Viguerie blasts Romney for calling himself "severely conservative"

Richard A. Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, issued the following statement regarding Mitt Romney's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in which he described himself as "severely conservative":

"In my 50 years in conservative politics at the national level, I have never heard anyone other than Governor Romney describe himself as 'severely' conservative.

"Romney has shown, once again, that he can mouth the words conservatives use, but he has no gut-level emotional connection with the conservative movement and its ideas and policies.

"To paraphrase a story about Mark Twain, one day his wife decided to repeat some of his more colorful four-letter words to embarrass him into cleaning up his language. After absorbing the barrage, the author thought for a moment and said, 'Honey, you've got the words right, but you just don't have the tune.'

"After 50 years in the conservative movement, I can say with some authority: Mitt, you may have the words of conservatism right, but you just don't have the tune."