Posted on 12/31/2007 5:51:28 AM PST by greyfoxx39
FORMER STAFFER: “WE GUTTED McCAIN IN THREE DAYS, AND WE CAN DO IT AGAIN”
COULD TASTELESS TACTICS OF 2000 BE PREVIEW OF WEEKS AHEAD?
The worst kept secret surrounding the ugliest wave of campaign sleaze tactics in South Carolina’s presidential primary history is that Sen. John McCain’s 2000 White House ambitions were derailed by clandestine operatives of now-President George W. Bush’s campaign. Although everyone involved in that year’s election was certain that J. Warren Tompkins — Bush’s top advisor in the state (pictured above on the left in the only known photo of the surreptitiously nefarious consultant) who is now leading Mitt Romney’s efforts in South Carolina — was behind a dirty whisper campaign of push polls and anonymous attacks that persuaded voters McCain was a liar, a hypocrite, a philanderer and a jerk, there has been little evidence to prove it.
That is, until an upcoming PBS documentary uncovered a never before printed quote from former Tompkins campaign staffer and current lobbying partner Jason Puhlasky that reportedly offers a “direct admission” to the sordid events of eight years ago. Courtesy of FITSNews, here’s an excerpt from the documentary in which Upstate Beat publisher James Shannon recalls a Republican event during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign where Puhlasky allegedly confessed culpability:
I remember (the quote) quite explicitly. It was at a backyard barbecue at the home of Edwin Foulke, a local attorney (who was) then the chairman of the Greenville County GOP… a number of candidates were there that day, including [former Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler] and former Congressman Mark Sanford, who had been largely unknown outside his former Charleston-area House district when he filed for governor. After languishing in fourth place during the early primary campaign, Sanford was starting to move up though the consensus was that if Peeler did not escape the primary without a runoff, his likely opponent would be Atty. General Charlie Condon.”
Puhlasky (whom I had never met before that day) spoke confidently of their ability to dispatch Condon in a runoff, and in fact Condon (whose nickname was “Crazy Charlie”) had some exploitable flaws.
“Isn’t it a little risky just focusing on Condon?” I asked. “What if Sanford makes the runoff?”
Puhlasky grinned and said “No problem. We gutted McCain in three days, and we can do it again.” [Emphasis added]
The reference was to the infamous “push poll” tactic, first seen in a 1978 Congressional election between Democrat Max Heller, the progressive mayor of Greenville, and Republican Carroll Campbell, a state senator looking to move up. Using the cover of a third candidate, Lee Atwater devised a scheme to call voters. Those who expressed a preference for Heller were asked, “Would it change your opinion if you knew he was a foreign-born Jew who doesn’t accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior?” As crude as it sounds, it worked. Heller’s double digit lead disappered the weekend before the election and he lost.
I’ll be interested to see if this quote ends up in the documentary, which airs Jan. 4 at 8:30 p.m. on South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV). But either way, Romney needs to distance himself from this kind of stuff immediately.
By keeping Tompkins on his payroll for the final weeks of this state’s primary, especially after such a slam-dunk admission of guilt by someone directly involved, Romney is essentially saying that he’s fine with the unconscionable style of campaign filth peddled during the 2000 election. Worse than that, his failure to disassociate with Tompkins’ firm — which has already been busted for anonymously smearing rival Fred Thompson — could be a warning that we can expect similar or possibly worse attacks in the final days of the primary election.
And this time, Tompkins’ victims might include more than just McCain.
Probably the same group that was behind the Christmas Card. Have you notice how both incidences were really design to bolster Romney?
Just more confirmation that Romney is a sleazeball.
ping
Politics ain’t for wimps.
See Rove.
Yes, I noticed that too. Seems the Romney campaign is specialising in dirty tricks against itself, designed to purposefully backfire on some other candidate.
So, once again, you have no evidence of actual complicity but you throw out speculation and then later you’ll base your criticisms on the speculation as if it were fact. I see no mention in your article about the fact that the Thompson campaign hired a well known critic of the LDS church to run his campaign in SC nor do you mention all the dirty tricksters Mr. McCain has employed. No, Romney is evil and must be stopped so only he is capable of doing such a dastardly thing.
Let's see. There was McCain/Feingold, McCain/Kennedy, pro amnesty, gang of 12, anti-tax cuts, etc, etc. What more evidence does anyone need?
Er, no. Those positions make him wrong, but not a liar or a hypocrite.
Let me know when FDT starts push polling people in SC in such a way as to appear to be an attack on himself, but which will eventually be "found out" and "trace back to" Mitt.
And you let me know when you actually can back that accusation up with any evidence that isn’t of the self-serving, guilt by association, wholly dishonest circumstantial variety.
After reviewing this article and all the comments, I’m so glad that I support Duncan Hunter. You’d never hear this stuff about that fine man in a million years. Hunter is the only one running a respectable campaign.
Well o.k. You can call it like you want but...Did CFR get the "money" out of politics? Did Kennedy's "No Child Left Behind" "cure" the educational ills of the U.S. Would making 12 to 20 million illegals suddenly legal be good for this country?
Yes, and a hypocrite, too! Now he wants to "seal the border" but voted against full funding for the fence on our southern border that the electorate wants badly.
Have you noticed everything is Mitt’s fault,kinda like Bush. Must mean Mitt is going to be our next president.
Mitt Romney is irritated! http://www.sltrib.com/ci_7846405
Guess there is always a bell shaped curve.
Hunter is on one end.
Romney's hoards with their fake badges, push polls,
sleazy tricks and attacks, funded from his bankroll and
MasterCard, are on the other end.
See #5
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