Romney Was Against Rush Before He Was For Him

Last night Hugh Hewitt interviewed Mitt Romney about the phony smear of Rush Limbaugh.

Hugh portrayed Romney as being "on continual alert to the ever smaller news cycle" and attempted to pair up Romney with Fred Thompson as having immediately expressed support for Rush.

Hugh mentioned to Romney that he'd been getting emails asking "why is Governor Romney down on Rush. Did that catch you by surprise that somehow you’d become part of this story?" and Romney replied "Gosh, I didn’t know I had become part of the story."

It turns out that neither Hewitt nor Romney were telling their listeners the whole story, which is that Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden, had previously issued a statement on September 28th to the left-leaning Huffington Post saying, "Governor Romney would disagree with the negative characterization of those men and women who serve with honor and distinction in the United States Military. There may be disagreements with individual opinions, but no one would ever dispute the fact that those members of the military who disagree with the war have earned the right to express that opinion."

So Governor Romney, or at least his spokesman, fell for the phony Rush story hook, line, and sinker, and couldn't even take an hour to make a couple calls or research the story before issuing a statement -- to a liberal website, no less -- dissing Rush and his supposed anti-military comment.

And Governor Romney claimed he didn't know he'd become part of the story? Too smooth by half.

Romney's appearance on Hewitt's show was damage control, plain and simple.

I would have respected Romney much more if he had come on the show and told the whole truth. He should have said that his spokesman should have looked into the matter before issuing a statement that was critical of Rush Limbaugh's alleged statement. Further, Romney should have apologized to Rush, as the statement came from his campaign. In fact, Governor Romney should have been calling Rush, not Hugh Hewitt, who is a de facto member of Romney's campaign staff.

Of the leading Republican candidates, only Fred Thompson had the courage to promptly and unequivocally issue a statement defending Rush Limbaugh.

That's something conservatives are going to remember.