Dems take a humorous swipe at Romney

Dems take humorous swipe at Romney By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer 27 minutes ago Democrats are taking a humorous swipe at Republican Mitt Romney's attempt to turn his supporters' discards into campaign cash. The Democratic National Committee planned to launch an online auction Friday to sell goods symbolizing the past policy positions they say Romney has dumped. The presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor this week asked supporters to sell off old items to benefit his presidential bid. Romney Campaign Manager Beth Myers sent an e-mail to supporters and asked them to sell their old belongings on "Mitt Market," an online auction site. "Do you have items lying around that you don't use?" the campaign asked on its site. "From bicycles that the kids have outgrown to old electronics or baseball cards, your stuff may be someone else's treasure." Democrats then turned the tables with a tongue-in-cheek stunt. "It comes as no surprise that a presidential candidate who has so cravenly pandered to the right wing of his party by auctioning off his past would ask supporters to do the same," DNC spokesman Damien LaVera said. "Unless smooth-talking Mitt Romney was planning on recycling those old tax-raising, pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-immigrant, pro-gay rights and pro-campaign finance reform positions in a general election, we thought we'd auction them off for charity." Democrats' online packages include representations of past positions Romney held while campaigning for public office in the moderate-to-left Bay State. Included in the kit are a snowman to represent Romney's reluctance to participate in a YouTube debate that included a question on global warming from a melting snowman, a DVD with examples of Romney's changed policy stances and a pair of flip-flop sandals. The Romney campaign wasn't laughing. "It just proves that the last person they want to run against is a chief executive like Governor Romney with a proven record of accomplishment who is determined to change the status quo of Washington and the free-spending, high-taxing ways of the Beltway Democrats," said Sarah Pompei, deputy press secretary.( Flipin Mitt spokesperson must be hitting the Kool-Aid hard before making this comment) The DNC said it would donate a matching amount from the auctions to a pet shelter. That gibe was intended to highlight animal rights activists' criticism of Romney for strapping the family Irish setter in a dog carrier to the roof of the car before taking his family on a 12-hour road trip in 1983. The dog survived the ride.