That quote was by the Romney campaign’s Neil Newhouse. Romney aides have said their most powerful weapon presently is the welfare ad criticizing President Obama for the work feature, claiming it discloses “new information.” The ad, and all of the subsequent claims about the work requirements, have been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked.
Yet the Romney campaign forges ahead.
Apparently, they have abandoned any pretense of caring:
Mitt Romney's aides explained with unusual political bluntness today why they are spending heavily -- and ignoring media criticism -- to air an add accusing President Barack Obama of "gutting" the work requirement for welfare, a marginal political issue since the mid-1990s that Romney pushed back to center stage.
The claims in the ads are new in the same way anything would be new if you were making it up. Imagine the Obama campaign producing and ad that claims Romney can’t be trusted because he drinks kangaroo blood. “When one invents a lie, it’s ‘newness’ is self evident,” says Steve Benen.
He continues (bolding mine):
It's important to realize there is no modern precedent for a presidential candidate rejecting the premise that facts matter. Mitt Romney is trying something no one has ever seen -- he's deemed the truth to be an inconvenient nuisance, which Romney will ignore, without shame, to advance his ambitions for vast power.
If you don't find that frightening, you're not paying close enough attention.
The quotes in the BuzzFeed piece should send a shiver down the spines of the political world. Forget parties and ideologies, put aside agendas and values, and just consider what Team Romney is saying: they can lie with impunity and they don't give a damn who disapproves.
We all know that campaigning is contact sport, not for the timid or the weak. Spin and stretching the truth are expected. But there has to be something real in the remark or ad. It has to hinge on something that others can agree on. Historically speaking, a demonstrable lie was unacceptable.
Among so much other gut retching things about the Romney campaign (abortion, Medicare, taxes, etc) this one really makes me feel hopeless. Facts are supposed to matter. They can be inconvenient at times, but they’re not supposed to be partisan. If Romney wins by lying to the electorate, like Citizens United opening the flood gates of money, this will usher in a new era of politicking.