Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:<\/p>\n
* NYT<\/a>: “At least two top members of Mitt Romney’s South Carolina operation appear to be connected to an anti-Fred Thompson Web site that was taken down today after reporters began to make inquiries about it. The Web site, PhoneyFred.org, had attacked Mr. Thompson’s conservative credentials, opening with the line: ‘Phoney Fred. Acting like a conservative.’ But Internet queries reveal connections between the site and Warren Tompkins, a South Carolina political consultant hired by Mr. Romney, and Terry Sullivan, Mr. Romney’s South Carolina state director.”<\/p>\n * Speaking of Thompson, during his lengthy career as a lobbyist, he apparently did some consulting work<\/a> for a colleague representing two accused Libyan terrorists implicated in the Pan Am Flight 103 attack. Thompson said yesterday that he was only tangentially involved<\/a>, and only dealt with court venues.<\/p>\n * Rudy Giuliani’s campaign emailed former NYC deputy mayors and commissioners in order to round up some surrogates<\/a> who will say nice things about Giuliani’s record as mayor on camera.<\/p>\n * John McCain’s “comeback” strategy is apparently built around taking “ownership of the surge<\/a>” in Iraq. Given that the surge policy hasn’t worked, it sounds like a great idea.<\/p>\n * Rasmussen has an interesting new poll<\/a> out today from Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney trails Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up, 60% to 34%. Given that Romney was governor of Massachusetts, this isn’t a good sign.<\/p>\n