It took me all day to type this, but I think it is important that it get out there... Please help me with the spelling, punctuation, and any mistakes that I might have made...
Jan Mickelson: Um, Good morning Sir, Welcome aboard.
Governor Mitt Romney: Thank you good to be with you this morning. Marshal town is one of my favorite places. I used to work in marshal town.
Jan Mickelson: As a what?
Governor Mitt Romney: I worked there as a consultant to fisher controls. It was one of my first assignments as a young consultant and I made the track, gosh it was a long period of time, back and forth from Des Moines to Marshalltown. I worked in Marshalltown. I worked for a guy named Larry Sully who was head of that division. He told that I would come to love the people of Iowa and he was right.
Jan Mickelson: You have a photographic memory.
Governor Mitt Romney: Not Really. But there are a few things you can remember such as how good the stakes was at Rubs (or Ruths or something), there is a place called Rubs, in Monture and I used to go there with …
Jan Mickelson: Did you cook your own
Governor Mitt Romney: I did cook my own.
Jan Mickelson: Are you any good?
Jan Mickelson: No now and then... I had to keep taking my…I got these real think fillet minion, cause that’s what I wanted, you know you cook it and cook it and it looked like charcoal on the outside, bet then I got back to my table and it was too raw, and you had to go back, this was…
Jan Mickelson: You made your own stake go back?
Governor Mitt Romney: Of course. This…
Jan Mickelson: You probably didn’t even tip yourself then.
Governor Mitt Romney: This was when Rubs had about 10 tables. It is now a much bigger enterprise, but this was back, oh gosh, probably in the late 70s.
Jan Mickelson: OK. They have wonderful soccer field up there too; Ed Fisher built for the community. They are a progressive community in one way, but they, uh, anyway that’s a different subject, because you have talked about immigration before (who hasn’t) and immigration has had a huge effect on Marshalltown and a lot of rural Iowa communities as well. Well, welcome aboard sir, Thank you for coming. You’ve been on an “ask me anything” tour.
Governor Mitt Romney: Yeah
Jan Mickelson: Does that apply to me?
Governor Mitt Romney: You can ask whatever you like but I will dodge some of your questions.
Jan Mickelson: Because our time is extraordinarily limited can I just dispense with the rest of the niceties…
Governor Mitt Romney: Absolutely.
Jan Mickelson: and go right to the tough questions.
Governor Mitt Romney: Yeah.
Jan Mickelson: At the, ah, um, because you are right now, ah, according to recent public opinion surveys running number one in the republican side here, ah, you are the candidate to beat here in Iowa. (something) as I recall.
Governor Mitt Romney: You know I hope I’m doing well here. I think we’ve counted and I’ve been at over 200 events in Iowa and I’ve met a lot of people. We’ve got a great team, doing our best, and hopefully making progress.
Jan Mickelson: You and I share a common affection for the late Cleon Skousen.
Governor Mitt Romney: Mmm.
Jan Mickelson: The last I talked to you said he was one of your instructors (does that mean Romney has an effecting for him?)
Governor Mitt Romney: Exactly
Jan Mickelson: He was also one of my instructors, via a book he wrote on the making of America. Which was a wonderful commentary on the US constitution. It combines Madison’s notes with every codicil in the constitution. It tells you exactly what original intent is.
(First of all Jan, there wasn’t one real intent. The constitution was agreed upon by many different people with many different intents)
Governor Mitt Romney: Isn’t that something? That is a book I had not read, and it’s worth reading?
Jan Mickelson: Oh Absolutely.
Jan Mickelson: You can never be a hustled by a politician again.
(ooh, magic! You have the keys to knowledge, Jan! You have politician’s kryptonite.)
…If you’ve actually read the original intent of the framers
(Jan seems to think that he is the only one who has ever done this. Mitt Romney graduated with honors from Harvard Law school. Do you think politicians like Mitt Romney, have never read the founding fathers? Here is a news flash for you Jan. Most politicians have probably read the founding fathers more than you have.)
Governor Mitt Romney: Wouldn’t it be nice if our supreme Court followed the intent of the constitution and the framers, instead of using the constitution as a springboard as some attempt to do.
Jan Mickelson: Is Rowe vs. Wade the law of the land?
Governor Mitt Romney: It is now. It is…
Jan Mickelson: You just flunked Cleon Skousen’s test.
(What an arrogant prick. Let’s play stupid games with semantics)
Governor Mitt Romney: It was improperly decided, I’m sorry to…
Jan Mickelson: Cleon is spinning in his grave SIR.
