Romney Criticism Ignores Alternatives

Matt Lewis | April 07, 2008 2:24 PM

Rumors -- and I stress these are only rumors -- that Condi Rice is "campaigning" for VP -- raises another interesting point.

Last Friday, a group of social conservatives announced they were buying newspaper ads

to discourage John McCain from picking Mitt Romney as his vice president. According to the ads, Romney's, "recent 'conversion' to conservative and pro-life principles is not credible."

Interestingly, the group has said nothing about other possible prominent VP picks who (unlike Romney) are proudly pro-choice, including Condi Rice, Tom Ridge, and Joe Lieberman.

So why would this group of social conservatives go out of their way to criticize Mitt Romney, who, at least says he's pro-Life -- yet ignore the other possible pro-choice picks?

Clearly, the theory that the real goal was to eliminate a Mike Huckabee rival seems to fit this scenario.

There is one last element to this story that I haven't figured out, though. The Republican strategist who started this rumor, Dan Senor, is the husband of CNN's Campbell Brown, and a former adviser to Mitt Romney.

Clearly, Senor is a well-connected strategist -- and that's what makes his comment about Rice somewhat believable (it contradicts Rice's-own statements, as well as my sources).

But Senor's former boss, Mitt Romney, also is vying for the position. So why is he pushing Condi's interests instead of Mitt's? If you have any ideas on that one, I'd love to hear 'em ...