The hollow man. Pt. LXVII.

John Kerry had the flip-flopping thing nailed. But he's a slouch compared with Mitt Romney.

 
And if you don't like those principles, I have these other ones. (Reuters)

Romney on June 3, speaking at a University of New Hampshire town hall:

I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that. I don’t know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past but I believe we contribute to that. And so I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing.

Romney at a N.H. town hall Aug. 24:

Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah, I don’t know that but I think that it is. I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans...What I’m not willing to do is spend trillions of dollars on something I don’t know the answer to...I do not believe in putting a carbon cap [on polluters].

So what happened in the interval for the father of Romneycare in Massachusetts who opposes its near-clone Obamacare? Likely the entry into the GOP presidential race of the hard-right Rick Perry, a supernova whom Romney mistakes for a threat rather than an exploding cigar. When the sordid fullness of Perry's Confederacy-fetishism and long dalliance with secession for the Texas Republic becomes known, it's back to pinning for a Chris Christie run. Not to dismiss Perry's efforts: They've helped clarify Romney's unbending determination to not stand for anything.