Thompson stumbles — before entering the race

As a rule, presidential campaigns that reshuffle senior staffers are also experiencing fairly significant trouble. This isn’t always the case — Howard Dean and John Kerry both excelled in 2004 after major staffing changes — but it’s generally a bad sign.

Fred Thompson’s staff troubles, though, are even more noteworthy than most because of two factors: the timing and the reasoning.

It started yesterday, when Thompson’s de facto campaign manager was unexpectedly demoted.

Tom Collamore, who had been functioning as de facto campaign manager for Thompson’s bid, has been moved into a “senior advisor” role, according to communications director Linda Rozett. Randy Enwright, a longtime Florida operative, will take over the political operations for the campaign while former Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) will serve in an as-yet-to-be determined capacity.

Today, it got worse.

J.T. Mastranadi was hired just a week and a half ago to be the campaign’s director of research. He resigned this morning, a friend of his said. The friend said that Mastranadi was “fed up” with the “lack of structure” and was unclear about his role in the coming campaign.

Thompson’s spokesperson, Linda Rozett, confirmed that Mastranadi submitted his resignation this morning. “He did it for personal reasons,” she said.

Rozett said two major resignations in the course of 24 hours is no big deal. “Everything is on track,” she said. Maybe, maybe not, but I think it’s fair to say presidential campaigns don’t usually struggle like this before they even start.

What’s more, most reports indicate that these changes are the result of personality conflicts involving Thompson’s wife.

The shake-up comes amid consternation inside the campaign about the active role played by Thompson’s wife, Jeri, a lawyer, media consultant and former Republican National Committee official.

“Rumors are rumors,” said Thompson spokeswoman Linda Rozett.

And while it’s never wise to peddle innuendo, when insiders trip over themselves to tell reporters about problems with a candidate’s spouse, there’s usually something to it. Indeed, Fox News reported it as fact that Jeri Thompson, who used to work for the Republican National Committee, was responsible for yesterday’s resignation.

On principal, I shy away from writing about pols’ families — I tend to think spouses and kids are off-limits unless there’s a highly relevant angle — but I think Digby’s right to note the irony of all this.

The press gave Bill and Hillary Clinton such a hard time for her involvement in his political life, and here we have alleged traditional values candidates Giuliani and Frederick of Hollywood with second and third wives on the front lines whom they are just as proud as punch to allow to run roughshod over their campaigns. […]

It will be interesting to see if the press finds this as fascinating as John Edwards’ haircuts and Hillary Clinton’s cleavage.

Stay tuned.