IN DEFENSE OF ROMNEY

It's not everyday that I defend a Republican but this is one of those rare moments that I feel compelled to do so.

Mitt Romney has received plenty of criticism for his family's hiring of a landscape contractor that had undocumented workers on its payroll. Note, it is the company he hired, and not him, that employed those undocumented workers.

During the last Republican debate, he was attacked by Giuliani by running a "sanctuary mansion" for illegal immigrants. There is no doubt that Giuliani was trying to create the impression that undocumented workers - individuals of brown skin and funny accents who speak little English - were not only in this country illegally but were also free to roam around Romney's home with his permission. I should add that Romney was the one who threw the first punch at Giuliani for running NYC as a "sanctuary city" for undocumented workers but that is another issue altogether. However, despite the obvious and deplorable use of the term "sanctuary city" for political gains, Romney was quoting Giuliani word for word. The latter had a clear record of offering assistance of different sorts to undocumented workers during his time as mayor of NYC, ironically a position advocated by many respected Republicans today. Giuliani's attack, meanwhile, was flat out baseless.

I felt that Romney retaliated with a solid response, asking Giuliani what would have been the solution outside of asking the individual working on his lawn for proof of residence solely on the basis of the individual having a funny accent and a not looking like a typical (translation: white) American. Needless to say, Giuliani was left at a loss for words for the simple reason that it was a stupid thing for him to say in the first place.

Unfortunately, if the average American had a little more common sense, the controversy would have been laid to rest right there.

In Iowa yesterday, Romney faced a crowd of hostile reporters keen to question him about his speech a few days ago regarding his faith. That speech was nothing short of pathetic and a blatant act to pander to myopic social conservatives but that is a discussion for another day. During the Q&A session, a reported probed him about those undocumented lawn mowers again.

CNN's Dana Bash: Governor, in the mail, on the stump and on television you talk about how tough you are on immigration, but you allowed contractors at your house to clearly have illegal immigrants working for them. Do you see a paradox there?

Romney: I've certainly never proposed that homeowners have a responsibility when they hire a contractor or a company to then go out and inquire of the company's employees whether they happen to be legal or not, it's actually our understanding potentially that it'd be against the law. That's why I've proposed that instead we have an employment verification system to identify which employees are here legally and not here legally.

Bash: You're running as a CEO, someone who's really focused on issues like this, on judgment--not as an average, everyday citizen. So should people look to you as somebody who would have the judgment, or perhaps go the extra mile, to make sure no illegal immigrants are..

Romney: And what's the extra mile?

Bash: To make sure... especially running for president...

ROMNEY: Tell me, how would you do that in this country? For example, if I go to restaurant, should I make sure all the waiters there are legal? How would I do that?

Bash: (Pause)

After the flak that CNN received for the way it conducted its last 2 dates, you would think its reporters would be particularly motivated to not look either partisan or plain foolish again. Dana Bash's questions were both partisan and brainless. Another reason why I have lost faith in CNN's political coverage of late.

To be sure, Romney's about-face on a whole host of issues make a mockery of any flip-flops that the Republicans accused John Kerry of in the last election. Nonetheless, in this particular issue that pertains to illegal immigration, he has displayed sound judgment that is sadly deficient in many quarters of this nation.