Romney joins Bush in assailing Edwards

White House hopeful ex-Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) told a Florida crowd Thursday that he was “shocked” by recent comments from potential presidential rival John Edwards, who said this week that there is no war on terror.

Edwards, the former Democratic senator from North Carolina, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City Wednesday, said, “The war on terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It’s a bumper sticker, not a plan.”

{mosads}In a press conference just before noon today, President Bush said such a notion is “naïve.”
Romney didn’t waste much time in following suit.

Speaking at a town hall event in Jacksonville, Fla., Romney agreed with the crowd when they started to boo after the former governor made mention of Edwards’s remarks.

“Yeah, boo,” Romney said, adding later, “Remember that old Edmund Burke quote — it’s a famous quote — ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’  And that, I am afraid, is the boiled-down version of what John Edwards said, is that good men should do nothing. Put their head in the sand and hope it all goes away.”

The Edwards campaign issued a statement in response to the president’s comments, making mention of two of the GOP candidates but omitting Romney.

Edwards spokesman Mark Kornblau said "maybe Mitt's upset that Sen. Edwards named McCain and Giuliani and left him out."

"There’s a word for doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Edwards said. “George Bush has made America less safe and less respected in the world. And the Republican presidential candidates, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, are competing to see who can be the bigger, badder George Bush.”