1115.org

Mitt Romney has flip-flopped before. More times than anyone cares to remember by now. That is to say, it’s old news.

But his flip-flopping used to be a long horizon thing. As he started to run for President, he cheerfully abandoned many (if not most) of his previous positions on practically every controversial issue, and embraced carefully calibrated positions that made him “more electable”. And who can grudge him that extreme makeover? Especially now that the Republican contest has boiled down to Romney versus McCain. Because John McCain too, of course, has performed practically identical feats of presidential-aspirant-prostitution.

Now Romney has — quite suddenly — graduated to the very short half-life segment of the flip-flop market. As the ThinkProgress headline put it: “Hours After Siding With States On Emissions Waiver, Romney Flips And Backs The White House”.

Hours! That’s a short half-life, indeed!

First, in the heat of the Republican nominee debate on Wednesday, Romney sided with California in its dispute with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson over his totally-against-the-advice-of-EPA-professionals refusal to allow California to implement its own emission regulations:

In last night’s Republican presidential debate, all four candidates said they supported California’s efforts. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney emphasized that states should “be able to make their own regulations with regards to emissions.” He confirmed again later in the debate:
Q: Just so I’m clear, you said you side with the states. That means you side with Governor Schwarzenegger —

ROMNEY: I side with states being able to make their own decisions, even if I don’t always agree with the decisions they make.

But then the debate ended. And, as ThinkProgress was rude enough to point out, Schwarzenegger endorsed McCain. And then, lo and behold:

Romney’s campaign issued a statement in which he said that the federal government, not individual states, should set limits on carbon emissions.

I really don’t grudge Romney his God-given Republican-candidate right to flip-flop as many times as he wants on as many different issues as he deems necessary. But can’t he at least try not to be so painfully transparent about what’s driving his flip-flopping? Does the man take no pride in his work at all?

Me, I think Romney is f*cking with voters on the issue of California’s emissions. The word “Californication” must have been invented precisely for describing Romney’s pathetic antics. (Unless it was invented to describe what Californians plan to do to Mitt on February 5.)