This week, rather than talk about Republican politicians, Democratic Perspective chose to let them speak for themselves.
Mitt Romney —
“We have a president, who I think is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps.” (Neglecting to mention that Romney has two Harvard degrees.)
As Massachussetts Governor, Romney said, “The individual mandate is essential for bringing the health care costs down for everyone and getting everyone the health insurance they need.” (Of course, as presidential candidate he is now opposed to the individual mandate.)
“Corporations are people, my friend…
“I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there.”
“He [Obama] says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”
“Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” Romney wrote in a 2009 New York Times op-ed. Then in 2012 he said, “I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.”
“It’s hard to know just how well they [the 2012 London Olympics] will turn out. There are a few things that were disconcerting.” (Statement made while visiting London led one European newspaper to call Romney “The American Borat.”)
“I get speaker’s fees from time to time, but not very much.” (Romney earned $374,000 in speaking fees in one year according to according to his personal financial disclosure)
“I love this state. The trees are the right height.”
“PETA is not happy that my dog likes fresh air.” (Statement in response to questions about strapping his dog to the roof of his car.)
“I’m not familiar precisely with what I said, but I’ll stand by what I said, whatever it was.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell —
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Rep. Eric Cantor —
“Look, we know we screwed up when we were in the majority. We fell in love with power. We spent way too much money – especially on earmarks. There was too much corruption when we ran this place. We were guilty. And that’s why we lost.” (On Republicans losing control of Congress in 2006.)
Senator Jon Kyl —
“I object.” (Kyl said this more than 70 times to block President Obama’s appointments, including appointments of federal judges. Not long after, as he eulogized Judge John Roll, he lamented that Judge Roll was overworked because of the shortage of federal judges.)
Former Vice-President Dick Cheney —
“Deficits don’t matter.” (When asked about the massive deficits being run up as the result of two wars and the Bush tax cuts.)
Former State Senator Russell Pearce —
“Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this “bad” man from most of this tragedy. He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload.” (Commenting on the mass killings in Aurora, Colorado.)
LD-6 State Senate Candidate Chester Crandell —
“It’s time ‘we the people’ stepped up … we will take over the management of the land, of the water, of the air” from the federal government. (On claiming state sovereignty over federal lands in Arizona.)
“We have a tremendous amount of public resources that are just wasted, totally wasted. If we used those resources, then we wouldn’t have to raise taxes,” said Crandell. “If you don’t use it — you’re going to lose it.”
LD-6 State House Candidate Brenda Barton —
“This is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic. If it were a democracy, all the wolves would decide which lambs they want to have for dinner. Right now in the Valley they’re calling us ‘kooks,’ they’re working very, very hard to ‘dekookify’ the Legislature. They want to get rid of anyone who wants to live under the constitution.”
LD-6 State House Candidate Bob Thorpe —
“It’s time for another shot heard ’round the world,” “Let’s make Arizona an example of how we reclaim our liberties, which we have slowly allowed to erode. Liberty-loving patriots will lose a battle or two, but what we’re concerned about is whether we win the war or not — and we’re at war with the federal government.”
“It’s time the states reminded the federal government it was the states that created the federal government — federalism is a relationship between the states and the central government. The Founders were afraid of democracy and a powerful federal government — and that’s exactly what we have today.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio —
“Sometimes these kinds of things occur in big departments like the Maricopa sheriff’s office. If there were any victims, I apologize.” (On his department’s failure to investigate hundreds of sex crimes.)
“I’m the only guy who’s not paranoid and everybody’s going after me.”