I'm shocked . . .
Posted on 09/11/2007 8:50:15 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
BOSTON - A spokesman for Republican Mitt Romney said Tuesday that the presidential candidate did not approve the creation of a Web site severely critical of the personal and political life of his GOP rival, Fred Thompson.
The Web site, PhoneyFred.org, was created by Wesley Donehue, a business partner of Warren Tompkins, a South Carolina political operative on the Romney payroll and Romney's top adviser in the early voting state.
The site was created without the knowledge of Tompkins or Romney, said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden. After the campaign received media inquiries about it, Romney aides traced the site to Donehue and complained.
"We 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," Madden said. "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."
The Web site attacked Thompsons conservative credentials. It also labeled him 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.
It asked, "Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?"
Romney has said he welcomes Thompson to the race for the GOP presidential nomination, which the former Tennessee senator and actor joined last week. However, Romney has also questioned Thompson's leadership experience, and aides to the former Massachusetts governor have highlighted the Tennessean's lobbying record and his support for campaign finance reform legislation, as well as suggestions he lacked legislative accomplishments.
The site made light of Thompson's acting career, saying of the "Law and Order" star: "You're probably in the same boat: You can't get the theme to 'Law and Order' out of your head, but can you name one thing that Fred did during his eight years in the United States Senate?"
It went on to note that Thompson once provided legal services to a family planning group, and also served as a lobbyist.
The Web site was hosted by a company called bluehost.com, based in Orem, Utah. It had links to Under the Power Lines, Tompkins' political consulting firm.
Tompkins, a former executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party, is a veteran of Palmetto State politics. He served as President Bush's 2000 Southeast regional director at a time when Bush attacked then-rival Sen. John McCain and defeated him in the state's GOP primary.
Tompkins has been paid $12,000 monthly to guide Romney's effort in South Carolina, whose primary the campaign views as a pivotal test of strength of support among conservative voters. It follows the leadoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire, two other areas of concentration for Romney.
"Once we received inquiries about the site, we discovered it 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 — Mr. Tompkins," said Madden, who later identified the individual as Donehue. "Mr. Tompkins did not know about the development of the site."
Of course he’s going to distance himself from it, it blew up in his face. I don’t know how much he approved of it but I have a hard time thinking he didn’t know about it.
No apology, just “not our fault.”
Huh.
Plausible deniability.
Of course the campaign is going to deny it, it was set up with "plausible deniability" from the get-go.
But let's assume Romney's telling the truth here, for the sake of argument. He has a remarkable tendency to choose losers for his top state operatives: Larry Craig of Idaho (state chair) gets busted for soliciting gay sex in a public men's room, and now Wesley Donehue of South Carolina (top state advisor) gets caught smearing Thompson with juvenile tactics. Some "CEO" there.
I'm shocked . . .
The site was created without the knowledge of Tompkins or Romney, said Romney spokesman Kevin Madden.
Uh, OK. So, this guy is a business partner of Tompkins, but neither Tompkins nor Romney knew of this. Either Tompkins/Romney are very inept businessmen, or very disingenuous at spin.
I bet this one won’t get posted 5 times by Fredheads.
Exactly.
The Web site, PhoneyFred.org, was created by Wesley Donehue, a business partner of Warren Tompkins, a South Carolina political operative on the Romney payroll and Romney's top adviser in the early voting state.
Still, if Mitt doesn't fire Tompkins, he has tacitly endorsed the website and it message. Plausible deniability has its limits.
If Romney does it correctly, millions more will view the page than if he had not publicized it.
Then they can take it down and move on to another publicity campaign.
“Hey everybody, look at this site I don’t approve of!”
Would you apologize if a person you hired worked for a company and someone else in that company did something bad?
Way to go, Mitt!
Wesley Donahue is NOT an advisor of any kind to the campaign. According to the article, he works for the same company as Thompson, who is an advisor.
Why not? It's fun to watch Mitt squirm and deny... but never condemn. All Romney's spokesman says is that it was "not affiliated with the campaign".
Romney didn’t approve the creation of the web site?
You’ve got to be kidding.
No, it'll get posted MORE than 5 times, because even if true, Romney needs to do some cleaning up at his campaign. Personally, I have trouble believing it 100% - and even if I did, I'd wonder how Romney would be as a C-in-C, not knowing and not taking responsibility for what his staffers did.
Correction for ya: Warren Tompkins is the “top advisor” in SC. Wesley Donehue is a “business partner” of Warren Tompkins.
This non-story will go away tomorrow, replaced by the next non-story.
“Larry Craig of Idaho (state chair) gets busted for soliciting gay sex in a public men’s room, “
And tried to pass legislation banning certain types of ammo, too.
************
Dirty politics, and Romney's guy is involved, regardless of how they spin it.
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