So, I understand if you say something incorrectly once or twice. I understand if you don’t remember every detail of something that happened several years earlier. BUT THEN DON’T PRETEND YOU DO!!!

When someone starts playing loose with the facts on a regular basis, we start to question your sincerity. We start to think that, maybe these are not just accidents. Maybe, you are intentionally trying to manipulate our perception of you.

Look how many examples of Mitt lying we know about.

1. “Hidden” Cameras

Saying Jan Mickelson recorded him with a “hidden” camera. This has been hashed out, and it is obvious that there was no hidden camera (or tripods or TV lights). Everything was out in the open for all to see. Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is half blind and didn’t see the cameras, there’s more to the story. When WHO put the video on their website, they were immediately accosted by the Romney campaign saying that Romney had not given permission for this video to be posted in the internet. So, WHO immediately took the video off of their website. Later that same day, the Romney campaign posted the video themselves . Along with everything else wrong in this situation, I think WHO could probably sue Romney for stealing the video and posting it when it didn’t belong to them. It’s also pretty ironic that Romney is attacking Mickelson’s credibility to Katie Couric, all the while lying himself.

2. Using the memory of MLK for your own political advantage

This one has also been hashed out at length lately. Not only is it pretty clear that Mitt never actually saw his dad march with the civil rights hero, it’s looking pretty unlikely that his dad even marched with MLK at all. Mitt’s excuse, “It’s a figure of speech.” Many people are aptly comparing this pathetic excuse for an explanation to one of Bill Clinton’s famous explanations for one of his (many) lies…. According to Mitt, it depends on what the meaning of “saw” is.

UPDATE: Check out this article on the issue.  It shows the dishonest intent of the Romney campaign.

3. I got the endorsement of the NRA

Not according to the NRA. This only compounds his problems with the gun-rights crowd. You see, he was already in hot water with them when he claimed to be a life-long member of the NRA. Well, he did purchase a life-long membership, but it was only purchased recently. Further, after claiming to be a life-long hunter, it was discovered that Romney had never had a hunting license or owned a gun. When that came out, he claimed that he had only hunted “varmint.” Apparently, no license is needed for varmint hunting.

4. I was recruited to run for Governor

This MSNBC article says it best:

During the same town hall meeting, Romney also cast himself as a reluctant politician, focusing instead on his 25-year business career and stint helping to resurrect the financially troubled 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

"When I came home, some people in the Massachusetts Republican Party encouraged me to run for office and said, `We need somebody who can win and who can fix Massachusetts,'" Romney said.

Romney returned to Massachusetts from Utah on Sunday, March 17, 2002. He declared he was running for governor on Tuesday, March 19, just hours after his fellow Republican, acting Gov. Jane Swift, announced she was yielding to the Romney juggernaut.

"I'm in," he said roughly 48 hours after returning to Massachusetts. "The bumper stickers are printed, the Web site's going up. The papers are going in today."

That must have been one heck-of-a 48 hours… being convinced to run for governor, designing a logo, getting bumper stickers printed, having a web designer complete your whole site, and having your legal team complete the papers necessary to file to run for governor. He must be really quick… or lying again.

5. Other miscellaneous problems… like abortion and gay rights.

Mitt’s flip on abortion is well documented, and is the only flip Mitt actually cops to. But let’s not forget that Mitt promised the Massachusetts citizens that he was more pro-gay rights than Ted Kennedy. As I’ve said before, I want to believe Mitt’s conversions on these issues are sincere, but it’s hard to believe anything he has to say at this point. And, if you pay close attention to what Mitt is saying, he still seems squishy on abortion and marriage. (See the Meet the Press transcript linked below). Apparently poll-obsessed Mitt doesn’t think the American people are ready for a life amendment, so that doesn’t seem like it will be a priority for him. What if he starts to think that the American people aren’t ready for a marriage amendment? Do we give up on that too?

6. Oh, and how could I forget TAXES, I mean fees.

Meet the Press’ Tim Russert put it best:

MR. RUSSERT: … The Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, gave you a C as governor of Massachusetts. And they say, "His first budget, presented under the cloud of a $2 billion deficit, balanced the budget with some spending cuts, but" "$500 million increase in various fees was the largest component of the budget fix." The AP says it this way: "When Romney wanted to balance the Massachusetts budget, the blind, mentally retarded and gun owners were asked to help pay. In all, then-Gov. Romney proposed creating 33 new fees," "increasing 57 others." The head of the Bay State Council of the Blind said that your name was "Fee-Fee"; that you just raised fee after fee after fee. That's a tax….

GOV. ROMNEY: A fee--well, a fee--if it were a tax, it'd be called--it'd be called a tax. But...

MR. RUSSERT: Governor, that's, that's gimmick.

GOV. ROMNEY: No, it's, it's reality. It is. But--and I have no--I'm not trying to hide from the fact we raised fees. We raised fees $240 million.

