COMMENTARY | A super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich has launched an attack against Mitt Romney. A documentary released by the group titled “When Mitt Romney Came to Town” slams Mr. Romney for his time at Bain Capital. The documentary also comments on Romney’s proclivities for expensive real estate and shows him speaking French. Perhaps the French portion was to invoke images of former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Texas Governor Rick Perry has also weighed in calling Romney’s actions while at Bain Capital “vulture capitalism.” Should Romney’s challengers tone down their rhetoric and pull their punches in order not to damage the presumptive nominee? Or, should they launch everything in the arsenal in order to prevent Romney from garnering the nomination?
My belief, and my advice to Romney’s rivals, is that they should challenge Romney on those points where they believe him to be weak. However, in doing so they must remain true to their own convictions. Were a candidate to find himself to the left of Romney on a position it would do that candidate no good to weaken his own core positions by attacking Romney along a line that some others would take against him. For those candidates on Romney’s right, such as Mr. Perry and Mr. Gingrich, how does criticizing one of the foundations of conservatism, capitalism, serve the interest of conservatives? Mr. Romney is not my first choice to be the Republican nominee and there are wide swaths of his record where I can find disagreement. Can his rivals not also do this without castigating him using the very language of the left that conservatives so despise?
The harsh criticism of Romney’s work at Bain Capital even put some high profile people such as Rush Limbaugh in the somewhat awkward role of defending the former Massachusetts governor. Limbaugh believes that these attacks are only minor skirmishes compared to the major assaults that Obama and his allies will unleash on Romney, should he become the nominee. Romney rival Rick Santorum also had to defend Romney, something that I am sure he did not wish to do at this critical juncture in the campaign.
Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum should attack Mitt Romney. However, they should attack him for his indefensible, senseless adherence to Romneycare. They can further attack him for his changing positions on most of the social issues that are important to conservatives. They can chide him for his belief in man-made global warming. Just do not attack Romney on the points where he does agree with the vast preponderance of conservative thought. Those attacks will be ably carried out by the left.