• Send FReep Mail to Unmarked Package to get [ON] or [OFF] the Mitt Romney Ping List •
But don't take my word for it. Go to their website and see for yourself. It is said you can tell a lot about a man from the enemies he has. MassResistance, with their highly stilted and utterly irrational opposition to the former governor, is saying very good things about Mitt Romney.
I happen to like George W. Bush, but Romney is more of the same wishy-washy "conservatism" which in the end is no such thing.
One doesn't have to hate Romney or think he's a leftist to think he isn't a very good choice for president.
They really don't want him up against Hillary.
"Governor Romney has been touring the country in the past few weeks, courting anti-gay right-wingers in South Carolina, Missouri, and Utah with speeches designed to show that he is firmly in their camp. Yet a look at Romney's record shows that his Rick Santorum drag act is a relatively new phenomenon."
- Bay Windows, 3/3/2005
But what struck the gay GOP during that campaign, according to Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), was Romney's accessibility to and comfort within the local gay community. Romney and his Republican primary opponent, John Lakian, attended an LCR-sponsored candidate's forum during the campaign, where they both competitively vied for the organization's endorsement -- which Romney eventually won. During the course of his campaign, LCR member and former president Mark Goshko told Bay Windows, Romney held several meetings with group members and at least two LCR members joined his staff. Though gay Republicans were by no means running Romney's campaign, "it was really a multi-level involvement," Goshko stated. "Our people were very involved officially and outside of [the campaign]."
- Bay Windows, 3/28/2002
"It's 9:15 a.m. and Republican gubernatorial nominee Mitt Romney is in good spirits. He's just wrapped up a meeting with the Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans at Mario's restaurant in Boston, where he won his first endorsement from a gay organization . . . According to Mark Goshko, a former LCR president, the group's 15-member board of governors, the body that votes to endorse candidates, made the unanimous decision after meeting with the Romney campaign and holding extensive discussions."
- Bay Windows, 10/24/2002
"During his 2002 gubernatorial run his campaign distributed bright pink flyers during Pride that declared 'Mitt and Kerry [running mate Kerry Healey] wish you a great Pride weekend! All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual preference.' Romney also argued that he would not only support gay friendly policies but would fight on behalf of the gay community to secure benefits such as domestic partner benefits and hospital visitation rights for same-sex couples."
- Bay Windows 3/3/2005
Such laws are usually carried out at the expense of freedom of religion and speech. For example, they would allow lawsuits against a Christian book store owner for refusing to hire a homosexual activist applicant.
"Basically I see the provision of basic civil rights and domestic partnership benefits [as] a campaign against Tom Finneran. I see Tom Finneran and the Democratic leadership as having opposed the application of domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples and I will support and endorse efforts to provide those domestic partnership benefits to gay and lesbian couples," says Romney.
- Bay Windows, 10/24/2002
"If this [proposed constitutional marriage] amendment were to pass, at that stage I would support legislation which would provide certain domestic partnership benefits, like hospital visitation rights, and rights of survivorship, and so forth.
- State House press conference, 6/15/2005
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said yesterday he was ready to work with lawmakers to craft a "civil union"-style law to give some marriage rights to homosexual couples, even though he also supports a constitutional amendment to preserve traditional marriage . . . Mr. Romney yesterday told TV news stations that he would support a Vermont-style civil union law in Massachusetts, but reiterated his support for a constitutional amendment that would clarify that "marriage is an institution between a man and a woman."
- Washington Times, 11/20/2003
Massachusetts Governor Romney is coming under fire for comments he made about gay marriage to Republican activists in South Carolina. Romney told Monday night's gathering in Spartanburg County that he's always been opposed to same-sex marriage as well as what he called "it's equivalent, civil unions." Romney, however, has for months backed a proposed amendment to the Massachusetts constitution that would ban gay marriage but provide for civil unions with the same rights and responsibilities as marriage. Massachusetts State Representative Phil Travis says Romney can't be for civil unions when he's in Massachusetts and against them when he's out-of-state. Travis has been a leading opponent of same-sex unions.
