Posted on 06/13/2006 9:31:51 PM PDT by BryanFischer
June 13, 2006
Mr. Kirk Sullivan Chairman, Idaho Republican Party
Dear Mr. Sullivan,
I read with surprise that Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is scheduled to be a featured speaker at this year’s Republican state convention.
Research the Idaho Values Alliance has done reveals that Mr. Romney holds views which are wildly out of alignment with the party’s own platform and with public policies that are best for Idaho’s families. We think Idaho citizens need to have this information.
According to his 2002 campaign website, although Romney opposes gay marriage, he believes in legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships, saying “domestic partnership status should be recognized” in law. In an interview with Bay Windows, a Massachusetts LBGT publication, he said, “I will support and endorse efforts to provide…domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples.”
In 2002, he refused to support a proposed “Protection of Marriage” amendment to the Massachusetts constitution, and appeared to be a bit embarrassed by the fact that members of his own family signed the amendment petition.
He evidently has changed his mind, and now supports such an amendment, which naturally raises questions about credibility and consistency as well as what prompted this radical shift in political positioning.
He also pledged that as Governor, he “would protect the current pro-choice status quo in Massachusetts. No law would change. The choice to have an abortion is a deeply personal one. Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not the government’s.”
In a debate with Sen. Ted Kennedy, Romney stated that “I believe that abortion should be safe and legal.” Of Roe v. Wade, he said that “we should sustain and support it.”
When he was accused of being “pro-life” in the 2002 gubernatorial race, Planned Parenthood and NARAL, the leading pro-abortion organizations in the nation, launched a vigorous defense of his pro-choice bona fides.
In a July 14, 2005 press release, they reminded the public that when he was asked by Planned Parenthood in 2002 if he supported “the substance of the Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade,” Romney answered “yes.” When he was asked if supported “state funding of abortion services through Medicaid for low-income women,” he answered “yes.” When he was asked if he supported “efforts to increase access to emergency contraception,” he also answered “yes.”
He ended his response to the questionnaire by stating, “I respect and will protect a women’s right to choose…the truth is no candidate in the Governor’s race in either party would deny women abortion rights.”
Further, he has stated that he believes homosexuals should be allowed to serve as scoutmasters, which should be of particular concern to citizens in eastern Idaho. In a statement he made during his senate campaign against Ted Kennedy, Romney said, “I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation.” He said this despite being a member of the Boy Scout executive council at the time. His opposition to BSA policy drew a rebuke from an organization spokesman.
To add insult to injury, he refused to grant the Boy Scouts any public role in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, contrary to the customary practice of previous Olympic organizers.
His political outlook is so friendly to the gay agenda that he received the unanimous endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans in his bid for Senate in 1994, and pledged in that race to do more for the gay community than his opponent, Sen. Ted Kennedy. He received the Log Cabin endorsement again in 2002 in his bid for governor.
More recently, he proposed doubling the funding for the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth for fiscal year 2006, twice what he proposed for FY05. This commission represents little more than an effort to use taxpayer funding to promote the normalization of homosexual behavior among high school students.
He is a strong supporter of hate-crimes laws and gay rights laws, including Sen. Kennedy’s notorious federal ENDA bill. Such laws simply become weapons to intimidate, threaten, silence, and punish those who believe in the historic Judeo-Christian view of sexuality.
It was a state-level ENDA-type law that forced Catholic Charities in Romney’s state of Massachusetts out of the adoption business altogether because the charity wisely insisted on placing adoptive children only in households with both a mom and a dad.
He has appointed numerous left-leaning judges, including a 2005 district court appointment of a man who served on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Lesbian and Gay Bar Association.
According to a 2005 AP article, Romney “has leaned more left when filling judicial vacancies…including two gay lawyers who have supported expanding same-sex rights.” Twenty-three of the 36 judges or magistrates Romney has appointed are either registered Democrats or unenrolled voters who have either donated to Democratic politicians or have voted in Democratic primaries.
Of further concern to Idahoans is his apparent weakness on the Second Amendment. Romney was an open supporter of the assault weapons ban contained in a congressional crime bill, and supports the Brady bill, another gun control measure. These positions are at odds with the views of nearly all Idaho legislators and our entire congressional delegation.
We believe it is necessary for you, as the leader of the state Republican Party, to clarify for Idaho citizens the stance of party leadership on these important matters. Is the leadership of the Idaho Republican Party in agreement with Gov. Romney’s positions on abortion, the radical homosexual agenda, and gun control? Idahoans deserve a clear and direct answer to these questions.
To say nothing implies an endorsement of views that are out of Idaho’s mainstream, inconsistent with the state and national Republican Party platforms, and contrary to what is best for Idaho’s public policy.
Sincerely,
Bryan Fischer, Executive Director bryan@idahovaluesalliance.com
Welcome to FR, Bryan. Your post is about 6 months premature.
So Romney's a RINO, what else is new.
