Question

what is the best solution to having a link have both text and and image, and the solution will still be w3c validated under XHTML 1.0 STRICT? And w/o javascript.

Answer 1

Use CSS, no need for javascript in the first place.

<a href="#" class="image">Hello</a>

<style>
    .image {
       padding-left: 20px; // width of image
       background: url(image.jpg) no-repeat scroll left center;
       height: 20px; // height of image
       line-height: 20px; //height of image
       // other rules that you need  
    }
</style>