It’s fine for Republicans to yak about Obama’s Kenyan father but Tebow forbid anyone mention Romney’s family’s past…even when Romney brings it up:
In an interview with the Daily Beast on Thursday, the outspoken governor suggested Romney could identify with Latinos better if he talked about his family’s roots in Mexico.
It’s “kinda ironic, given that his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico, but then he’d have to talk about his family coming from a polygamy commune in Mexico, given the gender discrepancy,” Schweitzer said. (Schweitzer noted that women, in particular, object to polygamy, or the practice of having multiple wives.)
[…]Romney has mentioned his father being born in Mexico a couple of times, at least — once in remarks at an Iowa event in December and once at a January debate in response to Newt Gingrich’s allegations that Romney was “anti-immigrant.”
“Mr. Speaker, I’m not anti-immigrant,” Romney said. “My father was born in Mexico. My wife’s father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”
ruemara
IOKIYAR, et finis
yopd1 (formerly BDeevDad)
Doesn’t that make him ineligible by birther standards?
gorram
“The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”
Why is it that everything that comes out of Romney’s mouth sounds like it was not so carefully tested on audiences? Shouldn’t he have said that anti-immigrant beliefs/policies/etc are repulsive to him? What does he gain by making this a personal attack when he’s clearly not in danger of being stereotyped as an immigrant, deported, or otherwise subject to nativist bullshit?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@yopd1 (formerly BDeevDad): Yes, there is a lawsuit from some in California. Even McCain didn’t measure up to Brither standards (born in Panama and all)
Steve
You know who else’s parents were immigrants to this country? Joe Arpaio. So obviously he couldn’t be anti-immigrant, folks.
kdaug
Ask Mitt why his grandfather set up that Mexico colony in the first place.
R Johnston
Romney really isn’t at all smart, and it will be good to keep that in mind throughout this campaign. He’s a mediocre intelligence entirely lacking in curiosity who’s gotten by in life with a combination of choosing to be born to the right parents and being a phenomenal asshole. His main difference from Shrub is that he’s wanted to be President all his life and spent his 20s, 30s, and 40s projecting the appropriate image.
mainmati
Yeah, McCain was born in Panama but in the Canal Zone, which was evidently grandfathered in as part of Amurka. I always wondered though how George Romney thought he was going to get the GOP nomination if he didn’t qualify Constitutionally.
Warren Terra
Mitt Romney is welcoming to White folks immigrating from Mexico and from Wales, I see. Shame he encourages policies that lead to the victimization of dusky folks who might have immigrated from the developing world – or who might have grandparents who immigrated from the developing world.
Heck, I’m waiting for the first good story of an American Indian, someone whose great-great-to-the-nth grandparents should have demanded the papers of our founding fathers, is abused under the “papers, please” laws of Arizona or Alabama.
Quicksand
Lulz.
Richard
Mitt’s an “anchor baby”?
Cato
Obama still isn’t working folks.
Anna Granfors
“Monday morning, Monday morning,
Closin’ in on me
I’m packin’ up and I’m runnin’ away
To where nobody picks on me.”
One of my favorite RT songs ever. And I love your musical post titles, DougJWhateverItIsThisWeek.
Cato
I don’t think this line of attack is very well advised. Attacking his religion could backfire rather badly.
BarbCat
For Pete’s sake, what day of the week is it?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
A little bit Off Topic but this explains why the Mitt is off pandering to the Wingnuts and not shaking his etcho sketch.
livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/romney-super-pac-raised-86-million-in-march
Seems his campaign is running low on money so this is all fundraising.
Steve
@mainmati: George Romney was born in Mexico to U.S. citizen parents, so he was a U.S. citizen by birth, and he was never a Mexican citizen under their citizenship laws. It’s never been entirely settled whether you’re a “natural-born citizen” if you were born to U.S. citizens abroad, but it likely would not have been a major controversy for Romney. You could actually make a stronger case against John McCain (if you really wanted to), since there’s at least an argument that McCain would have been a Panamanian citizen at birth. There’s no argument that Romney was born anything other than a U.S. citizen.
