Mitt Gets Pissed When Reporter Challenges His Lobbyist-Free Campaign Claims

Posted by Daniel DiRito, The All Spin Zone at 7:18 AM on January 18, 2008.

Mitt Romney has a propensity to finesse the facts. Yesterday, he had a confrontation with a reporter over his assertion that he doesn't have any lobbyists "running his campaign". I hate to burst the candidate's bubble, but that seems to have been a "Mittrepresentation".

I want to see Mitt Romney's dictionary. Given his frequent reliance on third tier definitions to justify his many inaccurate remarks, it has to be awfully ragged. In the following video, reporter Glen Johnson confronts Romney on his assertion that he doesn't have lobbyists running his campaign. Mitt attempts to nuance the definition of "running his campaign" with regards to Ron Kaufman, a Romney operative who is a well-known and well-connected lobbyist.

If this were the only incident of Romney mincing words, one might be inclined to disregard this latest episode. However, one would have to be blind to miss that the well-healed and carefully coifed candidate has done so on numerous occasions; not to mention the fact that he recently unveiled his umpteenth stump strategy as a non-establishment, change agent, Washington outsider. While the former governor is adept at covering his tracks, I suspect these tactics are wearing thin and appear far too coy for a number of voters.

I'm reminded of the GOP's frequent efforts to pejoratively peg Democratic candidates. They labeled John Kerry a "flip flopper" and they spent years attaching "Slick Willie" to President Clinton. With that in mind, I think its time to tag Romney with an appropriate alias.

A number of pundits have referred to Romney by his actual first name, Willard, and others have taken to calling the GOP candidate Mittens (think here kitty, kitty). Nonetheless, the existing choices just don't seem to capture Romney's political essence.

I think a concerted effort is warranted to help accurately identify and appropriately describe candidate Romney. In looking for a starting point, I couldn't help but recall Jon Lovitz' Saturday Night Live character, "Tommy Flanagan...The Pathological Liar".

Feel free to offer your suggestions in the comments and maybe we can start a list and have readers pick a favorite.

Also, don't hesitate to propose some new versions of existing words that define Romney's willingness to finesse the truth. The one that immediately came to mind is a "mittrepresentation"...which could easily be substituted for misrepresentation. Obviously, this would also work for misinformation, resulting in the word "mittinformation".

Tagged as: lobbyists, romney

Daniel DiRito is a blogger of The All Spin Zone