Thompson Comes Out Swinging

It didn't take the Thompson camp long to get into the swing of the campaign season:

A spokesman for Fred Thompson’s presidential bid accused GOP rival Mitt Romney’s campaign of a “cover-up” Tuesday over a now defunct Web site, which portrayed the former Tennessee senator in an unflattering manner and referred to him as “phony.” The Web site, www.phonyfred.org, was created by Wes Donehue, an associate consultant and vice president of the firm Tompkins, Thompson, and Sullivan. A principal of the firm – Warren Tompkins – is a paid advisor to Romney’s presidential campaign.

"Today's half-baked cover-up attempt by the Romney campaign does not even pass the laugh test,” Todd Harris, Thompson’s communications director, said in a prepared statement.

The vigorous response to the website and its connection to Romney seemed to rock the Romney camp back on its heels a bit. It was left sputtering about how they thought this criticism shouldn't have come on the 9/11 anniversary.

The Thompson campaign didn't confine their criticism to fellow Republicans - they also took on Hillary Clinton:

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Hillary Clinton's links to illegal fundraising by Asian-Americans in 1996 should have made her wary of accepting $850,000 from a fugitive Asian-American this year, a rival presidential campaign said Tuesday.

The criticism came from an adviser to former Republican Sen. Fred Thompson, who chaired a Senate investigation into illegal contributions by Asian-Americans to Bill Clinton's re-election campaign and the couple's legal defense fund in the 1996 election cycle.

Thompson adviser Rich Galen said Clinton's 2008 campaign has become "the sequel" to her husband's scandal-plagued 1996 campaign.

Late Monday, Clinton announced she was returning $850,000 raised by fugitive Norman Hsu, who jumped bail in 1992 after being convicted of defrauding investors of $1 million. Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said the campaign was "unaware" of a warrant for Hsu's arrest.

Galen was unconvinced.

"You have to look at this with a great deal of skepticism that - having been through this sort of thing in '96 - that nobody thought to say, 'Hey, you know, we better take another look at this before we take all this money,' " he said.

"And the fact that nobody did - or if they did, they decided to just put their finger in front of their lips and say shhh and try to sneak off into the distance - tells you a great deal about the fact that the Hillary Clinton campaign is the Bill Clinton campaign redux."

Clinton's campaign had a feeble response:

Wolfson said, "We reject the suggestion that suspicion should be based on ethnicity in America.

Pulling out the race card...how original.

It looks like Thompson's folks are planning to make a big splash in a big hurry.