As Josh noted the other day, there's more and more evidence that one of the key contests settling who will secure the GOP Presidential nomination is the South Carolina primary. That state, of course, is notorious for its less-than-savory brand of politics, being the place where George W. Bush famously defeated John McCain amid rumors that the Arizona Senator had fathered an out-of-wedlock black child.

Now that the South Carolina primary is again shaping up as a critical battleground, it's clear that there's a huge amount riding on a particularly hard-bitten political breed: Republican political operatives in South Carolina.

These are the GOP candidates' South Carolina enforcers -- that is, the men whose job it is to find the 2008 magic bullet equivalent of the black-baby story (without admitting it or getting caught, of course). So we thought it would be useful if we introduced you to the candidates' leading South Carolina hatchet men.

To some degree the hard-bitten -- okay, sleazy -- operatives who helped Bush prevail in 2000 have split between the current candidates. Heath Thompson, who was Bush's chief operative in the state, is now Rudy's state director. Another key Bush hand from 2000, longtime state operative Warren Tompkins, is with Mitt Romney.

Perhaps not surprisingly, one of McCain's key guys in the state is someone who wasn't a Bushie in 2000: State attorney general Henry McMaster, who was state party chair that year and hence remained neutral in the 2000 primary. (Fred Thompson's campaign started late and doesn't have quite the big names in the state that the others do.)

A full rundown on who these guys are after the jump.

Rudy's man: Heath Thompson

You'd think that Rudy's history would make him the ripest target for the sort of whispering campaign that took out John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary. But this many not materialize, and one reason why is that the man who is widely credited with directing Bush's victory in that primary is working for Rudy. Thompson played a major role in Bush's 2000 victory, he secured Bush's crucial primary win, but also went on to direct Bush's "Victory 2000 Committee," which squared off against Al Gore's forces amid the Florida recount.

Thompson isn't exactly known for high-road politics. His firm was the creator of the controversial "Harold, call me" ad run by the Republican National Committee against Dem Senate candidate Harold Ford of Tennessee, an ad that was hit by national criticism for its obvious racial overtones.

Romney's men: Warren Tomkins and Terry Sullivan

Warren Tompkins has been described as South Carolina's most prominent Republican operative -- he runs what may be the state's most visible political consulting firm, TTS Strategies, and is the go-to guy for national strategists who need help understanding the nuances of South Carolina politics and want access to his network of contacts in the state.

Tompkins, who's counted George H.W. Bush and Strom Thurmond as clients, was a primary architect of Bush's 2000 win over McCain, and his primary role was mobilizing the religious right for the President. To that end, he played a key role in setting up Bush's controversial visit to Bob Jones university despite the school's ban on interracial dating. Tompkins later explained that decision as follows: “The first thing we had to do was build a wall between McCain and the social conservatives.” Now Tompkins' primary role is to build a wall between Giuliani and social conservatives. He's done it before.

Tompkins' firm recently got into a bit of trouble when the news surfaced that a firm executive was behind the Fred Thompson smear site PhoneyFred.org. Tompkins distanced himself from the ensuing flap by claiming that he doesn't know how to use the Internet.

Terry Sullivan, meanwhile, is a rising star in South Carolina politics, according to Harper's magazine. He grew up in North Carolina and served as youth coordinator for Jesse Helms' last Senate run in the mid nineties. He's now a partner with Tompkins' firm.

McCain's man Henry McMaster

As GOP chair in South Carolina, McMaster created a bit of national controversy in 2000 when a rather creative money-saving scheme he created drew widespread attention. Under state law the parties fund the primaries, and McMaster acknowledged that he'd saved money for the party by opening fewer polling places in minority communities, a sensible calculation in cold-blooded economic terms, since few blacks are Republicans in South Carolina. The move sparked a lawsuit and McMaster was forced to fix things.

McMaster started out as a legislative assistant to Senator Strom Thurmond and made his name as a U.S. Attorney under Ronald Reagan with various investigations into international drug smuggling operations. He ran a wildly unsuccessful effort to unseat Senator Fritz Hollings in 1986, then worked a variety of gigs in state politics before ending up as state party chair. He's now Attorney General of South Carolina, with a specific interest in targeting Internet predators, which he calls "the states number one crime problem."

McMaster's background as state party chair -- and all the contacts that entails -- will be indispensable for McCain, since he faces the daunting task of doing well in among social conservatives in the state who remember all too well McCain's heretical condemnation of Bob Jones U. in 2000.

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All in all, it's quite a crew, and with the South Carolina contest shaping up as one between a former critic of Bob Jones, a governor of a liberal state who's flopped and flipped endlessly on abortion, and a multiple-divorcee with a fondness for wearing dresses, expect a pretty lively contest.

Late Update: Michael Crowley has a terrific rundown on all this over at The New Republic.