Mitt Romney is facing attacks from the gay Republican group the Log Cabin Republicans. The group is airing an ad in Iowa and nationally on Fox News that points out Romney’s flip flopping. The ad has excerpts from a Senate debate in 1994 between Romney and Ted Kennedy. Romney is seen saying, “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country…I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it.†He also distances himself from Republican hero Ronald Reagan by saying, “I was independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.” “Republicans deserve to know the truth about Romney,†said Log Cabin President Patrick Sammon. “Whether you’re a mainstream Republican, a libertarian Republican, or a social conservative, you just don’t know what he really believes.†The Romney campaign has responded to the attacks by saying,
“As Governor Romney has repeatedly made clear, like many other Republicans including Ronald Reagan, he wasn’t always pro-life. Governor Romney has said he was wrong and hopes he never stops learning from his mistakes or trying to do what’s right. This personal, negative attack was launched and paid for by a group recognized as having Mayor Giuliani as their ‘favorite’ candidate. Governor Romney supports a federal marriage amendment and so it makes sense that a national gay rights group would attack him. The advertisement misrepresents Governor Romney’s courage to admit that he had been wrong on this issue and the fact that he is proud of his strong record of defending the sanctity of life.â€
The Log Cabin Republicans have responded to this by saying,
“The Romney campaign is trying to attack Log Cabin rather than address the Governor’s huge credibility problem. His response ignores the point of the ad. It’s not just abortion. He has flip-flopped on almost every major issue: taxes, immigration, education, gay rights, gun ownership, stem cell research, campaign finance reform, and other issues. It’s a matter of trust. Quite frankly, instead of a 30-second ad, we could have done a 30-minute infomercial on all his flip-flops. No one knows what Mitt Romney really believes.
It’s surprising the governor’s campaign would mention Ronald Reagan in their response to this ad, considering what Romney himself said about Reagan: ‘I was independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.’
This just shows that Mitt Romney will say whatever he thinks people want to hear. Governor Romney hasn’t explained his critical comments against Ronald Reagan. Romney suddenly became a fan of Reagan once he decided to run for President. President Reagan stood on principle. He knew what he believed. Governor Romney doesn’t seem to know what he believes.
Log Cabin isn’t planning to endorse a candidate before the primaries. Our ad has nothing to do with marriage because every major presidential candidate of both parties has the same position on marriage for same-sex couples as Governor Romney—they oppose it. If this was about marriage, we could be running ads against any number of candidates and the Romney campaign knows that.”
Alan Cosgrove
Here is the ad from The Log Cabin Republicans;