It’s laughable to consider, but the party that brought us Vice President Joe Biden is so concerned with Mitt Romney’s veep pick that they’re launching an opposition research site to vet Romney’s potential number twos. After months of researching, leftist Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century launched VeepMistakes.com today, a site that has hundreds of pages on Rob Portman, Tim Pawlenty, and Marco Rubio. ABC News reports:
American Bridge decided to release the information before Romney picks his running mate in order to give fellow Democrats, as well as the press, a head-start on examining the major vulnerabilities of each of the contenders.
“In 2008 nobody was prepared for the disaster that was vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. And while even Mitt Romney couldn’t top that pick, the front runners he’s considering are all deeply flawed in their own right,” said Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge. “This year we are going to make sure that the public has as much information as possible, as early as possible, on the extreme and out of touch positions of the candidates Mitt Romney would put a heartbeat away from the presidency.”
In addition to the written material, the super PAC, which was formed primarily as a tracking and research organization, is making public large amounts of video footage of the three vice presidential hopefuls. American Bridge trackers have been following Pawlenty since May 2011, Rubio since this February and Portman since May.
That’s right: the party that couldn’t take the time to vet its own candidate – and whose own vice president has committed every gaffe under the sun, from making racially insensitive remarks to expressing his admiration for China’s one child policy – is happy to help the GOP vet its own. The site attempts to portray Portman as a lobbyist who would pursue Bush-style fiscal policies, highlights Pawlenty’s many primary-era attacks on Mitt (think videos featuring Obamneycare remarks), and Rubio as financially insolvent and even corrupt.
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But does the veritable library of alleged sins have any staying power? Even American Bridge says that remains to be seen:
American Bridge officials emphasized that it may be impossible to know now which nuggets of their research will come back to haunt one of the potential veeps down the road.
“Research is innocuous until it’s not,” Mollineau told ABC News. “A vote taken several years ago, a speech given to a special interest group, a law signed or vetoed can be harmless until put in the context of a present day campaign.”
Dun dun dunnnn…
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