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m sorry to violate the Cleon Skousen test, I’m not familiar with it.
Jan Mickelson: Well no the point is, he would say, the Supreme Court doesn’t make law, it can’t make law. There are only 3 sources of law and the Court is not one of them.
(A lot of people have spoken of Jan Mickelson’s arrogance, in telling Mitt Romney what HIS religion believes. I think Jan’s arrogance manifest itself most because Jan is not a lawyer, and he has in front of him someone Mitt Romney who graduated at the top of class from Harvard Law school, and Jan think that he can teach mitt Romney about how Law is made? Look you now name 3rd rate talk show host, have some humility. This “I know everything act” is pretty lame.)
Governor Mitt Romney: We obviously apply what the Supreme Court tells us me must do, and in my opinion…
(Here is where Mitt Romney starts getting interrupted with every sentence he tries to speak)
Jan Mickelson: Even if it’s unconstitutional? Even if they just make it up?
Governor Mitt Romney: That, unfortunately, is a decision that the Court has the first choice of making… And then
(Back to Cleon)
Jan Mickelson: You flunked the 2nd Cleon Skousan test.
Governor Mitt Romney: Now wait, I said the first choice of making. And then you have redress. This is what happened in my state. The Court said that people of the same gender, are entitled, under the constitution, to marry…
Jan Mickelson: They were wrong.
Governor Mitt Romney: My constitution was written by John Adams in Massachusetts…
Jan Mickelson: Yes
Governor Mitt Romney: and John
Jan Mickelson: which excluded legislating from the bench
Governor Mitt Romney: exactly
Jan Mickelson: … and your duty and obligation at that point was to say thank you for sharing, its not law.
Governor Mitt Romney: And the redress at…
Jan Mickelson: that’s Cleon Skousen’s opinion.
(As though just because Mitt Romney and Cleon are both Mormon, they should both agree?)
(Being incredible deferential)
Governor Mitt Romney: That’s Cleaon’s option… Our redress at that stage is open to us because the constitution does lay out how to overturn a Court decision. In our case it’s through ballet initiatives and an amendment to our state constitution, which is a process we began and are still fighting for in my state. There are ways of having the people step above the court... what was interesting…
Jan Mickelson: But if the Court was lawless… if its assuming legislative authority…you don’t even have to invoke the redresses you mentioned you just say that is null and void on the face because they are out of their legal jurisdictions…and you don’t have to sign anything over which they don’t have legal jurisdiction.
(Does Jan think saying the word “jurisdiction” over and over makes him a lawyer?
This is MassResistance propaganda, and it is completely stupid. It is embarrassing that Jan Mickelson got a hold of it (probably from Brownback) and even more embarrassing that he believes it.)
Governor Mitt Romney: Its not a circumstance I would look forward to…
Jan Mickelson: Oh I would..
Governor Mitt Romney: … having to confront.
Jan Mickelson: I would LOVE to…
(And here it is that we get to the real point of the interview. Jan Mickelson gets real loud and pompous here, because he day dreams of being in power.)
Jan Mickelson: I’m only speaking for myself here, Mr. Governor, but I want a president who will tell the supreme Court when it leaves its constitutional boundaries, to go take a Flying leap, and meet me in the back and we’ll settle this like men. Because that is what this country is crying for, and we don’t have to amend the constitution aberrant supreme Court rulings, if the guy at top, and the political class…
(You can tell this guy has psychological problems. He hates “the political class”, he daydreams about what he would do if he was in power. He gets very flippant sounding when he says, “sir” or “Governor”. He has problems.
Jan Mickelson: will assume their constitutional authority, according to Cleon Skousen.
Governor Mitt Romney: I hear what Cleon is saying, I would worry about a circumstance where a president would decide which Court decisions…
Jan Mickelson: You mean like Adams, and Washingtons, and Jefferson
Governor Mitt Romney: No. Clinton. Alright? I worry about a Hillary Clinton saying, “I don’t like that Court decision, and I disagree with it, and they’ve gone on the wrong side, and I’ve decided I’m going to take a different course…
Jan Mickelson: Well there is a different branch of Government too.
Governor Mitt Romney: I understand. I’m not terribly enthused about Harry Reid either. And so what I tell you in my view the right course for Rowe v. Wade, is to have it overturned, and to have it overturned by a Court which includes additional justices like Roberts and Alito, and that is the way to have the states finally have the authority that states were intended to have, which is this should be a matter of state decisions not federal decision.
