Damon Linker wrote an article in TNR about Mitt Romney and Mormonism. He seems to be advocating for playing a redux of JFK’s Catholic/Houston moment in which JFK said that he wouldn’t take direction from the pope. The blog community is getting in a tizzy over this. Some people think Read more…
A number of people have started to point out problems with the Rudy Giuliani camp’s explanation of what happened to their strategy binder, both strategically and factually. It strikes me that they are trying to make an issue of this to force an exposure of who gave it to the Read more…
Mitt Romney is getting beaten up again in the Evangelical media. Again, it is Pat Robertson’s CBN: There are at least four Republican Representatives from the Michigan State House that are seriously rethinking their support of Romney for President. These are members of Romney’s steering committee in Michigan who are Read more…
Paul Weyrich gave an overview of the field of GOP Presidential candidates. On Mitt Romney he said: "Governor Romney is going to make an attempt to sound like us," say Weyrich. "[But] I don’t think he is; I don’t think he’s the genuine article. And I think he really ought Read more…
The FlashReport has a mumble of trouble with Mitt Romney’s California fundraising operation: There are some changes taking place in the California operations of Mitt Romney’s fledgling campaign for President. FR is still tracking down the details, but we’ve heard from very reliable sources that California uber-fundraising Anne Dunsmore and Read more…
The Washington Post points out that Mitt Romney opposed the Contract With America. Why? Well, I got out my trusty Lexis and asked it that question. Here’s what I got. Full articles after the jump.
According to one article:
Mr. Romney, a venture capitalist who has never held elective office, criticized the Republican campaign agenda, the "Contract With America," as too partisan. He said he would have gone against the GOP leadership and supported the crime bill, and would oppose a capital gains tax cut.
According to another:
Romney stressed his support for universal health insurance and abortion rights, criticized the Republican "Contract With America" promoted by the party’s congressional leaders and, at Faneuil Hall, was more outspoken than Kennedy in arguing that the Boy Scouts should not exclude homosexual youths.
Hmmm. So his reasons were that he didn’t want to be partisan, opposed tax cuts and at the same time emphasized that he supported abortion and supported universal health insurance. Gary Marx is going to have to keep working on that conservative outreach.
Update: Robert Bluey from Human Events follows a different line of attack on Romney by focusing on Jesse Helms.
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The Fix reported that John McCain hired Steve Schmidt. Steve was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign manager in 2006 and part of the message team for Bush-Cheney 2004. In addition to the staff game, Steve will help McCain with California donors who were extremely impressed by the Schwarzenegger campaign. According Read more…
Jim Gilmore, former RNC Chair and Governor of Virginia attacked Romney, according to the NYT: Mr. Gilmore said he had always been what he described as an unvarying Ronald Reagan conservative. In what appeared to be an attempt to distinguish himself from other candidates, particularly Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Read more…
Jerry Zandstra, a member of Sam Brownback’s exploratory committee, sent the following letter to a (probably very) large number of Michigan conservative activists. Some excerpts and the whole letter:
Excerpts:
Mitt Romney, current governor of Massachusetts and likely presidential candidate has had a tough couple of weeks. It isn’t what others have said about him. Rather, his own words have caught up with him. What his words seem to indicate is someone whose positions on social issues important to conservatives either are wrong or have changed direction so many times as to render them meaningless.
And:
When Gov. Romney was considering a run to be the governor of Utah, he wavered, claiming that he was now pro-life. His defenders claimed that what he said in Massachusetts was “a carefully crafted position intended to sound more firm than it was” because “he was running against Ted Kennedy in a state that was 80 percent pro-choice and to have any chance at all, he was waffling.”
Only a few years later, Romney was back in Massachusetts, running for his current position as their governor. When prodded by his pro-choice opponent in a debate, Gov. Romney said, “Let me make this very clear. I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose.” In that same election, he endorsed embryonic stem cell research, refused to take a position on human cloning, and endorsed Medicaid funding for abortions.
As promised, the whole letter, after the jump
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Or so says NRO’s Byron York in a great article. There are a bunch of really important parts to this article. The first is about how Romney is using his religion to cover for his record: Oran Smith, pro-life, questions Romney’s explanation in a more subtle way. In talks with Read more…