Posted on 09/05/2007 11:24:32 AM PDT by elizabetty
On the eve of his big day, Fred Thompson has let another staffer go.
Jim Mills, the former Fox News producer who joined the campaign only weeks ago, has resigned due to "strategic differences." This from campaign manager Bill Lacy in a memo to the staff, sent out Tuesday "just before we begin the Big Dance."
"Our new Communications Director Todd Harris is building an experienced and aggressive team of campaign professionals to help lead our press operation," Lacy wrote. He added, "This constitutes a substantial shift, not in our candidate's message, but in the way we support it and enhance it. Due to this shift, Jim Mills has informed me that he is leaving the campaign due to strategic differences. I respect Jim's decision and encourage all of you to join me in wishing him the best of luck."
Mills, who was hired away from Fox in July, is the latest to depart Thompson's operation, which has been hit by one resignation after another as the candidate retooled his senior staff over the summer. Linda Rozett was hired away from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to serve as the communications director, only to leave after Lacy replaced former manager Tom Collamore. Harris replaced Rozett.
~snip~
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
I wouldn’t fault him so much for skipping the debates, but Jay Leno?
It was.
It's very hard to believe people are such egos they would walk on their presidential candidate over every drop of a hat.
But I believe that my own glimpses of local and state politics apply to what goes on nationally, and there are some damn infuriatingly egotistical and just plain stupid people in politics. I hope those are the ones going and not the ones staying.
AFIK - the “departures” are those who insist Fred follow the “conventional wisdom” and dance to the MSM’s tune. It’s just not gonna happen - so they can just move along...
When is Spencer Abraham going to go?
For reference I offer these two posts from Debbie Schlussel:
1:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2007/07/jihad_fred_fred.html
Debbie Schlussel: Jihad Spence: Fred Thompson’s Pan-Islamist Campaign Manager
By Debbie Schlussel
He hasn’t entered the Presidential race yet, but Fred Thompson, yesterday, showed us why he’s the scariest Republican Presidential candidate. And maybe the scariest of both parties.
Don’t believe Thompson’s claim that he understands the Islamist jihadist threat to America. His announcement, yesterday, of his choice of Spencer Abraham as campaign manager, told us everything we need to know. Although Abraham, of Lebanese descent, is a Christian, he is a career water carrier for Islamists of the most extremist stripe and made that the cornerstone of his failed, one-term Senate career and equally lousy tenure as Energy Secretary.
As a conservative—but more important, as an American concerned about the future of this country in the face of a terrorist threat—Thompson’s choice of Spencer Abraham was the final nail in the coffin for me in opposing Fred Thompson’s quest for the White House.
I know Spencer Abraham. He wrote one of my recommendations for law school. And the Spencer Abraham that I and all of America have since experienced is bad news for everyone except CAIR, ADC, MPAC, ISNA, and all Islamists who want to endanger America.
In 2003, I wrote the definitive column on Spencer Abraham a/k/a Spence a/k/a Edward Spencer Abraham (which was quoted in The Washington Post), and I re-publish it below, with several additions I’ve made, updating it. At the time Spence was still Energy Secretary, but he left to become a lobbyist for Islamist countries.
As a Senator, he took marching orders from James Zogby of the pan-Islamist Arab American Institute, opposing profiling of Arabs, the use of secret evidence against Muslims (at the behest of Muslim groups), attempting to repeal the Clinton counterterrorism package, refusing to fund computer tracking of student and other foreign aliens, giving millions in our tax money right to Hezbollah, and putting CAIR on the map on Capitol Hill (taking the group’s officials around to meet other Senators and Members of Congress). He took campaign contributions from the relatives of Hezbollah-backed top Lebanese officials after he got the group millions in our tax money.
Spence was one of only two Senators in the entire U.S. Senate who refused to sign a letter calling on President Clinton to condemn Palestinian terrorism and Yasser Arafat. This was at the height of a series of homicide bombings in Israel in 1999 and 2000.
As Energy Secretary, he gave top secret tours of nuclear facilities, as well as detailed information on how we secure them to Muslim nations who are our enemies. And he gave out undue post-9/11 awards to Al-Qaeda money-launderers . . . at the White House. The money launderers were raided by U.S. Customs Service agents.
After he left the Bush cabinet, Spence became a lobbyist for Mid-Eastern Muslim countries that practice the Arab boycott of Israel and don’t really like us too much either. He took their money and until the Thompson race, did their bidding.
Do you really support a guy, Fred Thompson, who picked this man to head up his team? Either Thompson is clueless about Abraham, which should immediately disqualify him for the White House and frighten all of us about how he makes decisions. Or he knows about Abraham, and went with him anyway. Just as bad.
If you want to say no to jihad, you WILL say NO to Fred Thompson. He chose, and now we must choose against him:
JIHAD SPENCE: Bush’s Dangerous Energy Secretary is Now Fred Thompson’s Campaign Manager
By Debbie Schlussel
Since the Blackout of 2003, he’s gotten lots of TV face time. But should U.S. energy policy be entrusted to Spencer Abraham?
