Ingraham called Romney "Tricky Mitt" for using the robo call, but the call is truthful, not tricky, and suggesting that South Carolinians won't understand it is insulting to them.
The Team Romney robo call not only is truthful, but gives Laura Ingraham the public attention that Major Garrett denied her when he asked a question in a presidential debate this year without giving her due credit.
Alas, Ingraham was not pleased with this free publicity...and apparently took a while to realize that the robo call announced at the beginning that it was presenting a Santorum announcement on Ingraham's radio show made in 2008.
The text of the Team Romney robo call is as follows:
AUDIO TEXT: "This is an urgent message from the Romney campaign. In 2008, Rick Santorum made the following announcement on Laura Ingraham’s radio program."
LAURA INGRAHAM: "Joining us now with an important announcement, you’re not gonna wanna miss this, former Senator from the great state of Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum."
RICK SANTORUM: "If you're a conservative, there really is only one place to go right now. I would even argue farther than that. If you're a Republican, if you're a Republican in the broadest sense, there is only one place to go right now, and that's Mitt Romney."
LAURA INGRAHAM: "Senator Rick Santorum endorsing Mitt Romney unequivocally, without hesitation, that should mean something to all of you. Senator Santorum, thank you so much."
AUDIO TEXT: "This call was paid for by Romney For President, Inc. (803) 575-0698"
Now that Santorum is running for President himself, he's not happy to have the voters in South Carolina informed or reminded that he enthusiastically embraced Romney as a conservative in 2008.
On February 1, 2008, Santorum publicly declared:
"In a few short days, Republicans from across this country will decide more than their party’s nominee. They will decide the very future of our party and the conservative coalition that Ronald Reagan built. Conservatives can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines in this election, and Governor Romney is the candidate who will stand up for the conservative principles that we hold dear.
"Governor Romney has a deep understanding of the important issues confronting our country today, and he is the clear conservative candidate that can go into the general election with a united Republican party."
In 2008 Ingraham enthusiastically endorsed Romney as a true conservative who had learned over time. Ingraham described Romney as the "the conservative's conservative" and "a class act" when she introduced him at CPAC 2008. Her praise of Romney was unstinting. She not only assured that Romney was proud to be a conservative, but that he "embodies conservative ideals." She lauded Romney as a national security conservative, a social conservative and a fiscal conservative and for "selflessness" and "exhibit[ing] on a daily basis sacrificial concerns."
The truth is that Romney is no less conservative now than he was in 2008. His conversion to conservatism was real.
But Newt Gingrich, Santorum and Ingraham are portraying Romney as a moderate NOW.
That's untrue.
Ingraham called Romney "Tricky Mitt" for using the robo call, but the call is truthful, not tricky, and suggesting that South Carolinians won't understand it is insulting to them.
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.