"The Ricketts Plan" to use Jeremiah Wright to smear President Obama has come and gone rather quickly, but the story isn't quite over for Mitt Romney.
To the campaign's credit, the presumptive Republican nominee repudiated the line of attack fairly quickly this morning, suggesting Romney and his team want nothing to do with Wright-based attacks, which most fair-minded people seem to agree are out of bounds. The problem, however, is that Romney already went after the president by referencing his former pastor, back in February.
Repudiating the "Ricketts Plan" was appropriate, but does Romney also repudiate his own rhetoric? The subject came up this afternoon, and the former governor had a doozy of a response.
Asked about the comments he made in February to Fox's Sean Hannity, Romney said today, "I, I'm actually gonna, I, I'm not familiar with precisely what I said, but I stand by what I said -- whatever it was."
As Ari Melber explained, the quote is "devastating because it captures his core weakness." Romney's willing to say anything, "even if he can't remember what it was."
The bottom line remains the same: either Romney repudiates using Wright or "stands by" using Wright in February. The latter seems to contradict the former.