Mitt Romney wants 'n word'

Mitt Romney joins calls for the Wolfeboro, N.H., police commissioner to resign over use of a 'vile epithet' to refer to President Obama. The GOP's ex-presidential nominee has a keen interest in that community.

GOP ex-presidential candidate Mitt Romney is pushing for the ouster of a local New Hampshire official who used an inflammatory racial slur to describe President Obama.

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Peter Grier

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Mr. Romney, the former governor of next-door state Massachusetts, has long had a summer home in the idyllic lake town of Wolfeboro, N.H. Wolfeboro Police Commissioner Robert Copeland has lit a firestorm of national criticism by acknowledging use of the 'n word' in describing America's chief executive.

'The vile epithet used and confirmed by the commissioner has no place in our community. He should apologize and resign,' said Romney in a statement.

So far Mr. Copeland has refused to recant his disparagement of the nation's first African-American chief executive. After a local resident complained that she had heard him use the vile reference, Copeland wrote his fellow police commissioners to acknowledge that he had done so.

'For this, I do not apologize - he meets and exceeds my criteria for such,' wrote Copeland to the other two commissioners, according to the Associated Press.

We'd say that Romney's involvement here amounts to an increase in pressure on the 82-year-old Copeland to resign. Local officials say they have no way to force out the police commissioner if he declines to go voluntarily.

Romney has long been one of Wolfeboro's most prominent homeowners. He spends some time every summer with his large family at his lakeside estate. Given the publicity this controversy has received, the ex-presidential contender probably felt that it was contingent upon him to speak out, as well. He would not want anyone to take silence on the matter as an implicit endorsement of Copeland's remark.

But don't get excited - this is not a sign that he thinks maybe he has a shot at 2016, so he has to stay in front of the national news pack. We know things are slow for the pundit class right now, but let's keep it in perspective.

New Hampshire GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown has condemned the remarks, as well, through a spokesperson. Pretty much every New Hampshire public figure with a pulse and/or a Twitter feed has done the same thing. The revulsion is widespread and not limited to one party or the other.

Perhaps Copeland hopes that hunkering down will allow him to survive this situation. He's likely mistaken on that point. Given the extent of the publicity, it is hard to believe that the town won't figure out some legal way to pressure him from office, even if it takes a recall election. Wolfeboro depends on the tourist trade for its economic existence, and controversy such as this can be very bad for business.

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