Posted on 12/22/2007 7:04:49 AM PST by Leisler
Mitt Romney continued to cite a 1967 book reference as proof his father marched for civil rights with Martin Luther King Jr. even as the author insisted he has no evidence to back up the claim.
“In 1963, George Romney did participate in Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Freedom Marches’ in Grosse Pointe,” said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom yesterday, citing the book titled “The Republican Establishment: The Present and Future of the GOP.”
But Stephen Hess, a senior fellow of the Brookings Institution who wrote the book with Washington Post columnist David S. Broder, said the reference to Romney’s father, the late Michigan Gov. George Romney, marching with King was “meant totally symbolically.”
“The point we were making was that the issue of Mormonism had to do with its civil rights record. Did he walk with Martin Luther King? Today I have no idea,” Hess said.
The book, lacking footnotes and references, says in a chapter about George Romney, “He has marched with Martin Luther King through the exclusive Grosse Pointe suburb of Detroit and he is on record in support of full-coverage Federal open-housing legislation.”
But two members of the Grosse Pointe Historical Society said yesterday King never set foot in Grosse Pointe in 1963 and they woud have known if George Romney marched with him.
A member of the committee that invited King to appear at Grosse Pointe High School on March 14, 1968 - the only time historians say King appeared in the Detroit suburb - says George Romney wasn’t at the event and there was no “march” at that time.
“Dr. King was flown into Detroit and rushed into Grosse Pointe under heavy security, gave his address and then left very shortly thereafter,” said Russell Peebles, 88, who was a member of the Grosse Pointe school board’s Human Relations Committee, which invited King to speak. “George (Romney) was not in the audience. He certainly wasn’t on the stage.”
Romney claimed in his widely watched speech on religion earlier this month in College Station, Texas, and in a Sunday appearance on ‘Meet the Press’ that he “saw” his father march with the leader of the civil rights movement. In Iowa today, as his campaign tried to wriggle out of questions, Romney parsed definitions of the word “saw” and claimed his use of the term was “figurative.”
Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics called Romney’s parsing “Clintonian,” adding, “He just thought no one would ever check.”
You're a small-minded and nasty tempered soul, Leisler.
What a putz!
This story has legs and people are turning off to Slick Willard. This morning, Rasmussen reports this:
New polling data released today shows that Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney have the highest level of core opposition among the leading Presidential candidates. Forty-seven percent (47%) are poised to vote against each of them.
Imagine that! Slick Willard's negatives are as high as Hillary's!
The GOP can't afford to make that mistake: a liberal liar as unpopular as Hillary.
Calling out the vermin to feast on Leisler’s manure?
Ah yes, Leisler, you have been subjected to the Romney Sleaze Machine’s Prime Directive:
When a poster criticizes Willard, Team Willard must attack that poster.
And, as posted yesterday, two other witnesses recall the event and support the version discussed in the book. There is a book reference, a recollection by Romney and others, as well as a lack of recollection on the part of others still. Who cares?
Personal attacks are the hallmark of the Romney Sleaze Machine.
Can we just drop this whole story and move on to something important like maybe who’s the best man to protect us from terrorism and the democrats?
You're small-minded and nasty tempered souls, Leisler and Petronski.
Yes, Leisler, and in other threads to which you have contributed other evidence outside this 1967 book has been adduced, which you conveniently left out. Posting this is what’s called a half-truth, which is Clinton-speak for a lie.
I’m starting to collect ad hominems from the feel the love Mittbots. Thanks for your donations.
Was Mitt with the 101st at Ia Drang?
More personal attacks.
Any Freeper who criticizes Willard is subjected to personal abuse by the Romney Sleaze Machine.
It's clear George Romney joined civil rights marches when it counted ( as opposed to defending Jim Crow as a certain Tennessee senator did whose Nobel and Oscar winning son also sought the presidency). If Mitt's memory of his teenaged years aren't perfect, I won't hold it against him.
Thats how I can tell some one is lying, when that person can’t get their story straight, I do not trust Mitt at all.
</sarc>
It’s all they got. They’re brittle. Everything is tied up with their Idol. Very common. I understand the desperation.
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