Anti-Thompson Site Connects to Romney Camp

[Lasher]

Source: The Washington Post

A top adviser to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appears to be behind today's launch of a new Web site attacking GOP presidential rival Fred Thompson.

The site, www.phoneyfred.org, paints an unflattering picture of Thompson, dubbing 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.

<snip>

Shortly after a Washington Post reporter made inquiries about the site to the Romney campaign, the site was taken down.

Before it vanished, the front page of the website featured a picture of a regal Thompson dressed in a frilly outfit more befitting a Gilbert and Sullivan production than a presidential campaign. Under the heading, "Playboy Fred," the site asks the question: "Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?"

Read more: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/10/antithompson_site_connects_to.html

---

Looks like the Romney campaign got caught swiftboating Thompson. How's it feel, Fancy Fred?

[gateley]

1. I hope this gets a lot of coverage -- it's despicable. I'd heard something

about this on the news tonight, and apparently the mad genius behind this is the same one the Bush campaign retained to shred McCain during his last run for prez.

Romney scares the hell out of me. Thompson, too, come to think of it.

[aquart]

3. I hope they eat each other.

[Lasher]

5. Right, here's the connection

Excerpts from the article linked in the OP:

A series of inquiries leads directly to the website of Under the Power Lines, the political consulting firm of Warren Tompkins, Romney's lead consultant in South Carolina. In 2000, it was in South Carolina that then-candidate John McCain ran into an organized effort to tar his character, including anonymous allegations that he had fathered a black child.

Then-candidate George Bush was desperate to stop a surging McCain, who had just won a stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary. Tompkins was the chief strategist for Bush in South Carolina at the time.

[Hissyspit]

2. Haw haw!

[Lasher]

4. Here is an image of the now-defunct website

[gateley]

6. My God - it screams of desparation. How sad. And childish. nt

[Lasher]

9. And how typical

That's vintage Rove you're looking at right there. Whether our boy Karl was personally involved or not, that's the GOP style he's fostered. This type of tactic works on the stupid among us, and there are many.

[Virginia Dare]

7. Wonderful!

I hope they wallow in each other's shit for a while so that the stink never goes away.

[Eugene]

8. AP: Romney Denounces Anti-Thompson Web Site (and denies everything)

Source: Associated Press

Romney Denounces Anti-Thompson Web Site

Wednesday September 12, 2007 7:16 PM

By LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney denounced
a Web site that was bitingly critical of GOP rival Fred
Thompson's personal life and political career, calling it
“juvenile and offensive.”

“There's no place in politics for those kind of hijinks,”
the former Massachusetts governor told The Associated
Press in a telephone interview as he campaigned in
Midland, Texas.

Now off-line, PhoneyFred.org was the creation of Wesley
Donehue, a business associate of Romney's top political
operative in early voting South Carolina, Warren Tompkins.
Romney's campaign insists that neither Romney nor
Tompkins knew about the site or approved of its creation.

Said Romney: “The Web site is obviously juvenile and
offensive. It was not done by anyone employed by my
campaign, and Mr. Tompkins indicates it was not done by
his firm, that the person who put it up was acting on his
own. I've said I do not want to have that person in any
way associated with my campaign.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6916292,00.html

[ryanmuegge]

10. Kind of like how Bush denounces the Swift Boat idiots.