In 2000, President Bush said his Cabinet would “look like America,” nominating Abraham, the defeated Lebanese-American Senator from Michigan, to Energy Secretary—part of the Bush strategy targeting the Arab vote.
But was this political strategy in the best interest of the country? Abraham’s record suggests otherwise.
In the two years since 9/11, Abraham did absolutely nothing to improve our precarious electric power situation.
That would be bad enough.
But, since 9/11, Abraham continued a controversial UN-sponsored program allowing foreign visitors from countries on the State Department terrorist list to tour U.S. nuclear reactors. A course sponsored by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, taught by U.S. nuclear weapons lab security personnel, gives tours of Nuclear Regulatory Commission facilities and teaches participants from 57 countries—including Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia—security techniques employed at American nuclear sites. “They were teaching them to black out systems, which they could use against us at labs,” an official told a popular newssite. This was reported on extensively by investigative reporter Paul Sperry, author of “Infiltration.”
The Clinton Administration taught the course to foreign representatives, too. But that was pre-9/11. In the post-9/11 era, Abraham irresponsibly continued it, despite protests.
Then there’s Jamal Barzinji. Abraham enlisted him to find parties who helped and reached out to Muslims after 9/11, with Abraham hosting an awards ceremony for them. Problem is, Barzinji is an officer and/or director in SAFA Trust, Mar-Jac Poultry, and International Institute for Islamic Thought, all raided by Customs in March 2002 for laundering over $1.7 billion to Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad (through University of South Florida terrorist professor and Islamic Jihad founder and frontman, Sami Al-Arian).
More troubling is Abraham’s Senate record, ignored by his former Senate colleagues in an easy confirmation hearing.
Should a Senator who deliberately endangered national security for Arab/Muslim votes and campaign money be entrusted to oversee U.S. energy policy and access?
Abraham’s frightening national security record included:
Liberal immigration policy, including lax foreign visitor tracking, at the behest of Arab/Muslim groups; Tried to End Profiling, Secret Evidence Use Against Terrorists
Abraham was Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman through the end of 2000. Abraham routinely caved to the demands of Arab/Muslim leaders, such as the Arab American Institute’s James Zogby, on national security matters, especially immigration.
“Ever since (I first met) him, Abraham has been coming to us and giving advice, support and the benefits of his leadership,” Zogby told The Detroit News.
And taking Zogby’s advice, too.
Abraham actively worked to delay computer systems to track foreign visitors, which Arab/Muslim groups, including Zogby’s, strongly opposed. 1996 immigration law required computerized entry and exit tracking of all temporary visas, but was gutted by Abraham and other legislators. They refused to allocate money for the program and delayed its full implementation until 2005. In 2000, Abraham, as Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, delayed implementation of other requirements of the 1996 immigration measure, including university-assisted enforcement student visa laws and collection of fees from foreign students to pay for computer tracking.
These programs might have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks. But Abraham desperately craved the Arab/Muslim vote in Michigan.
Abraham also sponsored and pushed for the repeal of the use of secret evidence against terrorists, a vital portion of the Clinton counterterrorism package. He also sought to outlaw profiling of Arabs and Muslims by federal law enforcement.
Foreign aid funding for Hezbollah, rewarded by pseudo-foreign campaign contributions
In July 2000, Abraham sought over $268 million in tax-funded USAID grants for Hezbollah terrorist-controlled Southern Lebanon, at Arab American Institute’s Zogby’s request. Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah, has targeted and murdered many Americans. Millions in similar USAID grants (which have scant strings and accountability attached) to Afghanistan were misspent on Taliban terrorist activities. Abraham enlisted Michigan Republican Congressman Joe Knollenberg, on the House International Relations Committee, to push the questionable aid package in the House. They ended up obtaining $86 million, which went straight to Hezbollah and which was never tracked thereafter. They knew this, and that’s why they and Zogby sought the money for their Hezbollah friends.
Abraham and Knollenberg were repaid for their efforts, receiving thousands in campaign contributions from Nijad Fares, the Houston-based greencard-holding son of Syrian-backed Lebanese Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares.
Soft on terrorism
Abraham was one of only two U.S. Senators who refused to sign an October 2000 letter to President Clinton condemning terrorist acts by Yasser Arafat and the P.L.O.
Abraham led the nearly successful June 2001 attempt to reverse the use of classified evidence against terrorists, sponsoring the legislation at the behest of Islamist groups, including the American Muslim Association (AMA) and the American Muslim Political Coordination Council (AMPCC), both headed by Agha Saeed.
In July 1999, Abraham wrote to Saeed, AMA, and AMPCC asking their support: “Your efforts are truly needed in the political arena. . . . You can truly make a difference in the political and policy arenas, and I remain committed to helping you achieve that goal.”
