In a campaign season where the emphasis will hopefully be, at least in part, on integrity and honesty, strength of character, etc, etc., what does it say about a candidate who rewrites his own press releases to delete someone that turned out to be an embarrassment to him? Senator Larry Craig was Mitt Romney's Senate liaison up until a few days ago, at which time his relationship with Mr. Romney was severed for reasons that make all kinds of sense. However, all references to Senator Craig have now been removed from previously published press releases -- check out his Web site.
It's one thing to sever a relationship when someone you hired turns out not to be the one with whom you want to be associated -- seems to be happening a lot these days. However, to pretend the relationship never existed is something else again. Nations have been known to rewrite history to serve their own ends -- even our own history textbooks gloss over much of what might be considered unpleasant aspects of our history. Of course, it doesn't change history, just attempts to mislead people.
Mr. Romney has shown a convenient propensity to change his views on controversial issues in order to better appeal to certain constituencies now that he is running for president. I guess he also has a propensity to change (or hire people who will change) the facts to suit his purposes as well. You would think that in this day of the Internet and instant video replays that these people would get it. You can't hide this stuff.
Addendum: I thought the above opinion was clear, but after reading many of the comments below, apparently it was not. I have absolutely NO problem with Mr. Romney immediately severing his association with Senator Craig. It is what any politician with a brain in his or her head would have done and should have done. I think the Senator's behavior was sleazy and pathetic. What made it doubly so, in my opinion, was the hypocrisy that it represented given his dogmatic stance against gays, gay rights, etc., etc. (me thinks thou doth protest too much).
What bothered me about what Romney's campaign did was that by changing an already published press release to delete all references to Senator Craig's former position with the campaign, they were, in fact, rewriting history. I think we have had enough of an administration in the last six years that has played loose with the truth and assumed that Americans were gullible or naive enough that they could "change" the truth and that would make it so. All Mr. Romney had to do was to announce that he was severing the relationship with Senator Craig because in light of current events, it was obvious that he did not represent the values in which Mr. Romney believes. End of story. This sort of behavior strikes me as a knee-jerk reaction to a situation without thinking through the ramifications -- not something that gives me warm fuzzies about his potential administration.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. Good for Romney....I would not want ANY future or previous association with this disgusting man. They were Romney's press releases, he is entitle to change them as he wishes.
Rob at 8:36AM on Aug 30th 2007
2. I can understand not wanting to have ties with someone such as Craig. Why bash him for not wanting to support a creep or have a creep support him?
Jen at 11:13PM on Aug 30th 2007
3. Whats wrong with making sure his campaign projects the right image? I would not want this Larry associated with my campaign either, at least not in video, writing, or audio clips. I'm sure there will always be paper records of Larry being on Romney's campaign, but that's an entirely different thing. Any candidate is entitled to add, edit, and delete campaign materials such as press releases, video clips, of their campaign employees as they wish. Romney made a fair decision, one that I would have made, and one that many other people - maybe even yourself - would have made.
anon at 11:39AM on Aug 30th 2007
4. I would like to say to this writer lets use for a moment an example to demonstrate an important point to see if it's goes with your thinking.Lets say you went to a Restaurant and order a plate of food.You enjoy your meal and you have consume most of it and suddenly you discover something else that shouldn't be in your plate of food that is dangerous to your health and survival.The first thing you want to do is to get rid of the food by informing the Manager before dumping it to a carbage can despite of its tempting flavor and delicious taste wouldn't you?Unless you are a superhuman if there's any such person you wouldn't care less.No sensible candidate in his right mind wouldn't concern when these type of action is a distraction to his or her campaign and right away solve the problem before it is get out of control.Once again we see how a professional manager in Mitt Romney handles and fix the problem sooner than later which is exactly why it is important to have someone of his calibre to be at the helm of this nations sinking ship.He is a quick thinker of solution and an intelligent President to be.By small means we discover a greater character and stronger leader.
KaM at 2:31PM on Aug 30th 2007
5. In re: Comment 3. KaM, I would dump the food. Would I pretend that nothing had ever happened? To the point of rewriting the order? I don't think so. Were the press releases pulled from the site, re-written with a new dateline, or edited to change history?
alan at 3:09PM on Aug 30th 2007
6. No one can rewrite history...
Good God, KaM, how much is the Romney campaign paying you?
David S. at 3:56PM on Aug 30th 2007
7. Craigs action which is still being investigated does nothing to discredit Mitt Romneys campaign.This is nothing to do with Romney running for President.If its turn out that he (Craig)is not worth being a Senator anymore then that his individual weakness and need working on it to restore himself and the trust of the Idahoan people.There is no angel running for President of the United States just imperfect humans.
KaM at 4:21AM on Aug 31st 2007
8. KaM, thanks for engaging in a thoughtful dialog. That is what the democratic (not Democrat:>)) process is all about.
I agree with your comment that it should do nothing to discredit Romney's Presidential bid. Given that, why is it necessary to rewrite history? The attempt to protect Romney from those who are unable to separate Romney and his beliefs from the private lives of people in his campaign appears to have back-fired, reducing rather than enhancing his image. Perhaps it would have been best to do nothing.
IMHO, a future campaign denial that Senator Craig was ever part of the campaign would have a significant, negative impact. Although I am not a Romney supporter, I hope that does not happen.
alan at 5:56PM on Aug 30th 2007
9. This has nothing to do with this topic... but i just wanna say i think AOL is a bunch of libs.
Daniel at 8:29PM on Aug 30th 2007
10. It is difficult to attempt to disagree with those who seem to ignore all rules of common reasoning. How could any candidate be expected to know every personal thing about everyone connected to their campaign? It is quite possible that every candidate has closet offenders lurking in the background hoping and praying they will not be discovered and exposed. We are living in a very imperfect world today.
P.J.Ballard at 9:59PM on Aug 30th 2007
11. After listening to the audio of the Senators arrest I find it very confusing at who is telling the truth.There is something fishy at this whole scenario in the bathroom between the Senator and the other party.
Realistic at 1:39PM on Aug 31st 2007
12. hello Jen,Craig is far better than the current commander in chief??? Sex,gaythings etc. all these things are the part of all these VIPs.There is nothing new in that.'LET THE SUN RISE AT THE MIDNIGHT THEN WE CAN SEE WHERE ALL THESE VVIPs ARE"............
gt at 7:49AM on Aug 31st 2007
13. I agree with most of the previous posters, he was wise to get rid of the association with Craig. Romney had no way to know what was lurking under the surface in that man and we all know the press would love to exploit any ties between the two.Guilt by association while unfair is often a "death sentence" for public figures, particularly politicians.
Sherri at 2:02PM on Sep 1st 2007
14. Martha Sweet Ramirez, Would you prefer that Romney take the blame for Senator Craig's bathroom problems?
Please.
Ray at 2:15PM on Sep 2nd 2007
15.
If he altered a press release to delete Craig's name, but did not change the date, that is alterning history. If he is still using the press release and altered Craigs name and the date, that's okay.
But in all likeyhood, Mitt probably does not even know exactly what was done. Probably someone in his campaign said, time to delete Craigs name from the web site, and some volunteer did it everytime it appeared, whether it was appropriate or not.
And after 8 years of Bush's stay the course, I have no problem with a politican who changes his mind, after listening to the people. Rather refreshing I think.
cdnbirch at 7:19PM on Sep 2nd 2007