Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney on Thursday accused rival John McCain's campaign of dishonesty in posting to the Internet portions of a video that McCain's camp contends is proof of Romney's waffling on the issue of abortion rights.
But McCain's campaign fired back, saying it will post on its campaign Web site the entire video, which also shows Romney's support for lifting a federal ban on embryonic stem-cell research which was vetoed by President Bush.
Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who is seeking conservative backing in his bid for the GOP nomination, has been forced along the campaign trail to repeatedly detail his conversion from a supporter of abortion rights to an opponent of the procedureas he did during a campaign and fundraising visit to Chicago on Thursday.
During a debate in his 2002 run for governor, Romney pledged to Massachusetts voters that he had "been very clear" and would "preserve and protect a woman's right to choose."
But Romney has said he began opposing abortion rights in November 2004 after he said a discussion with a researcher involving embryonic stem cell research made him feel that human life was not being valued.
Earlier this week, in an unusually sharp attack for this stage of the campaign, McCain's campaign released a video of a Romney news conference from May 2005 in which the then-governor said he was "committed" to maintaining existing abortion laws.
"Mitt Romney's biggest challenge in this election will be convincing Republicans he has principled positions on important issues, especially now that it's known that he remained committed to pro-choice policies after his 'epiphany' on abortion in 2004," Matt David, McCain's deputy communications director, said in a statement.
Romney said Thursday the portion of the video posted to the Internet only showed a portion of his remarks that day. In its entirety, he said, the video was shot at a news conference "at which I described why I was vetoing cloning legislation because it didn't respect the sanctity of life."
And Romney contended the Arizona senator's campaign was "not being honest enough to put the full press conference" on the Internet. And, with another GOP contender, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, weighing in on the attacks on Romney Thursday, the former governor contended his opponents had "stooped to making an attack."
But a McCain spokesman said the entire video shows Romney expressing support for lifting the Bush administration's ban on federal embryonic stem-cell research. ABC News, which reported Thursday on Romney's May 2005 speech, said the then-governor supported the use of surplus embryos from in vitro fertilization. The Massachusetts legislation Romney vetoed that day would have gone further to include human cloning and allowed for the creation of embryos purely for research.
"The facts are clear, Mitt Romney advocated pro-choice policies even after his alleged 'epiphany' in 2004," said McCain spokesman Danny Diaz. "Voters should go to
www.johnmccain.com to watch the entire press conference and judge for themselves as to whether Mitt Romney not only changed his position on abortion, but also federal funding of stem cell research."
ABC News also reported that within two months of Romney's November 2004 conversion as an abortion rights opponent, he appointed to the Massachusetts bench a Democrat who was a noted supporter of abortion rights.
On another topic, Romney lashed out at U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's handling of the special CIA leak investigation in Washington that resulted in the conviction of former vice presidential chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Romney contended Fitzgerald may have abused his prosecutorial discretion as special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leak case.
Libby was ordered Thursday to report to prison soon while his conviction is being appealed.
Romney said Fitzgerald, who has earned a reputation of a corruption fighter in his role as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, "may well have abused prosecutorial discretion by pursuing the investigation" after learning that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage revealed Plame's identity as a CIA operative to the media in 2003.
"He knew that, therefore, a crime was not committed and yet he proceeded with an investigation knowing there was no crime to pursue," Romney said of Fitzgerald.
Romney said he was not calling for any sanctions against Fitzgerald, but said "that abuse of prosecutorial discretion justifies a very careful look at a possible [presidential pardon]." Romney also said he had not awarded any pardons during his tenure as governor.
Looking at an important issue during his tenure as governor, Romney criticized lawmakers in Massachusetts for failing to allow voters Thursday to decide the issue of gay marriage there after a state Supreme Court ruling made it legal. He said it underscored the need for a constitutional amendment to define marriage.
"We need to have a federal marriage amendment to assure marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman because states like Massachusetts will take the course they did, which is letting the (state) Supreme Court make this decision, taking the decision away from the people," he said.
Romney contended that throughout civilization, marriage was defined between a man and a woman on the basis of child raising.
"I believe moms and dads associated with the development and nurturing of children is one of the major purposes of marriage and therefore, to protect that nurturing setting, we need to have moms and dads and not two moms and two dads," he said.