- Associated Press, 2/23/2005
Through all the twists and shifts during the gay-marriage debate this year, there was one constant: 22 Republicans in the House of Representatives opposed every measure that would grant gay couples civil unions in the constitution. That all changed yesterday, however, when 15 of that 22-member bloc broke away at the urging of Governor Mitt Romney and voted in favor of a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage but create Vermont-style civil unions. Those 15 members provided the margin of victory, observers from both camps said yesterday after the measure passed by just five votes. In the end, the 15 agreed that approving a measure that they viewed as highly undesirable was preferable to the possibility that nothing would be sent to the state ballot for voters to weigh in on.
- Boston Globe 3/30/2004
(Note: This amendment, which included mandated provisions for civil unions, was ultimately defeated in the Legislature and never did go to the voters.)
The largest Boy Scout council in the country responded to the call for volunteers issued by the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, but the welcome mat was rolled up and the door slammed in its face. Olympic spokesmen for the 2002 winter games say the exclusion has nothing to do with recent protests by gay activists. While the organizing committee for the Olympic event is prominently displaying a call for local volunteers, they have explicitly let it be known that the Boy Scouts need not apply. "For us not to be involved is discouraging, considering the Atlanta games. The Scouting council there was extremely involved," said Kay Godfrey, professional Scout executive for the Great Salt Lake Council of Boy Scouts.
- NewsMax.com, Dec. 18, 2000
Governor Mitt Romney pledged yesterday not to make a flurry of lame-duck judicial appointments in the final days of his administration . . . David Yas, editor of Lawyers Weekly, said Romney is "bucking tradition" by resisting the urge to fill all remaining judgeships. "It is a tradition for governors to use that power to appoint judges aggressively in the waning moments of their administration," Yas said. He added that Romney has been criticized for failing to make judicial appointments. "The legal community has consistently criticized him for not filling open seats quickly enough and being a little too painstaking in the process and being dismissive of the input of the Judicial Nominating Commission," Yas said.
- Boston Globe 11/2/2006
More recently Romney proposed allocating $250,000 for the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth for fiscal year 2006, twice what he proposed for FY05. The Legislature ultimately funded the commission at $250,000 for FY05, so Romney's proposal for next year amounts to level funding, and the proposal is still a far cry from $1.6 million the commission received in the mid-'90s before the state budget crisis. Yet as commission co-chair Kathleen Henry said, Romney could just as easily have dissolved the program. "We serve completely at the will of the governor," said Henry.
- Bay Windows 3/3/2005
Kathleen Henry, chairwoman of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, defended Romney. Henry said the governor's fiscal 2006 budget plan included $250,000 for the commission, twice as much as he proposed spending in 2005. ''The fact that he doubled last year's [proposed budget allocation] this year is huge to us. It's really huge. It says to us clearly that he gets the service for what it really is," said Henry.
- Boston Globe 7/1/2005
Romney said his vetoes were motivated by fiscal prudence, not opposition to the programs or presidential politics. Even with his vetoes, the state would spend more than $1 million on teen pregnancy prevention and $250,000 on the programs for gay and lesbian youth. . . [Romney said,] ''The work that they're doing to prevent suicide and prevent violence is important work, and we support the work which they're doing . . . [but] we didn't see a need to raise their budget by 40 percent."
- Boston Globe, 7/1/2005
"I would have opposed that amendment. I don’t think the federal government has any business dictating to local school boards what their curriculum or practices should be. I think that’s a dangerous precedent in general. I would have opposed that. It also grossly misunderstands the gay community by insinuating that there’s an attempt to proselytize a gay lifestyle on the part of the gay community. I think it’s wrong-headed and unfortunate and hurts the party by being identified with the Republican party."
