Comments on Advance Indiana™: What Happened To Mitt Romney?

Erin, Thanks for the heads up. I'll follow up on i...

2006-12-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

Erin, Thanks for the heads up. I'll follow up on it.

Hey AI,WashPost has a great article on this very t...

2006-12-10T12:17:00.000-05:00

Hey AI,

WashPost has a great article on this very topic with more excerpts from Romney's letter to the Log Cabin Repub's back in '94. It 's a little long, so I didn't want to post the article, but, anyone who wonders just how inconsistent this guy is should check out the article. They have it online.
Romney is not going to be able to make a successful flip on this- none of the far right will ever believe him no matter how much anti-gay stuff he tries to pull. He simply is too far on the record as being a supporter. So, I say, if he knows his chances are shot going the homophobe route and he still wants to run- then run as an unabashed supporter of gay rights. I hope (maybe naively) that there are many R's out there who would support him and just haven't had the opportunity to stand up to the far right in the past (lack of choice on this issue). Either way, at least we can see where R's really stand on this as a constituency.

So, Romney is a far right-pandering Republican pot...

2006-12-09T07:15:00.000-05:00

So, Romney is a far right-pandering Republican potential presidential candidate?

Tell me something else that's new.
The word you're looking for his hypocrite.

And it's a bad dye job, too. Evidently money and power can't buy a decent hair stylist. No mirrors in his house, or truthful aides who will tell him he looks silly?

Rishawn, there is quite a bit of evidence he backp...

2006-12-08T17:10:00.000-05:00

Rishawn, there is quite a bit of evidence he backpedaled. Again, he has never said he supported marriage; however, he said he agreed with Bill Weld's position, which included support for recognition of civil unions. When he learned how much the religious right opposed even civil unions, he abandoned his support there. He could have just expressed his disagreement with the court's decision and accepted it as the settle law of the state. Instead, he has actively worked to overturn the decision. He also tried to shut down a commission on gay and lesbian youth as well to appease the right. Has he sought a repeal of other civil rights measures already on the books? No, but there was no chance in hell of succeeding either. He has done everything, however, within his discretionary power to reverse civil rights advancements for gays in Massachusetts.

ooooohhhhh....do I detect a pro-Libertarian strain...

2006-12-08T16:31:00.000-05:00

ooooohhhhh....do I detect a pro-Libertarian strain in RiShawn's tone?

Bring it, RiShawn! It'd be the most welcome thought process out of that N. Penn. building in a long time.

While I can see the argument that opposing gay mar...

2006-12-08T16:27:00.000-05:00

While I can see the argument that opposing gay marriage means opposing the recognition of the civil rights of gays, this line of reasoning only works in the abstract, not when discussing a specific person. In such cases, it only works when the person discussed expresses opposition to such principles as opposing hiring discrimination against gays in the workplace and the like. If that can be proven, then the argument makes sense.

The problem, Gary, is that the line of reasoning doesn't work in the case of Romney, who seems to oppose discrimination against gays on other fronts. Since you haven't proven that he's backpeddled on other fronts, your argument is rather faulty at best. There are plenty of people who otherwise support recognizing gay civil rights, yet oppose gay marriage. This doesn't mean that they are right; as far as I'm concerned, it is discrimination plain and simple. But there are plenty of arguments that can be made for the counter, especially libertarian arguments that all marriages should be out of government domain.

Rishawn, again, the big issue isn't gay marriage; ...

2006-12-08T10:01:00.000-05:00

Rishawn, again, the big issue isn't gay marriage; it's how he has backed away from his support for gay civil rights. I assume people know more about his actions as Governor than I should. Massachusetts already has some of the best laws on the books of any states. There was no way he could get those laws repealed; however, he tried to dismantle on a commission on gay and lesbian youth when the religious rights started complaining about it. The legislature turned back a proposed constitutional amendment, and he's gone out of his way to get a measure on the ballot. Furthermore, he invoked an archaic state law to prohibit people from coming from other states to Massachusetts to get married in an effort to block gay couples from other states from getting a marriage license in his state. He's boasted of these moves to the religious right in an appeal to show them that he's not the same man he supported gay civil rights when he ran for the Senate in 1994 and again when he ran for governor just 4 years ago.

I read it twice.Very, very confusing post.

2006-12-08T09:43:00.000-05:00

I read it twice.

Very, very confusing post.

But how is opposition to gay marriage a sign that ...

2006-12-08T09:38:00.000-05:00

But how is opposition to gay marriage a sign that someone is hostile to gays on all matters of civil rights? One can actually support allowing gays to be protected from private-sector workplace discrimination, banishment from housing and attempts to stifle voting rights, yet still be opposed to the concept of gay marriage. And there are plenty of people on both sides of the political aisle who do so.

This isn't to say that I agree with opposition to gay marriage; as a straight man, I think the government should recognize the rights and privileges to marriage that gays are given through the Founding Documents and Supreme Court rulings of the past three decades. But to argue that Romney's opposition to gay marriage -- which may be based on a principled-yet-wrongheaded point-of-view -- is a sign of opposition to gay marriage is a bit of intellectual overreach. Especially in light of Romney's positions on other gay rights issues, which you haven't proven have actually changed over time.

He's against. The purpose of the entry is self-evi...

2006-12-08T08:57:00.000-05:00

He's against. The purpose of the entry is self-evident. It's not about whether he's for or against gay marriage; it's about how much his views in general on gay issues have dramatically changed to appease the religious right.

It appears it was as the dirty old man above stat...

2006-12-08T08:31:00.000-05:00

It appears it was as the dirty old man above stated - he flipped on the issue to as Gary wrote - to appease the Religious Right faction of the GOP.

Sounds he's willing to piss away Taxachusetts in order to secure the Bible Belt among other places in a Presidential run.

I don't get the blog entry. Is Mitt for or against...

2006-12-08T00:38:00.000-05:00

I don't get the blog entry. Is Mitt for or against gay marriage?

Or is he a flipper?

... as some folk used to say about another Massach...

2006-12-07T19:20:00.000-05:00

... as some folk used to say about another Massachusetts Presidential hopeful:

Flip-flop !

FLIP - FLOP !

"I was for gay people before I was against them."