Mitt weighs in

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 14, 2007

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney-- who, as it turns out, was on the campaign trail in Illinois today, rather than staying in his home state to lobby the legislature on the Marriage Amendment-- issued a statement after the votes were counted:

Today's vote by the State Legislature is a regrettable setback in our efforts to defend traditional marriage.

"Our" efforts, Mitt? Sorry if I didn't notice how you were involved. True, after the legislature killed a similar amendment in 2002, you recruited a group of earnest Republican challengers to run against the Democrats who had thwarted the effort. But then your ace GOP staff aides encouraged those candidates not to emphasize the marriage issue. And guess what? They lost in November.

The Romney presidential-campaign statement continues:

Marriage is an institution that goes to the heart of our society, and our leaders can no longer abdicate their responsibility.

The first phrase of that sentence is content-free-- what political consultants call "a few nice words." The second phrase explains why I'm not on the Romney-for-President bandwagon.