Oh, boy

UPDATED

You would think that, considering his zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration, Mitt Rommey would have seen to this by now.

Standing on stage at a Republican debate on the Gulf Coast of Florida last week, Mitt Romney repeatedly lashed out at rival Rudy Giuliani for providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants in New York City.

Yet, the very next morning, on Thursday, at least two illegal immigrants stepped out of a hulking maroon pickup truck in the driveway of Romney's Belmont house, then proceeded to spend several hours raking leaves, clearing debris from Romney's tennis court, and loading the refuse back on to the truck.

In fact, their work was part of a regular pattern. Despite a Globe story in Dec. 2006 that highlighted Romney's use of illegal immigrants to tend to his lawn, Romney continued to employ the same landscaping company – until today. The landscaping company, in turn, continued to employ illegal immigrants.

Two of the workers confirmed in separate interviews with Globe reporters last week that they were in the country without documents. One said he had paid $7,000 to a smuggler to escort him across the desert into Arizona; the other said he had come to the country with a student visa that was now expired. Both were seen on the lawn by either Globe reporters or photographers over the last two months.

So, one year after he was caught with illegal immigrants working on his lawn, and one day after he demonized illegal immigrants on national television, Romney still had illegal immigrants working on his lawn.

The Globe reports that Romney, when asked about it this afternoon, refused to answer.

He sent out a press release later in the day saying he had fired the lawn service.

So far, right wing blogs don't seem too upset by Romney's failure to adhere to his own rigid standards on illegal immigration.

At The Corner, Byron York merely passes along Romney's letter of dismissal to the lawn care company in question.

And at Hot Air, Allahpundit actually gives Romney mad props for
"torpedo[ing]" a "scandal in the making."

Just in case you aren't familiar with Romney's hard-line stance on illegal immigration, the man these right-wing bloggers are giving such a generous pass on this issue is one who demagogues it with ads like this.



These people have no shame.

UPDATE

The story was just in the top-of-the-hour news bloc on CNN, complete with Rudy's "Sanctuary Mansion" quip from the debate.