WP,pg1: The Rise Of Jeri Thompson: Fred's Wife Is Helping to Shape His Probable Bid

[DeepModem Mom]

The Rise Of Jeri Thompson
Ex-Senator's Wife Is Helping to Shape His Probable Bid
By Alec MacGillis and John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 5, 2007; Page A01


They've been a team since they got married," one friend said of Jeri and Fred Thompson.
(By Steve Helber -- Associated Press)

On a hot Saturday in June 2002, Fred D. Thompson married his second wife, Jeri Kehn, in an unventilated Congregational church in her home town of Naperville, Ill. Kehn, in a Valentino gown, was a 35-year-old media consultant for a Washington law firm; Thompson, a 59-year-old U.S. senator from Tennessee....It was a triumphal return for Kehn, who had left Naperville for college and spent much of her 20s biding her time in Nashville without a clear career path, living with a boyfriend whose main claim to fame was getting arrested in Red Square for unfurling a pizza-parlor banner in the last days of the Cold War. Kehn left three court judgments behind her in Nashville, one of which remains unpaid today, and a court twice garnished her wages.

But after meeting Fred Thompson, Kehn began establishing herself in Washington Republican circles, and marriage more than consolidated her place in the city. Today, Jeri Thompson, 40, has emerged as a driving and at times divisive force within the presidential campaign her husband is preparing to launch, one that could make her the nation's youngest first lady since Jacqueline Kennedy.

In the nascent Thompson campaign -- anticipated with high hopes by many conservatives unsatisfied with the current crop of GOP candidates -- Jeri Thompson plays a role arguably as influential as those of two better-known spouses of Democratic candidates, Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Edwards. She helps shape her husband's conservative message and image, has been a strong voice urging him to run and recently helped instigate a shake-up that pushed aside Thompson's first campaign manager and his research director....

***

Campaign sources described Jeri Thompson as firm, straightforward and assured of what she wants to do, but unfamiliar with the nuts and bolts of campaigning. Many decisions have been held up awaiting her approval, they say, from routine matters such as travel schedules and car manifests to weightier ones including direct-mail efforts, personnel choices and the timing of the campaign kickoff.

One person directly familiar with the campaign said Thompson was the architect of the strategy to portray her husband as the true conservative in the race. The source said Thompson works mostly from the couple's home in McLean, "running the campaign from the kitchen table." She frequently calls aides and demands answers quickly. "Everything for her is at Defcon," the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak on behalf of the campaign....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/04/AR2007080401483.html?hpid=topnews

[babylonsister]

1. I didn't read it, but the fact that the WP even runs this story is disturbing.

I hit on a bit of Novak last week? talking about how smart and beautiful the little woman was. That's all I needed to hear.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Novak did a piece on her, too? nt

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. looks like she found an image coach.

darn.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. Thompson is 64, not 59

At 40, Fred Thompson's attractive, blonde wife of five years, Jeri Kehn, is considerably younger than he is. And while Fred is the TV and movie star of the pair, he looks his 64 years, while in the photos I've seen of her, she often looks younger than hers. (sorry about the link) :puke:
http://beldar.blogs.com/beldarblog/2007/06/fred_thompson_a.html

...and I could have sworn she was 29 when they got married, but I can't find anything to back that up yet...

[Virginian]

5. In the pix I've seen, she looks like a golddigger and he

looks like a leering dirty old man.

In fact I have thought that showing the couple together would lose him votes based on image.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Her age when they married seems off to me, too. nt