The current kerfuffle over over the anti-Fred Thompson website connected to a pair of Romney advisers is rather amusing. After all, since when don't candidates highlight negatives about their opponents?

At least two top members of Mitt RomneyÂ’s South Carolina operation appear to be connected to an anti-Fred Thompson Web site that was taken down today after reporters began to make inquiries about it.

The Web site, PhoneyFred.org, had attacked Mr. Thompson’s conservative credentials, opening with the line: “Phoney Fred. Acting like a conservative.” But Internet queries reveal connections between the site and Warren Tompkins, a South Carolina political consultant hired by Mr. Romney, and Terry Sullivan, Mr. Romney’s South Carolina state director.

The site is hosted by a Utah company, Bluehost.com. But a search of that site reveals a long list of associated Web accounts that are hosted by the same server, including one for TTS Strategies, a political consulting firm where Mr. Tompkins and Mr. Sullivan are partners, and another for Under the Power Lines, which identifies itself as “South Carolina’s only online campaign strategy firm” and lists Mr. Tompkins and Mr. Sullivan as partners as well. Another Web account listed on the same server is palMITTostate.com, a pro-Romney Web site which bills itself as a “volunteer grassroots community to help Mitt Romney win the South Carolina Presidential Primary.”

That sounds awful, but is it? After all, opposition research has a long and honored history in American politics -- as is releasing information about one's opponent to the public. And from what I hear, no one is actually alleging that there is anything inaccurate in the material on the website before it was pulled down, merely criticizing its taste and propriety. But aside from violating Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment, is there anything wrong with posting a website about a primary opponent that provides accurate, if unflattering, information?

And is the information on the website any more extreme than the rhetoric from the Thompson people?

"Mitt Romney will do anything, say anything, smear any opponent and flip flop on any position in order to win," - Todd Harris, spokesman for Fred Thompson, after Romney's "half-baked cover-up" of an alleged surrogate's hit-job on the Tennesseean.

My experience is that such a statement could be applied to most major candidates for most major political offices.

Posted by: Greg at 09:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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