This is kind of like Greenpeace going after Apple over the iPhone. If anything makes news, the next thing that happens is the idiots come out of the woodwork to start working angles and get themselves in the news.
Phelps knows that Fred Thompson is news, these days, and is looking to grab some of that publicity for himself. Add “slimy freeloader” to Phelps’ list of undesirable attributes.
These freaks are worse than the Jim Jones tribe.