Thursday, November 23, 2006

Mitt Romney & The Politics Of Hypocrisy


You are a Republican thinking of tossing your hat into the ring to be your party's candidate for president in '08...what's the surest way to jump start a possible run?

Apparently, outgoing Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney thinks it is by trampling on the backs of America's gays and lesbians.

Massachusetts became the only state to legalize gay marriage, in May of 2004, following a state Supreme Court ruling from 6 months earlier. That decision found it unconstitutional that only heterosexuals in the state were allowed to marry.

Romney Rallies The Right-Wing Base

At an anti-gay marriage rally this past Sunday, Gov. Romney vowed to ask his state's highest court to order an amendment banning gay marriage onto the ballot if state legislators do not vote on the matter when they reconvene in January.

Romney apparently was troubled that state lawmakers on Nov. 9th voted to recess, thereby avoiding a vote on whether to put the proposed amendment on the ballot. So distressed was Romney that he sent copies of the Massachusetts Constitution and an angry letter to legislators accusing them of violating the constitution.

Playing Politics

So, how exactly does this make Romney a disingenuous fraud?

Bay Windows, which bills itself as "New England's largest LGBT newspaper," details Romney's hypocrisy quite well, in an article titled, "Mitt Romney: Garden variety bigot or political opportunist?"

According to the article, if Romney had not merely been posturing, he would have focused his lobbying prior to the state constitutional convention, where this issue was being addressed.

In her Bay Windows piece, Susan Ryan-Vollmar writes:
"As we all know, lawmakers voted 109-87 to recess the ConCon until Jan. 2, 2007. There is a slim chance that lawmakers could vote on the measure then, but it’s extremely unlikely. Just about every observer of Beacon Hill politics believes that the amendment is dead. But right up until the morning of the ConCon, when pro-equality lawmakers and advocates sewed up enough votes to win a motion to recess the ConCon, the legislature could have gone the other way and voted to approve the amendment. The recess vote was a tough one for many lawmakers and it was a vote that the VoteOnMarriage.org side could have won. If, that is, the governor had actually been working with them.

"In the last two years, Romney has spouted some over-the-top rhetoric about civil marriage rights for same-sex couples. He has claimed that such marriages harm children, that they diminish the marriages of heterosexual couples, that they mark the decline of tradition and order in society. You would think a man genuinely fearful for the health of marriage, a man who was actually in a position to do something about it, would do everything in his power to “defend” marriage. Think again. The only thing motivating this governor is personal ambition. The likely reason for his failure to hold a raucous rally prior to the Nov. 9 ConCon was his calculation that he had absolutely nothing to gain from it. What if he held the rally and the measure died anyway? Too risky. So Romney waited and held his made-for-TV-ad spectacular long after it could have any impact whatsoever on the actual debate."
Romney's Transformation

The Bay Windows article also refers to the transformation of Romney from moderate to extremist on gay issues:
"When Romney ran against Ted Kennedy for the Senate in 1994, he wrote a letter to the Mass Log Cabin Club in which he pledged: '[A]s we seek to establish full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent.'"
There's more:
"During his 2001 run for governor, his campaign distributed bright pink flyers at the June Pride parade declaring 'Mitt and Kerry wish you a great Pride weekend!' During his inaugural speech, he said it was important to defend civil rights 'regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or race.' He appointed eight openly gay and lesbian people to high profile positions in his administration. And before he decided to run for president — that is to say, before he needed to establish some strong anti-gay bonafides — Romney doubled the budget line item for the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. This would be the same commission, mind you, that Romney tried to disband in highly public fashion last May."
The Sky Never Fell

It should be noted that more than 8,000 gay couples in Massachusetts have exchanged vows in the state, since gay marriage became legal. This did not result in the state being smitten by a huge ball of divine fire, or the spontaneous destruction of Massachusetts' heterosexual unions and family units.

All it did was allow committed couples to have more state-guaranteed protections for their same-sex partners.

Interesting how homophobic bigots, who always seem to accuse gays of being immoral and promiscuous, are most upset that gay people be allowed to solidify a monogamous, committed relationship that would allow gays to protect their own family units.

The Last Word

In a story from the Nov. 21st edition of the Boston Globe, the following observation is made:
"He is a fraud -- this whole thing is a fraud," said Senator Jarrett T. Barrios of Cambridge, one of the legislators who voted to recess. "It is a ploy for his run for president. The Legislature had rejected his efforts to insert discrimination into the constitution."
I would say that Senator Barrios has Mitt Romney pegged perfectly.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
scootmandubious said...

The comment that was deleted was a 2,711 word defense of Romney that was uploaded within a half-hour of this post being online.

Knowing that it was not specific to what i had written i did a google blog search and found the exact same response on other blogs.

I welcome dissenting opinions.

However, I do not welcome pre-written posts that do not specifically refer to what I wrote.

I also do not welcome comments that are so long, that nobody can read the responses that follow.

Anonymous said...

As yes, Romney courts the homobigots in America, while standing on the GLBT in Massachusetts.

