Mitt Romney and the speed of lying

By Richard K. Barry 

How do I lie to thee?
Let me count the ways.

First Romney's surrogate says that Mitt's gaffe about wanting to cut cops, fireman and teachers wasn't a gaffe at all, that, due to population changes and technological advances, this is exactly what we should do.

Despite the fact that classroom overcrowding and the decimation of local public safety departments puts the lie to such nonsense, Romney campaigner John Sununu was out there saying it anyway and defending his candidate.

This morning I speculated that Romney would either backtrack or spin and, based on Sununu's work, spinning seemed to be the option taken.

What I forgot is that there is always another option for Romney and that is to flat out lie. Romney just denied that he said what he said, denied what his own people were already defending him for having said. Man, this guy is hard to keep up with.

Brian Kilmeade on Fox asked Romney about the statement that he would cut cops, firemen and teachers and the Obama campaign's claim that this showed him to be out of touch. Romney responded with this:

That's a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states. The federal government doesn't pay for teachers, firefighters, or policemen. So obviously that's absurd.

I repeat, Mitt Romney denied saying what his own people were already out there defending him for having said. That's what's obviously absurd.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)