Crossing the line

"In the executive responsibility, you put first the people and not the pickets."

That's what Massacheusetts' Republican Governor Mitt Romney had to say about crossing an informational picket line of police officers and fire fighters in order to fill in for John Kerry at the the National Conference of Mayors meeting in Boston yesterday.

Perhaps you didn't notice, Gov. Romney, but those pickets are people. Very special people. The people you and I and every American counts on to risk their lives every day in order to make our lives more secure. Political grandstanding is nothing out of the ordinary, but political grandstanding at the expense of first responders who have been working without a contract for two years?

Well, I guess that's nothing out of the ordinary, either, for a Republican pol. But it's still reprehensible.

Oh. I repeat myself.

Anyway, with his actions, Romney enrolled in the ranks of the lying liars that infest every layer of his party, as this clip from the New York Times coverage reveals.

Mr. Romney insisted Monday he was "not here to make any comment or statement on Senator Kerry."

So, to whom might he have been referring when he said:

"A mayor, a governor and a president have a responsibility to make tough decisions and balance budgets. A senator doesn't, and that's a big difference. Senators don't have to balance budgets. Senators don't have to make those kinds of trade-offs. That's what the mayor has to do, and that's why I want to be here for him."

I'm not a psychic, and I don't play one on the blog, so I don't really know why Mitt Romney does anything. I know what he did in Boston, though.

He showed contempt for police and fire fighters everywhere - and particularly the men and women in Boston who keep working without a contract beccause they really understand what responsibility means, and just hope for honest bargaining and a little respect from people, including Senators, mayors and yes, even governors. Last night they got that respect from John Kerry, and disdain from Mitt Romney.

Again, nothing out of the ordinary for a Republican pol.