As I mentioned yesterday, Mitt Romney's latest attempt at a winning campaign narrative is based around the idea that as a "washington outsider," only he is the true "candidate of change." In Romney's telling, his experience as CEO of Bain Capital, a fabulously successful equity start-up and leveraged buyout fund, terrifies DC lobbyists.
At this point, Mitt has made so many strange claims about his past history that I figured this one would just get quietly added to the list and then ignored. Boy was I wrong.
Its long been clear that the other Republican candidates loathe Romney - watch just part of one debate and you'll see what I mean. What I hadn't yet understood, however, was that these feelings were shared by the traveling campaign press corps. Here, for example, is Ana Marie Cox's explanation of the behind-the scenes dynamic this has created:
One of the hallmarks of the Romney campaign is the way reporters, barred from access to the actual candidate, spend the journey from event to event talking about the candidate's latest distortions/exaggerations/evasions.
If there's one thing traveling reporters can't stand, it is being treated as second-class citizens. Eventually this was bound to catch up with Romeny. Eventually being yesterday.
Mitt Romney scolded a veteran campaign reporter in South Carolina Thursday after being challenged on claims about lobbyists’ involvement in the campaign.
Holding a news conference in front of the pen rack of a Columbia Staples store, Romney wanted to tout his “strategy for a stronger economy.”Answering what reporters later called a routine question, Romney took a veiled shot at Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has jumped to a lead in Palmetto State polls.
“I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign,” Romney said. “I don’t have lobbyists that are tied to my — ”
Glen Johnson, an Associated Press reporter who was sitting on the floor as he typed on his laptop computer, interrupted to point out that Ron Kaufman, one of Romney’s top advisers, is a lobbyist.“That’s not true, governor!” Johnson interjected, according to CBS News’ Scott Conroy, who was there. “That is not true. Ron Kaufman is a lobbyist.”
CBS has posted the video.
“Did you hear what I said — did you hear what I said, Glen?” Romney replied. “I said, 'I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign,' and he’s not running my campaign. He’s an adviser. And the person who runs my campaign is [campaign manager] Beth Myers, and I have a whole staff of deputy campaign managers.”
Kaufman has traveled on Romney’s campaign plane. Johnson asked if that means Kaufman is “window dressing — he’s a potted plant on your plane?”
“Ron is a wonderful friend and adviser,” Romney said. “He’s not paid — he’s an adviser, like many others. But I do not have lobbyists running my campaign.”
“Glen, I’m appreciative that you think that’s funny,” Romney said. “But Ron Kaufman is not even in on the senior strategy meetings of our campaign.”
Kaufman, a longtime friend of the Romney family, is chairman of the executive committee of Dutko Worldwide, a well-connected lobbying and public affairs firm. He is the Republican National Committeeman for Massachusetts and was White House personnel and political director under President George H.W. Bush.
Unfortunately for Romney, the reporter he "scolded" wasn't just any old reporter. It was Glen Johnson, a senior reporter for the Associated Press, who then went on to file a report that will run in newspapers across the country. Here, for example, is the lead from the version running in the LA Times:
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday he could govern in the country's best interest because "I don't have lobbyists running my campaign." But Washington insiders are on his senior staff and registered lobbyists are top advisors.
One advisor, Ron Kaufman, chairman of Washington-based Dutko Worldwide, regularly sits across the aisle from Romney on his campaign plane, participates in debate strategy sessions and last week accompanied Romney to a lunch in Myrtle Beach, S.C., with Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).Another advisor, former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), is chairman of Romney's policy committee. He also is chief executive of Clark & Weinstock, and his corporate biography says he "provides strategic advice to institutions with matters before the legislative and executive branches of the federal government."
A third advisor, former Sen. Jim Talent (R-Mo.), who was at Romney's victory party in Michigan on Tuesday, is co-chairman of Fleishman-Hillard Government Relations and also is a registered lobbyist, according to federal records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
What's most amazing to me about this is how it all came about. Back to Ana Marie Cox:
In Michigan, the frustration over Romney's complete disingeniousness about "bringing your jobs back" conjured a rare degree of camaraderie, and we caucused together and came up with a list of questions that we agreed to ask no matter who got called on at the next press conference. For instance: "If Bain Capital was going to invest in the auto industry, what segment would it invest in, and how would that help Michigan?" Salon's Mike Madden actually got that in, but it elicited a non-answer: "I've been out of the private sector too long to advise people on that kind of thing." In other words, his experience in the private sector is relevant, until he's called upon to use it.
We in the blogosphere often criticize the media for the way it often behaves like an unthinking herd, but in this case it turns out that herd behavior might actually at times have some benefits. Romney wasn't addressing some very serious questions about his own statements and plans, and rather than let it go, the traveling press corps decided to use their collective power to force the issue.
More like this, please!
UPDATE: Ah.... maybe not. I missed the part of this story that pertained to McCain.
Attempting to shift the focus off Romney, Madden pointed out that Sen. John McCain frequently complains about special interests and Washington lobbyists "yet those representing them run his campaign."
McCain, however, has never said he won't work with lobbyists or that they do not work in his campaign. McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, is a former lobbyist and his firm has not lobbied for any client since December 2005.
I'll let Ezra do the analytical duties:
So McCain, who has built a career around "straight talk," campaign finance reform, and fighting special interests ("I make a lot of people in Washington mad," he says in his commercials) actually has a lobbyist campaign manager. But this doesn't matter, we're told, because unlike Romney, he hasn't said he doesn't have a lobbyist campaign manager. He's just been able to get the press to report on him as if he were pure as the driven snow and animated by a deep hatred of corporate interests and the whole corrupt, is irrelevant.
The difference between Romney and McCain is that the press hates Romney for lying to them, while McCain has figured out how to get them to lie for him.
As it turns out, this really is still the unthinking herd behavior at work. They've been slighted by Mitt, so they attack him for it. Then, they praise and defend McCain for not acting like Mitt, even though McCain's behavior demonstrates an equally egregious flaw. Brilliant.
Why, oh why, can't we have a better press corps?
UPDATE II: Follow-on analysis from Steve Benen here.
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