Mitt Romney made his political leanings clear at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. “I was a severely conservative Republican governor,’’ Romney said. “I know conservatism because I have lived conservatism.’’
That’s a far cry from Romney the gubernatorial candidate who, campaigning in Worcester in 2002, said, “People recognize that I’m not a partisan Republican, that I’m someone who is moderate, and that my views are progressive.’’ The Democratic National Committee has released a video of both clips.
Although the changing description may prove problematic for Romney’s presidential campaign, it also reflects a shift in the political lexicon.
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“Moderate has become synonymous with liberal now,’’ said John Carroll, assistant professor of mass communication at Boston University. “What used to be moderate conservatives are now considered more on the liberal side. The whole political spectrum shifted to the right and dragged all the definitions with it.’’
A second case in point: One of Romney’s GOP rivals, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, also described himself as a moderate earlier in his career - using the same term he now employs as an epithet against Romney.
Dean Spiliotes, a professor of political science at Southern New Hampshire University, said Romney’s language shift is the same issue that bogged him down in 2008. “In 2007, Romney was contorting himself into a pretzel to make the case he was conservative, not moderate,’’ Spiliotes said. “It’s the same argument he’s making now. . . . He’s been getting increasingly frantic about getting movement conservatives to accept he’s one of them.’’
Added Spiliotes: “This is part of the standard game you have to play when you run for the nomination of the party. You have to cater to the base.’’
Romney’s shift was evident in his remarks at the CPAC conference, as he talked about his time as governor “defending our conservative principles’’ in Massachusetts, a “deep blue state.’’ He spoke about cutting taxes and balancing the budget, opposing same-sex marriage, and vetoing a bill providing emergency contraception without a prescription.
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Romney’s campaign released a Dec. 30 letter from nine conservative leaders in Massachusetts, praising the former governor for having “solid social conservative credentials.’’
A decade ago, Romney described his social credentials differently. Slate’s David Weigel quoted a 2002 story in the Boston Herald in which Romney was asked about his national political future. Romney responded, “I don’t know that the world is pining for a progressive-on-social-issues governor of Massachusetts.’’
Romney had long embraced a moderate image. During his 1994 Senate race against Edward Kennedy, Romney told the Washington Post, “My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses,’’ referring to the conservative North Carolina senator.
Romney rejected Democratic attempts to tie him to the Republican Party’s conservative standard-bearer. “I was an independent during that time of Reagan-Bush,’’ Romney said during a 1994 debate. “I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.’’
Asked about Romney’s previous statements that he was a moderate, Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said yesterday, “Governor Romney has consistently stood up for conservative values and principles. As governor, he balanced budgets without raising taxes, eliminated wasteful spending, and strongly supported traditional marriage in one of the bluest states in the country. As president, he will fight for conservative policies that will create jobs, limit the size and scope of government, and reduce our exploding deficits.’’
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But Romney is not alone in having once described himself as a moderate. Gingrich told The Ripon Forum, a Republican publication, in 1989, “There is almost a new synthesis evolving with the classic moderate wing of the party, where, as a former Rockefeller state chairman, I’ve spent most of my life, and the conservative/activist right wing.’’
Today, Gingrich most often uses the word “moderate’’ to refer to Romney. In the lead-up to the New Hampshire primary, he continually referred to Romney as “the timid Massachusetts moderate.’’ It was not a compliment.
Although GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, may not have actually used the word “moderate’’ to describe himself, he put out a TV ad in 2006 during his unsuccessful Senate reelection campaign that highlighted his bipartisan work with Democrats Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, and Barbara Boxer - not exactly a conservative ad.
One conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh, said on the radio last week he was not challenging Romney’s claim to being conservative, but he was taken aback by the candidate’s phrasing. “I have never heard anybody say, ‘I’m severely conservative,’ ’’ Limbaugh said. “No, I’ve never heard anybody say it.’’
Shira Schoenberg can be reached at sschoenberg@globe.com.