Romney Campaign: Politico Claim of Ryan Insurrection ‘Garbage,’ Completely False

Tony Lee @ Big Journalism:

In a semi-satirical column, “Paul Ryan vs. The Stench,” Politico’s Roger Simon asserts that the Romney presidential campaign is flailing and a frustrated Paul Ryan has “gone rogue.”

“[Ryan] is unleashed, unchained, off the hook,” Simon opens the piece. He then claims that last weekend Ryan broke free from “manacles” placed on him by the top of the ticket.

The Romney campaign has pushed back against Simon and Politico, asserting they are trying to create a false storyline that pits the former Massachusetts governor against his own vice presidential candidate.

John Sununu, a top Romney surrogate who has doggedly fought progressive journalists through the election, told Breitbart News such a narrative is “pure, unadulterated garbage.”

Sununu said of Politico, “It’s one thing to have them covering the MSM’s butt, but now they’ve sunk to the level of publishing a story that has not one iota of truth about it.”

Paul dismissed charges that Romney’s campaign was inhibiting him, telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Sunday, “never once has the [Romney] campaign asked me to stop something or do something differently or not do anything.”

Romney and Ryan campaigned together in Ohio Tuesday.

The evidence of Simon’s thesis comes from secondhand alleged Ryan quotes published by a progressive newspaper and an instance of the VP candidate using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Simon’s column derives its title from a New York Times quote of an Iowa Republican: “if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench off of him.” “Stench,” Simon suggests, has become Ryan’s nickname for Mr. Romney. He alleges that even before the NYT piece ran last Sunday, “there was a strong sign that Ryan was freeing himself from the grips of the Romney campaign.”

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