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.”
Are they hired by the hour or on salary? Do they only work 9 to 5 or do their duties involve nights and weekends, too? The fact that the wife of a candidate is checking up on them strikes me as a tad bit Hillaryesque. Will we have a co-presidency with them, also?
That’s gotta leave a mark.
LOL! I love that! You call this a “hit piece”? You all better toughen up some.
If taking adult attendance amuses you all, you'd really crack up every day around the military services. Or do you consider them all kiddies because they have to answer roll call quite regularly? Or maybe you think civilians a more trustworthy and honest than service people.
No, but you asked me the other day why some waste time going to Hunter threads, here is a shining example.
Don’t think Newsmax has ever carried water for the Clintons.
I wonder what was up that day, something was, but there is still time for everyone to work out the kinks.
Any adversity is good for these guys, since they will be getting it in spades from The Queen and her “brilliant” bad boy husband.
“Hunter’s the best choice.”
Yes, he is!! I grew up on a dairy farm, the cream does rise to the top.
Do you actually believe that or are you just saying it to laugh at the drama that will ensue from such a delusion? He’s been running for the better part of a year any has gone NOWHERE. And I sleep just fine supporting Thompson, because that’s the only real conservative who can secure the nomination. In fact, I’m SO comfortable with my support for Thompson that I don’t feel the need to attack the other real conservatives in the race (Hunter and Tancredo) in an orgy of mental masturbation. I save my ire for RINOs like Rudy McRomneybee. That’s a hell of a concept, isn’t it?
“If taking adult attendance amuses you all, you’d really crack up every day around the military services”
And is that something the wives of the generals do? :)
Huck? The guy John Fund just wrote about in the WSJ that destroyed the GOP in Arkansas because he was so liberal? Maybe this guy will end up with a blog for every candidate, including the dems by the time it's over.
Do you mean the part where you take an article from NEWSMAX with any amount of seriousness?
LOL! Somehow this doesn’t surprise me.
I didn’t convince you, huh? Shoot!
Yes, I actually believe that Duncan Hunter will win. I also believe that Thompson is no conservative so I lump him in with your list.
Masturbation is a good analogy here, since they all seem to get off on this complete stupidity.
They also have the luxury to continue the idiocy hiding behind a good guy like Hunter. Very few, if any, Fredheads are going to bash Hunter in return.
This thread is another pathetic display of Hunter supporters showing very bad judgement.
Some of them damned well do on certain types of occasions at that level. I have personally known some generals wives who were furious when lesser ranking officers didn't show up where they were expected to be.
And in the debates he sounds different.
I’m so tired of that from Republicans, kissing media arse is so unnecessary.
When will they figure that out?
(years ago I swore I would never vote for any Republican that went on MTP, to be lectured to by a Dim hack, but of course they ALL do)
Basically then, the reason is retribution? It still strikes me as a waste of time.
Gosh, did they think that if they were being paid they didn't need to actually BE on the job?
Yawn...Just another diss article about Mr. Fred.
Is that proper protocol?
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