I don't know what the Idaho GOP believes but if they follow the party line, they do agree with him.
you registered today just to post a vanity.
Not what I would call a long time conservative activist.
Could be a lurker, cut him some slack.
so far this clown has posted 1 post, this vanity
I checked his website. It is well done at first glance, then you click the links about his "organization in the news" and you realize it is all hot air.
He could be working for mccain, allen or who knows, just to knock down romney.
I have little use for negative people.
Yes that is true, but i think its a given there are plenty of campaign operatives on these sites posting to make it seem like they are genuine activists but in reality just pushing an agenda.
The supposedly conservative Iowa GOP is featuring Romney at their convention this weekend, too.
RINOs on parade...
Good first post.
I've asked some of my friends who are delegates to the Idaho convention this weekend to ask some of the same questions you have asked.
The RINO state party chairman is reportedly going to make an attempt to radically water down the state party platform. Conservatives beware.
The other big issue that will be addressed in Idaho Falls is whether or not to close the primaries.
Open primaries are a liberal's dream come true...it's time to put a stop to their scam so that the conservative base of the GOP can choose their own leaders in future elections...and not have them chosen for them by liberals.
While this is obviously a vanity, does it really belong in Chat?
We have conservatives going to conventions in these particular states this weekend and FReeper activism is most certainly called for.
After the shellacking Idaho RINOs just took in the primaries, you'd think someone would have learned a few lessons.
Romney is a socialist engineer ala the Clintoons and the Kennedy clan.
My vote goes to conservatives who are Republicans as well. A conservative who claims to be a democrat is just asking to be marginalized by the dems. Ultimately, such an individual caves to party pressure in an attempt to be relevant.
Believe me, I know the man. He's not working for John McCain and he is a very strong Conservative activist. Welcome, aboard, Bryan, other than the somewhat paranoid members, Free Republic is a great place to read and post news.
Try first and likely only and last post. Beware of newbies posting vanities.
I don't care who he is. Going negative on a decent man like romney is wrong. You want to say what a great guy your man is and come support him (tancredo) or whoever, but you are losing me and a whole lot of others when you go negative.
Romney's personal decency is irrevelant. What Pastor Fischer posted refers to Romney's documentable public record. The clearest sign of weakness -- i.e., in the case, the inability to debate the facts or substance of Romney's record -- is to attack the messenger.
Staytrue, there was a day, however many years back, when you too -- like all the rest of us -- were a "first time poster."
Why not address the substance of the issues raised? The Idaho Values Alliance isn't gonna be on the ballot, and they're not the issue.
Romney's documentable, consistent, and insistent defense of a woman's "right to choose" to pay an abortionist to terminate her prenatal child's life is the issue. So much so that he was endorsed by the Republican Majority for Choice and defended by both Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
Plus his documentable support for homosexual activists' political agenda, with the exception of the marriage issue on which he has taken at least three different positions in the last three years. Endorsed (twice) by the homosexual "Log Cabin Republicans."
Folks in Idaho don't respond well to Massachusetts politicians with a record of insistently defending a woman's "right to choose," who think the Boy Scouts should allow homosexual Scoutmasters, and who favor gun control.
That's true -- as is Idaho Values Alliance's recitation of Romney's record -- regardless of whether this is IVA's first or 100th post.
Defend Romney's record if you can, and drop the personal attacks on people who dare address his record. Just makes you look like you can't defend the record.
StayTrue, I've been a member since October 2000. This is my 258th reply, in addition to 139 posts. Now that we've dispensed with that red herring, I invite you (and any other Romney advocate) to address the substance of Idaho Values Alliance's post, starting with the abortion issue.
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ROMNEY 1994 U.S. SENATE DEBATE: "I believe that abortion should be SAFE AND LEGAL in this country. I have since the time when my Mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should SUSTAIN AND SUPPORT it, and I sustain and support that law and the RIGHT of a woman to make that CHOICE."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/02/romneys_revolving_world/
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ROMNEY 2002 GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN WEB SITE: "On Abortion Rights. As Governor, Mitt Romney would protect the current PRO-CHOICE status quo in Massachusetts. No law would change. The choice to have an abortion is a deeply personal one. Women should be FREE TO CHOOSE based on their own beliefs, not the government's."
http://web.archive.org/web/20021218005104/www.romneyhealey.com/issues/
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ROMNEY RESPONSE TO 2002 NARAL/PLANNED PARENTHOOD CANDIDATE SURVEY: "I respect and will protect a woman's RIGHT TO CHOOSE. This choice is a deeply personal one. Women should be FREE TO CHOOSE based on their own beliefs, not mine and not the government's. The truth is no candidate in the Governor's race in either party would deny women ABORTION RIGHTS."
http://www.pplm.org/Facts/rf_fact/pr_2005_07_14.htm
Ok fine, romney is pro choice as was G H Bush until he converted and picked Thomas for Scotus.
So what.
when I look at the idaho alliance website, I see a good website with more flash than substance.
It looks like a one man show.
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