Mitt Romney has found a way to make himself more conservative……by paying for it!

In the Republican primary struggle to define the most reliably conservative presidential candidate, Mitt Romney has put his money where his mouth is. Over the past six years and two presidential campaigns, Romney has donated at least $260,000 from his family charity foundation to GOP causes and influential conservative groups that could deepen his ties within the party and establish his credibility on the right.

Romney’s campaign said there was no hidden motivation behind his contributions.

Romney gave $100,000 last year to the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, according to tax records of the Tyler Charitable Foundation, a multimillion dollar Boston-based charity headed by Romney and his wife, Ann. The former president has said publicly he will not endorse any candidate in the Republican primary, but the Romney campaign is studded with former Bush political veterans and appears to lead its rivals in financial support from former Bush fundraisers.

In 2008, Romney gave $25,000 to The Becket Fund, a religious rights legal aid group that is suing the Obama administration on behalf of a North Carolina Catholic college over federal rules requiring employer health plans to cover contraceptives and other birth control. Romney has also contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Massachusetts conservative groups and to core Washington-based conservative think-tanks and publications, among them the Heritage Foundation research institute, the Federal Society legal interest group and a gala dinner for the National Review magazine website.

What a better way to say “hey I’m conservative” than to put money into big conservative causes. You got to love today’s politics.