Free Republic

* Republican presidential hopeful's actions unprecedented * Aides purchased hard drives of state-issued computers * Emails and other communications wiped from servers By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Mitt Romney spent nearly $100,000 in state funds to replace computers in his office at the end of his term as governor of Massachusetts in 2007 as part of an unprecedented effort to keep his records secret, Reuters has learned. The move during the final weeks of Romney's administration was legal but unusual for a departing governor, Massachusetts officials say. The effort to purge the records was made a few...

Mitt Romney refused to criticize his Massachusetts health-care program tonight, saying he would prefer to lose the primary rather than renounce it. “I’m standing by what I did in Massachusetts,” Romney said on Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier. “I’m not trying to dust it aside. I’m absolutely firm that it was the right thing for our state. I’ll defend that and I understand it has political implications. And if it keeps me from winning a primary, so be it. But that happens to be the truth.” “It’s by far, the biggest challenge I have in the primary...

There certainly appears to be a blood-feud between Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney. Huntsman continues his attacks focused almost exclusively on Romney with this new ad that takes from Romney’s recent interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier in which Romney claimed Baier’s list of past “flip-flops” was “just not accurate.” The web ad then goes on to show clips of Romney from the past on that list of issues juxtaposed with his current views. This ad makes you think Huntsman’s Campaign is far more about keeping Mitt Romney from being President than it is about Jon Huntsman wanting to be...

They arrive now with monotonous regularity. Another day, another announcement by a New Hampshire politician of his or her endorsement of Mitt Romney for President. Former Governor John Sununu. Former Governor and U.S. Senator Judd Gregg. Senator Kelly Ayotte. Umpteen members of the New Hampshire House and Senate. Romney's the one. A businessman. A leader. The one who will create what all America wants — jobs, jobs, jobs! Overseas, seas, seas. Yet the Romney record suggests he'll be creating the jobs overseas, seas, seas, and that's what we'll be hearing from the Obama camp from here to reelection. Oh, how...

Southfield, Mich. — As other Republican candidates have stumbled their way toward the presidential primaries, Mitt Romney has put together what would seem to be all the elements of a winning campaign: an effective staff, a robust treasury and smooth, knowledgeable performances both in debates and on the trail. But for months, the threshold of support for the former Massachusetts governor hasn't inched above a quarter of Republican voters in national polls. For many GOP voters in early primary states, hesitation about Romney comes back to one thing: their perception that he has routinely molded his views to suit the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was accused on Wednesday of flip-flopping for comments he made in 2007 indicating he was open to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Romney's remarks, made on NBC's "Meet the Press" when he was a candidate for president, were circulated by rival Newt Gingrich's campaign the day after the former Speaker of the House of Representatives came under similar fire for suggesting during a debate Tuesday night that he was in favor of such a pathway for immigrants. Opponents of a pathway, a large swath of the early-voting Republican electorate, have...

Last week, I discussed how Occupy protesters are being directly aided by the mainstream media and indirectly aided by White House stimulus money, as well as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's and even Vice President Joe Biden's households. I also detailed how the mainstream media are accelerating their progressive blitz not only to hasten the second coming, or election, of President Barack Obama but also to help him and other progressives in reaching their final goal of "fundamentally transforming the United States of America." I believe the MSM are also bent to coronate a particular GOP candidate whom they feel...

Don’t expect Mitt Romney to backtrack on his Massachusetts health-care plan at any point this election cycle. “I am sure there are many people who have calculated, and perhaps correctly, that the healthcare plan I put in place in Massachusetts is not good for me politically, and if I want to encourage my political future, I should say it was a mistake and walk away from it,” Romney told Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto in an interview set to air later tonight. “You have seen a lot of candidates look at their biggest vulnerability, call it a mistake, and...

Rick Santorum on Monday accused GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney of being more liberal on gay marriage than President Barack Obama. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, made his remarks during an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show. When Ingraham asked Romney's stance on a proposed bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Santorum answered: “I would argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, was to the left of Barack Obama on the issue of gay marriage.” DOMA is the 1996 law that bars federal agencies and the military from recognizing the legal marriages of gay...

For Mitt Romney this is like the good old days at Bain Capital, except this time his takeover involves not another company but the Republican Party. In fact, Romney is seeking a hostile takeover of the conservative movement, methodically moving to take over Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and finally Newt Gingrich. Conservatives might remember what Romney did after he took over companies. You did not want to be a worker in a firm Romney took over. He liked layoffs. I now expect Romney to move fast to the right for a few weeks while...

