So Many Republican Hypocrites, So Little Time

February 8, 2008 | SEND TO A FRIEND | GET EARLY NOTICE OF THE HOTW

Mitt Romney

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

How is Mitt Romney a hypocrite? Let us count the ways.

Actually, we'll turn it over to the Harvard Crimson and an insightful student op-ed on just one of Romney's many pandering turnabouts to try and capture the right-wing vote in the primaries. Fittingly, the commentary is entitled, "Romney's Immigration Hypocrisy":

In his quest to win conservative votes, Romney has lately toughened his tone against Mexican immigrants. His latest stance is that the border must be "secured" and that all migrants without work permits should be forced to leave the U.S. and apply for legal residency from their home countries.

To be sure, Romney's inconsistency on tough issues is widely recognized: He was pro-choice and then pro-life; he supported gun control and then he rejected it; he backed same sex marriage and then he opposed it. Yet, on the issue of immigration, he has not only been inconsistent, but revealed himself to be a hypocrite—and not just because he hired migrants without work permits to mow his lawn.

The fact is that Romney's great grandfather, Miles Park Romney, and numerous other Mormons who practiced polygamy, fled across the U.S. border to seek protection in Mexico in 1884. They went to Mexico to avoid the investigations into their marriage practices ordered by the U.S. Congress, according to reports by Associated Press.

Miles Park Romney, who had five wives, took his children with him, one of whom was Romney's grandfather. He and his fellow Mormons crossed into Mexico where they managed to get protection. Miles Park stayed in the northern areas of Mexico for 28 years, until 1912. This is why Romney's father was born in Chihuahua, Mexico.

"Harassed, hunted and persecuted because of their practice of plural marriage, a band of faithful Saints left the United States with mixed emotions on 5 March 1884 and crossed the border into Mexico, seeking refuge and the right to live their religion in peace," recounts the Encyclopedia of Latter-Day Saint History with regard to the earlier Romney's exodus, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Anna Amelia Pratt was born in the U.S. but also migrated to Mexico seeking protection because she was the granddaughter of Mormon apostle Parley Pratt, who had 12 wives and had also crossed the border seeking refuge. In Mexico she met Gaskell Romney, Mitt Romney's grandfather. Their marriage took place in 1895 in Dublan, Mexico, and their children were born there.

Many of Mitt Romney's relatives still live in the 5000-person, largely Mormon community of Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua. "There are now 3 million Mormons in Mexico. Their missionaries are literally everywhere. There were also still some of the Hatch family at Colonia Juarez just a few years ago," says religion writer John Hart, as quoted by Suzan Mazur.

In today's Republican party, it is acceptable to make pernicious remarks against Hispanics in the name of border security. Outright racism is only thinly veiled. But it's especially ironic that Mitt Romney, for the sake of political expediency, now attacks the immigration of citizens from the very same country that gave protection to his great-grandfather, grandfather and father and still hosts his cousins, nephews and nieces.

Mitt employed illegal immigrant landscapers to groom the grounds of his mansion, but he's against them working in the United States. What more do you need to know?

Mitt Romney, just change your middle name to hypocrisy. It would add some veracity to your foundering, now suspended presidential campaign. Perhaps the Republican voters saw your hypocrisy for what it is.

Remember our motto: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Catch up with you soon.