Mitt Romney tries to save face on abortion flip-flops
Evidently the pro-life apologists for Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s run for president are gearing up in New Hampshire. According to Michael Novak:
A prominent anti-abortion Catholic legislator in New Hampshire on Feb. 17 sent a “confidential invitation for addressee only” to a 3 p.m. meeting with Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney March 17…
The meeting is private and closed to the press, but that he would take questions from “a small group of conservatives.” Okay, maybe this isn’t pro-life apologists, since the sponsor of the event says that this is not an endorsement of Romney. Novak links the event to Romney’s loss of ground with Catholic pro-lifers because he wouldn’t veto a bill requiring Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts hand out abortifacient “emergency contraception.”
He lost ground with us long before that. Romney has tried to be slippery on abortion ever since he ran for governor and that hasn’t escaped people’s notice, as evidenced by his appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday. It starts with host Chris Wallace presenting him with his own words from his 2002 race for governor.
WALLACE: You have come under fire for allegedly flip-flopping on the issue of abortion. You’ve faced questions about that, so let’s talk about that today. When you were running for governor of Massachusetts back in 2002, you said — and let’s put it up on the screen — “I believe women should have the right to make their own choice.”
But now that you’re considering a race for president, you say you’re a pro-life governor who wishes the laws of the nation could reflect that view. Governor, why the change?
Romney jumps all over the place until finally Wallace pins him down and he says, yes, his position on abortion has “evolved”, that he doesn’t “favor abortion”, and that when the embryonic stem-cell research debate came up, that was when he started calling himself pro-life. Even so, he wouldn’t change the laws on abortion because “I believe each state should have the right to make their own choice.” I won’t bother getting into the inanities of that statement.
Still, I think Romney has backed himself into a corner on the abortion issue. There’s no way pro-lifers will take him seriously on abortion. He has no credibility in his claim to be pro-life. The scary part is that there’s a real possibility that there won’t be a single candidate in the 2008 election, Republican or Democrat, who is any better on life issues. There is a strong possibility that the best we can get would be “personally opposed, but…” politicians. At least if you vote Republican or Democrat.
Yet, if Hillary is the Democrat, I’d have a hard time voting a conservative third party, essentially giving her my vote by taking it away from a Republican.
Demoncrats will win this state no matter what. This conundrum also lives in the governor’s race.
It’s Kerry Pro-Chice-Healy verses Tom the Hack Reilly.
Pro-lifers need to demand a pro-lfe candidate even if it means Hildebeast as President. They were right to explode on Hariet Miers and they are right to reject Guliani and his ilk.
Romney and McCain need to tow the pro-life line.
Posted by ThomasCoolberth [ip: 24.218.43.54] on 02/27/06 at 10:55 AM
I was at a meeting the other night regarding the next phase of the Marriage Amendment campaign and was amazed to find that someone is running against Ted Kennedy! His name is Kevin Scott. He seems very optimistic and articulate but his speech crasked and burned when someone asked him where he stood on abortion. He started talking about trying to limit abortion and adoption is good, yada, yada, yada. This particular group wasn’t equivocating. They made it clear they were pro-life.
Anyways, his campaign website is </a href=“www.massforscott.com”>MassForScott</a>
Posted by Lynne [ip: 143.115.159.54] on 02/27/06 at 12:18 PM
I saw M.R. on Fox over the weekend. He’s a gonner. He couldn’t handle the abortion issue, and refused to answer questions about Mormonism.
He’ll never make it if he is sweatin’ bullets on Fox news.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 24.176.174.70] on 02/27/06 at 04:05 PM
Like father, like son. You may recall that it was George Romney’s assertion on the Lou Gordon show that he had been “brainwashed” by the army about Viet Nam that killed any chance he had for the 1968 presidential nomination.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 63.205.225.59] on 02/27/06 at 04:35 PM
I’ve been struggling on who to vote in the gubernatorial, if all of them are going to be disagree with me on the life issues, I might as well just vote regarding the economy and infrastructure.
