Democrats aren’t letting up on Mitt Romney while he turns his attention to kneecapping Newt Gingrich. The latest anti-Mitt line? He’s a dirty campaigner.
American Bridge, a Democratic Super PAC, is up with a new web video pointing out that Romney went on the offensive early and hard in 2008 against Mike Huckabee and John McCain. The video uses footage of a drafted, unaired attack spot throwing the kitchen sink at Newt Gingrich that was accidentally leaked by a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney.
It’s sort of a funny idea for a group that’s job is to produce negative ads against Republicans to bash them for doing the same. But the real subtext is to make Romney look weak and desperate in his primary struggle, which Democrats are hoping either produces a non-Romney nominee or ends up a long and damaging fight.
“As we learned from the 2008 campaign, the more desperate Romney gets, the more negative he becomes,” Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton said in a memo tied to the American Bridge video. “This week is the beginning of the 2012 edition of Mitt Romney’s GOP Desperation Express. His negative campaigns are kissing cousins of his positive campaigns in one regard: He’ll say and do anything if he things it will help him get elected.”
