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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Kilgore: The Two faces of ‘Moderate Mitt’ and Anti-Choice Romney

Mitt Romney’s latest schizoid experiment to see how much flip-floppage he can get away with may not end so well. Romney sent out an “anti-abortion legislation? who me” trial balloon in an interview appearing in the Des Moines Register yesterday, and it is already doing a number on what’s left of his credibility.
After quoting from Romney’s support for a host of extreme anti-choice legislative measures in a National Review article, Ed Kilgore adds in his Washington Monthly post on the latest Romney evasion.:

So last year, in a carefully considered and drafted statement, Romney was all for new legislation to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and promised to “advocate and support” federal “fetal pain” legislation along the lines of bills being promoted by anti-choice legislators from sea to shining sea. He basically agreed to do anything within the president’s power to help The Cause, with the exception of administering litmus tests to a host of his appointees, which is what the SBA List was asking him to do. To some extent, his comments to the Register simply reflected the limitations of the executive branch on this particular subject, which has been a source of great frustration to anti-choicers over the years.
But Moderate Mitt should not be able to get away with bland reassurances on this issue–with his own campaign repudiating him almost on the spot–without dealing with specific pledges he made during this very campaign. Is he–on behalf of himself and his loyal running-mate, Paul Ryan, who up until now has been universally considered a leader in the anti-choice cause–specifically retracting promises to promote a funding ban on Planned Parenthood and federal legislation flatly banning abortions prior to some arbitrary point in the second trimester of pregnancy?

It’s another 180 degree flip-flop for Mitt the Mullet, and it will be interesting to see how many are willing to let it pass unchallenged.

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