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I haven't been paying much attention to Mitt Romney or any of the other Republican candidates recently, other than Rick Perry (and that is because it is hard to miss someone who is as dumb as a stump, flrts with secessionists and religous bigotry, takes pride in executing over 200 people, and wants to eviscerate decades of environmental legislation for the benefit of the oil and gas insdustry. But I digress). In the last 24 hours, however, Mitt Romney's descent into dissembling has been so blatant it cannot be ignored. Here are just three examples of Romney's squirreliness, all in the last 24 hours:
1. He pretended to be in New Hampshire, when he wasn't. During a conference call with NH supporters yesterday, the following exchange took place:
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JASON: Thanks, Governor. We've got another question here from George Lovejoy. George, go ahead with your question for the Governor.
[16:10]
Q: Governor, thank you for taking our calls.
ROMNEY: Thanks, George.
Q: It's good to see you and Mrs. Romney back in the state.
ROMNEY: Well thank you, it's good to be back.
Here's the thing: Romney wasn't in New Hampshire. He was back, all right - back in Las Vegas. Where he was opening his campaign headquarters.
2. Speaking of Las Vegas - Romney Throws NH Under The Sin City Monorail. Romney wants NH voters to think he is supportive of the NH presidential primary, telling the NH callers he supports a quick resolution that recognizes NH's FITN primary status. However, on his campaign web site yesterday, the headline story was, Romney goes Hard In Nevada:
LAS VEGAS -- While some candidates have backed away from campaigning in Nevada this week because of a fight between the Silver State and New Hampshire over election dates, it was full steam ahead Monday for Mitt Romney. [emphasis added]
This comes on top of news reports that Romney's campaign pushed Nevada to move up its caucuses into early January, putting the squeeze on New Hampshire, and possible forcing our SoS to move the primary into December. The Romney campaign is not even being discrete about their efforts to undermine NH's FITN primary. Except when speaking to people in New Hampshire, when he pretends that he is fully supportive. Hooey.
All of his supporters, especially including House majority leader DJ Bettencourt, who has aspirations for higher office someday, should start boycotting Romney until Romney gets Nevada to back off 72 hours. Otherwise, when DJ runs for governor in a few years, the NHDP will be printing signs that say, "Bettencourt: He Helped Destroy the NH Primary". And what does Romney think - that we in NH are blocked from accessing internet sites that discuss what he is doing and saying outside the Granite State? Hey, Mitt, you know that saying, "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"? It's not true!
3. He Doesn't Employ Illegal Immigrants - when Running for Office I hate this ongoing trashing of immigrants, illegal or otherwise, and refugees. It is an appeal to fear and bigotry. No surprise it comes up in the Republican debates. Perry has been attacked by other Republicans for supposedly being "weak" on illegal immigration, so he turned the tables last night and brought up the inconvenient fact that the company that did Romney's landscaping employed illegal immigrants. Romney stated that he went to the company and said,
look, you can't have any illegals working on our property," said Romney. "I'm running for office, for Pete's sake, I can't have illegals. It turns out that once question, they hired someone who had falsified their documents, had documents, and therefore we fired them."
So, it would be okay with Pete for Romney to employ illegal aliens if he weren't running for office? Seriously? But, in addition, he left the impression that when he found out the company employed illegal immigrants, he fired them. According to CNN, it was not until a year later, when the Boston Globe did a follow up story and learned that two of the company's employees working at the Romney house were undocumented, that Romney fired the company.
The lesson: when Romney speaks, fact check - even if it is to say, "It is good to be back in New Hampshire".
[the transcript of the Romney "good to be back" call is from an audio recording of the call]
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