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."
I just paid $52,500 in medical bills and care flight bills out of my own pocket from the injury of an independent sub-contractor by another independent sub-contractor (which I don’t legally owe, according to everyone) because the roughneck who was hurt was ultimately helping my company and it was the right thing to do, so yes.
Legal or not, the buck stopped with me.
YES....I would think it would fall to my responsibility to ensure that people I hired acted in my or my companys best interest. I would follow through to make sure that the company I hired in my behalf took responsibility for those under their watch. Lacking that...I think should reflect on my own capabilities as a responsible leader.
Yes, I caught that after I posted, and was about to clarify when I saw this response.
he works for the same company
Well, that's a little ingenuous... he's a business partner, not just a casual co-worker. I would be more willing to accept that the guy acted on his own if this didn't fit the pattern of operation I've witnessed from the Romney campaign since April.
Do you know everything being done by your business partners, or co-workers?
You think that his partner, knowing the value of deniability, WOULDn’T set up this site without telling him, precisely to keep that deniability?
As soon as they were told about it, Romney acted to have the site taken down. Most people who know about the site ONLY know about it because of Fred Thompson supporters posting about it.
He acted quickly and decisively. He denounced the tactic.
Just like Mitt’s security force..
The site was down before the newspapers reported about it. As soon as Romney heard about it, it was taken down.
The only reason we know what was on the site is that people are posting it and newspapers are reporting it.
And probably someone has a cache of it somewhere.
Actually, it was the Washington Post that found and wrote about the smear site. And for it being not associated with the campaign, it somehow disappeared real fast once the Post contacted Romney's folks.
The man responsible was not his staffer, he worked with Thompson, who was his advisor.
And he took “responsibility”, in that he reacted immediately, denounced the site, and the site was taken down.
I guess you can go through life not believing anything anybody says even when you have no evidence to the contrary. Sometimes you will be correct to doubt, and your hunches will be right.
It’s just not a fun way to live, always thinking ill of others and assuming you are being lied to.
I guess that puts Tompkins in the ‘inept businessman’ category.
Yes, I knew what my business partners/co-workers were doing when it came to something affecting the business I was in. I worked with people of integrity I trusted. It’s not hard to find them if one looks close enough. Or, hard enough.
He was pretty dumb to do so using the firm's resources, that's for sure. (In the initial stories, someone posted info that the "phonyfred" site was hosted as a sub-domain to the consulting firm.)
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 connection still stands!
There are anti sites out there on every candidate. In this day and age, it seems a little naive (and thin-skinned) not to expect it.
It is nothing compared to what the Clinton machine will dish out. If you can't stand the heat....
Wonder where all the articles are about Brownback's anti-Fred website?
Just like usual, anything Romney is treated with a double-standard by Fredheads.
Given that, what does this say about the advisor, that he cannot even control his own business partner in what is clearly a very sensitive area for their firm? What's wrong with a memo to the entire staff of the firm saying "there will be absolutely NO activity related to the Republican Presidential nomination or candidates without it going through Toompkins first?
I also find it hard to believe that Tompkins' partner just did this thing all on his own, without the outright direction, or at least tacit approval, of Tompkins.
If I was in Romney's place, I'd ask Tompkins to resign, as a way of getting this thing behind the campaign, and as a warning to all other advisors/ad firms that they had better not engage in this kind of activity. But that is me.
Still, if Mitt doesn’t fire Tompkins, he has tacitly endorsed the website and it message. Plausible deniability has its limits.
Correcto!
Sort of like hitlery didn’t know anything about Hsu.... yeah right.
Well, that’s good then! If Romney didn’t have control it may have been left up. Good use of authority on Mitt’s part.
Now as long as the reporters report accurately no harm done.
Wonder if the Wayback Machine caught it.
What SISSIES !!!!
Negative Campaigning just isn’t what it used to be...
Bush castrated McCain and everyone KNEW it was Bush doing it.
But NOOOO... A Spoof site is all “Bad Mitt Baaaaaad Mitt”.
BAH.
I wish I had seen it... It was probably FUNNY !!
Get a life for the luv !!
Is this the Hillary Clinton defence for the Republican side? I don’t know. I don’t remember.
Plausible deniability was the intent, no doubt. But the deniability of this sleaze is no longer plausible.
The story here is that Mitt had people do this who were dumb enough to get caught.
Yeah right!
Not that I care, I wasn’t pulling for Romney anyway.
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