Mitt's Campaign Responds To Concord Monitor's Un-Endorsement, Hits Paper's Liberalism.

TPM:

Over the weekend we noted that the Concord Monitor, which has not endorsed in the New Hampshire GOP primary, had taken the unusual step of running an anti-endorsement of Mitt Romney, urging Republicans and independents to vote against him.

Now the Romney campaign has sent us the following response from Romney spokesperson Kevin Madden:

"The Monitor's editorial board is regarded as a liberal one on many issues, so it is not surprising that they would criticize Governor Romney for his conservative views and platform.

"Governor Romney has taken firm positions that are at odds with the board's support for drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, their position against school choice and their advocacy for taking "Under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance. The governor happens to disagree with the editorial board on all those issues, as do most Republicans in New Hampshire."

Of course, the Romney response doesn't at all address the substance of the Monitor's criticism, which is not that he's too much of a social conservative, but that he's flip-flopped on every major issue in order to pretend he's the genuine article. The paper is hitting Romney not so much over his ideology or core principles, but for his lack of them.