At the outset of the 2008 presidential campaign, the Boston Globe and others who have closely covered ex-Gov. Mitt Romney, of Massachusetts, over the years said he is far more cautious and guarded in public comments than his late father, ex-Gov. George Romney, of Michigan.
How true it has been.
On the 1968 presidential trail, George Romney was, as he later put it, "cut to pieces" for blurting out in a Detroit TV interview about his "brainwashing" during U.S. briefings in Vietnam.
In my limited contacts with current candidate Romney, he understandably has played the son card for readers in the state where he was born and raised.
He has, of late, been ratcheting it up on the national scene, most recently in interviews with the Wall Street Journal and the National Review.
He told Brian M. Carney of the Journal's editorial board that the Republican nominee must "win Michigan or Ohio. Winning both would be critical. I don't see how you get there without winning Michigan or Ohio. And I can win Michigan, and I may be able to win Ohio too." Carney said Romney then "abruptly shifted to a strange form of self-deprecation" by saying:
"I can win those states -- and by the way, not because of me, but because of my dad. My dad's reputation is better than mine will ever be in Michigan. His reputation for integrity and can-do accomplishment is what I think helps me win Michigan. And that's what it takes to win the White House."
Byron York, White House correspondent of the National Review, in offering a contrast to Romney's "cautious, guarded strategy," said he "let down his guard" in a terse encounter with an Iowa talk-radio host about tenets of his Mormon faith: "Let me say that I understand my faith better than you do."
York, opining that "his feistiness was more appealing than his more wonkish speeches," said he noted to Romney: "You don't show many flashes of anger in public."
York then told of Romney's reaction: "He laughs. 'I call that intensity. It's just Romney intensity.' He tells me the story of his father, George, the governor of Michigan, who had an "intense debate" with a state lawmaker. George Romney was holding the man by the lapels, which ripped in the grip of that Romney intensity. 'It may be a bit of a family trait,' the son says, 'To be very energized about things you believe very deeply.'"
I wrote in my 1987 "Stewards of the State: The Governors of Michigan" book: "A single word best described the public and private Romney: intense. As governor he would tug at a legislator's lapels, jab a menacing finger for emphasis, and begin his pitch by saying: 'Look!'"
On Oct. 13, when Mitt Romney met in Traverse City with ex-Gov. Bill Milliken, who was George Romney's lieutenant governor, Milliken recalled that the tugged one was the Senate's top Republican, Emil Lockwood, who was confronted at the Capitol on a legislative issue by Gov. Romney at the elevator near the entrance to the Executive Office.
According to Milliken, Lockwood lost only one lapel in that encounter but, before his next meeting with Romney, "He had his tailor trim off the other one. (Romney and Lockwood) had a (hearty) laugh about that when they met."
Straight talker he's not. Intense and energetic he is. Romney vows that as GOP nominee he can carry Michigan. The more immediate question is whether he can win the Jan. 15 Michigan GOP primary, despite slightly trailing ex-New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani in the latest state poll.
He can, depending in large part on who gets the media-hyped momentum coming out of Iowa and New Hampshire -- those privileged states that still have a stranglehold on the nomination process of both parties despite commendable success by Democratic Sen. Carl Levin in leading the push to give Michigan an earlier voice.
Chairman Camp?
In the same Dec. 3 issue of the conservative National Review magazine that has the Romney article, its national political editor, John J. Miller, has a favorable commentary on Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland -- "a quiet but effective congressman (who) now finds himself on the brink of public prominence."
Miller noted that Camp, a Romney supporter who represents a solid Republican district stretching from Leelanau County to the outskirts of Saginaw, is one of the top Republicans on the Committee on Ways & Means: "Perhaps the most powerful body in the House, because it has jurisdiction over taxes, trade, and entitlements."
Says Miller: "If Congress flips back to GOP control within the next few election cycles, Camp is well positioned to become its chairman."
Meanwhile, Camp is the ranking Republican on the subcommittee on health and, before the snows started falling, was trading barbs on health issues with Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.
George Weeks retired after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.
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