1994. The senatorial campaign by Mitt Romney, the Republican Governor of Massachusetts, is quickly overshadowing his potential ‘08 bid for the presidency in these early days on the (pre)campaign trail.
Heading into the fray as a Republican governor from one of the most liberal states in the Union, Romney has an uphill battle ahead of him. Six weeks after the “thumpin’” Republicans received at the polls in the midterm elections, Governor Romney’s past is coming back to haunt him.
In 1994, he proclaimed to be to-the-left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights, including anti-discriminatory laws and the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy” of the military. (Flip-flopped.) As late as 2002, he voiced “strong support for a woman’s right to choose.” (Flip-flopped.) Abstinence, emergency contraception and stem cell research — not the same anymore. Heck, he even had illegal immigrants tending to his yard. (He says he believed they were legal.)
Buried in the Washington Post this morning was that in 1994, Romney backed away from the “Contract with America,” calling it “too partisan” and professed his wish that moderates would rule instead of conservatives.
In the 1994 campaign, Romney also proudly labeled himself a moderate. “I’m not a partisan politician,” he said in an interview with The Post that fall. “My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses.”
Helms, the former Republican senator from North Carolina, was one of the most conservative elected officials in the country.
In his 1994 debate with Kennedy, Romney also refused to endorse the “Contract With America,” which House Republicans had proudly presented as their campaign manifesto, and he balked when Kennedy tried to link him to the Reagan administration. “I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush,” Romney retorted. [emphasis added]
The Democratic landslide this past November had the rank-and-file Republicans demanding a “return” to conservative politics. Only publicly acknowledging that these people in power were without any principles until after the election. (Oh, the irony.)
When the rank-and-file called for Republicans to campaign/govern on “conservative principles,” whatever those are, I doubt they meant for the first time.
6 Responses to “1994”
This race will be a hoot.
I think we need to find the right term to describe the GOP primary. Something graphic and capable of conveying the true nature of the season…
Circus? Scrum? Circle jerk? The Vacuous Cadre of the Megachurch Gestapo?
[...] 1994 [...]
Something to say?
Romney needs to reposition himself and he’s doing it. The fact that he has changed his positions is more important than the fact that he has to change them. He’s going to spend the next eighteen months talking to Republican voters face to face, assuring them that he is who he says he is.
Moreover, he’s going to be telling them what they want to hear. When he’s talking to nativists, he’ll preach anti-immigrant. When he’s talking to conservative Christians, he’ll talk up “family values” while promising to roll back abortion rights. He will do everything he can to make people forget about his positions in the past with promises for the future.
Left by Matt Browner Hamlin
December 21, 2006 at 3:06pm