan Williams slavish obedience to his leash holding political masters on the left by smearing Fred via Jeri with the phrase "Trophy Wife". This article pretty much kills that label - and squashes Williams as anything other than a completely co-opted stooge.

Speaking at his $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown Washington on Monday night, Fred Thompson began by introducing "my campaign manager -- oh, I mean my wife." That little joke about Jeri Thompson reveals how the prospective Republican presidential candidate regards the attack on his intelligent, beautiful wife.

The archetypal "trophy wife" (a phrase coined by Fortune magazine 18 years ago) conjures up the image of a rich corporate executive who tires of the woman he married when they both were young, whom he has grown old with, and turns to a young, chic new wife, usually seen as a home wrecker. Mrs. Thompson does not fit that mold. Thompson had been divorced for 17 years and was on friendly terms with his first wife when he married Jeri Kehn in 2002. They also have two small children -- not the trophy wife caricature either.

Nor does Jeri Thompson's background fit the caricature. After working for the Senate Republican Conference and the Republican National Committee, she became a big-time political media consultant in Washington.

[Tom] Collamore is a former bureaucrat and tobacco lobbyist with vastly less political experience than Mrs. Thompson has. Not even Collamore's friends could conceive of him running a national campaign. [But Jeri, on the other hand....]

Courtesy of Robert Novak

Biggest surprise about this is that it is coming from Novak, a prototypical beltway pundit who has been hostile at time to Thompson in the past.