Violet
@kdaug:
Didn’t Mitt’s grandfather leave the US to go set up that colony in Mexico? Why does Mitt’s family hate America?
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve:
And we have a tentative winner, final approval withheld pending something snarkier.
But the truth pretty much hurts when you see the exceptions made for fascist shitstains, who, I might note with some amusement, have names ending in a vowel.
cathyx
So how many grandmas does Mitt have?
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Um, yes. To flee from the oppressive US Federal Government that was cracking down on polygamy.
David Koch
any moment now he’ll be wearing a sombrero and poncho
Villago Delenda Est
@Warren Terra:
Well, I have long held that my WASP ancestors (one was a delegate to the Continental Congress) really fucked up by allowing Pat Buchanan’s ancestors into this country.
General Stuck
Romney is going around with pol placards claiming that personally, “Obama is not working”, so there are, will be no rules for this coming ugly ass campaign. Everything will be on the table, and the only question is parsing out the nasty to surrogates, as opposed to the candidates indulging in any particular meme.
beltane
@David Koch: “Mariachi Mitt” is catchy sounding. Maybe he will go with it
TooManyJens
@David Koch: And refusing an offer of food by saying, “You got this down at Taco Bell, didn’t you?”
That cookie thing … I realize it’s not an issue of any significance whatsoever, but my God, WHAT A TOTAL DICK.
Corey
Yeah, sorry, I think it crosses some kind of line to infer that someone’s a polygamist (just like I think it crosses a line to call Obama a Kenyan usurper!). That’s clearly what Schweitzer’s trying to do
Try as I might, I just can’t gin up enough hatred for Romney to endorse something like that.
Villago Delenda Est
@TooManyJens:
THIS is what needs to be put out there. Rmoney keeps stepping on his dick, and each time he does, it needs to be broadcast. He demonstrates on what seems like an hourly basis what an unredeemable asshole he is.
Obama’s surrogates need to keep this shit out there. Thurston Howell III is not the right meme…Monty Burns is much closer to it.
jl
I went looking for any racy Geo Romney info re life in polygamous Mormon colonies in Mexico.
But, looks like Mx civil war chased his family back to the US when George was a still a kid.
Maybe we could pay Nest to write an alternative history novel real quick before the election, for Science!
Violet
@Villago Delenda Est:
Mitt’s grandfather hates America. Mitt’s family hates America. They are deserters.
Villago Delenda Est
Mitt’s grandfather sang this song:
If I could make it to the border
If I could make it to the coast
If I could make it to the border
I’d be in the arms of the girls I love the most
Violet
OT, Jeb Bush says he’d consider being VP for Mitt. Interesting.
Villago Delenda Est
@Violet:
Just as FSM didn’t love us enough to make Rih or Noot the nominee, FSM doesn’t love us enough to anchor Jeb to the Walter Mondale of 2012.
kc
“Mr. Speaker, I’m not anti-immigrant,” Romney said. “My father was born in Mexico. My wife’s father was born in Wales. They came to this country. The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive.”
“Judge me by where my grandparents came from, not my words and deeds.”
Martin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
However:
Congress didn’t get around to doing the same for Obama until 2009 – and that had to be sponsored by Democrats.
PeakVT
@Violet: Maybe that would help Romney in FL but elsewhere I think it would hurt him. The GOP has done a good job of purging the Bush name from their vocabulary, and for a reason.
dexwood
@cathyx:
Nearly snorted my beer on that.
MattR
@Martin: According to birthers, that resolution was a back door trap. The Democrats did this for McCain solely to create the precedent for doing the same for Obama later. The fact that Obama was a co-sponser is proof that it is part of a larger nefarious plot.
David Koch
¡Ay, caramba!
LanceThruster
“Umm…don’t ask me where my grandfather’s wives were born (I suspect he was somewhere close at the time – probably dating the mom). That list is longer diddley-iddley than the number of houses I own. Thank Moroni for the LDS Ancestor Registry!”
