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FORMER PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL Mitt Romney is running for a Utah Senate seat, officially launching his political comeback attempt by praising his adopted home state as a model for an acrimonious national government in Washington.
Having been one of the Republican Party’s fiercest internal critics of President Donald Trump, Romney didn’t mention the administration or Trump himself in a campaign announcement posted online.
The closest allusion to Trump was Romney noting that Utah “welcomes legal immigrants from around the world,” while “Washington sends immigrants a message of exclusion”.
Romney, 70, will be the heavy favorite for the Senate seat being opened by Senator Orrin Hatch’s retirement. Hatch was among the first Republicans to pitch Romney as his potential successor.
Leading up to Romney’s widely anticipated announcement, confidantes said he intends to focus his campaign on Utah, where he moved with his wife, Ann, after losing the 2012 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Barack Obama.
“Utah has a lot to teach the politicians in Washington,” Romney said in his announcement, noting that “on Utah’s Capitol Hill, people treat one another with respect.”
Still, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and wealthy business executive, would come to Capitol Hill with a higher profile than a typical freshman senator. That reality was made clear by immediate reactions to his announcement from across the political spectrum.
A ‘favorite son’ of Utah
House Speaker Paul Ryan, whom Romney tapped as his vice presidential running mate in 2012, immediately hailed his old partner’s “unparalleled experience, conservative leadership and lifetime of service”.
Democrats, despite not yet offering any credible threat to the Republican dominance in Utah, answered with a scathing rebuke, dismissing Romney’s periodic criticisms of Trump.
“Mitt Romney desperately wants to separate himself from the extremism of the current administration,” said Democratic National Committee spokesman Vedant Patel in a statement, but “the basis policies of Trump’s GOP … were his before they were Donald Trump’s”.
As he did in two presidential campaigns, Romney’s announcement highlights his stewardship of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Romney is respected in the state for taking over the troubled games amid planning and financial disarray.
Romney supporters describe him as a “favorite son” of Utah. He’s a Brigham Young University graduate who went on to become the first Mormon presidential nominee of a major political party. About 60% of Utah’s residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Some Utah Republicans may still question whether the one-time abortion-rights supporter is too much of an outsider or too moderate for their tastes, but he’s not expected to face any serious primary or general election challenge.
‘Choked like a dog’
Romney attracted headlines in 2016 when he took the extraordinary step of delivering a biting speech denouncing Trump, calling him a “phony” who was unfit for office. Romney muted his criticism for a time when Trump auditioned him as a potential secretary of state.
For his part, Trump has said Romney “choked like a dog” in his failed presidential bids in 2012 and four years earlier, when Romney lost the GOP nomination to Arizona Senator John McCain.
Romney also would be a compelling addition to the ongoing congressional wrangle over health care. As Massachusetts governor, Romney enacted a sweeping health insurance overhaul that became a model for the insurance exchanges in 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Amid intense conservative opposition to the national law, however, Romney distanced himself during his 2012 campaign from his Massachusetts accomplishments, arguing that he had pursued a state solution that wasn’t appropriate at the federal level.
Lunatic is derived from Latin and means effected by the moon or moonstruck
When I saw the headline all I could think of was the Irish government, I took this line from the article above, so it really does apply to Leinster House.
“will have particular relevance for people with intellectual disabilities, older people with diminished capacity or dementia”
Working in a pub for ten years you always knew when there’s a full moon when the same people start acting up.. It does exist.
Totally agree. The school principal where I was at boarding school became completely unhinged around full moons. I still remember how nuts he was, 40-plus years later.
Midwives say the same thing, the delivery ward goes crazy on a full moon.
With the growth of SF I think we might be better keeping the lunacy laws in place
So you’re advocating keeping the status quo Tom Kenny?
Yeh I think you’re right… Let’s keep it, just for you
I’m advocating a smile Jon
I wonder in another 144 years will intellectual disability be a taboo word.
It may well be. Who are we to label anyway.
