How did Romney become governor of Massachusetts? Was it just that he seemed to be more moderate than he really is? Or was it his all-American good looks and charisma? I went to college there back in the early-’90s. Sure, there were conservatives like William Weld around, but Romney in Massachusetts is like, say, Ted Kennedy in Alabama (or at least Hillary Clinton in Alabama).
Anyway, here’s the Romney story for today:
Governor Mitt Romney leveled an unusually personal attack yesterday at the Supreme Judicial Court for legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, telling a group of conservative lawyers and judges that the justices issued the ruling to promote their values and those of “their like-minded friends in the communities they socialize in.”
Though Romney has criticized the SJC’s watershed 2003 decision many times before, the broadside he delivered at the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention in Washington, D.C., was an atypically sharp and direct attack on the four justices who found that the Massachusetts Constitution afforded gays and lesbians the right to marry.
“If a judge substitutes his or her values for those values that were placed in the constitution, they do so at great peril to the culture of our entire land,” he said.
The remarks won applause from the 500 lawyers, scholars, and others who packed a ballroom to hear Romney’s speech.
I have more on Romney and the anti-gay movement at The Reaction, along with a brief discussion of how Romney could emerge as the anti- or at least non-McCain candidate in ’08, that is, as the mainstream, establishment alternative to McCain.
We could be hearing a lot more from Romney in the months and years ahead. He has his virtues, I know, but let’s hope there’s much less of this anti-gay demagoguery.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.