So the Guvnah has started to, uh, massage* the various parts of the Republican body politic:
Friends and supporters of Governor Mitt Romney have established apolitical action committee that has lavished more than $250,000 onRepublican candidates and county GOP organizations across the nationsince July, apparently laying the groundwork for a potentialpresidential run for the Massachusetts politician in 2008…
”What the governor is doing is smart politics," said Luke Byars,executive director of South Carolina’s Republican Party, which hoststhe first presidential primary in the South. ”Our motto at theRepublican National Convention was, ‘We elect presidents.’ If you’regoing to be successful in your run, you have to come through SouthCarolina."
Uh… well, first you have to come through the South End. And Southie. And Southborough. And Southampton. All politics is still local, smart guy. While you’re counting your chickens before they hatch, we’re making omelettes.
*And yeah, let’s be clear what all these $250K donations are: they’re legal bribes. I don’t know how common they are — I’m guessing "very" — but it’s pretty damn unseemly anyway. Maybe it’s naïve to say so, but … *clink* … here’s to naïveté.
(Thanks to Oliver Willis for the steer — how did we let ourselves get scooped by a guy who doesn’t live here anymore? Gah.)
He’s entitled to do that. Dems interested in national office do the same thing. Like John Kerry
It’s not just that, it’s that he’s making these moves at the same time as running for re-election and denying that he’s running for president in ’08.The voters of Massachusetts have a right to know that if we vote for Romney in ’06 we’re really voting for Healey in ’08.