Another but Less-Noticed Romney Flip-Flop

Mitt Romney's been on a tear regarding campaign-finance reform. In February, he trashed McCain-Feingold as "one of the worst things in my lifetime." Most recently, he bristled, "The American people should be able to exercise their First Amendment rights without having to think about hiring a lawyer."

These are eloquent and forceful words, but, like so many other things with Romney, they flatly contradict his history (HT: Eyeon08.com). Even though he was a governor and not a senator in 2002, when Congress passed McCain-Feingold, that same year he advocated some dramatic ideas, like public funding of campaigns and taxing political contributions. Eight years earlier, he wanted to outlaw political action committees and cap how much congressional campaigns could spend.

"All told," concludes Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review, "those positions place him to the left of McCain-Feingold."

Hyperbole? Decide for yourself:



Update (5/6): According to Pat Toomey, Romney has also pledged to repeal McCain-Feingold.