Romney’s gift to Democrats

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/20/romneys_gift_to_democrats/

Thursday, Sep 20, 2012 11:17 AM EDT
Romney’s gift to Democrats
The ripple effects from his leaked video comments will extend far beyond the presidential race
By Alex Seitz-Wald


While talk of Romney’s comments about the “47 percent” may be ebbing a bit from cable news, Democrats have seized on the comments in House and Senate races, where the ripple effects might eclipse the initial splash. With the comments, Romney handed at least Democratic candidates a potent weapon to use against their Republican opponents in blue or bluish states and districts. Not only have at least a dozen Democrats called on their Republican opponents to repudiate Romney, but the remarks have allowed the campaigns to reheat old embarrassing comments by their opponents to use against them with new relevance and effectiveness.

Last night, the campaign of Democrat Pete Gallego — who is running against Rep. Francisco Canseco in a Texas district that represents one of the Democrats’ pickup opportunities — sent a video to reporters from January in which the freshman Republican echoed Romney in saying that half the country bears the “burden” while “half of the American people do not pay a cent in taxes.” (That’s not actually true. Even the 47 percent who don’t pay federal income taxes do pay plenty of other federal and state taxes.) “Like Mitt Romney, Congressman Canseco demonizes half of Americans,” Gallego spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña said in a statement.

Colorado Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter dug up audio of Republican challenger Pete Coors joking that people on food stamps are “redneck[s].” In New York, the Romney comments allowed Democrat Mark Murphy, running against ethically questionable Rep. Michael Grimm of Staten Island, to do the same. “It’s worth recalling that, in a recent debate on NY1, Grimm said 47 percent of Americans do not pay any federal taxes, which is a vicious and divisive lie,” Murphy said in a statement.

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“Republican Senate candidates in moderate-to-left-leaning states who need to keep the Democratic base pacified and still pull a sizable portion of independents in order to win could very well be hurt by this,” GOP strategist Ford O’Connell told the Hill.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Mitt-boating; the new political strategy.

Mitt-boating: adj. - Putting a candidate in the same political boat as Mitt Romney.