Is Mitt Romney Conservative? (Gov Romney Supported Abortion & Gay Agenda with Judges & Boy Scouts)

CP.com ^ | 29Aug06 | Gary Glenn

[xzins]

Is Mitt Romney Conservative?

by Gary Glenn Chairman, Campaign for Michigan Families

The Washington, D.C. conservative weekly Human Events last year listed Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in its Top Ten list of RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), ranking him at number 8 in the nation with the following entry:

"Has said, ’I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country.’ Supports (homosexual) civil unions and stringent gun laws. After visiting Houston, he criticized the city’s aesthetics, saying, ’This is what happens when you don’t have zoning.’" (Human Events)

Romney should have ranked even higher on the list of RINOs. He famously likes to tell conservative audiences in Iowa and South Carolina that being a conservative Republican in Massachusetts is like being a cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention.

I attended last fall’s GOP conference in Michigan, where Romney continued his masquerade as a "conservative," even daring to tell the assembled activists: "I am pro-life" -- knowing full well that he does not mean by that term what those listening would think he meant.

Romney’s ten-year political career has occurred from his late 40s to his late 50s, yet he asks pro-family conservatives to naively believe that he’s just now figuring out his core beliefs.

During that decade, he has insistently supported legal abortion-on-demand. In a televised 1994 campaign debate, Romney said: "I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have since the time when my Mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it, and I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice. ...Since that time, my mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter, and you will not see my wavering on that." (Boston Globe)

His 2002 gubernatorial campaign web site stated: "As Governor, Mitt Romney would protect the current pro-choice status quo in Massachusetts. No law would change. The choice to have an abortion is a deeply personal one. Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not the government’s." (Archive)

Romney’s response to the National Abortion Rights Action League’s 2002 candidate survery: ’’I respect and will protect a woman’s right to choose. This choice is a deeply personal one. Women should be free to choose based on their own beliefs, not mine and not the government’s. The truth is, no candidate in the governor’s race in either party would deny women abortion rights." (Notably, Romney refused to answer Massachusetts Citizens for Life’s candidate questionnaire.) (Boston Globe)

Not surprisingly, Romney’s clearly stated support for Roe and "a woman’s right to choose" -- i.e., abortion on demand -- earned him the endorsement of the pro-abortion Republican Majority for Choice PAC.

He was also endorsed, twice, by the homosexual "Log Cabin Republicans," the same group that in 2004 spent $1 million attacking President Bush for his support of a Marriage Protection Amendment.

Romney believes the Boy Scouts should allow openly homosexual Scoutmasters: "I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation." (Web today)

He endorses Ted Kennedy’s federal "gay rights" legislation. He endorses taxpayer-financed same-sex benefits for the homosexual partners of state employees, and even attacked some Democratic legislators for not supporting such government benefits.

According to the Associated Press, he has appointed at least two openly homosexual lawyers to state judgeships, one a board member of the Lesbian & Gay Bar Association. Imagine how that will fly in Republican presidential primaries in the South, the prospect of a president with a record of appointing homosexual activists to the bench. (See copy of gubernatorial news release below.)

In 2002, before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalized so-called homosexual "marriage," Romney denounced a preemptive state Marriage Protection Amendment prohibiting homosexual "marriage," civil unions, or same-sex public employee benefits as "too extreme," even after being advised by the media that his own wife and son had just signed a petition to place it on the ballot. (Boston Phoenix)

Now, as he postures to run for president, Romney travels to Iowa and Michigan and South Carolina to claim he’s "pro-life" and brag about fighting homosexual "marriage," saying that at age 59, his position on such issues has "evolved."

(No flip-flop so far, however, on his stated support for homosexual Scoutmasters, forcing taxpayers to fund spousal benefits for the "partners" of state employees involved in homosexual relationships, or Kennedy’s federal "gay rights" legislation.)

Regardless, most pro-family voters don’t believe in the theory of evolution -- including as it applies to politicians, and especially when the alleged "evolution" seems so conveniently timed to produce political benefit.

Gov. Romney can tell all the cattle-rancher-at-a-vegetarian-convention jokes he wants about Massachusetts. But they’re going to fall flat when social conservatives learn -- and they will -- that his long-term record on abortion and elements of homosexual activists’ political agenda has been that of Vegetarian in Chief.

[xzins]

A Navy Vet should have some email addresses for Charleston.

See if you can send it to someone who can spread it around.

[HerrBlucher]

it's too bad that Fred just cannot get anybody inspired....including me. What a bore. He is gonna lose to Huckabee in SC...... GO HUCKABEE!

He inspired enough in Iowa to get third and would have even had a higher percentage except for the last minute sleazy rumour. He also inspired enough to get second in Wyoming.

As far as boring goes, there is nothing more pathetic and boring than Mittwits constantly claiming their liberal candidate is a conservative in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

[FreedomProtector]

Mitt Romney is not a conservative.

Ditto. Insert ‘Captain of the obvious’ picture here.

Thanks for posting.

[FreedomProtector]

As a matter of fact, I don’t think Mitt Romney is real and genuine about anything other than saying whatever he needs to get elected.

BINGO.

[meandog]

George Romney lost his presidential bid when he returned from a trip to Vietnam during the war and claimed that he had been “brainwashed.” Thereafter, he became anti-war.

Right! But the Romulan of course "longed to be in Vietnam" while he was yucking it up on the LEFT bank of Paris during that time...and got a student deferment to finish college after his almost 3-year "ministerial deferment" ran out (the same kind denied to Muhammad Ali)!

[P-Marlowe]

His father, George Romney, was CEO of American Motors, was governor of Michigan, and even ran for President, but interestingly was born in Mexico.

I guess a little technicality like the Constitution is not going to get in the way of a Romney who is bent on becoming president.

