For months, Mitt Romney 's rivals in the Republican presidential race have hammered him as a closet moderate, especially on third-rail social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
"Mitt Romney: Not conservative," charged one recent and typical television commercial sponsored by supporters of Newt Gingrich .
Is that true? Is Romney really more liberal than he'd have GOP voters believe?
I've been looking back over Romney's history, and for better or worse, the former Massachusetts governor has a more consistently conservative record than he's given credit for. Only in the hothouse atmosphere of a Republican primary campaign could he be considered soft on social issues.
Take gay marriage. Because Massachusetts began allowing same-sex couples to wed while Romney was governor, he has been portrayed by some as soft on the issue.
But the shift came because of a court decision, not legislation, and accounts from the time make it clear that Romney did everything in his power to head off the court's action. Failing in that, he decried the ruling, saying it went against "3,000 years of recorded history." And for the rest of his time in office, he fought the law, at one point ordering county clerks not to perform weddings for gay couples who lived out of state.
In its minute-long radio ad, news of which was first reported by the Miami Herald, Gingrich’s camp opens with a clip of the slogan. A narrator then intones in Spanish:
“Amazingly, this phrase was also used by Mitt Romney.”
The spot goes on to allege that Romney is “the most anti-immigrant candidate” and charges that he is “a liberal” in the same style (and from the same state) as the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
It also states that Gingrich fought alongside “Ileana and Lincoln” – that’s Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) – to pass the Helms-Burton Act, the 1996 measure aimed at strengthening the embargo against Cuba.
Not mentioned in the Gingrich ad? Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart have endorsed Romney in the 2012 race, and they appear in a Spanish-language Romney campaign TV ad currently airing in the Sunshine State.
The Gingrich spot is a sign that the former House speaker’s camp is aiming to stay in the race beyond Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where the candidate has seen a surge of support in recent days. Florida holds its nominating contest on Jan. 31.
But in Florida, Gingrich will likely face the same problem as he has elsewhere when it comes to his effort to unseat Romney as the GOP frontrunner: the former Massachusetts governor has a vast campaign warchest at his disposal.
"Mitt Romney: Not conservative," charged one recent and typical television commercial sponsored by supporters of Newt Gingrich .
Is that true? Is Romney really more liberal than he'd have GOP voters believe?
I've been looking back over Romney's history, and for better or worse, the former Massachusetts governor has a more consistently conservative record than he's given credit for. Only in the hothouse atmosphere of a Republican primary campaign could he be considered soft on social issues.
Take gay marriage. Because Massachusetts began allowing same-sex couples to wed while Romney was governor, he has been portrayed by some as soft on the issue.
But the shift came because of a court decision, not legislation, and accounts from the time make it clear that Romney did everything in his power to head off the court's action. Failing in that, he decried the ruling, saying it went against "3,000 years of recorded history." And for the rest of his time in office, he fought the law, at one point ordering county clerks not to perform weddings for gay couples who lived out of state.
In its minute-long radio ad, news of which was first reported by the Miami Herald, Gingrich’s camp opens with a clip of the slogan. A narrator then intones in Spanish:
“Amazingly, this phrase was also used by Mitt Romney.”
The spot goes on to allege that Romney is “the most anti-immigrant candidate” and charges that he is “a liberal” in the same style (and from the same state) as the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
It also states that Gingrich fought alongside “Ileana and Lincoln” – that’s Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and former congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) – to pass the Helms-Burton Act, the 1996 measure aimed at strengthening the embargo against Cuba.
Not mentioned in the Gingrich ad? Ros-Lehtinen and Diaz-Balart have endorsed Romney in the 2012 race, and they appear in a Spanish-language Romney campaign TV ad currently airing in the Sunshine State.
The Gingrich spot is a sign that the former House speaker’s camp is aiming to stay in the race beyond Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where the candidate has seen a surge of support in recent days. Florida holds its nominating contest on Jan. 31.
But in Florida, Gingrich will likely face the same problem as he has elsewhere when it comes to his effort to unseat Romney as the GOP frontrunner: the former Massachusetts governor has a vast campaign warchest at his disposal.
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