In January 2012, Mitt Romney lied in a Florida debate claiming he never voted for a Democrat when a Republican was on the ballot and he was given the lair, liar, pants on fire graphic right here on Wake up America when we pointed to his 2007 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos where he admitted voting for Democrat, even though there was a Republican primary happening at the same time with Republicans on the ballot. It appears from Romney's recent complaints that what is perfectly acceptable, in his mind, to do to others, should not be done to him."In Massachusetts, if you register as an independent, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary," said Romney, who until he made an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1994 had spent his adult life as a registered independent. "When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I’d vote in the Democrat primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican.
Now, Mitt Romney is complaining and denouncing Democratic and Rick Santorum's efforts to have Democrats in Michigan do the very same thing as Romney himself has admitted to doing.... involve themselves in the opposing party's primary to influence the outcome.
Romney is going around in interviews calling it a "new low" in politics, saying it is "outrageous" and "disgusting." Yes, Romney is talking about lows, the man who did the very same thing he is criticizing to influence a primary, has made history with his 99 percent negative ad rating in Florida, his barrage of attacks against Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, some of which have been rated by fact checkers as outright lies.
In February 2012, I said Romney throws stones from a glass house and this is just another stone coming from another room made of glass.
To round out my use of old adages, now we see Mitt Romney being 'hoisted by his own petard' and bitterly whining about it.
For informational purposes, Michigan is an "open primary" state where voters from any affiliation may vote for the candidate of whatever party they choose.
Via FairVote.org: The crucial issue in open primary states is "crossover" voting, which can contribute to the victory of a nominee closer to the center or radically further away. It most often involves members of Party Y (either in an area dominated by Party X or when Party Y's nominee is a foregone conclusion) voting for the Party X candidate whose views are the most reconciliable with their own. Though this brings the race closer to the center, Democratic and Republican party establishments generally dislike open primaries.
Side Note- For those curious why only Romney and Santorum are dominating the news for the Arizona and Michigan, both Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich have been campaigning elsewhere with a delegate strategy and have not been active for the two primaries being held tonight
(Join us tonight as we live blog and have live discussions of exit polling and results from Michigan and Arizona, as they come in)