Mitt v. McCain, McCain v. Mitt, and on and on

by Jill Zuckman

Henniker, N.H. – What if you went to a popular New Hampshire spot and couldn't find anyone who actually votes in the state?

That's what happened to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Wednesday when he visited Pat's Peak, a popular ski area where he says he taught his five sons to ski. The place was packed with children, a.k.a non-voters, as well as vacationers from places such as Ireland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Israel and Canada, a.k.a. non-New Hampshire voters.

But perhaps the real point of his visit was to level a couple zingers at Sen. John McCain, his closest rival in the New Hampshire primary. Romney said it is "totally appropriate" to "compare and contrast" the candidates' positions before criticizing McCain on illegal immigration and taxes. He also accused McCain of sending a mailer to voters that attacked him personally.

The back and forth between the two campaigns and the dissecting of comments went long past the Pat's Peak visit and into the night. Let's review the bidding.

Romney launched the first salvo, saying that McCain was "wrong to say all illegal aliens can stay here permanently" and "he was wrong to vote against the Bush tax cuts."

McCain mocked Romney, saying his campaign is in a "tailspin," and called his attacks "desperate, flailing and false."

The Romney campaign put out a press release called "The Straight Talk Detour," citing one old quote from McCain that "amnesty has to be an important part" of comprehensive immigration reform.

But the McCain campaign had its own store of quotes to sort through. In a release entitled "The More Mitt Romney Speaks, The Less Believable He Becomes," it appears that Romney was once quite supportive of comprehensive immigration reform, including its path to citizenship plan.

"I don't believe in rounding up 11 million people and forcing them at gunpoint from our country ... With these 11 million people, let's have them registered, know who they are. Those who've been arrested or convicted of crimes shouldn't be here; those that are here paying taxes and not taking government benefits should begin a process towards application for citizenship, as they would from their home country," Romney told the Lowell Sun in March, 2006.

In a November 2005 interview with the Boston Globe, Romney said McCain's immigration proposals are "quite different" from amnesty, because they required illegal immigrants to register with the government, work for years, pay taxes, not take public benefits, and pay a fine before applying for citizenship.

Romney tried to inoculate himself against just such charges of flip-flopping, telling reporters Wednesday that he knows "there are some - particularly in opposing campaigns – who will try to look at old quotes, and perhaps take them out of context and perhaps not, and go back 14 years or 15 years, and say, 'You said this here, you said that there."

Meanwhile, Romney aides want people to know that The Concord Monitor editorial vivisecting Romney on Sunday put him in good company. Apparently, the newspaper also attacked Ronald Reagan ("simply too old, too doctrinaire, too inexperienced,") and George H.W. Bush ("He is widely regarded as a moderate. He is not.")

Last but not least, the McCain campaign said Romney's accusation that it had sent a mailer with a "personal attack" against him left out a few facts. McCain officials say their mailer was in response to a Romney mailer attacking McCain for supporting Social Security benefits for illegal immigrants, which Fox News' Chris Wallace said was "not true," and The New York Times said was "misleading."

The McCain mailer posed this question to voters: "Why is Mitt Romney Attacking John McCain? To Hide Another Flip-Flop." It goes on to quote news sources saying Romney used illegal immigrants for lawn work and that he would allow illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship and permanent residency.

And the McCain mailer did not leave it there. "How many times has Mitt Romney flip-flopped?" it asked. And then it listed "immigration, taxes, gun rights, abortion, campaign finance reform."

To be continued…