David Koch
/fixed
handy
So has RDS officially been proffered by our friends in Goofyland yet? Because, by god, people who can’t connect with Thurston Howell III are clearly deranged.
Violet
As far as the polygamy thing goes, it was Mitt’s grandfather who was the polygamist. Was Obama’s grandfather also a polygamist? Seems likely in Kenya, especially at that time. I don’t think the polygamy angle is going to work all that well, except for how it ties into the “Mormons are weird” angle. But that his grandfather fled America? That’s actually pretty big. His grandfather obviously didn’t love America enough to stay.
AA+ Bonds
So DougJ when are we getting a front page article about how Shi’ite Muslims should all quit their religion because of what Muqtada al-Sadr has to say about things
Because I mean clearly liberal Muslims are cowards for daring to claim that they represent their religion
Right?
AA+ Bonds
I mean what is with people claiming that there is such a thing as “reasonable Muslims” or “liberal Muslims”, if they were reasonable they’d quit being Muslim, am I right?
Just trying to consistently apply the DougJ Doctrine here, so don’t call me a bigot or anything!
Joseph Nobles
Just a nit: it was Romney’s great-grandfather that was the polygamist. Romney’s grandfather, the father of his father George, had only one wife.
Steve
@Corey: You know, we could debate whether what Schweitzer said is offensive, but what strikes me as odd is that it’s been what, a day or two since those remarks, and I really haven’t seen the outrage machine getting cranked up. Normally the Romney campaign is super-quick to play the religion card (remember when “Romney is weird” was supposedly a dog-whistle for anti-Mormon sentiment?). Do you think they’re laying off Schweitzer because they’re actually concerned it could hurt them to talk about this? I wonder.
Richard
Mitt identifies with Latinos. I hear that Speedy Gonzales is his favorite cartoon character.
Tonal Crow
@Violet:
What? Mitt didn’t ask Dubya? Why the hell not? Anyway the more the names “Romney” and “Bush” appear together, the better off we’ll be. Romney: like Dubya Bush, but with fewer scruples.
Martin
@Violet:
That’s not quite the right angle either. It’s too blunt and too easy to simply express outrage over.
A much better approach is to fork Mitt during a debate should ‘religious freedom’ come up in any tangential way. Something like:
“Governor, your grandfather self-deported from the US to Mexico over a claim that the government infringed on his religious freedom. Do you think the government was wrong to ban polygamy? And how was that any different than the claims today that the federal government is infringing on religious freedom over coverage of contraception?”
Either force him to defend his grandfather, and by extension polygamy and leaving the country for freedom of religion – or to oppose polygamy and by extension defend that the government can reasonably put the interests of the broader public ahead of one religious group. With a clumsy opponent and a really strong ability to work on his feed, Mitt would be fine – but he’s in a really delicate spot, his opponent is very clever, and he’s a fucking oaf when speaking extemporaneously.
David Koch
@Richard: actually, Mitt doesn’t identify with mexican field hands, but some of his friends own plantations and sweat shops.
Bago
Given the fact that he only mentions fathers and not mothers, the #waronwomen claim could easily be bolstered.
AA+ Bonds
DougJ I promise you for every post you write about how my mother is a coward for being a left-wing Catholic I will roll up into it and absolutely fuck things up by demonstrating how dumb you look
Capiche?
David Koch
Doug,
better title: ♫♫South of the border, down Mexico way.♫♫
gbear
‘They can never cross that line…’
I’ve got Bright Lights and Pour Down Like Silver burned onto one CD and it’s been about the only thing I’ve been listening to in my car for the last two weeks. I cannot get tired of it.
cathyx
Boy DougJ, you sure hit a nerve with AA+Bonds. Is he feeling Catholic guilt about his faith?
bemused
The cookie bashing just floored me. What a idiotic thing to say. He didn’t have any idea where those cookies came from. Some sweet grannie could have baked them. No class for all of his privileged life. Commenting on the food in any way other than positive or pleasantly neutral is a no no on the campaign trail or for any politician in general. He’s been around the political block for a long time and he hasn’t learned this. He is not a smart man.
