Well, it's a brand new day, and the Mitt Romney campaign still has absolutely no idea where they stand on even the most basic issues. In this case, whether or not Romney's "respect" for his binders full o' women extends to giving them equal pay in the workplace, which really should not be a goddamn controversial stance but which for some reason has the entire Romney camp quivering in confusion and fear. To review, first the Romney campaign had no opinion. Then Ed Gillespie said he was opposed to it when it passed, but would not repeal it now. Then Gillespie backtracked and said Mitt was
not opposed to it at the time. Then—you know what? Just see
Kaili's post yesterday for the review.
But wait, there's more! Now another unnamed adviser has directly contracted Gillespie, saying of course Mitt supports, you know, all that stuff. And he always did, sort of!
"Gov. Romney fully supports equal pay for equal work for women and for everyone and he would in no way want to repeal or change the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act," the adviser told CBSNews.com. When asked why he had opposed it in 2009, the adviser said that "every bill has certain aspects to it that people might find concerning but the equal pay for equal work part was of no concern."
But wait, Paul Ryan has also weighed in! And
he says that the Fair Pay Act was bad, because freedom!
"Lilly Ledbetter was not an equal pay law. It was about opening up the lawsuits and statute of limitations," Ryan said. "It wasn't an equal pay law, and of course, we support equal pay," he said.
And now according to the twitterz, Romney surrogate Barbara Comstock has weighed in, saying the law wasn't just bad, but a plot by crazy leftist Lilly Ledbetter!
WOW- @MittRomney's surrogate Barbara Comstock just accused Lilly Ledbetter, who has fought for equal pay, of having a "left wing agenda."
— @Lis_Smith via web
So after all this, what policy Mitt Romney might have towards fair pay for women seems to still be up in the air. The answer so far from his advisers seems to be that he supports it just fine, so long as nobody actually tries to put it in practice. But we still don't know. If only Mitt Romney had access to some television show where he could clarify his position directly, instead of having all his advisers, campaign staffers and his vice president tie themselves into knots for multiple days trying to parse out what they think people want to hear.
Please give $3 to each of our Daily Kos-endorsed women candidates for the House and Senate so we can send more, better women to Congress to fight for equal pay.