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Bill O’Reilly’s giving up his day job. He’s leaving “The Radio Factor” and passing the baton to Fred Thompson. Thompson has an incredibly serpentine career path. Actor. Senator from Tennessee. Actor. Presidential candidate. Actor. And now, radio talk show host. The Washington, DC-based “Fred Thompson Show” will focus on politics and pop culture. He’ll have guests and take phone calls. It will premiere on more than 125 stations March 2. One one hand, we’re not really sure if the slow talkin’ southerner will be a very compelling radio host. On the other hand, his wife Jeri Kehn is hot. Good...

Yesterday, I got together with Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Thompson, for a phone interview as she traveled around Iowa. Unfortunately, near the end of the interview, while she was running low on time, she hit a bad cell. At that point, I lost her permanently and wasn't able to reconnect with her to get in the final 2 or 3 questions. Still, I think you will enjoy the interview, which has been edited slightly for the sake of grammar, clarity, and brevity.

1. Jeri Kehn was born on Sept. 30, 1966, in Hastings, Neb. Her family moved to Naperville, Ill., when she was 3. Growing up, Jeri spent summers on her grandparents' farm in Nebraska. 2. Her parents divorced when she was around 12. Her mother, Vicki, a librarian, married Ronald Keller, a music teacher, about three years after her divorce. 3. Jeri is a 1984 graduate of Naperville North High School. While at Naperville North, she was a member of the school's dance squad, the Starlettes. During Jeri's junior year of high school, the Starlettes won the state championship. 4. She...

This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," November 20, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. Watch "The O'Reilly Factor" weeknights at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and listen to the "Radio Factor!" LAURA INGRAHAM, GUEST CO-HOST: One candidate is seeing some challenges, though, in the polls. And that's Fred Thompson, who was in last place in the latest New Hampshire survey, second place in most national polls. And joining us right now from Washington is Jeri Thompson, the wife of Fred Thompson. Jeri, it's great to see you. JERI...

CHARLESTON — West Virginia supporters of Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson expect to welcome his wife to the Mountain State on Monday. Jeri Thompson is scheduled to meet with supporters and volunteers in Charleston, though the campaign’s state chapter says details were still being finalized. Thompson would be at least the third presidential candidate’s spouse to include West Virginia on the 2008 campaign trail. Former President Bill Clinton raised cash for his wife’s Democratic bid while in town for last month’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner keynote appearance. The wife of Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards was to headline an October fundraiser...

Though she protested at Maria Shriver's women's conference last week that she is really not involved and mostly into the mom thing with her young children, it was clear in the Golden State this week that Jeri Thompson -- a former political consultant -- is front and center, literally, at her husband's press events in Sacramento and San Francisco, where she sat and observed it all. In Sacramento, Mrs. Thompson took to the hallways before the event, armed with a big smile and a firm handshake, gamely introducing herself, energetically circulating among the crowd of conservative legislators who had endorsed...

In a startling admission, the wife of Fred Thompson, the Republican presidential contender, confessed last week that the “bone-crushing” pressure on candidates’ wives was like “walking down the street with no clothes on”. She was “terrified of embarrassing Fred”, she added. “It would break my heart.” Jeri Thompson, 41, was attending a conference on women chaired by Maria Shriver, the wife of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who quizzed her on her reputation. “I’ve read everything, from you are the campaign mastermind to you are the campaign strategist, you are the trophy wife, you are everything,” said Shriver. “Which is the right depiction...

No one thought Jeri Kehn could do it. Back in 2000, the dishy young Republican operative, then 33, had Washington wags atwitter over her high-profile quest to capture the famously footloose Fred Thompson. Divorced from his high school sweetheart in 1985, the senator and erstwhile actor, then 57, had become one of the hottest tickets in town. A deep- drawling, broad-shouldered six-and-half footer, Thompson had a devastating Southern charm, with a gilding of movie-star glamour. Country music bombshell Lorrie Morgan, cosmetics queen Georgette Mosbacher, conservative pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, and Time columnist Margaret Carlson were among Hollywood Fred's better-known, better-heeled paramours....

Here's how Jeri Kehn Thompson felt when she learned her husband, the former senator named Fred, had decided to run for president: “I felt so sick. I was depressed. I didn’t want to throw my husband to the snakes.” We learn this and more in a kind of coming-out interview in People magazine, coming out today. It's titled "No Trophy Wife" because, absent any information to the contrary, many in American society make assumptions about a 65-year-old man being married to a beautiful woman 24 years younger. The story opens with the former Jeri Kehn in sweatpants and ragged nails...