Mitt hasn’t been out of touch. He’s never been in touch.
gbear
@General Stuck:
I’m waiting for the first time Mitt uses that line to Obama’s face and get’s asked what he’s been doing for the last five years. I think it’s kind of an OMG trainwreck of a selling point for the Romney campaign (despite the dogwhistle aspects).
lamh35
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Liberty’s choice of Romney leads to angry student response
priscianusjr
“
Calouste
@gbear:
I guess it’s all in the Karl Rove strategy of projecting your weaknesses on your opponent, but Romney’s weakness is a bit too glaring and the counter is a bit too obvious and easily understandable for it to work. I assume Romney has a reply to “what have you done the last five years”, (although his campaign hasn’t really shown massive competency so far, so maybe he hasn’t), but I wouldn’t be surprised if he screws up the delivery (see “the trees are the right height”, which he apparently said four or five times).
Jager
@Violet: He didn’t love America enough to get rid of the sister wives.
My Great Grandfather had six wives,one at a time though. The old boy married the last one when he was 71 and produced his 10th kid. My Grandpa, the oldest kid, was 50 years older than his baby brother and 25 years older than his “stepmother”
Bago
I don’t particularly understand why “race” is used as a determinant factor in exchanges. It is a factor of genetic determination of melanin counts, just in the same way genetics factor into an extra toe. The entire concept of “race” is a linguic artifact, if anything. If your language uses gendered pronouns your neural network will develop differently than a non gendered language. Language defines civilization. Genetics are just a manner of creating enough proteins and transport webs to deliver enough oxygen and sugar to power a brain, which synthesizes external signals into an abstraction layer capable of emitting signals to communicate with external entities.
The bible is what it is, accounting of begats and tribal mores, but one of the truest statements is the phrase “in the beginning there was the word.”. Think about it, civilization started when people started talking to each other. It really took off when people started writing things down into books. Hence a bible, a bibliography of texts. Mohammed saying that the ink of a scholar is more precious than the blood of a martyr, the whole Chinese monastery tradition.
Tldr; I’m saying a human is 90% memories and language, and roughly 10% genetics. Discriminating on genetics would be as stupid as denying stephen hawking an education.
HRA
@bemused:
Mitt has never been gracious. Gracious is what anyone should be as a guest. I even think he has an absolutely difficult time conversing with people in certain scenarios. That photo op was a bust. Even Palin (arghh!) would have done better.
Re: McCain’s birth -I was under the impression through experiences of family members that the birth of a child while on military duty by U.S. citizens in a foreign country gave the child instant natural U.S. birth.
General Stuck
@gbear:
I honestly don’t think Romney is racist, but is so clueless on the state of race relations in this country, and probly doesn’t see the dogwhistle aspect of what his campaign team is feeding him. He is in for an education though.
bemused
@HRA:
You’re right…even Palin would have had more sense than to dis the cookies. I can’t stop laughing. Mitt really is pathetic at “human discourse”, among other things.
General Stuck
@efgoldman:
That would be my prediction
gaz
@Warren Terra: I’ve got a navajo friend, who by accident of his parents marital circumstance ended up with the last name of Galvez.
He’s brown w/ brown eyes, black hair etc.
He gets confused for someone of mexican ancestry all the time – although to my eyes, he doesn’t really look like a mexican.
He doesn’t live in Arizona, but if he did… who knows?
My little brother is part Filipino, and he gets the same.
My white wife gets the same, mostly because of brown hair, brown eyes and fluent spanish. technically she’s whiter than I am. heh
Profiling is stupid.
Mnemosyne
@Corey:
It’s well-documented that Mitt’s grandfather was a polygamist — that was the reason he and his wives fled to Mexico in the first place.
I agree that you can’t then further infer that Mitt (or even George) also believes in polygamy, but I don’t agree that we should cover up facts because it makes Grandpa Romney look bad.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, I think people are forgetting that one of the birther claims against Obama is that both parents have to be natural-born citizens but Obama Sr. wasn’t, so therefore Obama is ineligible.
