Willard Mitt Romney Caught Pandering To Both Sides Again
May 17, 2008 · Print This Article
Mitt Romney Weighs In On Gay Marriage by Reynold Joseph from WBZ Radio, Boston http://wbz.com/pages/2206416.php?contentType=4&contentId=2066779
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Former Governor Romney says he’s disappointed California’s Supreme Court has followed the Bay State in legalizing gay marriage.
The former Republican presidential contender said he was disappointed “to see one more time a one-vote majority of a state Supreme Court overturn the will of its people.”
He made the comments yesterday at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Louisville.
In November 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court approved same-sex marriages, which began taking place the following May. Romney supported an amendment to the state constitution to ban gay marriage, but the Legislature thwarted that effort.
Now California’s high court also has struck down laws barring gay marriages.
Unfortunately for both Willard and Reynold Joseph, we have the internet and nothing slips past us for very long. The following is what Willard has also said on this subject of homosexual “marriage”;
( I don’t know whether Reynold Joseph is attempting to rewrite history or simply didn’t bother to research Romney’s flip-flopping before he wrote this article but, … )
Activists Remember a Different Romney
Advocates for gay and abortion rights and the environment say the GOP candidate misled them on his positions. by Peter Wallsten http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/03/25/78/
When Romney huddled with dozens of gay activists for an endorsement meeting in 2002, at the restaurant attached to the gay bar, some of his appeals were similar to those he had made on abortion.
As with the abortion-rights activists, Romney promised the Log Cabin Republicans he would push against social conservatives on such issues as domestic partnerships for gays.
And, as with the NARAL meeting, some activists left the room thinking that Romney was closer to their position on key issues than he now says he was.
Romney was quoted in the media that year opposing same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions. Still, after talking to Romney, some at the Log Cabin meeting thought he was sympathetic to their views on that issue, though clearly trying to navigate its touchy semantics.
“He said, ‘Call it whatever you want. Just don’t use the M-word,’ ” recalled businessman Richard Babson.
Babson also recalls Romney being asked at the meeting about a newly adopted Vermont law permitting civil unions. “It seemed to me that he was sympathetic on civil unions, that he was not quite there on marriage, but that he was also sympathetic on same-sex adoption and on gays and lesbians having families,” Babson said.
Patrick Guerriero, a prominent Log Cabin member, told the Bay Windows newspaper immediately after the meeting that Romney showed he was in agreement with the community on every major issue. “If you go down his list, it’s pretty much a check-off of the real hot-button concerns for gays and lesbians,” Guerriero said. “I do believe that, and as you know I’m a supporter of gay marriage.”
Romney won the Log Cabin endorsement.
In seeking the Republican nomination for president, Romney strikes a different posture on issues important to gays.
When addressing social conservatives, Romney makes fighting same-sex marriage and the 2003 Massachusetts court ruling that legalized it a cornerstone of his appeals. And on the campaign trail, he has portrayed same-sex parenthood as a danger to children, saying that “every child deserves a mother and a father.”
Madden, the Romney campaign spokesman, said Romney had consistently opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions. Madden said the campaign did not want to comment on why anyone in the meeting would have thought otherwise….
Romney’s thoughts on gay marriage, circa 1994 Posted by David Dahl 12/8/06 http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2006/12/romneys_thought.html
“…On why the gay community should support Romney over Kennedy, given Kennedy’s record of supporting both civil rights and the gay community:“Well, I think you’re partially right in characterizing Ted Kennedy as supportive of the gay community, and I respect the work and efforts he’s made on behalf of the gay community and for civil rights more generally, and I would continue that fight.“There’s something to be said for having a Republican who supports civil rights in this broader context, including sexual orientation. When Ted Kennedy speaks on gay rights, he’s seen as an extremist. When Mitt Romney speaks on gay rights he’s seen as a centrist and a moderate. It’s a little like if Eugene McCarthy was arguing in favor of recognizing China, people would have called him a nut. But when Richard Nixon does it, it becomes reasonable. When Ted says it, it’s extreme; when I say it, it’s mainstream.”
“On whether he would have supported Helms’s amendment to the 1994 Elementary and Secondary Education Act to ban federal funding to public schools that encourage or support “homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative”:“I would have opposed that amendment. I don’t think the federal government has any business dictating to local school boards what their curriculum or practices should be. I think that’s a dangerous precedent in general. I would have opposed that. It also grossly misunderstands the gay community by insinuating that there’s an attempt to proselytize a gay lifestyle on the part of the gay community. I think it’s wrong-headed and unfortunate and hurts the party by being identified with the Republican party.”
Willard Mitt Romney http://willardromney.blogspot.com/
The Mitt Romney Report Largest Compilation of Willard Mitt Romney’s Record ( Constantly Updated. )
http://massresistance.org/romney/
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