Posted on 10/25/2007 9:07:19 PM PDT by Calpernia
Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign continues to have more departures than a Greyhound bus terminal.
Thompson personally hired Jim Mills, a highly respected Fox News producer, as his press spokesman. Two weeks later, after Thompson hired William Lacy as his campaign manager, Thompson fired Mills.
Mills gave up a hefty paycheck at Fox to join the Thompson campaign. He told friends he considered Thompson essential to the future of America. His firing outraged colleagues at Fox. Because Mills joined a campaign, his chances of being re-hired are diminished. He is still looking for a job.
J. T. Mastranadi, Thompson’s director of research, quit in horror after Thompson’s wife Jeri began taking attendance at campaign headquarters in McLean, Va., one late Friday afternoon. Jeri Thompson actually called staffers at home to ask where they were and why they should be paid.
“The younger ones thought they were going to lose their jobs,” a former staffer said. “The more established ones were offended and asked themselves, why do I need this? One asked if Jeri would be calling him at 1 a.m. to check up on him when he was doing campaign work.”
Despite that incident, Jeri, formerly with the Republican National Committee and Senate Republican Conference, is highly respected in Republican political circles.
“Message-wise, Jeri is great,” said a former staffer. “She understands him and how he is best presented. She is a very bright and a good political thinker.”
However, this week, Nelson Warfield, Thompson’s media consultant, left in disgust as well, Top advisor Mark Corallo quit previously.
Warfield was offended by Mills’ firing, Jeri Thompson’s meddling, and Thompson’s “lazy” approach to campaigning, according to one former staffer. Corallo left out of loyalty to Mills and dismay over what he considered Thompson’s mismanagement of the campaign.
Asked for comment, Thompson advisor Mary Matalin called a story about the departures “a very old item” that “very much mischaracterizes the campaign effort.”
She said Lacy was hired “to pull together a first class professional operation commensurate with the task at hand, namely, getting the best conservative elected, which is the only way to unite the party, which is the only path to beating the liberals next fall.”
Matalin said Lacy “has in fact accomplished his mandate above and beyond what anyone thought possible after the other money throwing campaigns vacuumed through the political community.” Lacy “is doing far more with are fewer and less paid staff who are all there because they believe in Fred,” Matalin said.
Many staffers who have quit or were fired felt Thompson misled them about the energy he would put into the campaign. While Thompson shows up at fund raisers, he leaves quickly and doesn’t spend much time making calls to raise money.
“That’s just distasteful to him, or else he’s busy doing other things,” a former staffer said.
Early on, Thompson told campaign aides he was not going to be frenetic. As they understood it, that meant he would not pop in and out of states. Instead, he would spend three or four days in a state like Iowa, for example.
“We thought he would be going from town to town, spending two hours at a time and talking to people,” a former staffer said. “Instead, he gets out of a bus and wears a baseball hat. The reporters laugh about it,” he said.
Often, Thompson attends a few events a week.
“Instead of an all-out campaign, it seemed he thought of campaigning as a break from the rest of his life, which entailed hanging out at home with his wife,” a former staffer said. Meanwhile, he noted, campaign aides are expected to work around-the-clock.
If Hillary Clinton is the candidate and Thompson is matched against her, the former staffer predicted a Republican disaster.
“Hillary is tireless,” he said. “She doesn’t take anything for granted. Nor do the rest of the candidates on the Republican side.”
Is that proper protocol? Call it whatever you like, but it's fact.
Hmmm, wonder if Jeri has her eye on 2024? I venture to say that she would be one helluva improvement over that female thing the demorats are putting up.
My thoughts exactly.
He is so ho-hum about campaigning. I think he should consider dropping out.
What do you want him to do, run around shooting off his mouth, saying nothing, day after day -- like the rest of them are doing?
Well we know Fred sure won’t (win) .... Don't bet the farm on that just yet. There's a long way to go before election day.
“Jeri Thompson actually called staffers at home to ask where they were and why they should be paid.”
In the spirit of fairness, I can’t really blame her....
LOL! You forgot “shrimp”. :)
He said specifically, you (get) on the wife’s good side at the outset.
I always thought that was funny. That boy will go far. He has sense enough to know that wives have a lot of pull with their husbandsl and generals are not a damned bit different from lieutenants, in that respect. They may wear the bigger pants -- but wifey wears the prettiest ones. One forgets that at his peril.
. I would not vote for Rooty against Hillary.
Hell, I would vote for Al Capone before I'd vote for that bitch.
Bump to that!
All I’m asking is for Thompson to give me ‘reasons’ of why I should vote for him. Where is his vision for America? What are his core values? I need more than two-second sound bites, or policy positions put out by his campaign staffers. I want to hear the man speak, with passion, enthusiasm, excitement. His lack of talk on the campaign trail, and his laid-back approach do not cut it for me. He comes across as the ‘reluctant candidate’, like his heart is not really into it. I am definitely not the only one saying this.
My personal favorite is trying to disparage someone, who as an employer, would have the gall to call their employees who weren't at work on a Friday during work hours and ask them why they weren't at work and ask them why they should get a paycheck when they're not at work. Astoundingly scary stuff there. Imagine living in a world where you have to show up to work, and put in 40 hours a week. Viva la France.
Attendance of one isn't that difficult to count.
So in other words you need a "dog and pony show" from a candidate, symbolism over substance. We had just such a President not too long ago. Here's one of his better performances:
Post #82 was kinda witty.
Returning back to that which we agree: Let’s all go take down some RINO tootyfruity liberal flipfloppers.
I can agree on that as well.
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