If the Romney sons are going to spout birther bullshit, I think it’s completely fair game to point out that, by birther standards, Mitt doesn’t qualify to be president, either, since his father was born in Mexico.
JPL
When the Mormons fled the United States, it was to avoid being arrested since polygamy was declared illegal. They gave up their citizenship. When Romney’s grandfather re-entered the country it was probably illegally. Romney’s an anchor baby. Oh well.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Tonal Crow: Because, according to the constitution, Bush cannot be VP, since he would not be qualified to be president until the last two years of Romney’s term.
kay
@lamh35:
That’s interesting. A split at Liberty U.
The fundamentalists don’t like the Mormon, huh?
Can we talk about that or has Jake Tapper declared it off limits?
I ask because politcal media spent two weeks talking about how “controversial” it was that Obama spoke at Notre Dame and before that they spent 6 months on “the black church”.
I’m confused on the Religion Rules here.
Cacti
I’m fine with Obama being the good cop to Schweitzer’s bad cop.
Especially considering that what Schweitzer said was 100% factual.
George Wilcken Romney was born in Colonia Dublan, Chihuahua, Mexico.
Colonia Dublan was one of many Mexican outposts set up by the Mormon Church in the late 1800s so that its polygamous leaders and other high profile families could flee the laws of the United States.
Mittens and fellow Mormons fancy these settlers as pilgrims, who were “persecuted” for their beliefs. In actuality, they were fugitives on the lam from criminal prosecution.
Cacti
The example of Mitt’s fugitive great grandfather Miles Park Romney, is instructive, as it begins a long chain of Romney men putting loyalty to the Mormon Church ahead of loyalty to their country.
Miles Park Romney – fled the US to escape criminal prosecution for his practice of Mormon-sanctioned polygamy
George Wilcken Romney – served a Mormon mission in Scotland and England, did not serve in World War II
Willard Mitt Romney – served a Mormon mission in France, did not serve in Vietnam
Willard’s five sons – all served Mormon missions, none served in the global war on terror
And dollars to donuts, when Mittens’ grandkids are of military age, none of them will be anywhere near the fighting during the next war that Grandpap “supports”.
Delia
@bemused:
I think it’s more than a lack of political smarts. Mitt just doesn’t seem to know anything about how to behave in polite society. It doesn’t seem exactly like Asperger’s. It’s more like people always told him he was so special he didn’t have to be polite to anybody else.
Bill
Big props for the Richard Thompson reference.
Mike in NC
@Bill:
Ann Romney, of course.
Palli
@Violet: @Martin:
It is also wrong, I know several people who loved this country very much but left it rather than be used to carry out bad international policy during the Viet Nam days.
There have always been ex-pats who felt they had to leave their country because of racism, economic inequality, war-mongering, sexism.
With election fraud and the activist Supreme Court, leaving this home country for some other nation that is trying harder to be democratic may be a real good choice someday soon.
Palli
@Cacti:
Mr. Romney said his five boys were serving the country on the campaign trail with him.
“How cool is that!”
nellcote
@Palli:
How many of them returned and ran for president?
SiubhanDuinne
@TooManyJens:
@bemused:
Somehow I’ve completely managed to miss whatever the cookie thing is, and when I Google “Romney cookie” I get no matches. What’s it all about?
PurpleGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: He was at a photo op of some sort — as a picnic — and he made a comment that he didn’t like the cookies he was given and asked if they were from the 7-11 bakery. Of course, 7-11 doesn’t have a bakery per se at its stores. The cookies came from a bakery in town. Total assshat.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: My search terms were Romney / 7-11 / cookie. A bunch of results, including this in the NYTimes
hecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/19/open-mouth-insert-foot-instead-of-cookie/
David Koch
@kay: You know IOKIYAR.
If a Democratic nominee was a Mormon, you know the “debate” over his/her religion by the Very Serious People of the Village would never end.
