Further On Down The Road: Your Week In Republican Politics

The conventional wisdom has it that Mitt Romney mopped the floor with Newt Gingrich in Florida, and while I do not share the view that his was a come-fr0m-behind victory, Gingrich’s collapse was pretty amazing.

But the victory in the fourth primary-caucus go round of the year further confirms that Romney is a candidate at odds with himself and very much at odds with the today’s Republican Party because to win the Sunshine State resoundingly he had to lurch to the left on Medicare and immigration policy.

“We will never go after Medicare or Social Security, we will protect those programs,” Romney told a crowd of senior citizens. “[I]f I’m president, I will protect Medicare and Social Security for those that are currently retired or near retirement, and I’ll make sure we keep those programs solvent for the next generations coming along.”

Most Republican proposals to phase out Medicare include a caveat that current seniors will see no change, but Romney is saying that phasing out the program for the indefinite future is a non-starter. That is at odds with his own plan, which is to phase out Medicare for just about everyone who isn’t already on or nearly eligible for the program and force future seniors to buy private insurance.

His pandering to Florida’s large Hispanic population bordered on the obscene.
Romney told them that he would sign a version of the DREAM Act “if it were focused on military service;” that is, illegal immigrants who entered the U.S. as children would be provided citizenship if they maintained a clean criminal record and joined the military. Pre-Florida Romney repeatedly said that he would veto any DREAM Act.

These flip-flops are unlikely to catch up to Romney during the primary season although they will put him in a world of hurts if he faces President Obama and has to explain to the elderly and immigrants, among other voters, why he talks out of both sides of his mouth on issues of such importance to them.

Everything was lined up and set to go: Donald Trump, the one-time presidential wannabe, birther and wingnut, was to announce his support of Newt Gingrich today in Las Vegas.

Then came word Trump was preparing to endorse Mitt Romney.

The screw-up reinforces that impression the the Gingrich campaign is held together by chewing gum and baling twine and was the second in as many days.

On Wednesday, Gingrich missed a meeting with Nevada Governor iBrian Sandoval in Carson City because it conflicted with a rally at a Reno brew pub.

Sustaining a trend that began with the Iowa caucuses on January 3, turnout was down in Florida and Mitt Romney need look no further than the nearest mirror to understand why.

In 2008, 1.95 million votes were cast in the Republican primary, compared to 1.67 million cast in 2012. But the clincher is that in counties where Newt Gingrich dominated, turnout was up while it was down in the counties where Romney dominated.
This pattern was evident in Iowa and South Carolina where turnout was on par with or higher than 2008 because these states have large rural populations likely to vote for anyone other than Romney.

The Republican obsession with the poor — that is telling them how to live their lives and not to make their lives better — has reached ludicrous new heights.

A bill introduced yesterday would require states to prevent welfare recipients from accessing or spending their benefits at strip clubs, casinos and liquor stores.

“It’s pretty rampant around the country,” said Representative Charles Boustany of Louisiana, the bill’s chief sponsor, who of course failed to produce credible evidence that is so. “This has really eroded the credibility of the TANF [Temporary Assistance For Needy Families] program in the eyes of the American taxpayer — a program that has been successful, by and large.”

Melissa Boteach, who manages the anti-poverty campaign at the liberal Center for American Progress, said that while “nobody thinks TANF money should be spent at strip clubs or casinos,” the House GOP focus was misplaced, and the problem overstated.

“It’s a decoy,” she said. “It’s not getting at the real issue of what’s going to address poverty.”

Doing a post on Republicans without using the word irony is like . . . well, it’s nearly damned impossible.

Today’s irony is brought to you by Newt Gingrich, who repeatedly pounds the news media for its manifold sins, chief among them being an elite. In fact, as Joe Gandelman or any other veteran journalist will tell you, we’ve been in his corner all along because the press likes a good fight and favors the underdog.

Michael Brendan Dougherty of Business Insider:

Most Americans would get a beer with Clinton. And thus they’d vote for him. But they’d rather have had Romney date their young daughter. And that’s a problem for Romney. . . . Romney is too distinguished by his success, by his good looks, his clean living, and picture-perfect family to be the vehicle through which a mass of today’s Americans express themselves in politics. We can forgive riches (George W. Bush), or a little vice (Clinton), or a good family life (Obama), so long as there is a little tinge of the frathouse or at least a cigarette habit to offset it. In a society that assumes equality–that we’re all basically the same–Mitt Romney just stands a little too tall and straight.