Romney Slams 'Dishonest' Obama Attacks, Says the President Needs to 'Rein In' His Team

Barack Obama's campaign has launched a barrage of attacks on Mitt Romney in recent weeks, primarily surrounding the Republican candidate's time at Bain Capital.

The president's deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter suggested that Mitt Romney could be guilty of a felony, and recent Obama campaign ads have accused Romney of outsourcing jobs during his time in the private sector.  The Romney camp has said the candidate's resignation from the company was retroactive (although he was still listed on some forms until 2002, it was a formality and not indicative of him running the company). And when the Romney camp spoke out against the attacks, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel told the Republican candidate to "stop whining."

After the president declared Saturday that they will "not apologize" for the attacks, Mitt Romney is taking some time to respond.

Politico relates:

“A campaign based on falsehood and dishonesty does not have long legs,” Romney said on “Fox and Friends,” later adding: “The president only has one thing going, and that is constant attacks on me. They’re dishonest. They’re misdirected. And I think the American people recognize that kind of politics as something of the past. It may work in Chicago, but it’s not going to work across America.”

[...]

“If we want to talk about transparency, the real issue is, why has this president used his presidential power and executive privilege to keep the information about the Fast and Furious program from being explained to the American people?” the former Massachusetts governor said, referring to Obama’s assertion of executive privilege over documents related to the disastrous “gun-walking” operation.

...“I think when people accuse you of a crime, you have every reason to go after them pretty hard,” Romney said in response to the Chicago mayor.

Fox has video of the entire response:

"It's ridiculous, and of course it's beneath the dignity of the presidency and of his campaign.  He really needs to rein in his team and finally take responsibility for what they're saying," Romney said earlier.

"You know [Obama] called me when I came close to cinching the Republican nomination, congratulated me, and said we're going to have an important debate, a meaningful debate about the future of the country...I'm waiting for that to start," he explained.

Today, Romney added: "What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in his campaign is attack me?"

"The best offense is to look at the president's record."