This is funny: It looks as if Mitt Romney has flip-flopped yet again on an issue that's damaging him with conservatives -- his vote for Dem Paul Tsongas in 1992.

According to ABC News' Web site, Romney has now explained his vote for Tsongas -- which has sowed doubt among conservatives about whether Romney is a reliable ally -- in an interview to be broadcast by the network on Sunday. Romney's explanation? He voted for Tsongas against rival Dem primary candidate Bill Clinton because he was trying to boost the Dem he saw as the weakest challenger to Republican President George H.W. Bush. From ABC News:

The explanation came during an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, which will air Sunday on "This Week."

"In Massachusetts, if you register as an independent, you can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primary," said Romney, who until he made an unsuccessful run for Senate in 1994 had spent his adult life as a registered independent. "When there was no real contest in the Republican primary, I'd vote in the Democrat primary, vote for the person who I thought would be the weakest opponent for the Republican."

But it looks as if that isn't how Romney has explained this vote in the past. ABC did a little digging and found that Romney had provided quite a different explanation back when he was hoping to unseat Senator Ted Kennedy in 1994 as a liberal Republican candidate:

But 12 years ago, the Boston Globe reported that Romney was giving a different explanation for his vote for Tsongas.

"Romney confirmed he voted for former U.S. Sen. Paul Tsongas in the state's 1992 Democratic presidential primary, saying he did so both because Tsongas was from Massachusetts and because he favored his ideas over those of Bill Clinton," the Boston Globe's Scot Lehigh and Frank Phillips wrote on February 3, 1994.

Oh, well. It was worth a try, one supposes.

The full interview with Romney will air on ABC's This Week on Sunday morning.