I’m actually considering Deval Patrick, I emailed him regarding life issues and his staff responded. They weren’t willing to put anything down officially as their stance, but they asked me to call and discuss my concerns with them. These politicians can atleast be creative and find avenues to work with pro-lifers.
Posted by Renee A. [ip: 4.156.66.33] on 02/27/06 at 05:46 PM
We have 2 problems in Massachusetts - the parties are both pro-abortion and most of the candidates are. There’s no way a pro-life candidate could ever win statewide office as a Democrat (against serious contenders), but since the Republican party is so small (~12%), a flood of Catholic “unenrolled” independents could get a Catholic the Republican nomination.
Note to Tom Finneran & Ray Flynn - You’d destroy Kerry Healy (despite her husband’s bank rolls). Run Republican! We need you (or someone credible) in the general election espousing life and marriage issues. How embarrassing if both finalists agree on these issues!
With Tom Reilly on weak footing and Deval Patrick’s best strength being that people don’t know anything about him yet, there’s a chance a likable Flynn could win. In a similar way, a “resurrected” Finneran could win a lot of swing votes over a damaged Reilly.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 12.105.75.237] on 02/27/06 at 06:02 PM
The thing is Patrick has a lot more about him and his policy on his website, then Reilly or Healey. With 500 democratic delegate signatures Flynn could be on the Primary ballot for the democrats.
Posted by Renee A. [ip: 4.156.75.254] on 02/27/06 at 08:02 PM
I wouldn’t count on Finneran. He flip-flopped too. He’s pro-embryonic stem cell research. After he left office he went to work as a lobbyist for the industry, claiming his position on the issue “evolved.” Yeah, like his paycheck “evolved.”
On the national scene, George Allen is the only potential candidate who has been at all consistent on pro-life issues since he ran for Governor of Virginia.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 205.188.116.70] on 02/27/06 at 09:03 PM
How about Democrat Ray Flynn for governor with Republican Paul Loscocco on the ticket with him?
Posted by infanted [ip: 136.167.69.163] on 02/28/06 at 12:52 PM
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Mitt Romney tries to save face on abortion flip-flops
Evidently the pro-life apologists for Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney’s run for president are gearing up in New Hampshire. According to Michael Novak:
The meeting is private and closed to the press, but that he would take questions from “a small group of conservatives.” Okay, maybe this isn’t pro-life apologists, since the sponsor of the event says that this is not an endorsement of Romney. Novak links the event to Romney’s loss of ground with Catholic pro-lifers because he wouldn’t veto a bill requiring Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts hand out abortifacient “emergency contraception.”
He lost ground with us long before that. Romney has tried to be slippery on abortion ever since he ran for governor and that hasn’t escaped people’s notice, as evidenced by his appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday. It starts with host Chris Wallace presenting him with his own words from his 2002 race for governor.
Technorati Tags: abortion, Massachusetts, politics, presidential-election
Romney jumps all over the place until finally Wallace pins him down and he says, yes, his position on abortion has “evolved”, that he doesn’t “favor abortion”, and that when the embryonic stem-cell research debate came up, that was when he started calling himself pro-life. Even so, he wouldn’t change the laws on abortion because “I believe each state should have the right to make their own choice.” I won’t bother getting into the inanities of that statement.
Still, I think Romney has backed himself into a corner on the abortion issue. There’s no way pro-lifers will take him seriously on abortion. He has no credibility in his claim to be pro-life. The scary part is that there’s a real possibility that there won’t be a single candidate in the 2008 election, Republican or Democrat, who is any better on life issues. There is a strong possibility that the best we can get would be “personally opposed, but…” politicians. At least if you vote Republican or Democrat.
Yet, if Hillary is the Democrat, I’d have a hard time voting a conservative third party, essentially giving her my vote by taking it away from a Republican.
COMMENTS
Demoncrats will win this state no matter what. This conundrum also lives in the governor’s race.
It’s Kerry Pro-Chice-Healy verses Tom the Hack Reilly.
