Mitt’s not about to apologize for the Thompson attack site created by one of his top political advisors and lead South Carolina consultant, J. Warren Tompkins. The Romney campaign tells The Brody File:
“The site was not affiliated with our campaign, but we did make it clear that we did not approve of the site, strongly disavowed it and made sure that it had absolutely no connection to our campaign whatsoever. We took immediate action once we were alerted to it.”
Thompson, of course, is not amused:
“There is no room in our party for this kind of smut. As the top executive of his own campaign, Governor Romney should take full responsibility for this type of high-tech gutter politics and issue an immediate apology. If this is true, Governor Romney should exercise some of his much-touted executive acumen and immediately terminate anyone related to this outrage.”
Brody further explains:
Romney’s campaign is clearly saying since they didn’t have any knowledge of its’ development, then it’s a non-issue. Plus the person who actually created the site doesn’t work for the campaign.
I guess the distinction is totally lost on me. The site was apparently the work of top Romney advisor and lead SC consultant Warren Tompkins’ firm. But since he is not an “official” member of the Romney campaign, no apology is needed?
Seems to me that the smarter move would have been to state that Gov. Romney had nothing to do with the production of the site, did not approve of it’s content, spoke with his consultant to ensure it never happens again, and apologize.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Romney shouldn’t have to apologize. He had withdrawn the site.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Sure he should. It’s politically SMART to apologize.
He refused to apologize to the hurt parents in the last debate for his remarks about his sons not serving.
Romney has zero character. And apparently fewer brains than I thought.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:09 am
YOU should apologize for this false statement:
“The site was the work of top Romney advisor and lead SC consultant Warren Tompkins”
According to reports Tompkins didn’t know either about the site.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:11 am
If anyone knows how to terminate their campaign employees it would definetly be thompson
September 11th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Romney Facts,
So apparently, Mitt is not responsible for the actions of his consultants, and Tompkins is not responsible for the work of one his employees (allegedly)?
Where does the buck passing stop?
September 11th, 2007 at 11:14 am
They say it is A Mr. Wesley Donahue, who happens to be a close associate of Mr. Tompkins. Mr. Tompkins has done this before, so why should people believe him? I doubt he did it himself, but it’s no stretch to assume he knew about it.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:14 am
If every GOP candidate must apologize for the actions of the subordinates of his supporters, then that’s all they would be doing.
Did McCain apologize personally to Romney for the anti-Mormon smut from one of McCain’s South Carolina supporters a few months back?
September 11th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Marksal,
Yes, McCain did apologize for it, if my memory is correct.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Wow. We really like to talk about issues that are at the bottom of the barrel. Look, Romney’s campaign disavowed this website, said they did not approve, and had the site removed. Isn’t that enough?
Oh that’s right, everyone wants an apology. But, if he did apologize all of those who hate Romney would be yelling, “see he is behind it, he knew all along, he is a horrible human being!” He is in a no win situation.
He did what he should have done. Not every campaign, including Rudy, FDT, McCain, Huckabee, etc., cannot watch every employee, adviser, supporter, all the time. When they found out they disavowed and moved on.
We should do the same, move on.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:18 am
All I am saying here is that Romney made a mistake by not simply apologizing. If he had done so, the story ends there.
Not apologizing keeps the story alive. People want to get to get to the bottom of who’s responsible for this. If Team Romney is not responsible, and now Tompkins is saying he’s not responsible, people will keep digging.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:21 am
If he didn’t know, Mr. Tompkins should apologize for letting it on his server. It gives the impression that he was involved.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:22 am
But apologizing doesn’t end the story. Apologizing assumes responsibility and then everyone would be digging to find out who in the campaign authorized this. Or how much did Romney know. Or how many more of these “actions” is this campaign behind.
Again, this was a no win situation.
Is he suppose to be Larry Craig. I didn’t do it, but I will say I did only to make it go away. Come on.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Romney’s campaign said this was bad, was not their doing, and had the site taken down. End of story.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:24 am
This conversation is not worthy of us, is it? I’m new to the primary game, but it’s
really disheartening to see Republicans mud-slinging and throwing insults at others’
supporters like this.
I think we should stick to the issues. Does anyone know the issues?
This could get ugly.
Honestly, it seems like the most hateful people on all the sites I’ve been reading are
Fred supporters. Correct me if I’m wrong. And if anyone questions FT in the least
they get attacked.
I think we’re all sensitive about the candidates we are backing. That’s natural.
But I would really hope we don’t sink to the Kos-style of communicating.
I came to this site to discuss differences in the candidates’ issues and policies.
It’s sad when it comes down to interactions like this.
