Mitt Romney to the left of Ted Kennedy? Down the memory hole.

Mitt Romney to the left of Ted Kennedy? Down the memory hole.

It sure must be a relief for Mitt Romney to have someone to do his dirty work for him now, since he doesn't really have the stomach for the outright bugfuck crazy hatred the Republican Party demands of its leaders.

Oh, he'll sign their pledges to hate the hell out of gay people. And he'll refuse to condemn the booing of a gay soldier, something even Rick freakin' Santorum was willing to do. But, like every other issue, Mitt has a complicated past when it comes to how he really feels about gay rights:



When he ran against Ted Kennedy for the Senate in 1994, Romney wrote a letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Club, pledging that as "we seek to establish full equality for American gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent." During that same campaign, Romney was accused of once describing gay people as "perverse." In response, Romney's campaign vehemently denied that he used the word "perverse" and said that he respected "all people regardless of their race, creed, or sexual orientation."

In fact, Ryan has a voting record to reflect every anti-LGBT position that Romney has taken. [...] By selecting Ryan as his running mate, Romney is guaranteeing his commitment to rolling back much of the progress the LGBT community has achieved over the past two decades.

Lucky for Mitt, he's got Paul Ryan, aka Rick Santorum with a widow's peak, to the rescue with the consistent gay-hating voting record Romney needs. As Zack Ford at Think Progress notes Now Romney can send Junior out on the trail to give those fire-and-brimstone gay-hating speeches the rabid Right loves to hear, and Mitt Romney can pretend that he never, ever promised "to establish full equality for American gay and lesbian citizens."