So, I guess it depends on what the definition of tax is…

I’m really starting to think even Romney doesn’t know when Romney is lying. Take, for example, his conversation with Katie Couric discussed above. When he talked about the “hidden” cameras, he really said it like he believed it. That should scare the crap out of you. Bottom line, you can’t trust someone who can’t tell the truth.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Poll shows that, among likely female caucus-goers in Iowa, Mike Huckabee has a huge lead over Mitt Romney. Here are the details of the poll.

CNN/Opinion Research Poll - Dec. 14-18

Sampling Error +/- 8% pt.

Iowa Choice for Nominee among Women

Huckabee    40%

Romney      18%

Why this HUGE gender gap? I think this is something guys are not going to understand. Why aren’t women going for Mitt “Ken-doll” Romney? Why do they like the “kinda cute in a nice-guy sort of way” Mike Huckabee instead? Don’t women want the captain of the football team over the AV squad guy?

Good question. Guys won’t get this (visually oriented creatures that they are). You’ve heard of “gay-dar”, where gay people can supposedly single out other gay people. I think women start to develop “sleaze-dar.” You see, once women reach a certain age, we start to value certain qualities in our men. We look for honesty, stability, reliability, and integrity. At a certain point in our lives, we’ve been around enough men to know who is trustworthy enough to commit to, and who is nice to look at, but we wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. (If I were a guy, I’d probably insert some gross joke here, but I shall move along.)

In Mitt, you’ve got a guy who looks good, but (especially lately), it’s pretty apparent this guy wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him in the ass. For example, (and I paraphrase):

My Dad marched with Martin Luther King, Jr (in my own mind).

Jan Mickelson used a hidden camera to record me (hidden on big tri-pods surrounded by TV lights 5 feet from my face).

I’m tougher on meth related crime than Huckabee (despite the fact that penalties in Arkansas were 2-4 times greater than in Massachusetts).

I’m all for the life amendment (when I talk to conservatives, but then on Meet the Press, I get squishy).

I’m all for the marriage amendment (except when I refused to sign a petition supporting one in Massachusetts.)

My sons are serving their country proudly (by trying to get me elected president).

I’ve got great judgment (except for when I twice refused to pardon a War Hero for something he did when he was 13 that didn’t hurt anyone).

Even if you don’t agree with Huckabee on everything, at least he gives you a straight answer. Reporting on the candidates, CNN's Bill Schneider captured the feeling of Iowans, saying they feel Huckabee is the “most honest and trustworthy, and the one who best understands their problems.”

When I’ve talked to my female friends about Mitt, every one of them has said something to me like, “There’s just something about that guy that I ______________________ (don’t trust, don’t like, think seems fake, etc.)

I know my “sleaze-dar” theory is highly unscientific. I hear people saying, but what about those women who pick the bad guys, who can never seem to pick a decent man?

 
Simple: they’re not Republicans, and they don’t vote in caucuses.

So, I really can’t explain what happened with the Tancredo endorsement of Romney today. Obviously, as you can see from my earlier post, this one took me by surprise for many reasons.

1. We have multiple sanctuary cities in Massachusetts during his governorship.

2. We have him not instructing state law enforcement to enforce the immigration laws until a few weeks before he left office (when we all knew he was running for president).

3. We have illegal immigrants working (literally) right under his nose at his own home.

4. We have quotes in which Romney indicates he liked McCain’s amnesty plan. Here’s how the Globe put it:

In a November 2005 interview with the Globe, Romney described immigration proposals by McCain and others as "quite different" from amnesty, because they required illegal immigrants to register with the government, work for years, pay taxes, not take public benefits, and pay a fine before applying for citizenship.

"That's very different than amnesty, where you literally say, 'OK, everybody here gets to stay,' " Romney said in the interview. "It's saying you could work your way into becoming a legal resident of the country by working here without taking benefits and then applying and then paying a fine."

Romney did not specifically endorse McCain's bill, saying he had not yet formulated a full position on immigration. But he did speak approvingly of efforts by McCain and Bush to solve the nation's immigration crisis, calling them "reasonable proposals."

Romney also said in the interview that it was not "practical or economic for the country" to deport the estimated 12 million immigrants living in the US illegally. "These people contribute in many cases to our economy and to our society," he said. "In some cases, they do not. But that's a whole group we're going to have to determine how to deal with."

By the way, if you think the Globe has too much of an anti-Romney bias, you can hear his quotes in his own words at the Globe link above. They were also replayed for all the political world to see last week on Meet the Press.

So, the question remains: Why this strange endorsement?

There are two things I can think of that likely played a factor.

1. Think back to high school. Did you ever know a family that had two brothers, one sociable and well-liked, and the other kind of resentful, mean, and always eager to get a jab in against his brother whenever possible? That’s the vibe I get when thinking about Huckabee and Tancredo. That was reinforced when I read Kay Henderson’s account of what happened today. According to O.K., Tancredo made an interesting comment:

In answer to another question -- about whether the rise of Huckabee had something to do with his decision, Tancredo said: "You bet your life it was."

