Romney seen as face of future by party leaders

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a popular conservative in a bastion of liberalism, is fast becoming a rising Republican star and a potential 2008 presidential candidate by bashing home-state Sen. John Kerry as too left-wing and leading the charge against same-sex “marriage.”

Building on his crusade for a constitutional ban on homosexual “marriage” that has put him and his state at the center of the biggest cultural debate of the year, the telegenic Mr. Romney has not only attacked Mr. Kerry as far more liberal than most voters, but has branded his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, as too inexperienced to be next in line for the presidency.

Mr. Romney has vowed to campaign for President Bush “wherever he wants me to.”

The governor also plans to deliver an address tomorrow before the National Press Club on the challenges the states face from terrorism, and soon will release a book about how he rescued the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from bankruptcy and steered the events through a safe and successful conclusion in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Political protocol requires the state’s governor to welcome Democrats formally when they gather in Boston for their national convention later this month to nominate Mr. Kerry.

But the former venture-capital investor who has held the line on taxes when most states have raised them, says he feels no compunction about saying what he really thinks of Mr. Kerry before the convention.

“John Kerry is more liberal than the people at large, and I think John Edwards falls from that same mold,” Mr. Romney said right after Mr. Kerry announced that he had chosen the North Carolina freshman for the No. 2 spot on the ticket.

Democrats cried foul at the sight of the governor using the trappings of his office to denounce their party’s ticket, accusing Mr. Romney of violating laws prohibiting the use of public property for political campaigning. But the governor, who has a 58 percent job-approval score, dismissed such suggestions as politically motivated and “just plain silly.”

“Both Kerry and his running mate are from the left wing of the Democratic Party,” the governor said in a telephone interview Friday, adding that Mr. Edwards is not ready to be second in line for the presidency. “His status as a trial lawyer and relative lack of experience in management and government will be a drawback.”

Making the rounds of national radio and television talk shows last week, the governor further accused Mr. Edwards of being “a pretty glib” trial lawyer “who didn’t have the experience for this job.”

The plunge into the presidential campaign war was hardly Mr. Romney’s first foray into national politics. In recent weeks, he traveled to the District to testify on behalf of a constitutional amendment against same-sex “marriage,” which his state’s Supreme Judicial Court has mandated.

The governor also called on Mr. Kerry to resign his Senate seat because he missed too many roll call votes. Mr. Romney crossed police union picket lines — after Mr. Kerry refused to do so — to deliver a speech to the nation’s mayors.

Last month, he spoke to Republican activists in California’s conservative Orange County and campaigned for Mr. Bush at the opening of Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters in his native Michigan. And he has begun to speak around the country for Republican candidates for Congress.

Tomorrow, Mr. Romney says he will speak about “the challenges faced by the states in the post-9/11 world.”

As for speculation about his future political ambitions, Mr. Romney said running for president is “the furthest thing from my mind.”

Story Continues →