The campaign ship hasn't sailed yet for the former Tennessee senator and Law & Order actor, but the shake ups at Team Fred Thompsoncontinue. Tee hee.
Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson's lead political advance operative*, Sam LeBlond, resigned this morning, associates of Thompson said, and several other advisers were expected to quit before the end of the week.
Mr. LeBlond is nephew to President George W. Bush.
He joined the Thomspon committee less than two weeks ago.
One person who's going to go down with the ship is James Carville bedmate Mary Matalin. Chris Cillizza at The Fix (WaPo):
The Fix can knock down one of the major ones: Mary Matalin, a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney and longtime Republican political operative, is staying put.
Reached in Croatia (are we good or what?), Matalin said she chats daily with the Thompson organization and remains 100 percent on board.
Our sense of the ongoing Thompson staff shuffle is that it is teetering on the brink of becoming just plain bad news. The sharks are circling and whispers about the too-prominent role of Thompson's wife -- Jeri -- are everywhere. With news of every departure, the story tilts away from Thompson's best interests.
The audience for this story remains largely confined within the Beltway for the moment, which is good for Thompson. But staff stirrings can lead to stories about disorganization, unhappiness and general disorder, and that is a narrative that does Thompson's "campaign" no good, especially as he prepares to launch his bid formally sometime in the next month or so.
Sources close to the presumptive campaign tell NBC News that Fred Thompson's fundraising is down "markedly." One claimed it has "slowed down big-time." The pace is described as a consequence of the delayed announcement to enter the race."The Friends of Fred, Inc." will report to the IRS its revenue by July 31st. Sources reveal to NBC News that number will be in the range of about $3 million.
But don't tell any of this to the Freeper set -- it's full steam ahead in their minds for this Titanic of a wannabe campaign.
These dolts are throwing their money away...they are also pissed that Thompson has hired Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan) as his non-campaign manager. Malkin refers to him as "Open Border Spence," so that puts him at odds with "The Brown Menace is comingTM" yahoos.
He got $500 from me the night his website went up...and not a dime since. Get in, Fred, and my checkbook will open again.
Fred has to jump in or out. He's waiting too long to announce.
Why doesent he contact his Arab friends?
Agreed. I won't donate to someone who is thinking about running, only someone who is actually running. Enough testing the waters!
DITTO! Thompson got my contribution on day 1, and will continue just as soon as it is official! I am sure that there are many out there just like me!
When Fred officially tosses his hat in the ring I will open my check book. Not before then.
I'm in for $100 until later in the year and assuming there is an announcement.
I'm sending in modest amounts every month just to keep the cash flowing, but intend to increase that monthly contribution significantly the day he announces ... the continuing attacks by innuendo notwithstanding.
I'm not wasting a dime contributing to a candidate with an uncertain life expectancy...and a ZERO probability of winning the general election against the Clinton's.
Cassandra would say that Fred Thompson is experiencing difficulty raising money not because he has failed to declare but because all Republicans are having immense difficulty raising money. Thompson will soon declare, there is no hurry for that, but I doubt if it will significantly change the financial landscape.
I understand that Republicans, even Romney, are gravely behind the Democrats not only in the amount of money collected but in the critical number of donors. We are losing the Internet wars for money to the likes of Obama who is running about four donors to every one for Romney. The disparity is even greater in the amount they contribute.
We had better hope that, with all the plagues and trials which are about to befall the Republican Party in this election season, we will not for the first time in modern memory fall behind the rats in raising money as well as in sheer numbers.
In addition, a lot of conservatives are now alarmed at his hiring of losers from McCains train wreck express, to Spencer Abraham (another loser), and most likely loser... Snakehead Carville's wife. Thompson has surrounded himself with well-seasoned losers. It did not have to be this way. I like Fred Thompson. It's a shame he's now surrounded by proven losers.
Maybe the Republican leadership will step back next time, instead of stepping off into a war with their own base.
Explain how anyone Thompson hires from McCain's campaign is a loser. I could have sworn that it's McCain who's the loser, who ran his campaign stupidly. (I understand that he put the cart before the horse, among other things.) McCain is widely known to be a jerk. He finished himself off with the immigration bill vote. Tell me how his personnel are losers because McCain is a cluck.
Could these staffers not ?see' he was a cluck? A lot of us here have seen through McCain for years. And these brilliant staffers could not?
I like Fred Thompson too, and I tend to agree with tennmountainman's remarks. I think Fred needs to face the fact that his honeymoon is starting to fade. He needs to get out there as a real candidate, declaring the specifics of his positions, and proving he can be an articulate and passionate spokesman for them. I don't think anyone has the energy to prop up another message bumbler like GWB. We need to see him in action to know he's not.
Great. Low fundraising for F. Thompson, conservatives holding on to their checkbooks, bad (i.e. not conservative) choices in his campaign staff. We will be left with Romney or Guilianni. Isn't it time to support Duncan Hunter and help him out of the pack?
You're absolutely right! And the aching frustration of seeing the Republican Party and the conservative movement bashing itself to pieces is made only the more insupportable by the knowledge that we are utterly impotent to deflect George Bush from his obdurate course of destruction. By God, George Bush dreams of a multicultural society without Borders and he will see that we get it even of it does cost us everything.
