Team Romney knows a thing or two about playing dirty. In 2007, Romney’s political consultant, Wesley Donehue, was discovered as the “anonymous” culprit behind the website “Phony Fred.” The site attacked GOP candidate and former TV star Fred Thompson with unflattering photos and taunting names like Flip-Flop Fred, Moron Fred and Fancy Fred. Under one heading that read “Playboy Fred,” the site posted the question: “Once a pro-choice skirt chaser, now standard bearer of the religious right?” PhonyFred.org was quickly removed once reporters from The Washington Post began investigating the site. Thompson’s spokesman, Todd Harris, condemned the trickery saying, “There is no room in our party for this kind of smut.”
Top 10 Dirty Political Tricks
With South Carolina's notoriously skeevy primary just around the corner, TIME looks back at some of America's darkest moments of political deviousness
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Top 10 Dirty Political Tricks