They are on the ropes now.
McCain Campaign Brings On Board Yet Another Operative McCain Once Blamed For Sliming Him During 2000 South Carolina Primary
October 18, 2008 1:29 PM
ABC News has learned that Warren Tompkins, one of the strategists of then-Gov. George W. Bush's South Carolina campaign in 2000 -- which Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., blamed for his family being slimed -- is now a part of the McCain-Palin campaign team, albeit in an "unofficial" role.
Tompkins, a protégé of Lee Atwater, has been dispatched to North Carolina to assess the state for the McCain-Palin campaign, Southern GOP strategists tell ABC News.
The McCain campaign says only that Tompkins has "no official role" with the campaign. The Raleigh News and Observer spotted Tompkins in the state "surveying North Carolina for the McCain campaign to determine what can be done to shore up the state."
The news of Tompkins being brought on board the McCain campaign brings to a total of three the number of GOP operatives McCain now is using despite the fact that he once held them responsible for the ugly campaign that contributed to his South Carolina primary defeat, a campaign in which McCain's wife Cindy was attacked for her past addiction to painkillers, and the McCains' adopted Bangladeshi daughter Bridget was targeted as his illegitimate black baby.
Last month, to the dismay of many McCain 2000 alumni, McCain hired another former Palmetto State opponent, Tucker Eskew.
This week, as a wave of robocalls attacking Obama has been reported across the country, and some of those calls have been tied to Jeff Larson and his firm FLS-Connect, a client of Bush's in 2000, whom McCain's team back then held responsible for anti-McCain robocalls....
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/10/mccain-campai-3.html