A Good Year for the Outlaw

Wow, this Romney guy is good. This is from a Richard Cohen column when no one was paying attention back in February. Now, of course, just three months later, Romney is FauxNews’ choice as the GOP nominee. Read on for an excerpt from the Cohen column. 

“Romney once felt so strongly about gay rights that he even went to the left of Ted Kennedy in their 1994 senatorial battle. “The gay community needs more support from the Republican Party,” Romney said in an interview that year. And in a letter written in 1994 to the Log Cabin Republicans, he looked forward to the day when gays and lesbians could serve “openly and honestly in our nation’s military.” That day will not come should he become president, he has said recently. Peering into the homophobic heart of GOP primary voters, Romney now thinks gays ought to stay in the closet. He has changed his mind.

Something similar happened on abortion. Where once Romney wanted it safe and legal, he now clearly just wants it illegal. This metamorphosis came as he studied the issue of embryonic stem cell research and had nothing to do, mind you, with his race for the Republican nomination. Okay, I too have evolved on certain aspects of the abortion issue — late-term abortion, for instance — but a total flip from always legal to always illegal (the clear message he’s sending abortion foes) can have only one explanation: Potomac fever. ”

That flip-flopping led to the best line of the night in the most recent GOP Presidential Debate, delivered by John McCain:

McCain said: “I haven’t changed my position in even-numbered years or … because of the different offices that I may be running for.”