Jan Mickelson: What would you do then… On a personal basis you have made a transition. I’m not going to play the sound bites, but you have been on the record a couple of times in favor of abortion and your most recent endeavor, I will play one, when you said you were now pro-life when you were on with Stephanopoulos and this is…
(he even cuts himself off)
Stephanopoulos: What’s your position on abortion?
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m pro-life
Stephanopoulos: What does that mean?
Governor Mitt Romney: From my view I would like to see Row V Wade, over time, and as soon as possible, allow the states to make their own decisions with regard to abortion.
Jan Mickelson: Which is basically what you said a few minutes ago.
Governor Mitt Romney: And I was effectively pro-choice some years ago.
Jan Mickelson: yes.
Governor Mitt Romney: … when I ran for office against Ted Kennedy. And yet when I became governor…
Jan Mickelson: Vigilantly pro-choice.
Governor Mitt Romney: No. I never called myself pro-choice. I said that I don’t call myself pro-choice, but I said that I would protect a woman’s right to choose under the law as it existed, and so I was effectively pro-choice, as I said. And then when the rhetoric was finely matched the authority, when I became governor.
Jan Mickelson: Yes.
Governor Mitt Romney: And I actually had a bill that came to my desk, which was a life and death bill. It related to embryo cloning. I said that frankly Row v. Wade had gone too far, that I was wrong, and that I was pro life…
Jan Mickelson: Why did you need that?
Governor Mitt Romney: You know it was…
Jan Mickelson: Because the reason that I’m asking is your Church has as its official position for forever on this issue, it says, A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints must not submit, perform, encourage, pay for or arrange for an abortion. If you encourage an abortion in any way you may be subject to Church discipline.
Governor Mitt Romney: You know the great thing about this country is that individuals who run for secular office are not implementing the policies of their Church, they are doing what they think is right for the nation. And I came to the position by virtue of my leadership of a state, that I had been wrong, and that I needed to be pro-life
Jan Mickelson: Let me ask you..
Governor Mitt Romney: Now what a second..
Jan Mickelson: This is exactly…
Governor Mitt Romney: Let me finish the thought
Jan Mickelson: This is exactly what Kennedy says about his Catholicism. They call him, in the pro life community here…
Governor Mitt Romney: Well I’ll tell you what…
Jan Mickelson: A cafeteria catholic…
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m not going to have a conversation about what my Church views are…
Jan Mickelson: Why not?
Governor Mitt Romney: Because that’s not the nature of the office I’m running for. And there are people in my Church who are pro-choice. That is not against my Church’s view to allow people to have their own positions on political issues…
Jan Mickelson: That’s not what it says…
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m sorry…
Jan Mickelson: You can be subject to Church discipline…
Governor Mitt Romney: You happen to be incorrect on that…
Jan Mickelson: I’m just quoting this!
Governor Mitt Romney: You happen to be incorrect…
Jan Mickelson: How?
Governor Mitt Romney: … in your interpretation of it..
Jan Mickelson: How?
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m not hear to discuss my religion or to discuss the principals of my religion . I’m here to discuss…
Jan Mickelson: OK here…
Governor Mitt Romney: You know I get just as much an opportunity to speak hear as you do. So let me finish my sentence if you will.
Jan Mickelson: OK
Governor Mitt Romney: And that is I am pro-life. As governor of Massachusetts, I faced issues that came to my desk relating to life and death and I came down on the side of life. I wrote an op ed piece in the Boston Globe as to why I switched to life. Every decision that I took as Governor was in favor of life. And I was wrong in the past. And you know what, I’m not going to apologize to people for becoming pro-life. I received an award just a couple of days ago from the Massachusetts citizens for life…
Jan Mickelson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Governor Mitt Romney: Giving me an award for public leadership in favor of life. And I’m proud of that record and as president of the united states, I will be a pro-life president. And you know what in my opinion, that’s where the topic ends.
Jan Mickelson: Governor Romney, I need to take a short time out. We only have a short time together, and so I’ll take a quick time out and come back with more comments and more issues.
OFF AIR: THE CAMERA IS STILL ROLLING
Jan Mickelson: I would love to have an hour not 10 minuets. Then we could have nuance,
(Jan. You could never have nuance. You are the biggest retard on the face of the planet. You see the world in black and white and I feel sorry for you)
Jan Mickelson: and I think your making a big mistake, this is only my opinion OFF THE AIR, but I think you are making a big mistake when you distance yourself from your religion .
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m not distancing myself from my faith.
