These kinds of associations of money and politics are wrong in my view….I do not like the influence of money. ~Mitt Romney

This is the man whose profound commitment to the First Amendment was only recently awakened.  Perhaps he was meeting with a local director of the ACLU and they were discussing freedom of speech and association when it struck him.  Perhaps he would tell it this way: “I was sitting there with my chief of staff and we just sort of looked at each other and realised that all these reforms we had been supporting were unconstitutional.  We had never really given it much thought before!”

Of McCain-Feingold, Romney has, of course, said something different: “one of the worst things in my lifetime.”  Perhaps he can square his newfound contempt for the major piece of campaign finance legislation of the last thirty years with his opposition to money in politics, but I doubt it.  I would hazard a guess that a well-heeled, connected corporate type who wants to become President, such as Romney is, realised that having “moneyed interests” in politics weren’t so bad after all as long as you’re the one receiving the money. 

More on Romney and the ’08 race here and here.