Republican Mitt
Romney has delighted in his attacks on Hillary Rodham
Clinton, questioning the Democratic presidential contender's
experience by labeling her an ''intern'' and saying
''she has never run a corner store.''
The Clinton camp
is fighting back with a singular rebuttal that harkens
back to the GOP's devastating attacks on Democrat John Kerry
in 2004. It's also sure to echo into next year should
Romney emerge as his party's presidential nominee.
''Hillary Clinton
needs no lessons on character from a man who switches
his positions on a daily basis,'' said campaign spokesman
Howard Wolfson.
Phil Singer,
another Clinton spokesman, said after Romney focused on
immigration a week ago: ''Considering how often he
flip-flops, we wouldn't be surprised if Governor
Romney later decides he's for sanctuary cities --
again.''
The singularity
of response, delivered regardless of what Romney says,
homes in on what proved to be one of Kerry's major
vulnerabilities: the perception his positions change
with the political winds.
Kerry delivered
President Bush a gift amid the 2004 campaign when the
Massachusetts senator said of a war-funding bill, ''I
actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted
against it.''
In the case of
Romney, another Massachusetts politician trying to reach
the White House, the flip-flop charge could carry equal
potency.
The former
governor acknowledges he's switched positions on abortion
rights, while he's also taken a no-new-taxes pledge that an
aide labeled ''political gimmickry'' during his 2002
gubernatorial campaign.
At the same time,
Romney is touting a constitutional amendment to ban
same-sex marriage after saying during a 1994 U.S. Senate
campaign that he'd be a better advocate of gay rights
than his opponent, Democrat Edward M. Kennedy. Romney
says he also opposed same-sex marriage in 1994 and is
as committed to opposing discrimination based on sexual
orientation today as he was 13 years ago.
''No matter how
long you've been in public office, the first time you're
running nationally, you're being defined in a national
context. The Clinton campaign is trying to make sure
that Mitt Romney is firmly perceived as a
flip-flopper,'' said Erik Smith, a veteran Democratic
strategist not working for any candidate this cycle.
Smith said the
label is especially troublesome for presidential
contenders because the public yearns to see them as
something more than political figures.
''A lot of people
laughed at George Bush flubbing sentences in 2000, but
a lot of people took that to be a sign he was like the rest
of us,'' Smith said. ''The more political you can make
someone, the less attractive they can be to people
weighing a presidential candidate.''
That concern
helps explain why Romney, the son of a three-term governor
who himself just finished four years in office, has taken to
describing himself more as the venture capitalist he
once was than the governmental figure he has become.
''I'm not in this
race for the next step in my political career. I don't
have a political career, to tell you the truth,'' he said in
September during a campaign swing through California.
Trying to appear
nonpolitical -- and point out those engaging in
rhetorical gymnastics -- also explains why Clinton's
Democratic rivals have pounced on the New York
senator.
During a debate
late last month, she offered a Kerryesque answer when
asked about New York governor Eliot Spitzer's
since-abandoned proposal to issue driver's licenses to
illegal immigrants.
''I did not say
that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why
Governor Spitzer is trying to do it,'' Clinton replied.
Rival Barack
Obama said later: ''This may be smart politics by
Washington's standards, but it's not what America needs
right now.''
Fellow Democrat
John Edwards said: ''Since the debate, we've continued to
hear spin, smoke and mirrors -- the same kind of double-talk
-- to get away from the very serious issues that are
in front of us in this campaign.''
Clinton accused
her male counterparts of ganging up on her, yet this past
week, she executed her own flip-flop to achieve clarity on
the issue.
Clinton announced
she opposed giving driver's licenses to illegals, but
when the debate moderator pressed her rivals for their point
of view, it was Obama -- not Clinton -- who offered a
convoluted response. (Glen Johnson, AP)