Yes. There are already people offended by it. I’ve gotten pulled up for referring to my son an autistic and intellectually disabled. Some want differently abled or person with Autism, as if it’s something that can be detatched and left at home when necessary. It shouldn’t define them, they say. For people like my son it does. It defines every action, every choice, every moment of every day. I am not prepared to pretend otherwise because someone may find that upsetting.
They are just words, and labels to distinguish.
Political correctness, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. A name is a name, the reality still exists that the name describes.
Ridiculous really
Tell that to my intellectually disabled big brother, who at 48 still comes home in tears sometimes because of the latest non-politically-correct label that liberated kids and adults feel feel to yell at him. Political correctness has its uses.
He’s your son. Call him whatever you feel comfortable with. How dare anyone tell you otherwise.
This is just rearranging the deckchairs with more “acceptable” words.
.
“Intellectual disability” equates to old fashioned “stupid”.
Words like “Lunatic” and “madman” and “psychopath” etc. etc.are nowadays called “Paranoid Delusional” or “Severe Dementia” or other medical sounding words.
.
Those phenomena still exist.
Only the words have changed.
So will people with intellectual disabilities finally be legally able to own property now? I think there is still work to be done in this area but this us a start. This country is still a place where elderly parents are afraid of their disabled adult children surviving them.
It is legal today but they must have capacity. When this law commences they can be supported to enter into any contract. (Except marriage)
I used to be a lunatic but I’m all right nowoooooooo, wuf wuf.
So that’s one 144 year old piece of out dated law that was on the books, is there more?
One wonders if the elected “Adults” could stop acting like spoiled children screaming abuse across the Dáil at each other and actually do the job they’re paid to do and enact good modern Legislation that would bring this country into the 21st century.
So Enda Kenny is safe now.
It kind of looks like the old woman in that pic is about to explode some dynamite….lunatic…
I didn’t think FG and Lab were around since 1871.
Will you still have to go to high court to get the joint decision court order This is a very expensive process involving several barristers
Nope… One barrister, fee would be about 150 to move the wardship application.
No. A new body called the Decision Support Service attached to the Mental Health Commission take the bulk of the applications, some will go to circuit court & some very limited to High Court.
There will be legal did. Check out http://www.inclusionireland.ie/
No. Queen Victoria was though & this law dates from then. Successive governments failed to act before now
Lunatic..always loved that word.
Can someone who was a ward of court now marry?
Once they are discharged from Wardship they can. The Marriage of Lunatics Act 1811 is also repealed
Euthanasia is on its way???
What are you talking about?
This has nothing to do with Euthanasia & will actually give people MORE say about end of life care
Actually Sarah I was thinking about euthanasia as well. If someone lays down a request that should they be existing under such circumstances that they would prefer to be euthanised, and the authorities open their declaration to see how they wished to be treated what happens? If it is an end of life care issue and they chose that they wanted to have their life ended what happens? This doesn’t lead to euthanasia but it puts the law in a very odd situation.
Anyone can put in place an enduring power of attorney to specify how they wish to be cared for should they lose their capacity to manage their own affairs. Wardship arises when a person loses capacity, and a third party initiates the process. The person’s interests are carefully protected by the detail of the process, to prevent abuse.
What you can’t do by any process is specify something that is illegal under Irish law, as euthanasia is at present.
EPA’s aren’t used for healthcare decisions. New law allows for Advance Healthcare Decisions where I decide today what care I want in the future
Yes they are, if worded accordingly. Section 6 of the 1996 act, personal care decisions. The donor of the power can specify any power they wish. It’s the correct process for a person with an illness where the prognosis is poor as far as capacity goes. I’ve worked on several of them.
That was a joke really, but 16 didn’t get that…
Because there was a protester outside Leinster House saying just that.
You can’t put in anything that is against the law, i.e. You cannot precipitate death but you could withhold nutrition / hydration etc in an advance directive. As any individual could if they were competent at the time.
have your say