Romney and O'Malley BFF?

Published Mar 24 2006, 01:06 PM by Adam Reilly

Very nice piece in today's Globe on Mitt Romney's Vatican junket. Michael Paulson does a great job linking Romney's presence at Archbishop Sean O'Malley's installation as cardinal to Romney's bigger quest to quell concerns about his Mormonism--never mind the governor's insistence that there's nothing political about this trip.

Even better, Paulson catches Romney in an embarrassing bit of exaggeration. Or is it a flat-out fib? Take a look:

Romney and O'Malley offer somewhat different descriptions of their relationship and how the governor decided to come to Rome. Romney, through his spokesman, describes the archbishop as a friend and says the archbishop invited him to Rome; O'Malley, in an interview, described the governor as an acquaintance and says he invited no one to Rome other than his relatives.
''I've met him a couple of times -- don't know him well -- but he's always been very gracious," O'Malley said. ''I think that it's an honor for the church that the governor would be a part of this."

Not one for understatement, our governor.