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"We're not dainty, if you get my drift"

September 11, 2007 12:17 PM

The Washington Post reports (CLICK HERE) that some members of the South Carolina campaign team of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have been linked to a website sliming former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

Abc_thompson_070910_bl_2
The site, PhoneyFred.org, was taken down ever since the Post began asking questions about it.

The Post reported that the site "painted an unflattering picture of Thompson, dubbing the former TV star and senator Fancy Fred, Five O'clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred...Before it vanished, the front page of the Web site featured a picture of Thompson depicted in a frilly outfit more befitting a Gilbert and Sullivan production than a presidential candidate. Under the heading 'Playboy Fred,' the site asked the provocative question: 'Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?'"

The site had links, the Post discovered, to the website of the political consulting firm of J. Warren Tompkins, Romney's top Palmetto State consultant.

Tompkins, you may recall, helped then-Gov. George W. Bush defeat Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in South Carolina's 2000 primary amidst allegations of all sorts of ugly smear tactics (LINK) as well as Bush's questionable military absentee ballot monitoring program (LINK). Back in February 2000, one of Bush's key South Carolina advisers told TIME, "We play it different down here. We're not dainty, if you get my drift. We're used to playin' rough."

Todd Harris, who worked for McCain back in South Carolina seven years ago and is now communications director for Thompson, called the anti-Thompson website "smut" and "high-tech gutter politics" and called for Romney to fire Tompkins if he had anything to do with the site.

Asked for a response to this recent brouhaha, Romney spokesman Kevin Madden emailed me that "the site has no direct affiliation to our campaign, and we had no knowledge of its development."

Madden said PhoneyFred.org "was created by an individual who works at an internet firm who parked the site temporarily on the company server space of a firm whose financial partner is a consultant to the campaign."

After the Romney campaign found out about this, Madden says, "We informed this party that as a result of that server use, we were receiving inquires about the site from reporters" and "made it clear that we did not approve of the site and asked for immediate action to make sure it was again in no way affiliated with the campaign. The person responsible is not an employee of ours, but we took immediate action to make sure it was clear the site was not affiliated with the campaign."

Did Tompkins or any of Romney's South Carolina team know about PhoneyFred.org or have anything to do with it?

Madden said "No. Mr. Tompkins and other SC staff also informed us they had no knowledge of the development or the hosting of the site."

Today Harris told me, “It is not appropriate on a day like September 11th to engage in politics. We will have plenty to say on this subject tomorrow.”

UPDATE:  It turns out the man behind the anti-Fred Thompson website is Wesley Donehue who directly works for Mitt Romney's senior South Carolina consultant J . Warren Tompkins and another Romney consultant Terry Sullivan.

Donehue, as "the first associate consultant and vice president of TTS" -- Tompkins Thompson Sullivan -- "runs the daily operations of the firm. Despite being only 27 years old, he is one of the most experienced operatives in the state." (LINK).

And yet the Romney campaign insists Donehue has nothing to do with their campaign and Tompkins knew nothing about the anti-Thompson website.

Also interesting is the fact that Tompkins's regular business website is all of a sudden "under construction," though you can see glimpses of a cached version HERE.

UPDATE 3:26 pm EST -- Thompson campaign communications director Todd Harris has opted to issue a rather scathing statement about this incident, referring to "an increasingly desperate Mitt Romney" a "half-baked cover-up attempt by the Romney campaign (that) does not even pass the laugh test" and asserting that the "episode only serves to prove what many voters are already figuring out: Mitt Romney will do anything, say anything, smear any opponent and flip flop on any position in order to win."

The Thompson campaign is five days old. The Gloves are off.

--jpt

September 11, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (35)

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Fred or Mitt - they are both the same people - save America this election - google RON PAUL

He was at John Hopkin's today giving a key note speech on our failed foreign policy. Do you all want to be lemmings jumping off a cliff?

Posted by: A Patriot | Sep 11, 2007 8:34:25 PM

Let's see here...dirty politics with dirty politicians. Why am I not suprised? To all Republican voters out there: Do you really want any of these guys to lead our country? I mean, both of these guys are following the "stay the course" retoric of Bush, a policy that is obviously failing and costing tax payers money and soldier lives. Bush dropped the ball in Afganistan, and yet these guys don't say anything about that.

