Romney requires loyalty pledge for photo op

What is it with Republicans and loyalty pledges? The Republican National Committee were all invited to a private photo op with Mitt Romney at their confab in Arizona this week but there was a catch. The price of admission was signing a loyalty pledge to Romney:

All 168 members of the committee have a vote at the convention as “superdelegates” – and one of Romney’s supporters on the RNC estimated that over 100 members signed the form.

The Romney “delegate pledge form” asked members to sign their name and “pledge to vote for Mitt Romney at the 2012 Republican National Convention on all ballots until Mitt Romney has been nominated.”

Signers were given the option of declaring their support publicly or privately by checking one of two boxes.

If they didn’t sign the pledge, they didn’t get in:

All three members of Iowa’s conservative RNC delegation – party chairman A.J. Spiker and committee members Steve Scheffler and Kim Lehman – attempted to enter the reception but were rebuffed after refusing to sign the delegate pledge.

The dispute became heated in the hallway outside, with the Iowans demanding to know why they had to sign a form to get their picture taken with the former Massachusetts governor.

Several of Romney’s deputies on the committee assured the trio that they could keep their support a secret by checking the appropriate box, but they refused to do so. [Emphasis added]

Good for them for taking a stand. Wish Congressional Republicans had shown the same backbone when it came to signing onto Grover Norquist’s pledge to never, ever raise one cent of tax revenue from the very rich.