I’m old enough to remember when the VSP said you couldn’t run for president without foreign policy experience because the country was at war. Of course, now, it’s okay that Romney doesn’t have any foreign policy credentials.
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
Isn’t it Politics 101 to eat everything you’re offered on the campaign trail, or at least accept it and carry it around with you until you’re out of sight of the cameras?
PurpleGirl
@Mnemosyne: Yup. Total asshat. You do not make disparaging remarks about food you are given; maybe you don’t have to go wild over it but you don’t do what he did.
kledd
@efgoldman: No, the Canal Zone was leased. Remember that whole “Guantanamo isn’t the US, the Constitution doesn’t apply there” argument the Bush administration used? The Canal Zone was a similar kind of status.
bk
The problem is this: No matter how weird Romney’s background is; no matter how stiff he is; no matter how many times he and his wife opens their respective mouths and say something stupid…Obama is still black. Sad – but true.
AxelFoley
@Cato:
Another asshole troll, I see.
Palli
@nellcote:
Mitt Romney is not an ex-pat; George Romney was a child born of American parents. Be reasonable- Mitt Romney is totally unsuitable as President of the United States for a myriad
of reasons, but the geographic location of his father ‘s birth isn’t one of them.
Regarding the idea of Ex-Pats returning to run for President- I can think of a few I would have liked to see as President!
JR in WV
So we have video proof that Williard has never – NEVER – been in an 7-11! He’s not an American at all.
OK, I”ll give in to the possibility that he’s been in a 7-11, but was so busy shaking hands without making eye contact he couldn’t tell there wasn’t a bakery in the back room. Never seen the inside of a 7-11.
About as bad as George H W Bush not knowing about the laser bar-code scanners at the grocery store. It gonna be 90 here today in AZ, I can’t wait to get back to the green rolling hills of WV!
Violet
@Palli:
Oh, for goodness sake. Pointing out that Mitt Romney’s grandfather or great-grandfather or whatever “didn’t love America” is not wrong. It’s politics. It’s true that he left because he would have been arrested for his polygamy. So that means he left because he was breaking the law and didn’t want to stop breaking the law. If he truly loved this country he would have followed its laws. It’s exactly the kind of thing that puts Romney in the position of explaining why his grandfather chose to leave “the greatest nation on earth” instead of “following the law.” It’s a win.
What other people have chosen to do in leaving or staying in a country as a result of following their consciences is of no relevance whatsoever. So a bunch of commie hippies fled to Canada instead of fighting in Vietnam? And how is comparing Romney to those folks bad when you’re trying to undercut his standing with wingnuts?
Mnemosyne
@Palli:
Tell that to Romney’s son, who seems to think being born in Hawaii with one non-citizen parent disqualifies our current president. If it does, it disqualifies his own father just as much.
Seriously, you’ve never heard of the birther movement? You know, the guys who keep trying to insist that Obama can’t be president because his father wasn’t born here?
Palli
@Violet:
It is wrong because you can’t “undercut” others thinking by repeating the lies they tell themselves.
If you want to deal with this issue it will come to terms as you have blatantly stated: “If he truly loved this country he would have followed its laws.”
The fact is polygamy was a “religious” edict of a male supremacy cult. Why did he hold religious edit above the law of the land? Simply asking this questions dissolves the differences between the “Christian” and Mormon zealots – making them allies because they both believe in their Religious Doctrine over American Law and the Constitution.
Finally, I reserve the right to love my country and leave it if and when it becomes all apparent that America will never be “America again, the Land that never has been yet must be, the Land where every man is free.” (Apologies to American Langston Hughes)
Was this snark or pandering to the Right: “,,,a bunch of commie hippies fled to Canada instead of fighting in Vietnam” (your words). If you agree with those words you were no ally of my liberal mind then and are not now as the wars continue to suck our culture.
Romney is a better target as a selfish, uncaring, uncouth 1%er.
Andy Allen
All this political talk is all very well, but what we really want to know is whether the title to this blog post was a Richard and Linda Thompson reference.