TYRANTS NOT WELCOME

Tyrants Not Welcome: Romney One-Ups Teddy Roosevelt (NYSun)

As The New York Sun noted in an August 17, 2005, editorial: "When Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner and he was forced by diplomatic protocol to provide security for the German anti-Semite Hermann Ahlwardt, visiting the city, Roosevelt assigned the bigot an all-Jewish security detail."

The Boston Globe reports that "Governor Mitt Romney declared yesterday he would not allow any state resources to be used to protect a former Iranian president during his visit to the Boston area this weekend, and he sharply criticized Harvard University for inviting Mohammed Khatami to speak on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

"There are people in this state who have suffered from terrorism, and taking even a dollar of their money to support a terrorist is unacceptable," Romney, a potential candidate for the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nomination, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Romney said that he expected the State Department at a meeting scheduled for today to request a State Police escort and other traffic services, but that he had called yesterday to inform them that no such services would be provided.

Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, which invited Khatami to speak on Sunday, issued a statement yesterday saying it was "surprised and disappointed" by Romney's stance.

They would be, wouldn't they. Outside the ivory towers of the university, however, people recognize a terrorist supporter for what he is.