This is more like junior high.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:35 am
what can we expect.. romney passed the buck on 3 MA cities that identified themselves as sanctuary cities. (something NYC has never done)
September 11th, 2007 at 11:38 am
question to the common mittbot: if mitt wasnt responsible for the site, why did it magically disappear immediately after the WaPo was on their A$$?
September 11th, 2007 at 11:40 am
beth,
Hang around. It’s gotten ugly. The problem that I have with the whole thing is that this is the normal tactics of Warren Tompkins. Romney hired the guy, and he is on his payroll. Donahue is a known operative for Tompkins, so I am skeptical. See Jay Carney’s thoughts over at Time
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2007/09/warren_tompkins_plays_dirty_no.html
PS.
A lot of Thompson supporters are actually nice. Yes, they do have their nuts, but so do all the candidates. Their not the worst. Have you had any discussions with those who support Ron Paul?
September 11th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Here’s the money quote:
It was the role Tompkins played for George W. Bush in the Bush campaign’s smackdown of John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary. For those who don’t recall, that was the state where “mysterious” pro-Bush forces waged an under-the-radar slander campaign against McCain, who had just demolished Bush in the New Hampshire primary. The Bush campaign — including Tompkins — claimed no complicity in the slander, an assertion taken at face value by exactly no one with any experience in South Carolina GOP politics.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:42 am
kind of reminds me of john edwards’ campaign trashing evangelicals. only edwards took responsibility.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Kavon,
“the Thompson attack site created by one of his top political advisors and lead South Carolina consultant, J. Warren Tompkins.”
This is more than slightly misleading… the website was created by someone not even involved with the campaign, parked on a server of a company of whom the company Tompkins works for was a partner of. More than a few degrees of separation there, yet you report it as though the site was created directly by Tompkins…
September 11th, 2007 at 11:46 am
You don’t apologize for something your not guilty of, plain and simple!
Now, if some reporter (or insider) can come up with some hard evidence
that Romney knew and authorized this then I would change my tune, otherwise it’s
a non issue.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Mitt needs to do the right thing!
September 11th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Flap trackback: http://flapsblog.com/?p=5566
September 11th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Any Romney supporters care to lump-in the Brody File with the liberal MSM that’s hell-bent on destroying Romney?
September 11th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
So you are saying “Mitt, you need to apologize for someone indirectly involved with your campaign posting a site that lasted a few hours and that you got rid of. I know that you said that it was an inappropriate site, but why don’t you apologize, you idiot!”
I agree, someone who did nothing wrong should apologize. This is all his fault. The person who did it shouldn’t apologize, that wouldn’t be politically correct.
Are you guyz still trying to play up the fact that Romney didn’t apologize every single time someone brought up his sons serving the nation like the soldier’s in Iraq. Sure, he apologized most of the time, but not all, even though he said that was the wrong thing to say. Are you looking for an “I’m sorry” statement as the true apology, or “that was wrong”
September 11th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Thompson needs to get thicker skin. You don’t hear Romney whining about all of the anti-Mitt sites on the web.
A lazy whiner to lead the GOP? No thanks…
September 11th, 2007 at 1:41 pm
[...] J. Warren Tompkins,” writes the estimable Kavon W. Nikrad in a race42008.com post titled No Apology Forthcoming … The Romney campaign tells The Brody File: “The site was not affiliated with our [...]
September 11th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Nathan you are right,,,Fred is just pathetic…
September 11th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I can sympathize with tommy oliver on ron paul supporters. that is for sure.
has anyone every blogged over on town hall? They comes out in the droves there and ruin every thread.
I like paul, but his supporters distract from his message by refusing to discuss anything with any type of civility and rationality.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
[...] Credit: Tommy Oliver. [...]
September 11th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
# sampo Says:
September 11th, 2007 at 11:38 am
question to the common mittbot: if mitt wasnt responsible for the site, why did it magically disappear immediately after the WaPo was on their A$$?
I’ll go slowly so even you can keep up, sampo. Romney was not responsible for the site, but someone who Romney has influence over in some fashion was. The site was brought to Romney’s attention. Romney doesn’t approve and let those who knew about it know that he wanted it to come down. It was taken down. Pretty simple and straight forward.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
[...] Credit: Tommy Oliver [...]
September 11th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Romney in no way needs to apologize for what his supporters do. Let the supporters have their freedom of speech, Romney didn’t arrange or approve it.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
Have you seen the latest from Thompson? Boy the Thompson camp can flap it’s gums! Thompson is not doing the Republican Party any favors acting like that. And how come it’s OK for the Dem party to put up nasty web sites and no one says anything?