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m proud of my faith. There is nothing I distance myself from. There are Mormons in the leadership of my Church who are pro-choice, and they do not violate that. Your not a lawyer, but you have to read that a little bit more carefully. For instance my Church says, that if you have sex outside marriage that you could be excommunicated. Now, do we make a law that says that? No
Jan Mickelson: But..
Governor Mitt Romney: No, no, wait.
Jan Mickelson: You’re missing my point.
Governor Mitt Romney: No your missing my point. Which is what a society makes as law, and requires other people to do, is not necessary the same.
Jan Mickelson: I’m talking about the political sphere. When you bifurcate politics from religion , and you have them hermetically sealed, when you make a political category over hear, and a spiritual one over hear.
Governor Mitt Romney: No my Church says I can’t drink alcohol. Right? That’s what my Church says. Mitt you can’t drink alcohol. OK. Should I say that as Governor of Massachusetts we are stopping all alcohol sales? If your not going to separate your religion You better make everyone not drink alcohol. No. MY RELIGION IS FOR ME. And how I live my life. My Church, the leaders of my Church, who I know well, and who I have been, a leader of my Church, says with the same vehemence that we have our own beliefs, we also vehemently believe other people should be able to make their own choices.
Jan Mickelson: No, no.
Governor Mitt Romney: They can make their own choices, and have free agency. And so don’t confuse what I do as a member of my faith, with what I think should be done by government.
Jan Mickelson: Taking it to the next level, and the next level is, you are running in this state, trying to appeal to the, however you term it, the religious right.
Governor Mitt Romney: I’m trying to tell people my views.
Jan Mickelson: I know but I understand your position, of who you are going to try to appeal to, and it includes Catholics, and evangelicals.
Governor Mitt Romney: I accept all my faith, but I don’t impose all my faith’s beliefs on you. My view is that I should be able to practice my religion . You should have the right to practice your religion .
Jan Mickelson: I agree, but that’s not what I was getting to. What I was trying to get to was, people who will reject your Mormonism on a theological basis, would put up with that and might vote for you, if they thought you were a morally consistent Mormon.
(This is where I would punch the guy).
Governor Mitt Romney: Well I am.
Jan Mickelson: If they don’t think you are a morally consistent Mormon they are not likely to hold their nose…
Governor Mitt Romney: I make it very clear. I do not try and distance myself from my faith, in any way shape or form. I’ve been asked time and again, will you distance yourself the your Church, will you disavow this practice, and the answer is no.
Jan Mickelson: The point is when you try to hermetically seal them, that makes your potential supporters who agree with your ethics, nervous. That’s all I’m trying to say.
Governor Mitt Romney: And so what should I do? I should not have been pro-choice. And so therefore I’m just finished right their. Well you were pro choice so you distanced yourself from your faith so your finished. So what should I say?
Jan Mickelson: No, no, I made a mistake when I…
Governor Mitt Romney: And every Mormon should be pro-life?
Jan Mickelson: If that’s what your Church says.
Governor Mitt Romney: That’s not what my Church says! There are leaders of my Church who are pro-choice. You’re wrong. That’s your problem.
Jan Mickelson: No that’s false logic. Your Church’s official position is pro-life.
Governor Mitt Romney: No, no-no, no no. We can continue that conversation
Jan Mickelson: We only have about 30 seconds. Unless you want to stay longer.
Governor Mitt Romney: I’ve got to run.
Jan Mickelson: Governor Romney we just got started. Will you come back so that we can have and more detailed conversation?
Governor Mitt Romney: You know I’m happy to get together, as you know, I get a chance to come all over the state, and I love getting together with folks from across Iowa.
Jan Mickelson: Let’s do it sir. You went long in that last section. We didn’t have enough time.
Governor Mitt Romney: Let me help you understand. And you don’t understand my faith like I do. And so give me for a moment, the benefit of the doubt, that having been a leader of my Church, a bishop and a stake president, I understand my Church better than you do. My Church has very strong beliefs that Mormons should not participate in, encourage, in any way support abortion.
Jan Mickelson: You could be excommunicated if you do. That’s what they say, it’s right there.
Governor Mitt Romney: Are you thinking that I’m disagreeing with you?
Jan Mickelson: No. I don’t know.
Governor Mitt Romney: Are you disagreeing with me?
Jan Mickelson: ah… ah…
Governor Mitt Romney: Once again let me say that I understand my faith better than you do. You don’t believe that do you?
Jan Mickelson: Well I’m not sure.
(You have got to see Romney’s face!)
Governor Mitt Romney: Well then its hardly worth even having a discussion then.
