By Debbie Schlussel
When I heard Mitt Romney, a week ago Saturday Night, in the ABC debate, claim that he’s the only candidate who “understands radical jihad,” I scratched my head. He refuses to ask his church to stop funneling $20 million plus to a HAMAS charity, or even to say he disagrees with it. I like and respect Mormons, but not this outrageous funding decision by their church. Plus, he made anti-American statements when he headed the 2002 Salt Lake Games that jihadists would love. And then, there was his statement at the ABC debate that he will take the Muslim world into “modernity and moderation.” But, does he really believe “modernity” equals moderation? Um, I guess he’s never seen a jihadist website or been to Dubai. They are more modern than we are. It’s just their ideology that’s back in the 7th Century and good luck to Mitt in bringing it up to date. Oh, and don’t forget Romney’s previous statement at a town hall meeting that he “admires Hezbollah.”
But now, I come to find out, that Hezbollah’s key funder in Congress, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Michigan), is a key Romney guy and has been hangin’ with Romney all over Michigan for the last week. There he is on stage, denoted by a circle, in the picture below, from a Romney rally in the Detroit area yesterday.

Hezbollah’s Congressman Joe Knollenberg Hangs w/ Mitt Romney
Does Romney have problems with the fact that Knollenberg and his state legislator son, Marty Knollenberg, both took thousands in campaign contributions from Hezbollah’s American agents, Nijad Fares and Abdullah Bouhabib, as I’ve repeatedly noted? Apparently Not. Does Romney have a problem with the fact that, to pay these egregious contributors back, Joe Knollenberg single-handedly (with Sen. Spencer Abraham on the Senate side) doled out at least $86 million of our tax money to Hezbollah in 2000, allowing Hezbollah to rebuild its strongholds in Southern Lebanon and expand? Apparently not.
Is Romney bothered that Joe Knollenberg put “Seeds of Peace”–a summer camp founded by Yasser Arafat’s fave biographer–on the federal budget? Or that the camp, until recently run by Clintonista Aaron David Miller, discussed Holocaust denial as a legitimate theory and made Jewish campers and kids of Palestinian terrorists discuss that? Why is our tax money going to this camp in Maine? Ask Mitt Romney’s favorite new Michigan Congressman?
Or ask Joe Knollenberg why millions in our federal money went to the jihadist, anti-Israel National Arab American Museum? He single-handedly went to bat for federal pork for this warehouse of enemy propaganda on our soil. And ask Romney why he has allies like this in Michigan.
Quite clearly, Romney doesn’t understand jihad at all. He has its key allies in Congress as his allies. You know what they say about “the company you keep.” This is the company Romney will keep in the White House. Count on it.
Then, there’s the presence of Katie Packer as one of Romney’s top campaign aides in Michigan. Ms. Packer worked for Hezbollah’s U.S. Senator, Spencer Abraham, whose pan-jihadist activities I’ve noted extensively on this site. She was a senior aide to him and ran his losing 2000 re-election campaign.
I’ve known the Packer family for most of my life. They are one of the sleaziest, most phony bunch of people I’ve met. They claim they are evangelical conservatives who are pro-life and believe in small government. But they aren’t.
But both Ms. Packer and her sister, Lorinda “Lori” Packer Wortz–married to a pork-seeking lobbyist–have strangely, worked in government and losing campaigns for most of their working lives. They’ve never done anything else. When I ran for the Michigan House, they and their parents endorsed and worked for a liberal, pro-choice trial lawyer Democrat, who–like Romney–flip-flopped to run against me. Despite all the evidence against him, they worked for him, because there was money and the spoils of power in it for them.
Lori Packer, when she ran Pat Robertson’s campaign in the Detroit area in 1988, started dating Jack Kemp’s campaign official in the same area, apparently to “do a delegate deal.” (Yes, sometimes political “whoring” needs no quotation marks.) That’s the level of sleaze involved with this family now working for Mitt Romney.
Both Packer sisters work for a sleazy, principle-less campaign outfit known as “The Sterling Corporation,” which wins few campaigns, charges a cha-ching load of money, and consists of a few has-been jealous hags and girlie-men who are all political hacks and nothing more. I hope their results are consistent here with Mitt Romney.
As one of my well-known Michigan conservative GOP activist friends says about the Packer family,

They’re grabbers. They don’t really believe in anything, but grabbing for themselves. They claim they’re against big government, but yet their family is made up of lobbyists seeking pork and others getting government jobs.

They really don’t believe, and that’s inimical to Romney. He doesn’t really believe, either. It’s all about winning. Don’t let him and his sleazy campaign aides and jihadist allies win the nomination.
They’re like in-laws with a bride. They come with him. They’re part of the Romney package. If flip-flop-flipper Mitt wins, flip-floppers like Katie Packer will be part of his administration.
Mitt Happens . . . but hopefully not to the White House.