Jeri Thompson: The woman behind the man Naperville-raised Jeri Thompson is GOP hopeful's biggest cheerleader Recent months have seen Jeri Thompson painted a variety of ways in the press, from doting mom to trophy wife. She says she knew that would happen, but because she has granted few interviews, it can be hard to tell who she really is. The Sun had an exclusive opportunity to get to know the 41-year-old Naperville native a little better one afternoon last week. She sat down to talk before attending a major Chicago fundraiser for her husband, Fred Thompson, 65. The recently...

Recent months have seen Jeri Thompson painted a variety of ways in the press, from doting mom to trophy wife. The wife of GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson says she knew that would happen, but because she has given few interviews, it can be hard to tell who she really is. The Naperville Sun had an opportunity to get to know the 41-year-old Naperville native. She sat down for an interview before attending a major Chicago fund-raiser. The former Jeri Kehn lived in one of Naperville's downtown neighborhoods with her mom and stepdad, Vicki and Ron Keller. She graduated from...

Forty-one-year-old Jeri Thompson, the subject of much rumor and innuendo since her 65-year-old husband Fred began mulling a presidential run, says she’s never been “an older-man-dater kind of girl.” Speaking to People magazine in her first interview since her husband declared his candidacy, she recalls being initially attracted by Fred’s passion for a campaign finance investigation. Of the allegations that she’s a “trophy wife,” she says it’s “hard not to be defensive” when she thinks back on how hard she’s worked. “I almost think they had to fabricate that trophy-wife stuff because there’s nothing interesting to say,” she said. The...

Sources close to Fred Thompson’s campaign tell The Brody File that Fred's wife, Jeri Thompson will be featured in People Magazine. The article is expected to run next week. Jeri Thompson has pretty much stayed behind the scenes and not granted interviews. Clearly, what the People Magazine article will show is a different side of her, a side that shows her to be a mom of two young children. A lot of stories have been written about her (many of them not very flattering) but let’s remember here that while she’s active in her husband’s campaign, she’s more active in...

If you haven't seen it yet, it is a hillarious riot. He got three standing ovations!

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson on Friday defended his wife's role in his campaign, saying she has only been doing what he had asked her to do. "If some people who got their feelings hurt anonymously now want to go after her instead of me because they might feel like she's an easier target, there's nothing I can do about that," Thompson said. "But I don't have any further need for explanation for anything that she's done. Thank goodness she's there," the former Tennessee senator said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." Thompson's initial efforts to...

Vicki Keller was on her way out the door Wednesday when she was asked about her son-in-law's imminent run for the White House. "I don't know what there is to say, really," said the Naperville resident as she headed to Des Moines, Iowa, with her husband, Ron. The couple planned to be with Jeri Kehn, Vicki's daughter, at midnight, when Kehn's husband, Fred Thompson, officially planned to become the newest addition to the GOP presidential race. Although published reports said Kehn, 40, has been urging Thompson, 65, to toss his hat in the ring and is active behind the scenes,...

"That's no first lady, that's my wife!" -- Badabump. -- It's open season apparently on the wives and children of GOP presidential candidates. In a display of judgment worthy of People magazine, Washington Post editors decided the fact that Mrs. Fred Thompson once had a boyfriend when she was single is big news. (Gee, did Michelle Obama? Would Elizabeth Edwards kiss on a first date?) Meanwhile, The New York Times ran a story on the Giulianis' response to Vanity Fair's nasty little gossipy profile of Judith Giuliani, Giuliani's Princess Bride." OK, so the tiara was a bit much. And true,...

Republican Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri, is caught between two images: blond, beautiful companion to her older husband and powerful, behind-the-scenes player in his would-be presidential campaign. Washington in recent days has been abuzz about the 40-year-old second wife of former Tennessee Sen. Thompson after she was pinpointed as playing a leading role in a shake-up in the Hollywood actor's campaign staff. Thompson publicly defended her after articles appeared in The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine. The Post called her a "driving and at times divisive force" within Thompson's nascent organization and Newsweek said supporters of the 6-foot-6 conservative former senator...

Fred Thompson: Criticism of My Wife Should Be Directed at Me “She did what I asked her to do,” the presidential candidate-in-waiting tells NRO. By Byron York Over the course of former Sen. Fred Thompson’s “testing the waters” exploratory campaign, there have been reports suggesting that his wife, Jeri, has played a big role — perhaps too big a role — in the effort. Some observers, mostly anonymous, have pointed to disputes involving Jeri Thompson as the reason for the recent shakeup in the Thompson staff that led to the departures of top aide Tom Collamore and a few others....

