Associated Press
In last week's debate for the Republican presidential candidates, Mitt Romney put Rick Santorum on the defense over several issues, but at the top of the list was the former senator's vote for No Child Left Behind. Santorum expressed some regret for the vote, but said politics is a "team sport," and he was trying to support the Republican administration at the time.
The response drew boos from the audience.
Just as important, it also drew ridicule from Romney. The former governor said of Santorum the next day, "He talked of this of being 'taking for one the team.' I wonder which team he was taking it for. My team is the American people, not the insiders in Washington."
There is, however, a rather important detail that Romney hopes GOP voters won't notice: he supported No Child Left Behind, too. In fact, Romney was going after Santorum for holding a position that Romney happens to agree with.
BuzzFeed notes George W. Bush campaigning in support of Romney's gubernatorial campaign in October 2002, and applauding Romney for supporting the NCLB law.
Romney hasn't abandoned that position ... and his staff say there's nothing awkward about his attacking Santorum for taking the same side as he did.
"Gov. Romney's criticism of Santorum is that he voted for NCLB even though he said he was opposed on principle," said a Romney aide. "Typical insider."
This is a little tough to wrap one's head around. Santorum supported No Child Left Behind; Romney supported No Child Left Behind. Santorum sided with George W. Bush on the policy; Romney sided with George W. Bush on the policy. Santorum now regrets his vote; Romney still supports the education law.
So, Romney is going on the attack because Santorum took the same position Romney took, only Santorum now wishes he hadn't. Hmm.
Greg Sargent notes this afternoon that the oddity of a story like this won't necessarily cause much of a stir. Why not? Greg considers this compelling observation: "It's worth wondering whether Romney is benefitting from a kind of 'flip flop fatigue,' in which the crush of equivocations, reversals and rhetorical contortions has gotten so relentless and ubiquitous that people are too exhausted to bother tracking or objecting to them anymore."
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What Romney is saying, in effect, to Santorum is "you voted for it for the wrong reasons." Romney supported it, I suppose, because he thought it'd bring money to Massachusetts as opposed to taking one for the team - something nearly every Republican and most Democrats did along with Santorum.
Either way, in this clash of mental midgets what we have are two highly educated men arguing against federal money that would help produce more highly educated people. Just goes to show something that's been true for a long time: Some of the dumbed people around are among the most-highly educated.
By the way, didn't Pres. Obama say in his SOTU that our goal as a nation should be that everyone has a post-secondary education, not a university degree. Post-secondary can mean a lot of things.
What the hell does it matter what Obama actually said? What counts is what the repuknicans say that he said or say that he meant to say!
The actual truth has no relevance to the Corporately Owned Media. After all "he said - he said" and "both sides do it" is what is important for the media to relay to the ameriKKKan sheeple.
Well look at it from this viewpoint...Two college grads saying I got mind, the hell with the rest of you....but they insisted their kids go to college....??? Is there nothing that will disqualify you from running for POTUS. Racist, Theocrats, Segregationist, Liars....wow!!!
We need brain police?
Seriously.
Santorum wants to do away with college.
Romney wants to do away with education.
Actually Santorum wants to do away with all public education even on the state level.
Say, have you ever noticed how Santorum never utters the words "freedom" or "liberty?" His tongue would burst into flame and he would die if he did.
ALL of the Reptilicans are poison to the nation. The only difference is what flavor you prefer. Bush on steroids and PCP (Romney;) Christian post revolution Iran (Santorum;) a whole nation used for whacky social science experiments (Gingrich;) legalized drugs segregation and eventual Balkanization of the US (Paul.)
As savory a question as "how would you like to be executed?"
Hi Don,
This seems to explain most of the GOP policies this year.
Communism (kom-yuh-niz-uhm) noun
If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull$hit.
"Flip Flop Fatigue" I like that. Very apt. IMHO, Romney will be in a prime position to pivot after winning the nomination.
Sure, he's had to run waaaay to the right to win this nomination, but when Romney has to turn around and face Obama, I doubt he'll be easy to criticize for flipflopping at that point.
After all, nobody believed him when he changed his views to be 'severely' conservative, thus when he suddenly becomes a moderate again, nobody's going to say "Hey Mitt, you tricked us!"
It ain't no damn 'flip flop fatigue'!!! It's the damn Corporately Owned Media who will not call the 1/10th of 1%er Mittens out for being a serial liar! Because to do so would put their highly paid 'camera smiling' jobs in jeopardy.
Really?????
< !-- begin snark -- > SadOldVeteran < !-- end snark -- > ?
I say it again: more proof that the GOP is long dead.
So FOX is playing to an empty room? Rush is using paid actors to call in? No they are far from dead, unless you meant a clinical brain death "dead"
It doesn't matter because there are billionaires animating the corpse and grafting weapons onto it.
Pretty much anytime I hear these clowns speak, the following clip plays out in my mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0
Increasing jobs depends upon increasing consumer demand.
There are two ways to do that.
Increased population requires immigration because citizen birth rate is nearly identical to the birth rate. Population is increasing very slowly because we live longer.
Increased income typically requires increased education. Income almost doubles for each 2 years of college education.
Republicans are on record opposing education and outlawing abortion?
Romney wants to privatize education.
Santorum wants to do away with public education and college.
The only explanation is that conservatives have spent WAY too much time listening to this one.