Romney returns: Former presidential nominee might be what the GOP needs now in Senate

Balance.

Reason.

Civility.

Say what you will about the missteps Mitt Romney might have made is his failed presidential bid in 2012. The man showed all of the above traits in abundance.

He now hopes to bring those traits and others to the Senate, having announced last week that he will seek the Utah seat soon to be vacated by Sen. Orrin Hatch who is stepping down.

So many see the current state of the GOP as in flux. Having had to bend to the will of the current president and his base, many long-tenured Republicans have said they will retire at the expiration of their terms or return to private business rather than continue to serve.

The upcoming midterms could see the GOP majority in Congress slip away as Democrats push -- on a largely anti-Trump platform -- back against what many see as an agenda that favors the wealthy and forgets the middle- and lower-class American families.

Oddly, it has been Romney's choice as a running mate in his run for the White House, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has in the eyes of many, ceded control of the party to Trump. The once unrelenting deficit hawk has repeatedly backed Trump-driven policies that forecasters project will drive the deficit up by trillions of dollars over the next decade.

Speaking publicly against or opposing on the House or Senate floors some of the president's proposed policies -- and his tweets -- has forced some GOP stalwarts (and this publication) to endure criticisms of no longer being conservative or conservative enough.

Romney, hopefully, will restore what many believe to be true conservative principles back to government and can be a leading force in nudging the White House back to center-right from the far-right extremes we have seen this administration inclined to embrace.

That doesn't mean, as some have speculated, that Romney will seek to unseat his partymate in 2020, necessarily. He is 70, after all.

Then again, it might be easier for him to do so after having spent time in Washington fostering support from his fellow legislators and their donors, should he win the Senate seat in Utah this November.

Published in Editorials on February 17, 2018 8:50 PM