Romney Campaign Denies Ties to Anti-Thompson Site

[almaty 19]

spokesman for Mitt Romney denied any connection to the creation of an anti-Fred Thompson Web site that labeled him “Phoney Fred,” even though the man the campaign man identified as being behind it is listed as responsible for the daily operations of a South Carolina political consulting firm where two top operatives in the state for Mr. Romney are partners.

The site, PhoneyFred.org, was created by Wesley Donehue, who is not an employee of the Romney organization and created the home page without the knowledge of anyone in the campaign, said Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Mr. Romney.

“We had no knowledge of it whatsoever,” he said.

But Mr. Donehue is listed as “the first associate consultant and vice president” on the home page for TTS Strategies, where Warren Tompkins, Mr. Romney’s top political consultant in South Carolina, and Terry Sullivan, Mr. Romney’s South Carolina state director, are partners. The blurb describing Mr. Donehue’s role at the firm said he ran its daily operations and called him one of the state’s most experienced political operatives.

The third partner at the firm, Heath Thompson, is now working for Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign, according to published reports.

Mr. Thompson’s campaign issued a harshly worded statement that ridiculed the Romney campaign’s denial:

Today’s half-baked cover-up attempt by the Romney campaign does not even pass the laugh test. The Romney campaign has paid Warren Tompkins and his various firms hundreds of thousands of dollars. Wesley Donehue works for Tompkins and is listed on Tompkins’ own Web page as an associate of the firm. According to PalmettoScoop.com, Donehue “runs the daily operations of their political consulting firm, Tompkins, Thompson and Sullivan, including direct mail efforts and a number of Web-based ventures.” [Emphasis added]

There is no room in our party for this kind of smut. As the top executive of his own campaign, Gov. Romney should take full responsibility for this type of high-tech gutter politics and issue an immediate apology. In addition, Gov. Romney should exercise some of his much-touted executive acumen, take control of his flailing campaign, and immediately terminate anyone and everyone related to this outrage.

This latest episode only serves to prove what many voters are already figuring out: Mitt Romney will do anything, say anything, smear any opponent and flip flop on any position in order to win. The American people in general and the Republican Party in particular deserve better than this.

An examination of filings to the Federal Elections Commission shows Mr. Romney’s campaign paid $35,000 to “Tompkins, Thompson, Sullivan,” or TTS Strategies, in late 2006 for political consulting fees but then began paying Mr. Tompkins directly about $12,000 a month in 2007. But the campaign filings also show a rental payment of about $3,000 to TTS Strategies in late March.

Both Mr. Tompkins and Mr. Sullivan have told the campaign they did not know anything about the Web site, said Mr. Madden.

The Web site, which questioned Mr. Thompson’s conservative credentials and labeled him “Fancy Fred, Five O’Clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred,” among other monikers, was taken down yesterday after reporters began making inquiries about it to the Romney campaign.

“We made clear we did not approve of the site,” Mr. Madden said.

A series of Internet queries showed a long list of associated Web sites hosted by the same server as the anti-Thompson site, including one for TTS Strategies and Under the Power Lines, described as an online campaign strategy firm where Mr. Tompkins, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Donehue were all listed as partners.

Those connections showed up because Mr. Donehue had “parked the site temporarily” on the server space of a company where “Warren Tompkins and Terry Sullivan are financial partners,” Mr. Madden said.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Phoney Fred...LOL

[Jasman0717 9]

"Why's everybody alwasy picking on me?" Poor Fred, he is catching hell. I did like him in Red October