Romney has bigger problems than Craig

Senator Restroom is the least of Romney's troubles.
by Kevin John Sowyrda
kevinsow@aol.com

Mitt Romney's inevitable, waiting for him in the wings of fate shellacking in the New Hampshire Primary, has little to do with his top fund raiser Alan Fabian resigning after being indicted for a $32 million fraud scheme, or his liasion to the U.S. Senate, U.S. Senator Larry Craig, pleading guilty to conduct in a public men's room which is contrary to all the etiquette I've read lately in GQ magazine. Romney's pending fizzle, just like his father's before him, will come for reasons the candidate just isn't able to understand or see down the road ahead of him.

As James Carville might boil it down to bumper sticker format for us, "It's the Big Dig, Stupid!" And, please add to that what it isn't - it isn't your father's New Hampshire anymore. The Granite State's political pendulum has swung sufficiently to the left so as to morph former Massachusetts Governor Romney to dinosaur in the making status; and un enrolled voters, free to scribble their preference on either a Democrat or Republican ballot in the 'live free or let die' state, are sure to be drawn to a vastly superior and globally respected contender whose somewhat better tested under pressure and not at all obsessed , as is Romney, with what two consenting adults do in their bedrooms - or is it bathrooms, given the inclinations of Romney's close comrade, Senator Craig.

The candidate on the brink of surging in the polls in New Hampshire is Rudy Giuliani, and as we all vacuum the remnants of Herring Cove sand from our Volvos this weekend we'll be reading news of a slow but gradual increase in Giuliani's standing in the crucial New Hampshire G.O.P. primary.

The field marshals running command, control and intelligence at Bunker Romney are blinding themselves to two giant blips they seem to be missing from their AWACS plane intel. First, New Hampshire residents are fluent in Big Dig Speak and know that Mr. Ken Doll governor was the head of state (as in Bay State) while tunnels were completed perfectly - perfectly, had the specs called for car washes. Look for the Globe - and even that bastion of Republican dialogue, The Manchester Union Leader, to start a post Labor Day blitzkrieg on what Mitt knew and when he knew it regarding the phantom zone which remains Big Dig politics.

I don't see Romney pulling an Ed Muskie when the heat inevitably turns on - Muskie was the presidential aspirant who had an infamous, on camera breakdown in 1972, responding to the Union Leader slicing him and dicing his wife. But our former governor appears all too ill prepared for some tough coverage in the state where Big Dig developments are part of the daily diet prepared by the Boston based TV market, which absolutely dominates densely populated Southern New Hampshire, where candidates will win or lose the primary.

Second, Romney's ultimate Achilles heel is that an ever changing Southern New Hampshire is not home to the same breed of Republicans who recently handed Romney his state fair victory in Iowa on August 11. With more than 175 members of the Romney family in tow (I dare you to tell me all the Romneys don't practice the rhythm method) Romney was amidst his own disciples there. They Bible thump as much as they Gay Bash out in Iowa (proving they're not really reading that Bible before the bashing).

In New Hampshire it's a different ball game. Their reading the Globe, the New York Times and, I can guarantee you, a lot of copies of Bay Windows. It's a different New Hampshire heading into '08, as evidenced in last year's thunderous midterm elections when Democrats seized both congressional seats and the two chambers at the state house in Concord.

The political death knell for Romney's campaign can be found in the telling numbers from that raucous '07 election. We saw entrenched Republican office holders like Republican Congressman Charlie Bass go down to defeat by such huge margins that it's impossible to suggest the demise wasn't served up with the help of a huge chunk of both un enrolled and Republican voters.

Though the Democratic Primary has a fair share of reasons for un enrolled voters to pull that ballot, the G.O.P. primary has the main attraction of Rudy; and there's not an American alive who doesn't remember how he held our hands through the TV set in the hours and days after 9-11. A slew of voters will be pulling a G.O.P. ballot, the type of New, New Hampshire voters who will never lean as conservative as our man Mitt.

All New Hampshire voters know about Mitt Romney is that he has a distaste for Gay people, but actually takes their endorsements until their careers go down the public restroom toilet, quite literally.

Finally, some predictions: Giuliani takes New Hampshire by atleast 9 points - and - the beleaguered, hypocritical and psychologically disturbed Senator Craig resigns from the senate before you're carving your turkey this November.

And one last forecast, this pertaining to a media pundit of note. I predict that the day may actually come when the Gay Community finally organizes a needed protest at the studios of MSNBC's Chris Matthews, host of the forever feisty Hardball program. Addressing the Craig scandal on Tuesday night, Matthews said of the conservative lawmaker's incident at the airport, and I quote, "maybe this is just a part of Gay culture."

While passing Chris the Ritalin prescription he has needed for decades, could some of us please get organized and call this guy on putrid statements like that??