- Bay Windows, 8/25/1994
"On April 26, Gov. Mitt Romney's chief legal counsel, Daniel Winslow, told the state's 1,200 justices of the peace that they had to marry same-sex couples, or be fired…. After being assured in February that the justices would be able file for conscientious-objector status, [a JP] was shocked to hear Winslow say they couldn't-and to hear an official from the state board of discrimination warn that trying to get out of officiating same-sex ceremonies could get them sued for $25,000 to $1 million." David Fried of the Mass. Commission Against Discrimination (a Romney appointed agency) said "that justices could be personally liable under the state's antidiscrimination law if they turned away same-sex couples who requested their services."
- Citizen (Focus on the Family online), 7/2004 and
- New York Times, 4/26/2004
"His harsh criticism of what he calls ''judicial over-reaching" always wins applause from Republican audiences. But the governor has at times taken pains to promote tolerance of gays and lesbians. When an administration official was dismissed and asserted that the action was related to her intention to marry her lesbian partner, Romney strongly denied it and noted that several high-ranking officials in his administration were gay…. The applications Romney approved from same-sex couples included at least four from state legislators, including Jarrett T. Barrios, a state senator from Cambridge, members of the clergy from out-of-state, family members, and friends …"
- Boston Globe, 1/2/2006
In summary, Romney has never said that homosexual marriage (especially the sodomy characteristic of the male unions) presents a problem for values, morality, public health, or parental rights in the schools. In almost every speech he gives on the topic, he simply focuses on "every child needing a father and a mother."
I gotta disagree with this!
Thanks for trying, FReeper pal. Check this out; it will give you a good chuckle:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VJnYFU4v9a4
Not mean spirited. It’s a catchy little tune.
People know by now that the social liberals tried the same thing with John Roberts because he worked on a gay-activist case for the SC. In this case, Romney was on "watch" for his state with the expected low-level bureaucratic idiocy.
And so extortionists/liberal-plants of the culture war like that site make their money off triangular arguments. They are essentially a mafia. They want politicians to throw tax-payer dollars and reputation at them, and when honest politicians like Romney don't crony-up, they proceed to throw around low-level idiocy. Had Romney showered that social liberal with his demands then he would have a site with the opposite spin praising the governor.
Romney like Justice Roberts has a honest and solid conservative framework with an excellent record that makes social liberals along with rival Republicans emotionally unhinged.
I'm more troubled by some senators than Romney. One made a vote "yes", then "no" on cloture for the immigration deal in less than 15 minutes. Or the worst of all a Republican postponing an announced run by a month or more because they have a mountain of baggage. People like Jim Geraghty were made to look like fools because of the backpedaling of the denial for work at a Dem lobbying firm like Arent.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/4908.html
Honest organizations like Citizens for Life and like the Family Institute set the record straight in January with this letter.
An Open Letter Regarding Governor Mitt Romney
January 11, 2007
Dear conservative friends:
We hail from a broad spectrum of organizations dedicated to fighting for the pro-family agenda in Massachusetts. As you know, Mitt Romney became the governor of our state in 2003.
Since that time, we have worked closely with him and his excellent staff on that agenda. Some press accounts and bloggers have described Governor Romney in terms we neither have observed nor can we accept. To the contrary, we, who have been fighting here for the values you also hold, are indebted to him and his responsive staff in demonstrating solid social conservative credentials by undertaking the following actions here in Massachusetts:
• Staunchly defended traditional marriage. Governor Romney immediately and strongly condemned the 2003 court decision that legalized “same-sex marriage” in our state. More importantly, he followed up on that denunciation with action – action that saved our nation from a constitutional crisis over the definition of marriage. He and his staff identified and enforced a little-known 1913 law that allowed them to order local clerks not to issue marriage licenses to out-of-state couples. Absent this action, homosexual couples would surely have flooded into Massachusetts from other states to get “married” and then demanded that their home states recognize the “marriages,” putting the nation only one court decision away from nationalizing “same-sex marriage.”
• Worked hard to overturn “same-sex marriage” in the Commonwealth with considerable progress to date. In 2004 he lobbied hard, before a very hostile legislature, for a constitutional amendment protecting marriage – an amendment later changed by the legislature to include civil unions, which the Governor and many marriage amendment supporters opposed. Working with the Governor, we were successful in defeating this amendment.