Jan Mickelson: No, no, no.
Governor Mitt Romney: Can I complete the point?
Jan Mickelson: The reason I said that is you also said in another forum, I think it was on Stephanopoulos, about the 2nd coming of Christ, and you said it was going to happen in Jerusalem.
Governor Mitt Romney: It is.
Jan Mickelson: Your Church says it is going to happen in Missouri.
Governor Mitt Romney: No it doesn’t.
Jan Mickelson: Alright is that wrong?
Governor Mitt Romney: Is what wrong? The Church says that Christ appears and splits the mount of olives in Jerusalem. That’s what the Church says. And then over a 1,000 years of the millennium, that the world is reigned in two places, Jerusalem and Missouri. The 2nd coming, the arrival of Jesus Christ, our Church says is in Jerusalem.
Jan Mickelson: Then Stephanopoulos miss-quoted your Church,
MR shrugs: that’s fine
Jan Mickelson: which is not surprising, but I was basing
Governor Mitt Romney: Cleon Skousen has a book called a thousand years, so you can talk about, Christ appears, throughout the bible Christ appears in Jerusalem, splits the mount of olives, to stop the war that is coming to kill al the Jews, our Church believes that’s when the coming and glory of Christ appears, we also believe that over the thousand of years that follow, over the millennium, he will reign from two places, the law will come from Missouri, and the other will be from Jerusalem, but that’s… back to abortion.
Jan Mickelson: I have to get back on the air, but before I do, let me say that I take this stuff really seriously.
Governor Mitt Romney: Oh, I don’t though. For me this is all frivolous. Come on! I’m running for president.
Jan Mickelson: And I take you seriously.
Governor Mitt Romney: But your not giving me the opportunity to explain to you that my faith has very strong beliefs that if I commit an abortion, encourage an abortion… I was beaten up in Boston because I pointed out time and again that I encouraged girls not to get abortions. That I told them to have adoptions. I have never done anything that violates the principles of my Church, in that regards, I’ve made other mistakes, but in that regards. But the Church does not say that a member of our Church has to be apposed to allowing choice in society. Therefore there are Mormon democrats. There is a democratic party in Massa… in Utah, filled with Mormons, and the Church doesn’t say their wrong, their being excommunicated, no because it says we are vehemently apposed to abortion, ourselves, and for ourselves but we allow other people to make their own choice. Politically, I disagree with that view. I looked at it and said, you know what, that’s wrong, and its not a Mormon thing, it’s a secular position to say you know what, I was wrong, we should have in society a prohibition on abortion in the following circumstances. But its not violating my faith let me assure you.
Jan Mickelson: I hope we can do this so that we can spend some quality time on here rather than the sound bites.
Governor Mitt Romney: No, I don’t like coming in hear, going on the air, and having you go after my Church, and my
Jan Mickelson: I’m not going after your Church.
Governor Mitt Romney: I know, that’s right, but I’m not running as a Mormon. And I get a little tired of coming on a show like yours and having it all about Mormon.
Jan Mickelson: Yeah, I don’t mind it being about that.
Governor Mitt Romney: I do. I do.
Jan Mickelson: I agree with the ethics of your Church for Pete’s sake.
MR getting up to leave: So do I. So do I.
Jan Mickelson: I was trying…
Governor Mitt Romney: No your trying to tell me that I’m not a faithful Mormon or that
Jan Mickelson: No I’m trying to get you to reconcile what I think is a disparity
Governor Mitt Romney: And have a great discussion about Mormon, and the Mormon Church, and read the doctrines of the Church, and where my view is and you know what, I’m not running to talk about Mormonism.
Jan Mickelson: Yeah, but the point is the people who are likely to vote, don’t want to elect, a Ted Kennedy, who comes back, or a senator hearken, who comes hear to Dowling, and comes hear to Iowa, and says I’m pro-life and when he gets to Washington stands up and becomes pro-choice.
Governor Mitt Romney: HERE is your opportunity to have that settled in your mind. I was governor four years. This is not just what I’m talking about. I was governor for four years. I had a number of pieces of legislation that came to my desk that dealt with abortion, abstinence education, RU-486, and so forth. I vetoed any bill that was in favor of choice. I was entirely consistent in favor of life. And so it’s not just my word that you have to take. Look at my record.
Thank you for typing up this transcript. He comes across much better when given more time. If he hadn’t made those sad statements in Florida about the Terri Schiavo case I would still be a supporter.
Wow, that’s a lot of work!! Thanks.