Heck: Romney wrong on foreclosures

Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012 | 2:56 p.m.

GOP Rep. Joe Heck, an early endorser of Mitt Romney for president, said this week that the presidential hopeful is wrong on the housing market in Nevada, a sharp break from the man he has embraced and a shift from where the congressman was last year.

The comments, made during a town hall meeting Tuesday, show the growing toxicity of Romney's comments in Nevada -- and probably elsewhere, too.

Here's what Heck said when asked about Romney's comments the former Massachusetts governor made last October to the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board in which he said the foreclosure process needs to "run its course and hit bottom."

Heck: "Mitt Romney and I don’t agree on every issue and certainly housing is one of them. When you look at what is going on here in Southern Nevada, you can’t say you got to let the housing market hit bottom. We have been bouncing along the bottom for years. And the fact is we have to do everything possible to: 1) keep people in their homes and 2) get people who are out of their homes back into their homes."

The actual clip is here

Heck, though, came to Romney's defense right after the comments in an interview last year

Why the switch? I will add a comment from Heck when I get one. (UPDATE: This from Heck spokesman Greg Lemon: "This is really a non-story. The Congressman supports Governor Romney’s candidacy and is not trying to distance himself from him. Like any two candidates, they aren’t going to agree 100% of the time and on housing, Congressman Heck has consistently articulated a slightly different approach. Both he and Governor Romney agree that the first step is letting the housing market stabilize so we can bounce back. The Congressman continues to support the idea of a soft landing and a path forward for Nevadans struggling with housing issues. Federal policies helped get us into this mess and responsible federal policy can help get us out.")

But this issue simply is a killer for Republicans in the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Just imagine what the Democrats will do with this. I bet we won't have to wait long.