Mark Shields: Romney 'Has More Positions Than the Kama Sutra'

Although he attributed it to Mike Huckabee, Mark Shields on PBS's "Inside Washington" said Friday that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney "has more positions than the Kama Sutra."

This led Charles Krauthammer to humorously scold, "I thought this was a family show...There are children watching" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MARK SHIELDS, PBS: Watching Mitt Romney move hard right, which is what he has done, he came out after Rick Perry’s emergence and announced that he was revisiting his position on climate change, that, you know, maybe humans weren’t involved in it to that extent. And Mitt Romney, it reminds you that Mitt Romney ran to the left of Ted Kennedy when he ran against him in the Senate, on gay rights and on choice and abortion.

And the reality is, comes down to what one of Mitt Romney’s major opponents, Mike Huckabee, said about him in 2008: he said he has more positions than the Kama Sutra.

[Laughter]

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I thought this was a family show.

GORDON PETERSON, HOST: Colby?

COLBY KING, WASHINGTON POST: What is Kama Sutra? What language is that?

PETERSON: We will save that for another program.

KRAUTHAMMER: There are children watching.

For those conceivably unaware, the Kama Sutra is a roughly two thousand year old Hindu guide to sexual positions. As Krauthammer scoffed, this seems hardly appropriate for a political talk show.

Yet this is not the first time Shields has made this comment. He did so in his February column about Romney, but didn't attribute it specifically to Huckabee.

Although I haven't devoted a lot of time to it, I can't find any evidence that this is something the former Arkansas governor actually ever said.

Regardless, was this a little too off-color a comment about a presidential candidate for a prime time political show, or am I getting prudish in my old age?