Republican Romney ad criticizes his party and calls for change

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Recognizing political change as the hot new commodity, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is launching a television ad this week in New Hampshire and Iowa casting himself as the Republican best able to reclaim a wayward party and lead it in a new direction.

Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, lays out a tough bill of particulars against his party, portraying Republicans as ethically challenged big spenders and delivering a veiled slap at President Bush and two of his main rivals on the subject of immigration.

"If we're going to change Washington, Republicans have to put our own house in order," Romney says, speaking directly to the camera. "We can't be like Democrats -- a party of big spending. We can't pretend our borders are secure from illegal immigration. We can't have ethical standards that are a punch line for Jay Leno."

The 30-second ad will begin airing in New Hampshire Wednesday and will become a part of the campaign's current ad rotation in Iowa by Saturday.

Romney has been methodically using ads to build his case for voters, starting early this year with biographical sketches. He then promoted himself as a leader -- the Republican who had governed the liberal state of Massachusetts, the skilled manager who fixed the financially troubled Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and the successful private entrepreneur.

With this new ad, titled "Change begins with us," Romney ads yet another layer to his message. He also seizes on a public hunger for change that Democrats like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have been eager to exploit.

Romney attempts to turn the tables on Democrats, however, while at the same time stressing that Republicans have lost their way. The message is likely to resonate with conservatives, who fault President Bush for a failure to control spending. The ad is all the more topical, coming in the wake of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's new book, which skewers Bush and the Republican Congress for increasing budget deficits.

His call for tougher borders not only distances him from President Bush who failed in his goal of overhauling immigration laws, it also serves to distinguish him from Republican presidential contenders John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, who hold more moderate views on the subject.

In citing ethics lapses, Romney confronts head on one of the main reasons voters gave last November for voting Republicans out of office and switching control of Congress to Democrats. Romney casts that behavior as an aberration more suited to Democrats.

"When Republicans act like Democrats, America loses," he says. "It's time for Republicans to start acting like Republicans. It's time for a change and change begins with us. E-mail to a friend

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