Romney Friends Bitter About Surrogates' Betrayal

I sympathize with some of what these Romney aides are saying simply because such a big deal was made by most Romney surrogates about his competence and leadership abilities during the campaign. If he was such an awful candidate — which he wasn’t — why the trashing of his campaign by so many now?

Romney’s post-election fall is partly his own making. The notion that the primary reason he lost was due to “gifts” given out by President Obama to various constituencies prior to the election was insulting and demeaning and he was rightly criticized for saying it.

But the piling on done by some GOP heavyweights is curious, given their apparent interest in serving in a Romney administration if he had won.

Daily Mail:

Former senior aides to Mitt Romney have hit back at the ‘craven hypocrites’ in the Republican party who just days before the election were clamouring for jobs in a Romney administration and are now belittling him.

‘I’m sure Governor Romney is finding out now who his real friends are,’ a former adviser told MailOnline.

‘There were one or two well-known figures who were late committing to support him, were the most eager to curry favour when it looked like we would win and are now out there trashing the governor.

‘In politics, when you win you are a genius and when you lose everyone calls you an idiot. But to see the way certain craven hypocrites are acting right now really sticks in the craw.’

Speaking on MSNBC, Dan Senor, a former top foreign policy adviser to Romney, accused some of the former Massachusetts supporters of being fair weather friends.

At a big event in Ohio just days before the election, he said, there were leading figures cozying up to Romney and trying to land cabinet positions.

‘Tens of thousands of people, you could feel the energy, a hundred top-tier Romney surrogates were at the event,’ he remembered. ‘I’m backstage with some of them – I won’t mention their names – but they’re talking about Romney like he’s Reagan.

[…]

The anonymous adviser said: ‘Bobby Jindal wanted very, very much to be Vice President. He appeared publicly with Governor Romney after the 47 per cent comments, which the governor himself said were totally wrong.

‘Newt Gingrich made it clear to us he wanted to be part of a Romney administration.

‘Both these guys – and others – were the governor’s best friend when it seemed he was on the brink of becoming our 45th President. Now they’re calling him a bum. Real profiles in courage.’

Gingrich especially has been shameless in his criticism of Romney. To go from supporting a candidate with no reservations to calling him “nuts” as Gingrich did on a Sunday talk show following the election smacks of currying favor with the mainstream press by viciously attacking one of their targets.

To paraphrase Churchill, politicians have no permanent friends, only permanent ambitions. Being a slave to the latter does not allow room for many of the former.