One Friday afternoon last month, Jeri Kehn Thompson took attendance at the testing-the-waters presidential campaign headquarters of her husband, Fred D. Thompson. Mrs. Thompson checked to see which staff members were working at their desks, said a Republican close to the campaign, and went on to chide those who were A.W.O.L. The spot-check is just one of many indications that Mrs. Thompson, a former political consultant herself, is taking an active, hands-on role in the effort to propel Mr. Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, into a presidential candidacy. Admirers say the role makes sense, not only because of her background...

WASHINGTON -- Speaking at his $1,000-a-ticket fund-raiser at the J.W. Marriott hotel in downtown Washington 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. As the actor-lawyer-politician nears his long-awaited official announcement, Mrs. Thompson is slurred as a "trophy wife" 24 years younger than her husband -- privately by her husband's opponents for the Republican nomination and publicly by the news media. Even Thompson supporters grumble that Jeri, 40, is too alluring,...

Speaking at his $1,000-a-ticket fund-raiser at the J.W. Marriott hotel in downtown Washington 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. As the actor-lawyer-politician nears his long-awaited official announcement, Mrs. Thompson is slurred as a ''trophy wife'' 24 years younger than her husband -- privately by her husband's opponents for the Republican nomination and publicly by the news media. Even Thompson supporters grumble that Jeri, 40, is too alluring, should modify...

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. As the actor-lawyer-politician nears his long-awaited official announcement, Mrs. Thompson is slurred as a "trophy wife" -- privately by her husband's opponents for the Republican nomination and publicly by the media. Even Thompson supporters grumble that Jeri, 40, is too alluring, that she should modify the way she dresses...

"....Has the presidential campaign of Republican Fred Thompson gone off the rails before the candidates has even declared he is running? ...[snip]? CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks like there is a bit of a mutiny starting on Fred Thompson's campaign ship even before it leaves the dock. Another staffer resigned today. That is three in three days, with more expected, over what insiders call the haphazard, unfocused and undisciplined way things are being handled or not handled and over the candidates' wife. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CAMERON (voice-over): On the surface, Thompson is soaring. Before even officially...

She has sometimes been dismissed as a tanned and bleached blonde "trophy wife", only ever glimpsed in sleek and glamorous outfits on the arm of her much older spouse. Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri, is a lawyer and a Republican political operative. But in the past few days Jeri Thompson has suddenly emerged as the real political power behind her husband Fred's presidential campaign. Mr Thompson, 64, a former senator and actor who is running second in most polls of Republican nominees even before he has officially declared his candidacy, last week replaced his campaign manager in a shake-up of his...

Growing pains within Fred Thompson's "non-campaign" for president in 2008 revealed themselves in a big way Tuesday. For months, the former Tennessee senator has been rising in the polls by merely "testing the waters" and refusing to undertake the traditional trappings of a presidential campaign. But there has been much speculation about the role of Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn Thompson, and today, a senior adviser to Fred Thompson today stepped out of a day-to-day role in the campaign because of friction with her. When asked to confirm reports that Tom Collamore would reduce his role to senior adviser, two senior...

Frankly, those are the only messages you get from her latest column. And what a shame, because she also illustrates how ridiculous the 'feminist establishment' truly has become while simultaneously reinforcing the stereotype that feminists are simply bitter and jealous: "Fred Thompson, would-be presidential candidate, is 64 years old and looks it. His wife, Jeri, is two years younger than one of his daughters and looks even younger than her 40 years. This term is generally used to refer to women who are substantially younger, less wrinkled, and sometimes, but not always, more accomplished than the old model. The old...

Joe, the guy behind the counter at the store in Canterbury Center, has a way of sniffing out the Next Big Story. Maybe this is because Joe reads all the papers first thing every morning. Or maybe it's because as a conservative curmudgeon he is quick to tap into the zeitgeist of the largely conservative, largely curmudgeonly blogosphere, where small stories echo and bounce and expand until they evolve into Big Stories and wind up in the MSM ("mainstream media" in blogspeak). In any case, Joe is a goldmine of ideas for a columnist, especially one of a liberal bent...

Fred Thompson's Trophy Wife Susan Estrich Friday, July 13, 2007 Fred Thompson, would-be presidential candidate, is 64 years old and looks it. His wife, Jeri, is two years younger than one of his daughters and looks even younger than her 40 years. They have had two babies together since they married in 2002. Does it matter? Imagine if Hillary Clinton were married to a 36-year-old stud. She'd be laughed out of town. Imagine, at 60, if she decided she wanted two more children. Too old, we'd all be screaming. So, does anyone care when Fred Thompson does it? There have...

Fred Thompson, would-be presidential candidate, is 64 years old and looks it. His wife, Jeri, is two years younger than one of his daughters and looks even younger than her 40 years. They have had two babies together since they married in 2002.Does it matter?

