Posted by
Ed Lilly on Wednesday, December 05, 2007 9:55:34 AM
From perusing Hugh Hewitt's and Michelle Malkin's blogs, I see that the Boston Globe has apparently managed to "discover" that the lawn care service Mitt Romney uses for his home in Massachusetts still hires illegal aliens, despite their promises to Mr. Romney that such practices would not continue after this issue first arose earlier this year as the presidential campaign started to gather steam.
Patrick Ruffini, writing at Hugh Hewitt's blog, had this to say:
But you have to wonder what Romney was thinking using the same company that got him in hot water the year before. You would think he would have had this kind of thing squared away before he became an active candidate. It's not like he's ever at the house overseeing these guys, but that's no excuse. This is exactly the kind of treatment any candidate can expect. Do we know, for instance, who's been tending the garden on Whitehaven Street or in Chappaqua? In light of this report, perhaps we should.
Michelle Malkin, while pointing out the interesting double standards involved in questioning one's immigration status, also noted as follows:
For the record, Romney should have cut ties with the company a long time ago. Dumb decision. He should be embarrassed.
I understand from the perspective of people who apparently have nothing better to do that find the political angle to everything in life that being angry or disappointed in Romney for not having "fixed this problem" by firing the lawn service is the obvious reaction. But as someone who grows more disenchanted with politics and government with every passing year, I wonder why people like Ruffini and Malkin don't have the common sense to look at this situation from the perspective that maybe Romney tried to handle this like a normal person rather than a politician.
Let's assume that Romney has been using the same lawn care service for his home for the past 10 years. I don't know how long he has lived in Massachusetts, but I believe he was running for Senate and the Governor's Mansion back in the early 90s, so it seems reasonable to think he's lived there longer than 10 years. Provided the lawn service company is doing a good job, and the price seems acceptable, it wouldn't be surprising to find that the same company handled the work for a long stretch of time. The same service took care of our lawn from the time our house was built in 1994 through this summer, when we had to make some financial cutbacks. And when the time comes to bring a lawn service back, our first call will be to the service we used before. We liked the work they did, and have some loyalty to them.
So why couldn't it be reasonable for someone like Mitt Romney to also have some loyalty to the lawn care service people he has been dealing with for years? When the "problem" of the service hiring illegal aliens first arose, the company apparently assured / promised Romney that it wouldn't do it again. So now it's Romney's fault for believing them and not just firing the company and bringing in someone new? What kind of view of the small business owner does that involve? Should we just assume that a small business owner is a liar and cut them loose because it's more politically expedient?
I find Ms. Malkin's and Mr. Ruffini's comments often times quite insightful. But I think they've missed something on this topic. I'm willing to give Romney points for sticking by the lawn care service company after their assurances they would no longer hire illegal aliens. That's the normal guy, decent thing to have done, and I don't think he has anything to be embarrassed about with this story. Quite frankly, I think Romney would have more to be embarrassed about if he had fired the lawn service company in response to the original discovery that they had hired illegal aliens. That would have been the craven, weasely, politician approach that I am disappointed to find Ruffini and Malkin advocating.