There are several mel scripts out there that i use for these type of things.
you can toggle wire frame on selected with mel scripts.
you can toggle x-ray on selected object with them,
there is one out that that will let you select objects without seeing the highlighted wire frame.
There is also a script out there that will make the selected object render wire only, which i think is what you were talking about, i personally don't use that one, so i cant remember the name of it. but they are all at Creative crash.com under mel scripts for maya. And i believe those woudl be in the Interface section of the mel scripts library they have there.

G-man