Also, do you really want someone in office that's dumb enough to not belive in evolution?

We've tried the whole "conservative" route, and it's done nothing to help this country. It's only taken money out of this country for neccessary services, and put it into the hands of Haliburton, Cheney and his buddies.

Posted by: moderateistheway | Sep 11, 2007 7:41:06 PM

Kevin--I agree with everything you said---but, uh, you misspelled 'democrat' when you named the party you were talking about. And you left out 'arrogant' and 'overconfident' in your description.

Posted by: SteveW | Sep 11, 2007 7:10:21 PM

It seems to be a consistent republican strategy to try to win elections not on the strength of their ideas, for obvious reasons, but on focusing enough hate on the opposition. Sad, sad, sad. It is also sad that there are enough simple minded people to fall in line with this strategy to make it work. Sad, sad, sad.

Posted by: Kevin | Sep 11, 2007 6:16:17 PM

This is another muckraking article. This reporter reminds me of the kind of playground bully that encourages fights between those that would otherwise be friends. Hope he enjoys the conflicts he fabricates while he can. His deeds will come home to him to roost; not by the doing of anyone else but by his own doing. Hopefully his editor will see it coming and cover his own back side.

Posted by: lorax_mbell | Sep 11, 2007 5:39:22 PM

They smear each other so they wont have to discuss the real issues. Its seems to work for them. Are we that dumb? They seem to think we are.

Posted by: AM | Sep 11, 2007 5:00:40 PM

These are truly only scandals that I see in fictional dramas on television. Why can't the candidates state their platforms, be straightforward, and not resort to dramatic, undercurrent gossip. I haven't heard either candidate take a position on issues like global poverty. Is that not a little bit more important than internet smut websites?

Posted by: Erica | Sep 11, 2007 4:56:52 PM

Just when you think it can't get any lower, it does. I keep hearing the euphemism "political discourse" - one has to wonder if what passes for political discourse in this country even deserves the name. Shame on you, Mr. Romney, for having people like that working for you. You should fire every last one of them.

Posted by: tracy | Sep 11, 2007 4:45:45 PM

Remember I mentioned in my reading I found an article here on Abc News that Karl Rove was a friend of Mitt Romney's for 8 years. Perhaps that explains the mudslinging and slimey smearing.

Posted by: Sandra Lea | Sep 11, 2007 4:18:05 PM

And now the rats turn on each other. It's not like any Republican has a shot to win the White House in '08 anyway. I'm going to pop some popcorn and watch these evil ones tear each other to shreds like rats in a cage. LOL

Posted by: El Angelino | Sep 11, 2007 4:14:22 PM

That internet website will have no effect on the people of South Carolina. The folks cannot stand anything but a conservative and only Thompson has a chance of beating Rudy in S.C. and I bet he does.

Posted by: rockychance | Sep 11, 2007 3:47:59 PM

James--the one I most fondly remember from History class is the campaign against Grover Cleveland, who MAY have fathered a child out of wedlock, and saw that the child was sent to an orphanage. The anti-Cleveland slogan was, "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" When Cleveland won, his supporters countered, "Gone to the White House, HA HA HA!"

Posted by: SteveW | Sep 11, 2007 3:39:04 PM

It's sad, but dirty politics is as American as apple pie. I have read reports that Thomas Jefferson was accused of favoring the teaching of "murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest," by Aaron Burr in 1800. And in 1828, John Quincy Adams was called "The Pimp," by Andrew Jackson, apparently in reference to a rumor that Adams coerced a young woman into an affair with a Russian nobleman when Adams was the American Ambassador to Russia. In retaliation, Adams' supporters had a pamphlet which read: "General Jackson's mother was a common prostitute brought to this country by British solders! She afterwards married a mulatto man with whom she had several children of which number General Jackson is one."

Posted by: James Danley | Sep 11, 2007 2:05:21 PM

If you think these politicians and derelics are amusing.
They are an embarrasment to me as an American.
Any President that calls American patriots,(Minute Men) "Vigelanties" is as we know an Alcholic with bad judgement.

Posted by: JB | Sep 11, 2007 12:48:27 PM

Neither can I. The fun and games of political infighting is always amusing to watch.

Posted by: chuck | Sep 11, 2007 12:20:04 PM

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