2. I think there will likely be speculation that perhaps Tancredo’s national campaign director, Bay Buchanan played a significant role in bringing about the endorsement today. There will also be speculation that, as a fellow Mormon, Bay was predisposed to like Romney as a back-up to her first-choice candidate. Whether this actually had anything to do with it, we’ll likely never know, but it’s sure to be brought up.

It will be interesting to see if Tancredo’s Iowa staffers take up the Romney cause, or whether they forge their own path to another candidate’s door. Of the ones I know (including some big names in Iowa GOP politics), I don’t see them getting behind Romney.

So, it appears the worst-kept secret in Iowa today is that Tancredo is dropping out of the race for the Whitehouse. Now I’ve been hearing people asking who Tancredo will endorse. Good question.

An obvious choice would be Duncan Hunter. However, Hunter’s numbers are actually worse than Tancredo’s, so it seems that would be a waste as we’re all expecting Hunter’s withdrawal announcement to come soon.

After Tancredo attempted to ask Huckabee a snotty question on immigration in the last Iowa debate, that seems like an unlikely alliance. However, it should be noted that Huckabee’s new immigration plan seems pretty much in line with what most conservatives say they want. (And Huckabee has presented a plausible explanation for his support of scholarships in Arkansas in the previous debates that I think has placated many people). On issues other than immigration, Huckabee and Tancredo seem to agree... it’s just that Tancredo has a tendency to say things in a way that scares people, and Huckabee has a way of saying things that makes his position seem pretty reasonable.

McCain? One word: Amnesty. So, not in a million years.

Romney seems a highly unlikely choice. I know Romney claims there was nothing he could do about the illegals working on his lawn for the last several years (um… except maybe fire the landscaping company, which he didn’t do until a few weeks ago), but I have a sneaking suspicion that Tancredo, if he were in that position, would have come up with something other than asking for a few more variegated hosta plants around his trees. Plus, Tancredo, as a social conservative, might have some (serious) reservations about Romney’s (ever-evolving) positions on social issues.

Guiliani? Um… no. ‘Nough said.

If Tancredo endorses, it will likely be Fred. He seems to be viewed as having the toughest record on immigration (though as a senator who wasn’t even in office to vote on McCain’s infamous proposal, I’m not sure how much of a “record” he can really have on this issue).

I’m still not convinced Tancredo will endorse anyone. He wasn’t in this race to make friends or position himself for some government appointment down the road. He ran to put the issue of illegal immigration front and center in this election cycle (and maybe to scare the crap out of us with the pictures of dead people and heavily tattooed gangster guys in his TV ads). He succeeded (on both counts).

Thanks for the memories (and the nightmares)!

Mitt’s new attack add targeting Huckabee also claims that Huckabee was soft on crime related to methamphetamines while Governor of Arkansas. Mitt claims in the ad that penalties for methamphetamine manufacturing decreased while Huckabee was governor of Arkansas.

I was watching Huckabee on Larry King last night, and Huckabee addressed this accusation by pointing out some interesting facts. Here’s what he had to say:

“Maybe he needs to go back and check Massachusetts, because the meth penalties in Arkansas are actually twice what they are in Massachusetts. So if you get caught for methamphetamine as a dealer in Massachusetts, the maximum penalty is five years. In Arkansas, it's 10.  For him to say that we've made it easy on the meth dealers is really a mistake or an outright just distortion of the truth.”

Huckabee also discussed some of the rationale behind some of his pardons and commutations:

“I was a governor a long time -- 10 1/2 years. I took that job so seriously that when those commutations came across my desk, I looked at every single one of them. And I looked at it not with how would this be for my political future, because I'll tell you, if I had looked at it that way, I would have never have given a one of them, ever. There's never, never an up side to it.

But if you do your job, you will find that there was a 17-year old girl who wrote a hot check and now she's 35, and that hot check, put on her record so that now -- because of the background checks that are required for someone working in a nursing home -- she can't get a job emptying a bedpan.  So let me ask you, do you think we ought to keep her out of the workforce for the rest of her life?”

Huckabee has taken a lot of fire the past few weeks. I have to say that, when given an opportunity to explain his thinking and correct the record, I think he’s done a good job and has handled himself very well. I think we’re at the point where the volume of attacks (most notably from Romney) are starting to make his opponents look desperate, like they are grasping at straws. And remember, Iowans don’t like this negativity.

In the spirit of the season, I’ll close this post with a quote from Huckabee’s response to this latest attack ad. After explaining how Arkansas’ meth penalties are still more harsh than Massachusetts’, the response states:

“Nevertheless, on behalf of the Mike Huckabee for President campaign, we want to wish Governor Romney, his family and his staff, a very merry Christmas.”