Pro-lifers need to demand a pro-lfe candidate even if it means Hildebeast as President. They were right to explode on Hariet Miers and they are right to reject Guliani and his ilk.
Romney and McCain need to tow the pro-life line.
Posted by ThomasCoolberth [ip: 24.218.43.54] on 02/27/06 at 10:55 AM
I was at a meeting the other night regarding the next phase of the Marriage Amendment campaign and was amazed to find that someone is running against Ted Kennedy! His name is Kevin Scott. He seems very optimistic and articulate but his speech crasked and burned when someone asked him where he stood on abortion. He started talking about trying to limit abortion and adoption is good, yada, yada, yada. This particular group wasn’t equivocating. They made it clear they were pro-life.
Anyways, his campaign website is </a href=“www.massforscott.com”>MassForScott</a>
Posted by Lynne [ip: 143.115.159.54] on 02/27/06 at 12:18 PM
I saw M.R. on Fox over the weekend. He’s a gonner. He couldn’t handle the abortion issue, and refused to answer questions about Mormonism.
He’ll never make it if he is sweatin’ bullets on Fox news.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 24.176.174.70] on 02/27/06 at 04:05 PM
Like father, like son. You may recall that it was George Romney’s assertion on the Lou Gordon show that he had been “brainwashed” by the army about Viet Nam that killed any chance he had for the 1968 presidential nomination.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 63.205.225.59] on 02/27/06 at 04:35 PM
I’ve been struggling on who to vote in the gubernatorial, if all of them are going to be disagree with me on the life issues, I might as well just vote regarding the economy and infrastructure.
I’m actually considering Deval Patrick, I emailed him regarding life issues and his staff responded. They weren’t willing to put anything down officially as their stance, but they asked me to call and discuss my concerns with them. These politicians can atleast be creative and find avenues to work with pro-lifers.
Posted by Renee A. [ip: 4.156.66.33] on 02/27/06 at 05:46 PM
We have 2 problems in Massachusetts - the parties are both pro-abortion and most of the candidates are. There’s no way a pro-life candidate could ever win statewide office as a Democrat (against serious contenders), but since the Republican party is so small (~12%), a flood of Catholic “unenrolled” independents could get a Catholic the Republican nomination.
Note to Tom Finneran & Ray Flynn - You’d destroy Kerry Healy (despite her husband’s bank rolls). Run Republican! We need you (or someone credible) in the general election espousing life and marriage issues. How embarrassing if both finalists agree on these issues!
With Tom Reilly on weak footing and Deval Patrick’s best strength being that people don’t know anything about him yet, there’s a chance a likable Flynn could win. In a similar way, a “resurrected” Finneran could win a lot of swing votes over a damaged Reilly.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 12.105.75.237] on 02/27/06 at 06:02 PM
The thing is Patrick has a lot more about him and his policy on his website, then Reilly or Healey. With 500 democratic delegate signatures Flynn could be on the Primary ballot for the democrats.
Posted by Renee A. [ip: 4.156.75.254] on 02/27/06 at 08:02 PM
I wouldn’t count on Finneran. He flip-flopped too. He’s pro-embryonic stem cell research. After he left office he went to work as a lobbyist for the industry, claiming his position on the issue “evolved.” Yeah, like his paycheck “evolved.”
Posted by Domenico Bettinelli [ip: 24.128.184.216] on 02/27/06 at 08:31 PM
On the national scene, George Allen is the only potential candidate who has been at all consistent on pro-life issues since he ran for Governor of Virginia.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) [ip: 205.188.116.70] on 02/27/06 at 09:03 PM
How about Democrat Ray Flynn for governor with Republican Paul Loscocco on the ticket with him?
Posted by infanted [ip: 136.167.69.163] on 02/28/06 at 12:52 PM
Comments are being moderated. After you submit your comment it could take up to a couple hours, but usually only a few minutes, before it will appear. Thank you for your patience. If you have any questions, you may contact Domenico Bettinelli.