"Stripper." "Bimbo." "Permanently tan." These are just a few of the adjectives used in the media lately to describe Jeri Kehn Thompson. She's the wife of likely Republican presidential candidate and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, and one of the latest women to have characteristics associated with "trophy wives." Thompson joins the ranks of other notable women who have been referred to as trophy wives, like Donald Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples and the late Anna Nicole Smith. But is she really a trophy wife? Though she's blond, beautiful and nearly 25 years younger than her husband, Kehn Thompson, a political...

Schultz: Hiss Of Dismissal Stalks A Sexy Wife By CONNIE SCHULTZFred Thompson's possible run for the presidency raises a question apparently burning brains all across America: How young is too young? We aren't talking about the jowly 64-year-old who went from being a lawyer to a lobbyist to an actor to a politician to an actor playing a lawyer to a politician again. How boring. No, much of the recent debate around Thompson's possible candidacy is focused on his much younger wife, Jeri Kehn Thompson. You might notice she kept her family name, too, which is the first clue that...

Ah, the spouse story. Journalists can't get enough. What will Bill mean for Hillary? Will Rudy's wives be a liability? How much height does Kucinich's wife have on him? And now: "Is America ready for a president with a trophy wife?" Seriously. That's a quote. It comes from the New York Times, which put its story on the potential ramifications of Fred Thompson's wife – and, specifically, the fact that she might be considered a "trophy" – in the "Fashion & Style" section. We already know about Thompson's "colorful dating history." Thompson tried to frame the coverage of said history...

Sunday's New York Times contains an article about the 2008 race that poses a different question than most other commentary thus far. It's not asking if America's ready for a woman president, or a Mormon, or an African-American. It's asking whether America's ready for a trophy wife. The wife in question is Jeri Kehn Thompson, 40, who's married to Fred Thompson, the 64-year-old former "Law and Order" actor and Republican senator from Tennessee who's expected to announce a bid for the presidency. The Times describes her as having "youthfulness, [a] permanent tan and bleached blonde hair" and asks whether "so-called...

Fred Thompson is going to present a problem for a mainstream media that is used to reporting on political candidates who enjoy the affections of younger women – just as long as their wives don't find out. The media isn't quite sure how to handle a man who has a comprehensive past with the ladies, is probably running for office and yet isn't busy herding more illicit humps into his closet than an Abu Dhabi camel smuggler with the cops banging on the front door. Back in his single days, Thompson date

Fred Thompson must really have the liberals worried as the mouth piece for lefties throughout the land began their attacks in earnest. This from the vile vaunted NY Times: As the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public has been called on to ponder several questions: Is America ready for a woman to be president? What about a black man? A Mormon? Now, with the possible candidacy of Fred D. Thompson, the grandfatherly actor and former Republican senator from Tennessee, whose second wife is...

To those of you who roll your eyes and groan when you hear people go on and on about the biased news media that injects its personal opinions into news stories and peppers them with assumptions that the writer more than “critics say” seems to hold, roll your eyes no longer. The New York Times has a piece that makes you conclude: somewhere at that (once stellar) newspaper, an editor was asleep at the switch: AS the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public...

AS the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public has been called on to ponder several questions: Is America ready for a woman to be president? What about a black man? A Mormon? 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...

Fresh on the heels of the Los Angeles Times attack on Fred Thompson's lobbying, the New York Times lowers the bar by attacking Fred Thompson's wife. Calling Fred "grandfatherly" and Jeri Kehn Thompson a "trophy wife", the Gray Lady wonders whether America can deal with a May-December romance in the White House: AS the election of 2008 approaches with its cast of contenders who bring unprecedented diversity to the quest for the White House, the voting public has been called on to ponder several questions: Is America ready for a woman to be president? What about a black man? A...

<p>June 1, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Gruff, graying Republican Fred Thompson has a proven track record of tapping into a younger generation - starting with his wife.</p> <p>The 64-year-old ex-senator wowed Generation X with his movie roles in "The Hunt for Red October" and "Die Hard 2," and he won over his bombshell blonde wife, Jeri Kehn - 24 years his junior.</p>

A Fred Thompson presidential run is looking more and more likely, says DC columnist and political insider Robert D. Novak: Close friends of Fred Thompson say his wife Jeri is urging him to take the plunge later this year and run for the Republican presidential nomination. The former senator from Tennessee and current actor on "Law & Order," in private conversation, makes it clear that he is seriously interested in launching a candidacy that has attracted extraordinary attention over the last two weeks. However, he does not plan to announce his candidacy in the immediate future. The major rap against...