Democrats are
taking a humorous swipe at Republican Mitt Romney's attempt
to turn his supporters' discards into campaign cash.
The Democratic
National Committee planned to launch an online auction
Friday to sell goods symbolizing the past policy positions
they say Romney has dumped.
The presidential
candidate and former Massachusetts governor this week
asked supporters to sell off old items to benefit his
presidential bid.
Romney campaign
manager Beth Myers sent an e-mail to supporters and asked
them to sell their old belongings on ''Mitt Market,'' an
online auction site. ''Do you have items lying around
that you don't use?'' the campaign asked on its site.
''From bicycles that the kids have outgrown to old
electronics or baseball cards, your stuff may be someone
else's treasure.''
Democrats then
turned the tables with a tongue-in-cheek stunt.
''It comes as no
surprise that a presidential candidate who has so
cravenly pandered to the right wing of his party by
auctioning off his past would ask supporters to do the
same,'' DNC spokesman Damien LaVera said. ''Unless
smooth-talking Mitt Romney was planning on recycling those
old tax-raising, pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-immigrant,
pro-gay rights, and pro-campaign finance reform
positions in a general election, we thought we'd
auction them off for charity.''
Democrats' online
packages include representations of past positions
Romney held while campaigning for public office in
Massachusetts, a state with a moderate-to-left
political profile. In the current presidential
campaign, Romney has turned away from positions he advocated
in his Massachusetts campaigns such as support for
abortion and gay rights and gun control measures.
Included in the
kit are a snowman to represent Romney's reluctance to
participate in a YouTube debate that included a question on
global warming from a melting snowman, a DVD with
examples of Romney's changed policy stances, and a
pair of flip-flop sandals.
Romney campaign
officials were not laughing.
''It just proves
that the last person they want to run against is a chief
executive like Governor Romney with a proven record of
accomplishment who is determined to change the status
quo of Washington and the free-spending, high-taxing
ways of the...Democrats,'' said Sarah Pompei, deputy
press secretary.
The DNC said it
would donate a matching amount from the auctions to a pet
shelter. That gibe was intended to highlight animal rights
activists' criticism of Romney for strapping the
family Irish setter in a dog carrier to the roof of
the car before taking his family on a 12-hour road
trip in 1983.
The dog survived
the ride. (Philip Elliott, AP)
