Desperate ‘Mittens’ Romney goes into a panic attack

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The strategy of shameless shape-shifter Willard "Mittens" Romney was to stay above the fray of the "Survivor – GOP Presidential Primary" and act like the presumptive nominee of the GOP running a general election campaign against President Obama while dismissing his GOP clown car opponents.

Yeah… you see, Tea-Publicans really hate such patrician presumptive arrogance — "don't ever presume you have my vote, you have to earn it." Tea-Publicans never trusted the conservative bona fides of Mittens Romney anyway, and for the evangelical Christian right-wing of the party, there is that whole Mormon thing they can't get past. Tea-Publicans are just not that into you, Mittens.

So Tea-Publicans have been in search of the Not-the-Romney candidate. The most recent "flavor of the month" is the equally arrogant megalomaniac pseudo-intellectual and preeminent housing historian, disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. In what can only be ascribed to collective amnesia, Tea-Publicans in their desperation are turning to Newt Gingrich as their Not-the-Romney candidate.

In a spate of recent polling, Gingrich has surged to double-digit leads in the early caucus and primary states. On Thursday, Mittens Romney abandoned his presumptive nominee strategy and went into a panic attack. He called upon his surrogates Gov. John Sununu (R-N.H.) and former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.) to hit the airwaves to attack Newt Gingrich — "release the hounds!"

Mittens also released an ad attacking Gingrich for his marital infedility and his conversion to Catholicism a few years ago. "I have been married to the same woman for 42 years and have attended the same church all my life." This "politics of personal destruction" allowed Newt Gingrich, one of the architects of the "politics of personal destruction," to take the high road and say that he would continue to run a "positive" (sic) campaign. it was a surreal moment. I think Newt has a different definition of "positive" than everyone else in the world.

Later in the day, Mittens released another attack ad that can only be described with the childish school yard come-back: "I know you are but what am I?" Desperate Romney PAC panics, unloads on Newt:

Late yesterday, Mitt Romney’s Super PAC, Restore Our Future, unveiled a new ad blasting Newt Gingrich on a wide variety of fronts. It’s arguably the most brutal spot of the campaign to date, and it reflects the panic setting in among Romney and his team.

The ad was removed from YouTube soon after it was posted, and PAC officials said the “unfinished” commercial was unveiled prematurely by mistake. (This is probably untrue. It’s more likely the PAC leaked this, hoped to generate buzz for free, and then pretended it was an accident.)

But what I found truly remarkable was the message Romney’s allies put together. Consider the areas of attack: foreclosures, flip-flops, immigration “amnesty,” climate change, and finally, “Newt supported a health care mandate … the centerpiece of ‘Obamacare.’” The spot then relies on a George Will column.

This is just astounding. Does Mitt Romney’s Super PAC know anything about Mitt Romney? He supports foreclosures; he’s the most shameless flip-flopper in a generation; he’s too big a coward to take a stand on immigration; he used to believe in climate change and supported cap and trade; and George Will thinks Romney is “a recidivist reviser of his principles,” who seems to “lack the courage of his absence of convictions.”

As for supporting a health care mandate, Romney has not only championed the idea and included it in his own health care reform law, Romney has also been among the most articulate defenders of health care mandates.

If Gingrich’s support for mandates is a disqualifier in Republican primaries, Romney should have dropped out of the race months ago.

Indeed, the entire ad is so lacking in self-awareness, it should be nothing short of humiliating for Romney. It’s the kind of attack that should lead sensible voters to point and laugh at the ridiculousness.

It was a line of attack on Gingrich earlier in the day during a press conference with reporters (Romney had been studiously avoiding the media until the past week) that had Democrats rejoicing.Mittens Romney, known for being on every side of every issue, spent quite a bit of time dodging questions about the Paul Ryan budget plan in the spring, "because, well, he’s not exactly a courageous guy. "Romney camp backs radical budget plan:

Of particular interest, though, was Romney’s surrogates attacking Gingrich for having criticized the Paul Ryan budget plan.

Repeatedly, they claimed that Romney supported the Ryan plan. “Gov. Romney recognized right away the features of that plan,” said Sununu.

What’s more, Jed Lewison noticed a related development this morning.

More importantly, in order to make this attack, Mitt Romney has now given himself ownership of the Ryan plan. On his website, he’s proudly touting a quote from June in which he said he would sign the Medicare-repeal plan into law.

Let me say that again: Mitt Romney is now one hundred percent committed to Paul Ryan’s proposal to end Medicare and replace it with vouchers.

This is no small revelation. In April and May, Democrats desperately tried to get Romney to endorse the Ryan budget plan, but the former governor kept dodging and eventually the questions stopped. But now it’s back, and the ambiguities are gone — Romney’s campaign is now on record supporting a radical budget plan that, among other things, replaces Medicare with a private voucher scheme, slashes taxes on the wealthy, and adds $6 trillion to the debt.

This is the line Democrats have waited eight months for Romney to take.

What was it that Newt said in a moment of vainglorious hubris that "anyone who quotes me about the Paul Ryan budget plan is lying?" Pure comedy gold.

Greg Sargent writes in the Morning Plum at the Plum Line this morning that:

It’s now becoming clear that a full on embrace of Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare as we know it will be absolutely central to Mitt Romney’s strategy for tearing down the surging Newt Gingrich. This is made plain in a new Web ad the Romney campaign released this morning that goes all in on Ryancare, bludgeoning Gingrich mercilessly over his claim that Ryan’s plan amounted to “right wing social engineering.” The ad is tough stuff, featuring a barrage of quotes from Republicans and conservatives lambasting Gingrich for his anti-Ryan apostasy. It’s a reminder of how hallowed Ryan’s plan remains for conservatives; the willingness to end Medicare’s essential mission and transform it into something approximating a voucher program is now a make or break litmus test issue for conservatives.

That's right, the same people who carried placards during the Health Care reform debate saying "keep your government hands off my Medicare!" now have a litmus test to end Medicare as we know it and replace it with an insurance voucher (corporate welfare for insurance companies).

Democrats are salivating at the prospect of using Romney’s embrace of the deeply unpopular Ryan plan in the general election as a way of winning back seniors and other voter groups that deserted Dems in 2010.

Paul Begala summed up the thinking among Dems. “The fact that Mitt Romney would call for essentially ending Medicare should disqualify him from the presidency in the eyes of millions of middle-class voters,” Begala told Talking Points Memo, adding that the Ryan plan is “the most toxic, anti-senior, anti-middle-class proposal I have seen from a major political party in years.”

A Dem operative emailed a one word response: “Rejoicing.”

Rabid right-wingnut Erick Erickson this week suggested he’s “praying” for a brokered Republican convention, so that some other GOP candidate — as opposed to those currently running — might win the party’s presidential nomination. Joe Scarborough said in response, “I don’t know many Republicans who aren’t praying for a brokered convention right now.” Republicans still long for other presidential options.

My favorite line from Joe Scarborough this week: "Newt Gingrich thinks he's the smartest guy in the room. If Newt Gingrich is the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room."