[Little Ray]

Ummm, he was elected governor in the bluest of the blue states. Its dead certain he’s not a conservative.

[xzins]

Until I started digging into Romney's record, I had no idea what an unbelievably liberal record that he has.

It's insanity to consider this man a conservative. He's worse than a Rino

He's Rino¹³

[NavVet]

Unfortunately, the couple of folks I still know in Charleston are flaming libs and would see this as a reason to actually consider voting Republican.

[xzins]

I joined in 1970 out of High School. It was still hot in Vietnam.

Romney was more than eligible and is about the age of my uncle who was killed in ‘Nam during Tet in ‘68.

He was hiding behind a “ministerial deferment” at that time, even though his “mission” was past and there are no such things as “graduate seminaries” in his religion.

None of his sons has seen the military. His father did not join with the war of the greatest generation. All sons could have participated at some point in defending this nation.

I would not trust Romney with our military.

[FreedomProtector]

It’s insanity to consider this man a conservative. He’s worse than a Rino

He's Rino¹³

Mitt Romney’s magical transformation, Oh I running in a Republican primary, I must re-brand myself a conservative is as phony as chocolate covered deer dropppings. Mitt Romney is not real and genuine about anything other than saying whatever he needs to get elected.

[Man50D]

But i didn’t understand clearly why some HUNTER’s supporters claim that Fred THOMSON is NOT a conservative. I didn’t find their arguments! Probably they have no arguments....

In 1997 Fred Thompson voted to revoke China’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) trade status (S.Amdt. 890 to S. 955), then turned around in 1999 – after even more Chinese malfeasance was uncovered, some by Mr. Thompson himself – and voted in favor of MFN (S.J.Res. 27). Then, during the 2000 debate to give Bill Clinton his coveted Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for the chicoms, Fred teamed with Robert Toricelli to put in a poison pill amendment (S.Amdt 4132 to HR 4444), tying trade to a series of weapons non proliferation standards. Despite the Jesse Helms-like posture and the subsequent failure of his amendment, Fred ended up voting for PNTR, amendment free, handing Clinton a huge victory at the expense of our national security.

He voted to grant amnesty to close to one million illegal aliens from Nicaragua and Cuba in 1997 by giving legal status for those who had lived in the United States illegally since 1995, along with their spouses and minor unmarried children.

He voted against the Simpson Amendment to S.1664 that was in favor of a chain migration system that has been the primary reason for annual immigration levels snowballing from less than 300,000 in 1965 to around a million. Sen. Thompson supported provisions that allow immigrants to send for their adult relatives. Then each of those relatives can send for their and their spouse’s adult relatives, creating a never-ending and ever-growing chain. The bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission recommended doing away with the adult relative categories (begun only in the 1950s) in order to lessen wage depression among lower-paid American workers.

Before the Senate passed the H-1B doubling bill (S.1723), Sen. Thompson had an opportunity to vote for a measure requiring U.S. firms to check a box on a form attesting that they had first sought an American worker for the job. Sen. Thompson voted against that, joining those who said the requirement would give government too much authority over corporations’ right to hire whomever they please from whatever country.

Thompson supported Roe vs. Wade in the 90’s. Thompson said he supports the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. Source: the Memphis Commercial Appeal on July 29, 1993 page B1.

In an October 21, 1994 article, The Washington Post reported that “both” Thompson and his Democratic opponent in the 1994 Senate race, then-Rep. Jim Cooper, “believe in legal abortion.”

Thompson spoke on the Senate floor on April 23, 2002 in support legislation that stated global warming was due to human intervention. Per Title X:

SEC. 1001. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON GLOBAL WARMING.

(a) FINDINGS. The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) Evidence continues to build that increases in atmospheric concentrations of man-made greenhouse gases are contributing to global climate change.

[Servant of the Cross]

It seems at least one standard reply from Mitt supporters to 'evidence' like this is something like "you have to go back to 1994 or 2002 to come up with this. He's changed."

As a Christian, I'm all for conversions but I am going to be skeptical if someone changes - 1) a large number of previously held opinions seemingly all at once, and 2) goes from strong, bed-rock support of one thing and is now saying the exact opposite. The other thing that causes me concern about Mitt is the robotic answers. He learns lines to say and recites them like an actor. This Boy Scout answer is a classic example.

A Huckabee contribution of value was his one-liner about conversions: “Conversions are supposed to be made on the road to Damascus, not just the road to Des Moines.”

[xzins]

chocolate covered deer dropppings.

Rotflol! What an image!

My little mini-farm here has lots of the major ingredient. Now I just need the chocolate.

Will send to Romney Campaign HQ. :>)

[fabian]

ten year political career? He was governor for only four years. Why isn’t Romney allowed to change his mind on abortion rights?

[JSDude1]

What I have been saying all along (nor do I trust this guy to be a core conservative on issues that matter if he gets the chance to be in the white house) becuase of his lack of stance on all kinds of issues. Mitt Romney is Kerryesque to me?? Is flip-flopping a MA thing? Maybe some of you can tell me..?

[elfman2]

“He also wrote a letter to the Log Cabin Republicans stating he was FOR gays serving in the military.”

Do you have a link to that letter?

[xzins]

I look at it like this.

I award points for categories like abortion, gay agenda, etc.

You get 10 points for being a consistent conservative.

Romney is questionable throughout the vast majority of his career. While Giuliani would get zero points in that category, I would award Romney 1.

On abortion, Hunter gets 10, Thompson gets 8, McCain gets 6, Huckabee gets 10, Keyes gets 10, Paul gets 8, Giuliani gets 0, and Romney gets 1.

This way he gets points for conversion.

[JSDude1]

Me thinks some may be ‘paid’..

[LibLieSlayer]

williard is not even close to being Conservative!

LLS