Romney Watch: Trip to Middle East [View All]

[philly_bob]

Mitt Romney arrived yesterday (Sunday) on a weeklong trip to "the frontlines of the U.S. war zone and to the Middle East," according to a press release from Romney's Free & Strong America PAC.

Romney is scheduled to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. General David Petraeus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Jordan's King Abdullah. According to the AP, Romney and Netanyahu worked together early in their careers at the Boston Consulting Group.

The Washington Post says "The expenses for Romney's trip are being paid with a blend of personal funds and contributions from the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the American Israel Education Foundation. (AIEF)"

The AIEF is a charitable organization affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee" or AIPAC. Last month, the AIEF sent Tea Party figure Utah Senator Mike Lee to Israel to meet with Netanyahu.

The IRI has John McCain as chairman. See www.iri.org/learn-more-about-iri/board-directors-and-officers

In other Romney news, he made a statement on the Tucson shooting, saying we should "respond with comfort and support because that is the only way we know to show that evil does not triumph over goodness in the world."

EDIT: Removed paragraph saying AP Political Writer Glen Johnson lifted description of Romney from press release. Apparently Johnson wrote it himself. It goes like this: "Romney is a former businessman whose work as a venture capitalist and in turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics gives him great strength on economic issues, an expected 2012 battleground as the country slowly recovers from the Great Recession."