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."
Fair enough, the sort-lived website is gone, and whether it is sleaze or not to you is a mere hypothetical.
And now we find out this guy Donehue was doing mailings for Giuliani anyway and nobody authorized this.
Are you and the other folks who bashed Mitt on this going to regale us with some Rudy-pinata-bashing?
Or maybe its time to move on to the next non-issue. ...
” the point is Mr. Donehue was not asked to do this site for any campaign.”
“Washington Post got a hat-trick. the todd harris response was a real turnoff.”
Yes, a Trifecta. Thompson campaign guy harris shoots mouth off first, asks questions later, looks over-eager to slam an opponent and stir bad blood.
Romney campaign gets slammed for dirty campaign tricks, have their key consultant under suspicion, story on page 1, retraction on page 43, even though they responded quickly and properly to the “phoney” accusation.
Both sides worse for wear.
Rudy and Hillary only winners.
You cant fire someone you never hired.
If the rumor tonight is true—that Romney got Donehue fired—I can’t help but wonder what that does to any claim of deniability.
But I don’t know if that rumor is true.
As for Rudy, heh heh, his name is mud.
“Mitt needs to remember the First Commandment of Ronald Reagan: Thou shalt not bad mouth fellow Republicans!”
So when a candidate’s flaks bad-mouths fellow Republican Mitt Romney that’s a bad thing, right?
Uh, every single campaign is doing some criticizing of other candidates and campaigns.
“Now next summer, after the Dims have a nominee, by all means the gloves should come off!”
Let’s not wait until next summer to take on Democrats, please. They deserve a daily dose of ridicule.
“If the rumor tonight is true—that Romney got Donehue fired—I can’t help but wonder what that does to any claim of deniability. But I don’t know if that rumor is true.”
Its pretty clear now that the Romney campaign had no knowledge nor direct involvement in this website up front. Once they got wind of it via news reports, they did what they could to distance from it and get it shut down.
This rumor if true only confirms that Romney campaign really didn’t approve, and really wants to put it to bed, since the only way that would happen would be for Romney to pressure Tomkins to fire Donehue if he wanted to stay connected to Romney’s campaign.
It’s funny how first things out some FredHeads were insisting that the Romney campaign needed to do X but when X happens, they are perplexed rather than pleased.
Really?
Who?
1) I wasn't defending anything. I was pointing out your errors.
2) The exercise became futile because you want to listen.
so your opinion holds little power.
My opinion added to that of many many others holds plenty of power. Enough to keep Romney’s numbers well below Rudi and Fred and most likely out of the White House next year.
Fred is jealous of the hair.
HA HA
If that is what you are concerned about, you are correct, the truth doesn’t matter, it’s just the perception you can leave.
I thought we were talking about what the truth was, not what lies we can spread in order to trick people into voting for our candidate instead of another candidate.
I realise that truth isn’t that important to some.
Both sides worse for wear.
Rudy and Hillary only winners.
Your’re right, they both should have pointed a finger at Hitlery and said, at least we aren’t violating campaign finance rules and accepting illegal donations from a fugative!
As in, fired the consulting firm whose VP and head of day-to-day operations did this with the firm's resources.
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