<p>A judge handed Occupy Boston a major win today, granting a court order that forbids police to carry out a New York-style clearing of the Dewey Square encampment except in cases that pose a major threat to public safety. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frances McIntyre issued a temporary restraining order this afternoon, saying Occupiers will allowed to stay camped peacefully opposite South Station until a court hearing for a preliminary injunction Dec. 1. Police are still allowed to clear the park if there is an “outbreak of violence” or a catastrophe such as a fire, she said. “It’s a big victory,” said Occupy Boston member Kristopher Eric Martin. “Not only in Boston, across the country, this is a big victory in the sense our First Amendment rights are going to be heard.” The order does not, however, prevent police from making arrests on the property, part of the state-owned and privately managed Rose Kennedy Greenway. Lawyers for the Occupy Boston requested the restraining order as a pre-emptive move, after police in New York removed protesters and seized tents from Zuccotti Park, the site of the original and figurehead Occupy Wall Street demonstration. Attorneys for the city argued that Occupy Boston’s lawyers jumped the gun; there has been no wholesale clearing of demonstrators to date, and they say the city has no plans to carry out such an operation. “This is a simple matter,” attorney Raquel Webster argued on the city’s behalf. “We should not be here today. It’s premature.”</p>

From what I read today at the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times: "The CNBC host asked that if corporations care about the character of their chief executive officers, why shouldn't Americans care about the character of their presidential candidates?" 1.) Why shouldn't Americans care about the character of their presidential candidates... When did Cain ever say that Americans don't care about the character of their presidential candidates? 2.) On top of this apparently loaded question, this was shifted to Romney, who was - somehow - fortuitously placed right next to Cain during this debate. Coincidence? 3.) Now the MSM...

Answering a charge that's at the root of his campaign's inability to break out from the Republican field, Mitt Romney rejected the notion that he's a candidate without a core at the start of tonight's presidential debate. (snip) "I think people understand that I'm a man of steadiness and constancy," Romney responded.As proof, he cited the fact that he's been "married to the same woman for 25" years -- before correcting himself to say it's been 42. "I've been in the same church my entire life. I worked at one company, Bain, for 25 years, and I left that to...

Mitt Romney’s problem with the Republican Party is not just that he previously held liberal positions on a wide-ranging array of issues. That can be explained away, at least a bit, as pandering necessary to win votes in a Democratic state. The deeper problem is that Romney was promising behind closed doors to act as essentially a sleeper agent within the Republican Party, adopting liberal stances, rising to national prominence, and thereby legitimizing them and transforming the Party from within. Today’s Washington Post has more detail: Mitt Romney was firm and direct with the abortion rights advocates sitting in his...

Mitt Romney was firm and direct with the abortion rights advocates sitting in his office nine years ago, assuring the group that if elected Massachusetts governor, he would protect the state’s abortion laws. Then, as the meeting drew to a close, the businessman offered an intriguing suggestion — that he would rise to national prominence in the Republican Party as a victor in a liberal state and could use his influence to soften the GOP’s hard-line opposition to abortion. He would be a “good voice in the party” for their cause, and his moderation on the issue would be “widely...

During a September 2002 meeting with NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts Willard Romney made this implied promise, “You need someone like me in Washington.” Both Willard and the baby killing ghouls of NARAL knew what was being discussed. He was running for Governor of Massachusetts and clearly looking past his anticipated victory to a day when he could stop pretending he cared about pro-life issues and show his true devotion to their “cause” from the White House. Romney made it quite clear that NARAL would have a friend in the State House and eventually in the White House if they helped elect...

Mitt Romney, under fire from all sides on the strength of his political convictions, said Thursday he has been as consistent as a person can be during his political career. "I've been as consistent as human beings can be," the presidential candidate said in a meeting with the editorial board of New Hampshire's Seacoast Media Group. "I cannot state every single issue in exactly the same words every single time, and so there are some folks who, obviously, for various political and campaign purposes will try and find some change and try to draw great attention to something which looks...

Romney is No Conservative “We don’t intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all.” “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers. Don’t give up your ideals, don’t compromise, don’t turn to expediency —...

little Friday morning comedy courtesy of The Hill: “I’ve been as consistent as human beings can be,” the presidential candidate said in a meeting with the editorial board of New Hampshire’s Seacoast Media Group. “I cannot state every single issue in exactly the same words every single time, and so there are some folks who, obviously, for various political and campaign purposes will try and find some change and try to draw great attention to something which looks like a change which in fact is entirely consistent.” I’m not sure if Romney actually believes this nonsense, or if he thinks...

Mitt Romney’s problem with the Republican Party is not just that he previously held liberal positions on a wide-ranging array of issues. That can be explained away, at least a bit, as pandering necessary to win votes in a Democratic state. The deeper problem is that Romney was promising behind closed doors to act as essentially a sleeper agent within the Republican Party, adopting liberal stances, rising to national prominence, and thereby legitimizing them and transforming the Party from within. Today’s Washington Post has more detail: "Mitt Romney was firm and direct with the abortion rights advocates sitting in his...