Are candidates to be judged by their spouses?

I think that most of us would have a knee-jerk reaction that, of course, we shouldn't judge a political candidate by his or her spouse. But Republicans will be ready to hang every negative that they can think of concerning Bill Clinton around Hillary's neck. And rightly so since much of the strength of her candidacy comes from her position as his wife. She's fully willing to use his presidency as a frame for her own candidacy. But what about other spouses who never served in the Oval Office. I'll admit that I was more than happy to blast away at Teresa Heinz Kerry for some of the things that she said. I figure that when a wife inserts herself into the race through policy pronouncements or comments about her husband's opponents, she is fair game. But what about other spouses who haven't done so?

Well, I'll admit that I was repulsed by a profile of Rudy's wife, Judy, that had her smooching with him publicly and saying some rather nauseating things about her big, masculine husband. Blech! Who wants to think such things about a presidential candidate.

So where do I think the line should be drawn? I would draw it at gratuitous articles about a spouse who hasn't yet done anything to insert herself into the race. And that is what seems to be happening with Fred Thompson's wife because she is more than 20 years younger than he is and was photographed in an evening gown that shows quite a bit of cleavage. The New York Times tackles the perplexing question of whether it will hurt Fred Thompson that his wife might be called a trophy wife.

Now, with the possible candidacy of Fred D. Thompson, the grandfatherly actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee, whose second wife is almost a quarter-century his junior, comes a less palatable inquiry that is spurring debate in Internet chat rooms, on cable television and on talk radio: Is America ready for a president with a trophy wife?

The question may seem sexist, even crass, but serious people — as well as Mr. Thompson’s supporters — have been wrestling with the public reaction to Jeri Kehn Thompson, whose youthfulness, permanent tan and bleached blond hair present a contrast to the 64-year-old man who hopes to win the hearts of the conservative core of the Republican party. Will the so-called values voters accept this union?

Mr. Thompson, who needs the support of early primary voters, is expected to formally announce his candidacy any day now. Meanwhile, much of the brouhaha around Mrs. Thompson, 40, is being stirred by photos of her in form-fitting gowns circulating on the Internet.

“You have a situation where a candidate happens to have an attractive wife, therefore it’s open season for smutty thoughts and lowbrow humor, and no concern for the fact that this is a wife and mother, a professional woman?” said Mark Corallo, a former Justice Department official who is a consultant and the chief media adviser to the Thompson campaign. “One picture on the Internet and all of a sudden she’s reduced to being a bimbo?”

Well, yes. That's the way it works in media-land. They can excuse their own penchant for such gossip by saying that it all over the internet. These are the same people who say that they are so above bloggers because they have editors and standards. Yet they are happy to take comments from the internet, a stupid statement by Joe Scarborough, and then dress it up as a serious political analysis. They're reduced to trying to extract political profundity from a few anonymous comments on a blog and then dress it all up with a some quotes from a few pundits-on-call. Their final excuse will be that they stuck this non-story in the Style section so don't take it seriously.

Until you have more concrete evidence that Mrs. Thompson's age and looks are either helping or hurting her husband, leave her out of your supposed political analysis.

But I'll make one prediction. The story ponders the "ick" factor that some would feel about such a May-December couple. Well, if Fred Thompson does win the nomination and ends up going against Hillary Clinton, I predict that there would be a much greater "ick" factor in people pondering the Clinton marriage than the Thompson marriage.