Mrs. President?

March 30, 2007 — -- In response to Barbara Walters' question of whether he would allow his wife, Judith, to sit in on Cabinet meetings if he became president, Rudy Giuliani said, "If she wanted to. If they were relevant to something that she was interested in. I mean that would be something that I'd be very, very comfortable with."

Across the nation, one could almost hear the other Republican presidential contenders heave hearty sighs of relief. Perhaps the Rudy juggernaut will indeed derail itself.

As if Rudy hadn't done enough damage by telling America that he would not only be "very comfortable" with his third wife sitting in on Cabinet meetings but adding an extra "very" for good measure, his wife joined the conversation adding that she would enthusiastically sit in on policy meetings if given the green light by her husband, "and certainly in the areas of health care."

As Mrs. Giuliani's name will not be appearing on any ballot, the couple is staking out some rather bold turf here.

A solid Red-Meat Republican's first instinct when hearing of the Giuliani's ambitious spousal plans will be to think back to the Bad Old Days when the Clintons ruled the land. Where a less uxorious husband might have been satisfied to give his wife a broach or some other expensive bauble to celebrate their newly won power, Bill Clinton gave Hillary Clinton 14 percent of the American economy to toy with as a cat does a terrified mouse.

Mrs. Clinton's effort to impose Hillary-Care on an unwilling nation was a historic blunder by the normally shrewd first couple. While Mrs. Clinton had qualifications and a curriculum vitae far more impressive than the present Mrs. Giuliani, there was no possible defense for the notion that she was the country's most qualified individual to retool the American health-care system.

In short, the president's selection of his wife for such an important task was an outrageous act of nepotism.

Her suddenly sweeping power violated deeply held American values. The Founding Fathers' decision to avoid the trappings of monarchy was not accidental nor was it lightly made. In the system they designed, the president would be no king and his wife, therefore, would be no queen.

Until the Clintons, every prior president showed a demonstrable understanding of this basic fact. As first lady, the presidential spouse had ceremonial functions and was welcome to tackle uncontroversial Motherhood-and-Apple-Pie issues like literacy. And when a first lady grew too big for her britches in the media's eyes -- as Nancy Reagan often did -- various forces vigorously acted to return her to her proper place.

Dean Barnett is a columnist for Townhall.com and blogs daily at http://HughHewitt.townhall.com. The day the Red Sox won the World Series was the happiest day of his life.