Mitt Romney touted the ability of Washington insiders and politicians to change the course of the country on Thursday, seizing on a quote from President Obama during a Univision forum. “I think that I’ve learned some lessons over the last four years, and the most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside,” Obama said. “You can only change it from the outside. That’s how I got elected, and that’s how the big accomplishments like health care got done, was because we mobilized the American people to speak out.”

Romney appeared to disagree during a rally at Sarasota, Florida, telling the crowd that he will change the country — not with the support of his constituents or his base — but by bringing “Republicans and Democrats” together to implement his agenda:

ROMNEY: He said he can’t change Washington from inside. He can only change it from outside. Well, we’ll give him that chance in November, he’s going outside. I can change Washington, I will change Washington, I’ll get the job done from the inside. Republicans and Democrats will come together.

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The new attack is a departure from Romney’s repeated claims that only Washington outsiders, particularly those with private sector experience, can change the course of the country. The GOP presidential candidate has previously said that he plans to fill his cabinet with appointees from the business world (people like Meg Whitman or BET President Debra Lee), eschewing career politicians or bureaucrats.

It’s a message he echoed throughout his campaign. “The idea that somehow everything important for conservativism or for America happens in government is simply wrong,” Romney explained in January. “I’ve been in the private sector. I worked in one business that was in trouble and helped turn it around.”

During a debate in December, when he characterized many of his GOP opponents as career politicians, Romney said, “having spent my life in the private sector, I understand where jobs are created. They’re not created in government, they’re not created in Washington. They’re created on Main Streets and streets all over America.”

– Greg Noth contributed research to this post.

In a statement that would make Ray Bradbury blush, a Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina said he wants to eliminate the Department of Energy, because he personally witnessed officials “sitting there reading books and reading magazines.”

State Sen. David Rouzer, the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 7th congressional district slated to take on Rep. Mike McIntyre (D-NC), recounted during a primary debate in April about how his experience in the executive branch gives him a unique understanding of how to get rid of cabinet departments wholesale. “When I went over to the Department of Energy one day, you walk down the hall and most of them who are drawing 6-figure salaries are sitting there reading books and reading magazines,” Rouzer told the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, we can devolve, get rid of the Department of Energy.”

Rouzer also singled out three other cabinet agencies he would like to eliminate: the Department of Commerce, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Education.

ROUZER: When I served in the executive branch for about a year and a half, and I learned how the bureaucrats operate. It gives me a lot of insight into how to defund them and get rid of them. When I went over to the Department of Energy one day, you walk down the hall and most of them who are drawing 6-figure salaries are sitting there reading books and reading magazines. Ladies and gentlemen, we can devolve, get rid of the Department of Energy and move some of those responsibilities back to the states. Department of Commerce, same thing. HUD, Housing and Urban Development, same thing. Department of Education. If you look at the decline of education, it started when the federal government got involved in it. That’s another agency.

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Rouzer has made a career of stymieing scientific knowledge. He grabbed national headlines earlier this year when he pushed a bill through the North Carolina Senate that banned the state from using scientific models of sea-level rise that would affect the state.