The Washington Post is reporting that members of presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s South Carolina campaign are behind an anti-Fred Thompson website, www.phoneyfred.org, which was launched Monday. It was taken down mere hours after its release following inquiries to the Romney campaign by Washington Post reporters.
The site attacked Thompson as, “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.”
And the trail of bread crumbs back to Team Romney is rather conspicuous.
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?”
Nowhere on the site does it indicate who is responsible for it. But 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.
The website is hosted by a company called bluehost.com, a firm based in Orem, Utah. An inquiry of that website about phoneyfred.org returns the following statement: “Domain phoneyfred.org is still attached to your politicalnetroots.com account as Addon,” the site states. “For security reasons, you must remove it BEFORE you can continue. After detaching phoneyfred.org from politicalnetroots.com, you should experience some brief downtime on phoneyfred.org while its DNS propagates to your new account.”
The site www.politicalnetroots.com brings up the homepage for “Under the Power Lines,” which lists Tompkins as “Partner, Consultant,” along with Terry Sullivan and Welsley Donehue. [MICHAEL D. SHEAR, ROB PEGORARO - Washington Post]
Tompkins serves as a senior advisor to Romney while Sullivan is his South Carolina campaign manager. 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.
Under the Power Lines is the “NetRoots base” for their clients, which includes Romney, and is led by Donehue and associate Tim Cameron. They have done websites with a look similar to the “Phoney Fred” site for Reps. Nathan Ballentine and Keith Kelley as well as state senate candidates Scott Talley and Shane Massey.
The same group also runs A Daily Shot, a pro-Romney blog covering South Carolina politics that has been particularly critical of Thompson lately. Of the last five posts on the site - as of 9:30 P.M. Monday - four dealt with Thompson.
Photos: Washington Post
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UPDATE: The New York Times notes that palMITTostate.com, Romney’s “volunteer” South Carolina grassroots Web site, is listed on the same account as Phoney Fred and Under the Power Lines.
This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Primary Season, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] by Washington Post reporters,” reports the editor of palmettoscoop.com in a story titled Romney SC staffers in hot water over “Phoney Fred” site. The site attacked Thompson as, “Fancy Fred, Five O’clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, [...]
Sloppy cheap hacks representing a pure coward bred down from pure cowards. Amateur hack work.
How many of Romney’s family are still in Mexico? They run whenever the laws are changed. And when they run , they run to Mexico and come back when it is convenient. Pure cowards as exemplified with that fine family miliutary tradition. Funny note, I have never heard of anyone without at least one relative that served except Romney.
No wonder his new commercial features him running, it is in his blood.
is under the powerlines located anywhere near under the nuclear dump?
sounds like somebody
Here’s what I think about all of them: http://www.darkcornernews.com
Keep up the good work at the Scoop. I’ll keep up the bad work at the DCN.
[...] Comments billy chapell on Romney S.C. staffers in hot water over “Phoney Fred” siteinthetreez on Romney S.C. staffers in hot water over “Phoney Fred” sitesloppy amateurs on Romney [...]
[...] he’s not staff of the campaign. But his firm is. And, according to Palmetto Scoop, another SC blog: Donehue runs the daily operations of their political consulting firm, Tompkins, [...]
[...] Comments eyeon08.com » PhoneyFred.org and other Romney astroturf on Romney S.C. staffers in hot water over “Phoney Fred” site‘Phoney Fred’ fallout » The Palmetto Scoop on Romney S.C. staffers in hot water [...]
[...] he’s not staff of the campaign. But his firm is. And, according to Palmetto Scoop, another SC blog: Donehue runs the daily operations of their political consulting firm, Tompkins, [...]
[...] Recent Comments rick beltram on Bad boy Beltram ponders futureBombast on Matthews condemns Romney campaign, attacks Tompkins’ record (UPDATED)Flap on Matthews condemns Romney campaign, attacks Tompkins’ record (UPDATED)Captain’s Quarters on Matthews condemns Romney campaign, attacks Tompkins’ record (UPDATED)PhoneyFred.org and other Romney astroturf on Romney S.C. staffers in hot water over “Phoney Fred” site [...]
[...] While it’s technically true that Donehue is not on Romney’s payroll, his firm – for whom he runs “web-based ventures” — [...]
[...] consulting firm Tompkins, Thompson and Sullivan - which is running Massey’s campaign - was behind the short-lived website “PhoneyFred.org” which was best described as an unjust hatchet job on presidential candidate Fred [...]
[...] Perhaps somebody’s still a bit mad about that whole “Phoney Fred” thing? [...]
VOTE RON PAUL …..
All these candidates are the same. They voted for the Iraq War, suspended Habeas Corpus, banned books like “America Deceived’ , and allowed warantless wiretaps. Vote for Dr. Ron Paul and save this nation.
Final link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the book):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-38523-0
[...] they distributed the story. Which is odd because they’re only hurting themselves; something they’ve proven to be pretty good at in the [...]