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  When the MA Supreme Judicial Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage took effect in May 2005, Republican Gov Mitt Romney’s first impulse was to run out to Utah, “my home away from home,” he calls it, and denounce the decision as, “a blow to the family.” Opponents claim that marriage is the exclusive domain of a man and a woman. Or in Utah’s case, a man and a woman and a woman and a woman…
“America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world if we suffer the collapse of the family here at home,” Romney also told the gathering.
One could argue that George Bush’s America leads the family of nations the way Charlie Manson led his family – and those who refused to get into the van that night back in 2003 for the drive over to Roman Polansky’s house to kill Saddam Hussein and paint al Qaeda on the walls in oil, showed good judgment.
“America’s culture is also defined by the fact that we are a religious people,” Romney told his co-communicants and primary financial supporters in Utah. “We recognize our God not only in our Declaration of Independence, but even in our currency. And we are also unique in that we recognize that the family is the fundamental building block of American society.”
The family is unique to America? This line of reasoning could easily get out of hand.
Well of course it’s all silly semantics, treacle for his base, and predicated on a narrow, self-serving definition of “family.” Single parents, as well as childless and gay couples, are all marginalized by cultural elitists like Romney. Never mind that Utah was only allowed to become the 45th state in 1896 after it finally outlawed polygamy. Apparently Heather can’t have two mommies, but she can have twelve. Cultural conservatives love to quote our founding documents, but they cherry-pick from them the way a tout at the track works a racing sheet. Romney must have missed the “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” bit.
Now that his association with the land of Kennedys and cod has become a liability for the ambitious and socially conservative would-be presidential candidate, he’s done his best to distance to himself from the Bay State. But fast forward a year, and all that rhetoric sounds emptier than ever now that Romney’s stewardship over the Big Dig has come into serious question.
The Big Dig (frankly, it’s nowhere near as big as the Chunnel), is a $14.6 billion cost-over-run, corruption-laden and ten-bloody-years-overdue white elephant that began to show its physical warts last winter when the new bridge (which looks like a crystal chandelier hanging in a 7-11) started dropping ice bombs from its upper supports onto the cars below. And then there was the Big Leak. Thousands of them, actually. Nothing at all, they assured us. Perfectly normal.
But dodging accountability was no longer an option for Mitt when a 2 ½ ton concrete panel dropped from the ceiling of the Ted Williams tunnel onto the windshield of a car, killing the passenger, a 38-year old Boston mother. Not a single-mother, thank goodness. Because that might have just been God’s will.
Romney, consummate pol that he is, sensed that this might crimp his future plans, and immediately sprang into action, petitioning the state legislature to take investigative powers away from Republican MassPort appointee, former state senator Matt Amorello, who has been a huge Romney booster since way back in 1994 when Mitt ran unsuccessfully against Sen Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
But now Romney intends to get to the bottom of this mess himself. Might have he intervened earlier? Say, when any one of the six indictments for corruption and fraud on the Big Dig were handed down – including one charging a contractor with providing inferior concrete. (Who needs the good stuff? It’s only holding back Boston Harbor.)
Utah’s senior US Senator Orrin Hatch told the Boston Globe that Romney is a “terrific manager.” And that may be true when it comes to pulling Salt Lake City’s prayer beads out of the fire in the midst of an Olympic bribery scandal. But Mitt’s not the white knight in this story. He’s in the middle of this shit storm. And with the exception of Lt. Gov Kerry Healy who would so dearly love to succeed him, the Governor is on his own.
At best, he’s a long-shot for the Republican presidential nomination, and being LDS is only slightly less than half of his electability problem (a recent LA Times/Bloomberg poll shows that 37% of Americans wouldn’t vote for a Mormon for a president under any circumstances). Could it be (proven) that Romney turned a blind-eye to the Big Dig’s ethical, financial, and legal troubles because it’s prime contractor, Bechtel Corp – where Reagan cabinet members George Schultz and Caspar Weinberger migrated from – could, if they had reason to, raise a tunnel-load of dough for Mitt’s presidential campaign? That’s what Independent gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos thinks.
Boston Democratic Mayor Tom Menino has called for an independent 3rd party investigation – one that doesn’t include MassPort, the MA Turnpike Authority, or the Federal Highway Adm’n. And even with $3 a gallon gas, 78% of Boston commuters are avoiding the tunnel. So locally, Mitt’s got some explaining to do.
Romney may continue to make moralizing points with social conservatives on same-sex marriage, stem-cell research, and clean needles for junkies – even though he lost all three fights in the MA legislature – but preening and posing aside, what’s a lame-duck Governor with a lackluster record and major scandal around his neck to do on the eve of his presidential candidacy? He still has prayer, but not a prayer.
~Jack McEnany
Also see: Mitt Hypocrite
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