The hits just keep on comin’
Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:13 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans
From NBC’s Domenico Montanaro
Brownback fired away from the second tier …again at Romney -- this time questioning his support of the Boy Scouts. And he is even swinging away at Tancredo.The Brownback camp, which has sent out almost weekly e-mails criticizing Romney’s positions on various issues, hits this time with the headline, “Romney Hostile to Boy Scout Leadership and Principles: Supports gay scout leaders, was cold to Scout participation in Olympics.”
They cite that Romney said in his 1994 Senate run against Ted Kennedy, “I feel that all people should be allowed to participate in the Boy Scouts regardless of their sexual orientation."
They also dig up a quote from Boy Scout official Marty Latimer, who claimed Romney shut them out of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. “We don't understand what's wrong,” Latimer said. “They just don't want us and won't talk to us.”
The Romney campaign said in response: “Governor Romney has been the most prominent, leading advocate of the family values platform in this campaign. His consistent advocacy on these issues has resulted in an important growth of support for our campaign. Some other campaigns will resort to negative attacks and distortions, which is an unfortunate reflection on their campaign’s conduct.
“Governor Romney has been a supporter of the Boy Scouts and has said he supports their right to decide scouting policies.”
The Romney campaign also e-mailed us a two-page “Fact Sheet” trying to set the record straight -- so to speak. It includes a 1994 Boston Globe clip in which Romney said, “I support the right of the Boy Scouts of America to decide what it wants to do on that issue.'" There’s another from the New York Times in which organizers of the Salt Lake City games recruited about 200 area Boy Scouts as volunteers and that Romney was a Boy Scouts national board member. Evangelicals for Mitt tried to dismiss these allegations in late 2006.
The attacks aren’t limited to Romney. They have also been making calls attacking Tancredo for supposedly taking money from a contributor to Planned Parenthood. Here’s a transcript of the phone calls from the AP: "Say no to Tom Tancredo and his Planned Parenthood friend and help end abortion in America.”
Tancredo told the AP, “Brownback is a longtime friend who ‘is well aware of my lifelong commitment to the unborn … I call on Senator Brownback to cease with the maliciously misleading push calls intended to harm me and apologize."
Well, this is no way to make friends. And I think we can scratch Brownback off Romney’s vice presidential choices list.
