“The ‘I Hate Romney’ Club”

The ‘I Hate Romney’ Club.  It just doesn’t appear that the other campaigns hate Romney, they have been colluding behind the scenes as well. 

To be sure, the candidates’ staffs do seem to have bonded in their dislike of Romney. “It was very common for e-mails to be flying around between the Thompson, McCain and Giuliani campaigns,” says the former Thompson staffer, “Saying, ‘No matter what happens with us, we all need to make sure it’s not him.’” The staffer says that campaigns would share opposition research on Romney and offer each other tips on how best to undermine him: “Like, ‘Hey, I saw you hit Mitt on immigration — have you thought about going after him on this issue?” In some cases, the attitude even extends to the top of the campaigns. The night of the Iowa caucuses, after getting a congratulatory call from McCain, Huckabee told the candidate, according to aides: “Now it’s your turn to kick his butt.” . . .

But such jibes mask more substantive complaints that many of the candidates have about Romney. “What Romney has done,” says a Huckabee adviser, “he’s attacked people for positions he once held. That annoys people. And he uses his own money to do it, which rubs it in.” He’s gone after McCain on campaign finance reform (which he once supported), Huckabee on tax increases (Huckabee countered that Romney’s raised “fees” amounted to the same thing), and nearly all the candidates on immigration.

Of course, McCain and Huckabee have similarly “evolved” on issues and seem downright jealous that they don’t have his personal fortune or fundraising success.

(Possibly) Related posts:

1. “Romney strikes bipartisan tone at GOP fundraiser”
2. Will RomneyCare scuttle Romney 2012?