Mitt Romney’s father, George, first achieved prominence as Governor of Michigan and later as a presidential aspirant. His frontrunner status for the 1968 Republican nomination evaporated after he claimed that his earlier endorsement of the Vietnam War came because U.S. officials overseas had “brainwashed” him. But it his experience as HUD secretary from 1969 to 1973 that may offer the most valuable lessons for Mitt and, for that matter, other aspiring chief executives. (History News Network, "The Unintended Lessons Mitt Romney (and the Rest of Us) Could Learn from George Romney")

(What is it about destiny-dynasty that sucks the children in?)

Mitt's father was a good but not great governor of Michigan, where I grew up. In an era of powerful labor unions and liberal politics, his father was a fairly popular man. And Michigan was pretty progressive then. At HUD, under Nixon, he worked hard on integrating housing developments.

So, who poisoned Mitt's soul? Or is he just an opportunist, trolling for the fundie votes?

Frankly, 2008 is getting ugly--Romney, Frist, and Brownback. I haven't studied Wisconsin's Thompson yet to know if he's a moderate or if he's just another homophobe.

Jeez, the gays just cannot get a break!

Naomi (who hopes that this one qualifies on all counts...)

scootmandubious said...

Naomi,

Of course your comment qualifies on all counts!

I have to say thank you, as you always have a knack for bringing an added relevant insight to what you comment about.

In this case, I found especially interesting your references to the father-son relationship between the Romneys.

Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for removing my indisputable facts. It shows how interested you are in truth. Once again, here they are:

Was Mitt Romney wooing conservatives in June of 2004 when he said:

"This is a subject about which people have tender emotions in part because it touches individual lives. It also has been misused by some as a means to promote intolerance and prejudice. This is a time when we must fight hate and bigotry, when we must root out prejudice, when we must learn to accept people who are different from one another. Like me, the great majority of Americans wish both to preserve the traditional definition of marriage and to oppose bias and intolerance directed towards gays and lesbians."


"They (Mass supreme court) viewed marriage as an institution principally designed for adults. Adults are who they saw. Adults stood before them in the courtroom. And so they thought of adult rights, equal rights for adults ... Marriage is also for children. In fact, marriage is principally for the nurturing and development of children. The children of America have the right to have a father and a mother."

When he ran for governor in 2002, Romney declared his opposition to both same-sex marriage and civil unions. "Call me old fashioned, but I don't support gay marriage nor do I support civil union," said Romney in an October 2002 gubernatorial debate. He also voiced support for basic domestic partnership benefits for gay couples. Romney told the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts (a Republican gay-rights group) that he did not support same-sex marriage or civil unions, but would fight discrimination against gays and lesbians.[42] He also opposed an amendment, then before the General Court, that would have banned same-sex marriage and outlawed all domestic partnership benefits for gay couples. As a result, the Log Cabin Club endorsed Romney in the gubernatorial election. [43]. When campaigning in 2002, Romney's stated position was that "all citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of sexual orientation" and that "homosexuals should have the right to a domestic partnership status that affords them the potential for health benefits and rights of survivorship." [44]

During his 1994 campaign against Senator Edward Kennedy, Romney said that same-sex marriage "is not appropriate at this time"[35] but supported Federal legislation that would prohibit discrimination in the workplace against homosexuals.[36]

So if Mitt Romney is "wooing conservatives" when he apposed same sex marriage, then ever single citizen in Massachusetts is a conservative, because he stated his opposition to same sex marriage when he ran for Governor.

Show your true colors and delete my comments again...

scootmandubious said...

Hey McClob, or should it be McClod?

Could you be more of a fraud?

I posted why I removed your comments. One would have to be an ass to let a political hack (and you do represent "Illinoisans for Romney" do you not?) carbon copy a 2,711 word post that was written before I even did my blog post.

I know, because I found it online in other blogs.

Sorry, I am not here to further the Romney campaign. The same thing you posted here was uploaded on other sites.

This site is for discussion, not campaigning.

A 2,711 word post chills any further discussion.

What about that can you not get through your partisan skull?

Anonymous said...

Scootmandubious, thank you for showing the hypocrisy of Romney. I don't think I could survive another repub administration. My partner and I are in the 31st year of our relationship, but Britney Spears two failed marriages are conisidered more valid than that. No one I've ever asked has ever been able to give me a valid LEGAL reason to exclude gays & lesbians from civil marriage. They always retreat to either religion or the claim that marriage is an unalterable "tradition." I'm new here, and greatly enjoy your writing!

Anonymous said...

"So if Mitt Romney is "wooing conservatives" when he apposed same sex marriage, then ever single citizen in Massachusetts is a conservative,"

McClod, sorry to be such a nitpicker, but the words you are trying(desperately)to use are "opposed", and "every."

Laser said...

Romney owned Bain.

Bain stole eToys assets in bankruptcy court by collusion.

the attorneys for eToys was TBF and MNAT.

MNAT and TBF also worked for Bain and related entities

This was not disclosed to the Court


False affidavit's were submitted stating no conflict.,

The Dept of Justice has refused to investigate or prosecute.

Colm F Connolly the US Attorney for Delaware was also a partner at MNAT at that time.

Now Colm is going to be promoted to Federal Dist Ct Judge