COLUMBIA, SC (TPS) – In the wake of the massive national media attention garnered by the Romney camp’s “Phoney Fred” blunder, South Carolina politicos are taking measures to cover their tracks and disavow direct connections with the political consulting firm behind the fiasco, Tompkins, Thompson and Sullivan.

Most notably, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, one of the firm’s top clients, has essentially renounced Warren Tompkins and company. The Greenville News‘ Dan Hoover Tuesday quoted DeMint, Romney’s top ally in South Carolina, as saying, “I don’t want to be involved in a character assassination. I hope that no one that’s been associated with me was involved with anything.”

But Tompkins isn’t just “associated” with DeMint, he ran his 2004 Senate campaign. And his image and quotes were plastered all over the firm’s website – before it was taken down.

The head of South Carolina’s Republican Party also backed away from Tompkins. He told Hoover the stunt was “disappointing and idiotic.” He elaborated that, “This is the type of thing that puts a black eye on campaigns and elections.”

And State Senate District 12 candidate Lee Bright went so far as to issue a full press release, in which he called on Romney to “fire his hired guns.” Bright also insisted his opponent, Rep. Scott Talley, should do the same.

“Like most South Carolinians, I was shocked when I read the Washington Post article today identifying the Columbia-based political consulting firm of Warren Tomkins as being secretly behind an anonymous web site which viciously attacked Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson,” Bright said. “Unfortunately, this same consulting firm serves as Rep. Talley’s top political advisor and also hosts his campaign web site. If the Washington Post’s allegations are true, Rep. Talley should immediately fire this firm and denounce these grubby schemes. While we may not all agree, we should at least be respectful, because this kind of gutter politics has no place in Spartanburg.”

Banner photo: Retrieved from Google cache by Jonathan Martin.