But Saeed openly praised Palestinian terrorism as “armed resistance” and appeared at lectures and events sponsored by Hamas front groups, including one panel, in which he was joined by the indicted Al-Arian, entitled: “Zionism: A Racist and Colonialist Ideology.” AMA-sponsored events featured these exhortations: “The trees and the stones will say, oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him!” “Victory comes from Allah and Hezbollah is our model.” “Hear that, Bill Clinton? We are all supporters of Hamas.”
Given Spencer Abraham’s record of kowtowing to Arab, Muslim, and foreign interests on virtually every national security issue, his hegemony at Energy is disturbing. He should control no form of power—political or electric.
Posted by Debbie on July 25, 2007 04:20 PM to Debbie Schlussel
2.
And finally, there’s National Review’s excoriation of me because I dared raise questions about the pan-Jihadist behavior of Fred Thompson’s then-campaign manager Spencer Abraham (who lasted a week until the Thompson campaign saw its attack on me was not going to help and hired a new campaign manager). The inane NRO writer called it “hyperventilation.” One wonders why National Review didn’t call the same “hyperventilation” when, in 2000, conservatives complained that Al Gore’s Senior Campaign Advisor was similarly pan-Jihadist Jim Zogby (from whom Spencer Abraham took marching orders).
And that brings us to Fred Thompson. The Thompson people didn’t do much for the image of their “Roseanne” co-star candidate when they attacked me, since they couldn’t refute anything I’d written on Abraham. It didn’t help them much on Thompson’s official MySpace page when Thompson attacked me, saying he didn’t know anything about any “money laundrying.” The phrase “money laundrying” was used several times. I can understand that a multi-millionaire former lobbyist and Hollywood actor might not do his own laundry and know that the word is laundering, not laundrying. But it—and the rest of his nonsensical, illiterate “denial”—sure makes him sound like a stupid dope. Same for his calling me “racist,” since I was not aware that pan-Islamist dhimmi is now a “race.”
And speaking of stupid dopes, that brings us to those who are now saying I was wrong about Thompson because, this week, he hired someone else—not Abraham, who was his acting Campaign Manager until I exposed him—to be the Thompson campaign manager. He replaced him only because he had no choice—because of what I wrote about Thompson. And those who believe that this changes anything are stupid dopes.
Ditto for those (that means you, Mark Levin) who excused Thompson because he was “just hiring Abraham for his political experience.” Again, where were those conservatives when Al Gore was “just hiring Jim Zogby for his political experience”? They were correctly screaming about it. FYI, Abraham’s political experience was being a horrid liberal Republican U.S. Senator, losing as an incumbent after only one term, and frankly not being able to get arrested in Michigan these days. Too bad Fred didn’t keep him on for a certain loss.
Spencer Abraham:
Former Bush Energy Secretary, Current Pan-Islamist & Eternal Fred Thompson Advisor
If you believe that the new hire means that Spencer Abraham won’t remain a good friend and advisor to Fred Thompson, with Thompson’s ear, I have some land in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon to sell you. (That’s Hezbollah Country.) He will be like James Baker is to George W. Bush, an informal advisor and he will be very influential.
If Fred can just get everyone he’s ever fired to vote for him, he’s in for a landslide victory :)
Yawn. Every campaign hires and fires... it’s as common as breathing. Some think the candidate won’t get elected, sometimes the candidate fires them, some fall on a sword... and it happens up to election day.
“hit by one resignation after”
A lie. I’m aware of only two resignations, the others were either firings or reshuffling to a different position.
Actually, the Leno thing isn't the worst strategy. It is appalling how many Americans obtain their political opinions by watching to see which politicians Jay Leno is skewering, by watching Saturday Night Live and seeing which politicians are being mocked, and/or by watching The Daily Show or South Park on Comedy Central. There is no depth to their opinions, only a general impression created by these kinds of shows. Why do you think that candidates try to get on shows like Leno, Oprah, SNL, and the Daily Show? Sad state of affairs, really...
This will all be forgotten once his campaign begins.
Ditto. This is Freds' play, win or lose. He's actually DOING something different. If these people don't want to get on board with that, then it's best they leave now.
I'm not committed to any candidate yet. Personally I'd like to hear where they all stand on the issues and see how they carry themselves in a debate or two before I commit. One thing I don't understand though is the self important stance the good people of New Hampshire have anointed themselves with. It's like they think all the candidates must sit in their living rooms and massage their feet to be worthy of the nations attention. They need to get over themselves and realize there is a voting bloc outside of their state.
Hasn’t this been debunked enough on todays other threads? Abraham is not, and never was, Fred’s campaign manager. Your little Debbie got it wrong from the start and you are being sucked into her falsehoods. But then, you already know that what your posting is untrue, but it is OK because you think it helps your cause. Sounds mighty liberal to me.
I love your tagline. Thomas Sowell is a genius!
More worn out propaganda from the Giuliani supporters.
Debbie Schlussel is a liberal RINO lover!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.