Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Which Myth Does Mitt Romney Believe: In Santa Claus or That His Super Pac is Independent and He Cannot Influence It

Well He Knows There is No Santa Claus

One of the great (?) changes in the political system wrought from the Supreme Court’s decision to allow unlimited money in campaigns is the creation of “Super Pac’s”  These entities are campaign organizations funded by unlimited anonymous donations that support a particular candidate, but (wink, wink, nod, nod) have to operate independently of the candidate.  The logic of the Supreme Court is that unlimited funding is equal, billionaires can contribute millions, just like a homeless person can contribute millions.

So seizing the opportunity, Mr. Romney got some of his friends and associates to set up a Super Pac on his behalf.

Restore Our Future is a PAC founded by some of Mr. Romney's most senior advisers and funded by his largest donors.

And guess what the PAC is doing, it is running a massive amount of anti-Newt Gingrich ads in Iowa, funded by the millions in unlimited contributions. 

In Iowa, it has pumped millions of dollars into ads attacking Mr. Gingrich for his ties to the mortgage giant Freddie Mac and his ethics violations while in the House, among other issues.

But Mr. Romney doesn’t want to be associated with the negativity, so he claims that all of this is taking place without his consent, and even more unbelievable, as something he does not even support.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, Mr. Romney kept his distance from the PAC and decried the campaign-finance system that has given rise to such entities, which can take unlimited donations and are not subject to the $2,500-a-person limit that applies to primary election campaigns.

Well everyone except Newt Gingrich is still laughing over that one. 

"His comments today are palpably misleading, clearly false and politics in its worst form," Mr. Gingrich told reporters at a campaign appearance at a snow-removal equipment maker in Ottumwa. He said it was "just purely dishonest" for Mr. Romney to say he could not influence a PAC founded by his former aides and financed by supporters of his presidential campaign.

As recently as July, Mr. Gingrich said, Mr. Romney's campaign was welcoming the creation of Restore Our Future and encouraging contributions.

See Mr. Gingrich decided he didn’t need things like a campaign staff, organizations and all that utter clutter, he was going to run and win an unconventional campaign.  Now that it turns out that strategy may not be working, Mr. Gingrich too is joining the “Super Pac” bandwagon.

Mr. Gingrich has his own Super PAC, Winning Our Future, which longtime aide Rick Tyler joined just this week.

But Mr. Gingrich said Winning Our Future should keep its efforts positive and promised to "disown" it if it turns negative.

Nobody should take Mr. Gingrich at his word on this, because if his Super Pac can only say positive things about Mr. Gingrich, well, what exactly are they going to fill the ads with.  Why bother with 30 seconds or 60 seconds of empty space.

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