Romney's Vice-Presidential Padering Efforts In Full Swing...

So, the latest from the Willard Romney flip-flop express is, that Old Willard has made it to the elimination round of the John McCain V.P. sweepstakes (Dear God, no!) and has started his own PAC that according to a spokesman, "will be the organization that will allow Gov. Romney to stay politically active on behalf of the candidates and causes that he cares about." Like making himself the Vice Presidential nominee and continuing to hate poor people.

As part of his new duties of sucking up to major donors as well as Sen. McCain, Willard is going to be a busy boy in the coming weeks: He is hosting President Bush on May 28 at his home in Deer Valley, Utah for a Victory 2008 fundraiser. He's raising money for Rep. Tom Feeney in Florida on the 30th and then jets to Jacksonville for the Federation of Black Republicans convention (Wait, what? They know they're getting Willard, right?). In addition, he'll serve as a surrogate for McCain at two Republican conventions: in Colorado and in Texas. And he'll campaign with and raise money for Sen. McCain on June 11.

McCain veepstakes team: Don't say that we didn't warn you about letting Willard drive the "Straight Talk Express:"

Mitt Romney Disses Decorated WWII Veteran Who Also Happens To Be Bob Dole.

From CNN:

In a FOX interview Tuesday morning, Romney had said the former Kansas senator was “probably the last person I would have wanted to have write a letter for me.”

McCain immediately put out a statement condemning the comment, and told reporters on his campaign plane that Romney should apologize to Dole, a decorated World War II veteran, for the remark: "this is no way to end up this campaign, by attacking a genuine American war hero." His campaign also released a statement in which the Arizona senator called Romney’s remark “disgraceful.”

A short time later, Romney also referred to Dole as “an American hero.” He added that he would love to have the former senator’s support for his own bid.

“I think very highly of Sen. Dole,” he said, and had merely intended to criticize “the mental set that says we should choose our nominee based on how many years they’ve served and how long they’ve waited in line.” He added that he did not think McCain will benefit from the letter.

On Monday, Dole sent Rush Limbaugh defending John McCain as a "mainstream conservative," in reaction to the talk show host’s attempts to rally grassroots conservative support against the Arizona senator.

Romney unsuccessfully attempted to reach Dole by telephone Tuesday morning to clarify his statements.

Bob Dole is the last person...um...I mean American hero...Um...I can't...Stop...Flip flopping...

The "last person," Willard? Really? Personally I would have gone with Charles Manson or Osama Bin Laden as the "last person" I would want writing a letter on my behalf. Or maybe Paris Hilton. I'm not a huge Bob Dole fan or anything, but he probably wouldn't have cracked my top 1000. Who is handling this guy? Is there actually a human being under that well quaffed visage? Is there a bigger phony currently running for office in any election?

Romney Loses Florida Primary

(Associated Press):

Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of next week's contests across 21 states.

McCain and Romney clashed early and often, in personal appearances and paid television advertising, in a bruising week of campaigning in Florida.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said his career as a private businessman made him perfectly suited to sit in the Oval Office with a recession looming. Sen. McCain argued he knew his economics well enough, and that his career in the military and in Congress made him the man to steer the country in an age of terrorism.

By the campaign's final hours, the two men hurled insults at one another, each saying the other hoped to travel a liberal road to the presidential nomination in a party of conservatives.

Romney attacked McCain for his signature legislation to reduce the role of money in politics, for his position on immigration and for his support of an energy bill that he said would have driven up consumer costs.

"If you ask people, 'look at the three things Senator McCain has done as a senator,' if you want that kind of a liberal Democrat course as president, then you can vote for him," Romney told campaign workers. "But those three pieces of legislation, those aren't conservative, those aren't Republican, those are not the kind of leadership that we need as we go forward."

McCain had a ready reply. "On every one of the issues he has attacked us on, Mitt Romney was for it before he was against it," he said. "The truth is, Mitt Romney was a liberal governor of Massachusetts who raised taxes, imposed with Ted Kennedy a big government mandate health care plan that is now a quarter of a billion dollars in the red, and managed his state's economy incompetently, leaving Massachusetts with less job growth than 46 other states."

That wasn't all, either.

McCain aired radio commercials criticizing Romney, and his campaign Web site has an ad superimposing Romney's face on the image of a windsurfing Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee.

The Romney campaign also reported numerous negative phone calls, accusing him incorrectly of supporting taxpayer-funded abortions, opposing President Bush's tax cuts and favoring direct talks with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The McCain campaign said it was not responsible for the calls.

This is a pretty big loss for Team Willard. I can't say I'm all that surprised. I'm sure he has even more xenophobic fear-mongering, lies about his record, negative ads and other divisive political tricks up his sleeve in the coming weeks...