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 small-minded and nasty tempered souls, Leisler and Petronski.
This is one more item in a list of half-truths, lies and flip flops.
I care.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
So if “they” are so brittle, why do you have to resort to half-truths? Sounds a tad defensive to me, Brittle-Face.
Did I say it was proof? Or did I say "who care?"
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
Don’t use one truth when a half-truth will do.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
Witnesses recall Romney-MLK march
By: Mike Allen
December 21, 2007 04:07 PM EST
Shirley Basore, 72, says she was sitting in the hairdresser’s chair in wealthy Grosse Pointe, Mich., back in 1963 when a rumpus started and she discovered that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her governor, George Romney, were marching for civil rights — right past the window.
With the cape still around her neck, Basore went outside and joined the parade.
“They were hand in hand,” recalled Basore, a former high-school English teacher. “They led the march. We all swung our hands, and they held their hands up above everybody else’s.”
She remembered the late governor as “extremely handsome.”
Until this week, that was just a vivid memory for a sweet retiree who now lives in Pompano Beach, Fla.
But Basore’s memory became important this week when news accounts questioned the recollections of the late Michigan governor’s son, Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor.
News stories suggested that Romney was exaggerating. It turns out that he may not have attended the Grosse Pointe march, but it certainly happened.
The campaign posted citations quoting one author as writing that “George Romney made a surprise appearance in his shirt sleeves and joined the parade leaders.”
Stephen Hess and David S. Broder also wrote about the march in their 1967 book, “The Republican Establishment: The Present and Future of the G.O.P.”
Basore said she was very angry about how the issue has been covered on cable television.
“This very arrogant guy on TV questioned Mitt Romney, and I marched with them,” Basore said. “I hope that the campaign demands an apology. I want him to publicly apologize to me. That was a personal insult, and an insult to Mitt Romney.”
Basore said she called the campaign, and the campaign supplied her contact information.
Another witness, Ashby Richardson, 64, of Massachusetts gave the campaign a similar account.
“I’m just appalled that the news picks this stuff up and say it didn’t happen,” Richardson, now a data-collection consultant, said by phone. “The press is being disingenuous in terms of reporting what actually happened. I remember it vividly. I was only 15 or 20 feet from where both of them were.”
TM & © THE POLITICO & POLITICO.COM, a division of Allbritton Communications Company
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
Nor did I say you claimed it was proof.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
Lighten up, JC. They’re merely engaging in hairsplitting to paint a candidate they don’t like as a liar. Which they have a right to do, I suppose, as long as they’re called on the cheap tactic.
The real story is, the Romneys have distinguished themselves as passionate and stalwart supporters of civil rights for blacks—long before it was popular.
Witnesses recall Romney-MLK march
By: Mike Allen
December 21, 2007 04:07 PM EST
Shirley Basore, 72, says she was sitting in the hairdresser’s chair in wealthy Grosse Pointe, Mich., back in 1963 when a rumpus started and she discovered that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her governor, George Romney, were marching for civil rights — right past the window.
With the cape still around her neck, Basore went outside and joined the parade.
“They were hand in hand,” recalled Basore, a former high-school English teacher. “They led the march. We all swung our hands, and they held their hands up above everybody else’s.”
She remembered the late governor as “extremely handsome.”
Until this week, that was just a vivid memory for a sweet retiree who now lives in Pompano Beach, Fla.
But Basore’s memory became important this week when news accounts questioned the recollections of the late Michigan governor’s son, Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor.
News stories suggested that Romney was exaggerating. It turns out that he may not have attended the Grosse Pointe march, but it certainly happened.
The campaign posted citations quoting one author as writing that “George Romney made a surprise appearance in his shirt sleeves and joined the parade leaders.”
Stephen Hess and David S. Broder also wrote about the march in their 1967 book, “The Republican Establishment: The Present and Future of the G.O.P.”
Basore said she was very angry about how the issue has been covered on cable television.
“This very arrogant guy on TV questioned Mitt Romney, and I marched with them,” Basore said. “I hope that the campaign demands an apology. I want him to publicly apologize to me. That was a personal insult, and an insult to Mitt Romney.”
Basore said she called the campaign, and the campaign supplied her contact information.
Another witness, Ashby Richardson, 64, of Massachusetts gave the campaign a similar account.
“I’m just appalled that the news picks this stuff up and say it didn’t happen,” Richardson, now a data-collection consultant, said by phone. “The press is being disingenuous in terms of reporting what actually happened. I remember it vividly. I was only 15 or 20 feet from where both of them were.”
TM & © THE POLITICO & POLITICO.COM, a division of Allbritton Communications Company
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