Mr. RomneyGÇÖs standing among conservatives is being hurt by a letter he sent to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts saying that he would be a stronger advocate for gay rights than Senator Edward M. Kennedy, his opponent in a Senate race, in a position that stands in contrast to his current role as a champion of a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.GÇ£We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern,GÇ¥ Mr. Romney wrote in a detailed plea for the support of the club, a gay Republican organization.
The circulation of the letter by gay rights groups in recent weeks has set off a storm of outrage among social conservatives, and by Friday was looming as a serious complication to Mr. RomneyGÇÖs hopes.***GÇ£This is quite disturbing,GÇ¥ said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who had praised Mr. Romney as a champion of traditional values at the groupGÇÖs conference in late September. GÇ£This type of information is going to create a lot of problems for Governor Romney. He is going to have a hard time overcoming this.GÇ¥
Paul Weyrich, a founder of the modern conservative movement, said: GÇ£Unless he comes out with an abject repudiation of this, I think it makes him out to be a hypocrite. And if he totally repudiates this, you have to ask, on what grounds?GÇ¥
The good news? It's about Dick Cheney. No, this isn't about his daughter - - -
The good news is:
FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
No one shot on Cheney's quail hunt
By JAMES ROSEN
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Vice President Dick Cheney went quail hunting last week, and the senator lived to tell the tale.Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford joined Cheney and Graham for two days of hunting on a plantation that friends of Chambliss own in southern Georgia.