As Twitchy reported last night, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is out with a new ad blasting Mitt Romney for not hugging his “invisible” garbage man. The purpose of the ad is to illustrate that not only does Romney not care about
National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke made the unprecedented move to look to Romney’s own words for insight into the GOP nominee’s attitude toward sanitation workers. Shocking, we know. Cooke found a passage in Romney’s book, “No Apology,” in which Romney describes taking on the jobs of various constituents during his gubernatorial campaign. One of those jobs was collecting trash. And, as it turns out, not only does Mitt Romney not hate garbage men, but he has a tremendous amount of respect for them:
One day I gathered trash as a garbage collector. I stood on that little platform at the back of the truck, holding on as the driver navigated his way through the narrow streets of Boston. As we pulled up to traffic lights, I noticed that the shoppers and businesspeople who were standing only a few feet from me didn’t even see me. It was as if I was invisible. Perhaps it was because a lot of us don’t think garbage men are worthy of notice; I disagree – anyone who works that hard deserves our respect.
Too bad the AFSCME was too busy doing “research” to do any actual research.
As Cooke points out, although Romney did not make a career out of garbage collection, the time he did spend working that job is enough to make Swiss cheese out of the AFSCME’s ad:
Does that mean Romney was a full-time garbage collector? No. That he worked particularly hard? No. But it does destroy the ad's implication.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) October 2, 2012
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And Twitterers rightfully gave the union jokers the business:
The irony! Mitt Romney Worked As a Garbage Man – By Charles C. W. Cooke – The Corner – National Review Online http://t.co/GJpXgt52 via @#
— Velle Mere (@VelleMere) October 2, 2012
https://twitter.com/FigDrewton/status/253196453265162240
"The 1%?" Mitt Romney Worked as a Garbage Man —–> http://t.co/9HL24Xbv #humility #respect
— The Patriot Post (@PatriotPost) October 2, 2012
https://twitter.com/Patriot762x51mm/status/253205973823549441
Hayes: "He doesn’t realize that the service we provide." Romney: "A lot of us don’t think garbage men are worthy of notice; I disagree."
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) October 2, 2012
https://twitter.com/DanFosterNRO/status/253195289480011776
As if the AFSCME ad wasn't stupid enough, clearly those who made it didn't bother to check Mitt Romney's book: http://t.co/ng91qZM4
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) October 2, 2012
The folks who failed to dig up any real dirt on Romney must be the same ones who read “Dreams from My Father.”
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