“There is little risk of STD infection and no risk of HIV infection from playing with pee.” This semi-graphic, somewhat childish description of “water sports” does not come from any pornographic novel or sex manual, but from a report making its rounds within the religious right on outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, one of the top contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Romney is a likeable Mormon and a competent legislator, and Conservatives have been lining up behind his potential candidacy for almost two years.
But right now he has a problem. The above quote is from a publication titled The Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century, which Romney’s Department of Public Health participated in creating. Brian Camenker, a right-wing activist and president of the group MassResistance, is circulating his own report, “The Mitt Romney Deception,” to like-minded activists and conservative church leaders across the nation, alerting them to Romney’s history with urine and other apparently unsavory actions.
“Despite recent statements across the country by Gov. Mitt Romney claiming he’s pro-life, pro-family and a committed Conservative, a broad investigation of his actual statements, actions, and public positions over the years indicates that he has spent his entire career speaking and governing as a Liberal—and that his new found conversion to conservatism very likely coincides with his candidacy for the presidency,” opens Camenker’s report, which goes on to outline some of the more gay friendly positions Romney and his administration have taken over the years.
Some of the highlights include: Romney appointed actual gays to positions of power! He issued a proclamation supporting a gay pride day for youth! He supports minimum wage laws! He supports an assault weapons ban! And, of course, he allowed a pamphlet on water sports to be published. All of this would lead one to believe that Romney is no conservative, and there are large sections of the country where such behavior from elected officials is not tolerated.
Romney has a somewhat liberal record on social issues, one that certainly helped him govern the ultraliberal home state of the Kennedy clan. Conventional wisdom holds that such liberal stances might make it almost impossible to win a Republican primary for the presidency. But prominent conservatives are willing to cut Romney a great deal of slack. “I think that this Romney then-vs.-now meme is out (pun intended) and circulating now, is a bit of a gift to his campaign,” wrote Kathryn Jean Lopez, Editor in Chief of National Review, surmising that since Romney would have to deal with these issues so early in the campaign, they would not be a factor for Conservatives come 2008.
If what’s true for one candidate is true for all candidates, then another Republican presidential hopeful should be in the clear, since his own skeletons have been out of the closet for years. He has a pro-choice history, famously offering once that he would even pay for his daughter’s abortion. He’s been divorced several times and has a reputation as something of a philanderer. He even shared an apartment with a gay couple after his wife kicked him out of the house.
And nothing in his history rises to the level of “playing with pee.” In fact, our candidate had at least one very public battle where he fought against public displays of elephant poop.
Yet former Mayor Rudy Giuliani never seems to pick up the same benefit of the doubt that is afforded to Romney. To accompany a July cover piece on Giuliani, the same National Review ran a picture of America’s Mayor in drag, an image certainly designed to draw attention to what Lopez has called “conservative misgivings” about Giuliani that Republican primary voters might have. Since he first whispered that he might run for president, pundit after pundit has called attention to his pro-choice, gay friendly positions as his biggest drawbacks, drawbacks that would keep the nomination from him despite his stewardship of the city in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Oh, and don’t forget those divorces.
“I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican Party and I would be a voice in the Republican Party to foster anti-discrimination efforts,” said Romney in 1994 to Bay Windows, a Boston-based gay newspaper, during a run for Senate against Ted Kennedy (a quote made widely known by blogger Andrew Sullivan). In the past, Romney has expressed his support for gay rights in the context of civil rights and has called for the question of marriage to be decided by the states, ostensibly arguing against a federal marriage amendment. In an apparent nod to another Massachusetts politician, Sen. John Kerry, Romney has since backtracked on most of these more socially liberal positions.
If we take the same exact report that Camenker is shopping around but swap the name Romney with Giuliani, perhaps we would have seen a Photo-shopped picture of Rudy playing in a full toilet. A great sin of the conservative movement has always been political expediency and, for now, Romney is being allowed to get away with it.