• Provided active support for a successful citizen petition drive in 2005 to advance a clean constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
• Rallied thousands of citizens to focus public and media attention on the failure of legislators, through repeated delays, to perform their constitutional obligation and vote on the marriage amendment.
• Filed suit before the Supreme Judicial Court. The Governor’s suit asked the court to clarify the legislators’ duty to vote and failing that, to place the amendment on the 2008 ballot. That lawsuit, perhaps more than any other single action, was by all accounts instrumental in bringing pressure on the legislators to vote. The vote ultimately was taken on January 2, 2007 and won legislative support – clearing a major hurdle in the three year effort to restore traditional marriage in the Commonwealth.
• Fought for abstinence education. In 2006, under Governor Romney’s leadership, Massachusetts’ public schools began to offer a classroom program on abstinence from the faith-based Boston group Healthy Futures to middle school students. Promoting the program, Governor Romney stated, “I’ve never had anyone complain to me that their kids are not learning enough about sex in school. However, a number of people have asked me why it is that we do not speak more about abstinence as a safe and preventative health practice.”
• Affirmed the culture of life. Governor Romney has vetoed bills to provide access to the socalled “morning-after pill,” which is an abortifacient, as well as a bill providing for expansive, embryo-destroying stem cell research. He vetoed the latter bill in 2005 because he could not “in good conscience allow this bill to become law.”
• Stood for religious freedom. Last year, Governor Romney was stalwart in defense of the right of Catholic Charities of Boston to refuse to allow homosexual couples to adopt children in its care. Catholic Charities was loudly accused of “discrimination,” but Governor Romney correctly pointed out that it is unjust to force a religious agency to violate the tenets of its faith in order to placate a special-interest group.
• Filed “An Act Protecting Religious Freedom” in the Massachusetts legislature to save Catholic Charities of Boston and other religious groups from being forced to violate their moral principles or stop doing important charitable work.
All of this may explain why John J. Miller, the national political reporter of National Review, has written that “a good case can be made that Romney has fought harder for social conservatives than any other governor in America, and it is difficult to imagine his doing so in a more daunting political environment.”
We are aware of the 1994 comments of Senate candidate Romney, which have been the subject of much recent discussion. While they are, taken by themselves, obviously worrisome to social conservatives including ourselves, they do not dovetail with the actions of Governor Romney from 2003 until now – and those actions have positively and demonstrably impacted the social climate of Massachusetts.
Since well before 2003, we have been laboring in the trenches of Massachusetts, fighting for the family values you and we share. It is difficult work indeed – not for the faint of heart. In this challenging environment, Governor Romney has proven that he shares our values, as well as our determination to protect them.
For four years, Governor Romney has been right there beside us, providing leadership on key issues – whether it was politically expedient to do so or not. He has stood on principle, and we have benefited greatly from having him with us.
It is clear that Governor Romney has learned much since 1994 – to the benefit of our movement and our Commonwealth. In fact, the entire nation has benefited from his socially conservative, pro-family actions in office. As we explained earlier, his leadership on the marriage issue helped prevent our nation from being plunged into even worse legal turmoil following the court decision that forced “gay marriage” upon our Commonwealth.
For that our country ought to be thankful. We certainly are.
Sincerely,
Rita Covelle
President, Morality in Media Massachusetts
Richard Guerriero
Immediate Past State Deputy, Massachusetts State Council, Knights of Columbus
Mary Ann Glendon
Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Kristian Mineau
President, Massachusetts Family Institute
Dr. Roberto Miranda
President, COPAHNI Fellowship of Hispanic Pastors of New England
James Morgan
President, Institute for Family Development
Joseph Reilly
President, Massachusetts Citizens for Life
Thomas A. Shields
Chairman, Coalition for Family and Marriage
___________________________
Note: The signatories are all acting as individual citizens, and not as representatives of their respective organizations.
Organizational affiliations and titles appear for identification purposes only.
As demonstrated by Reaganesque, MassResistance should be renamed as MisRepresentation.