Which Mitt Romney is Bill Bolling endorsing?

Posted by Greg on Tuesday, July 31

Which Mitt Romney Is Bill Bolling Endorsing?

 Richmond, VA -  As Bill Bolling prepares to endorse Mitt Romney during his visit to the Commonwealth today, Virginians are hoping the Lt. Governor can clarify something for us: Which Mitt Romney are you actually endorsing?  As a bonus question, we'd also like to hear from the Romney camp which Bill Bolling they are appointing as chair?

"With Mitt Romney and Bill Bolling in one room, there are enough flip-flops to make your head spin," said Democratic Party of Virginia spokesperson Danae Jones. "From education to choice to campaign finance reform, Romney and Bolling don't seem to be able to take a stand.  They don't get Virginia.  We need leaders more concerned with principle than politics."   

WHICH MITT IS BOLLING ENDORSING?

Is Bolling supporting the pro-choice Mitt or the anti-choice Mitt?

Old Mitt: Supported a Woman's Right to Choose, Pledged to Respect And Protect A Woman's Right To Choose in 2002. In 2002, Romney said on a NARAL questionnaire, "I respect and will protect a woman's right to choose." He also reached out to Republican Majority for Choice to ask for its endorsement and later issued a press release highlighting that endorsement. Romney also completed a Planned Parenthood questionnaire in Apr '02, saying "yes" to a question about whether he supported "the substance of" Roe v. Wade, "yes" to "state funding of abortion services through Medicaid for low-income women" and "yes" to supporting "efforts to increase access to emergency contraception." [Weekly Standard, 2/5/07]

New Mitt: Views Have "Evolved." Romney says his anti-abortion views have "evolved and deepened" since he took office, "colored in part by the debate over embryonic stem cell research. In considering the issue of embryo cloning and embryo farming, I saw where the harsh logic of abortion can lead - to the view of innocent new life as nothing more than research material or a commodity to be exploited," Romney wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday's Boston Globe. He also said he believes each state should decide whether to allow abortion, rather than having the "one size fits all" precedent of Roe v. Wade. [newsmax.com, 7/27/05]

Is Bolling supporting the Mitt who supports campaign finance reform or the one who opposes it?

Old Mitt: Supported Campaign Finance Reform. During his 2002 gubernatorial campaign, Romney "proposed taxing political contributions to finance publicly funded campaigns," while during his 1994 Senate campaign Romney "publicly advocated placing spending limits on congressional campaigns and abolishing political action committees (PACs)." [The Hill, 2/8/07]

New Mitt: Opposes Campaign Finance Reform, Calls It "One Of The Worst Things In My Lifetime." Referring to the McCain-Feingold law on campaign finance reform, Romney called it "one of the worst things in my lifetime." [The Hill, 2/8/07] Romney pledged to "fight to repeal McCain-Feingold." [Remarks to Conservative Political Action Conference, 3/2/07]

Is Bolling supporting the Mitt who supports gun control or the Mitt who now is running from that label?

Romney Flip-Flops on Gun Control. Romney once bragged that his views on gun control were "not going to make me the hero of the NRA," but now he's emphasizing his new pro-gun stances and even misled the voters about whether he himself is a gun-owner. [Boston Globe, 1/19/07]

Is Bolling supporting the Mitt who once shunned the Reagan Republican label or the Romney who is trying to claim the Reagan legacy?

Romney Flip-Flops on Reagan. Romney once claimed to be "an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush" who was "not trying to return to Reagan-Bush," but now calls President Reagan his "hero" and praises "Ronald Reagan's brand of visionary and courageous leadership." [Boston Globe, 1/19/07]

BONUS QUESTION:  WHICH BOLLING IS MITT MAKING CHAIR?

Is Romney making a campaign chair of the Bolling who has ideas for how we improve public education or the Bolling who stands beside candidates who want to abolish public education?

Bolling Supports Education: Bolling says "we must constantly look for ways to improve our public schools."  [100ideasva.com]

Bolling Raises Money for Candidate Who Pledges to Do Away with Public Education.  According to the Daily Press, Tricia "Stall is hoping to reinvigorate her campaign this week, when she hosts an event with the state's top two Republican officeholders - Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and Attorney General Bob McDonnell..." [7/29/07]  This is the same Tricia Stall who said:  "public education today is totally government controlled to socially engineer our society into dumbed down citizenry who will accept and tolerate whatever the government tells them to do." [Defining the GOP, Daily Press, 6/8/07; Alliance for the Separation of School & State web site]

Is Romney making a campaign chair of the Bolling who opposed the smoking ban or the Bolling who wants to help Virginia "breathe easier?"

Bolling Tries to Have it Both Ways on Smoking Ban. Bolling says he's opposed to the smoking ban, but on Thursday he'll be delivering the keynote address at the American Lung Association Asthma Walk Kickoff as part of his "Helping Virginians Breathe Easier" initiative. [Independent Messenger, 6/14/07; ltgov.virginia.gov]

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