Posted on 07/22/2007 8:13:04 PM PDT by bnelson44
The Brody File is the first to receive a press release that will go out later today from the Brownback campaign.
It is a frontal assault on Mitt Romney.
Basically, the Brownback campaign is blasting Romney for his past comments about the Boy Scouts. You can read the press release below.
The title is as follows:
Romney Hostile to Boy Scout Leadership and Principles: Supports Gay Scout Leaders, was Cold to Scout Participation in Olympics.
Here's the entire press release:
In his 1994 Senate race in Massachusetts and later as CEO of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee, Mitt Romney opposed Boy Scout officials who wished to prevent gay men from becoming troop leaders and was hostile to Scout participation in the 2002 Olympics.
In a 1994 debate with Ted Kennedy, Mitt Romney offered his support for gay scout leaders:
"I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation."
The comments from Romney, who holds a law degree, came six years before the June 2000 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Boy Scouts to bar troop leaders based on sexual orientation. The ruling cited the constitutional rights of freedom of association and speech.
Later in 2000, facing pressure from gay rights activists, Romney was cold toward overtures from Scout leaders who wished to participate in Olympic activities.
"At a recent training event for Scout leaders, Marty Latimer, chief Scout executive for the council, revealed that the Scouts are no longer welcome. 'We don't understand what's wrong. They just don't want us and won't talk to us,' said Latimer. He told NewsMax.com that Mitt Romney, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee, has not returned phone calls from a number of Scout officials who have tried to obtain clarification."
Romney's openness to gay scout leaders conflicts with the Scout Oath, which requires Scouts to be "morally straight."
"What part of morally straight doesn't Mitt Romney understand?" said Larry Cirigiano, a Catholic activist in Massahusetts. "Boy Scout 'leaders' are supposed to be role models. Open homosexuals should not be leading young Boy Scouts anywhere."
Senator Brownback has always supported the right of the Boy Scouts of America to determine the best leaders for young scouts.
The Brownback campaign then directs people to a YouTube clip of a 1994 U.S. Senate debate where Romney talks about this. You can watch it here.
Let me say a few things.
First of all, this Boy Scout story has been talked about at the grassroots level before but this is the first time that a rival campaign has brought it up and made it an issue. It makes sense that the Brownback campaign would do this.
The operatives within the campaign do not like Romney.
They feel he is disingenuous on nearly every issue. Brownback needs to do well in the upcoming Iowa Straw Poll to begin to break out of the second tier. You can bet that the campaign will be spreading this Boy Scout information to the conservative Iowa voters where family values are important.
We will try and get a response from the Romney campaign today. In the past, The Brody File inquired about the Governor's position on this issue but never got a response.
Is this a big deal to you? The Brownback campaign thinks it's important but what say you?
ping
If Mitt Romney thinks it’s fine for homosexuals to take little boys off into the woods, I would say his candidacy is toast.
Certainly wouldn’t want Mitt sitting on the Supreme Court, do we?
That would be disastrous.
Another flip.
I could not agree more. Romney, the way the United Way has treated the Boy Scouts...well, they can all go to Hell as far as I am concerned.
They don’t even have a clue as to the values and traditions of scouting. Just pig-ignorant jerks.
While I agree with what Brownback’s campaingn said, if he thinks this will get him any traction, he is living in a dream world. Brownback has as much chance of getting the GOP nomination as I do. If he has any supporters, he is wasting their money.
If the 'life-long hunter' believes that homosexuals should be shaping the lives of little boys, he will not get my vote.
If Brownback is helping to clean up the trash, more power to him. It was clear from the beginning that Romney’s connection to Massachusetts was a killer because that place is basically the San Fransicko of the East. I think this homo Boy Scout story is just the beginning.
If Romney gets the nomination, you would have to say that he pulled a Republican Clinton, and deserves to share one of Clinton’s many appellations, Slick Mitt.
I like Mitt Romney less and less. The last thing we need is another self-acclaimed “moderate.” Duncan Hunter BUMP
The Boy Scouts know the practical definition of “sexual orientation.” Adult Males like to have sex with young girls; other adult males like to have sex with young boys. The Scouts prefer not to use as leaders the “others”
McCain crashed. Giuliani is slip-sliding away. And Romney’s going nowhere fast.
None of that’s going to help Brownback. But it sure is paving the way for Fred.
If Romney “was hostile to Scout participation in the 2002 Olympics”, it was on instructions from the LDS Church leadership. The Boy Scouts program is inextricably intertwined with the LDS Church’s Young Men’s program (all boys from age 8-18), so Romney is certainly not anti-Boy Scouts.
It may be that Church leaders didn’t want formal Boy Scout participation in the SLC Olympics because they were being careful to avoid the appearance of trying to run the Olympics as a sort of missionary showcase for the LDS Church. Since most of the Boy Scout troops in Utah are sponsored by LDS Church wards, and are basically a required Church activity for boys, they may have felt it looked like blurring the line. The troop meetings are held at the Church ward buildings, and so preparing to participate in Olympics activities would have become a required Church activity carried out at Church facilities.
Romney suffers from the misfortune of having run for office in Massachusetts. It was probably unavoidable that he’d take some liberal positions that would hurt him with conservative Republicans. But this is nothing new, as we have the same with Giuliani, and Clinton and Gore were pro-life and pro-second amendment when running for statewide office in Arkansas and Tennessee. Reagan was once a Democrat. As much as we might like perfect consistency, we seldom get it when candidates move from state to national aspirations.
But I feel sure what little chance Brownback might ever have had is now gone as people learned that he’s been, and still is, an open borders guy. His well noted switchback, or voting for cloture on the immigration before he voted against it (after realizing if wasn’t going to achieve cloture). One of the more cowardly public displays in recent memory, earning him the name of Senator Switchback.
This anti Boy Scout,pro gay agenda by Romney is news to me.As Governor of Mass I didn’t here any of this stuff coming from Romney,however if this is how Romney truly feels he can shove his campaign as far as I’m concerned !!!
A bump for Brownback!
Yes, Americans wake up every day thinking "I wonder what the candidates' positions are on the Boyscouts?"
I'm not a supporter of Mitt or the ridiculous attempts to force the Boy Scouts to admit ANY person they don't want to have as a scout leader, but this is probably, oh, #267 on my list of important issues.
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