So Mittens is going for the Clinton Defense, proclaiming firmly that he did not have sex with had no contact whatsoever with Bain Capital after 1999.
Lifted from the Maddow Blog, here are links to documents that say otherwise:
In Primary Debate, Romney Suggested He Was At Bain Until 2002
Executive Branch Personnel PUBLIC FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REPORT (pdf)
Bain Capital Fund VI, L.P. Schedule 13D – May 2, 2000
Bain Capital Fund VI, L.P. Schedule 13D – February 11, 2001
Massachusetts State Ethics Commission Statement of Financial Interests for Calendar Year 2002 (pdf)
Mitt Romney’s Own 2002 Testimony Undermines Bain Departure Claim
Sully: “How does Romney attend board meetings of Bain acquisitions, sign six filings on Bain acquisitions, get a six figure salary as an executive, list himself as sole owner and CEO with the SEC in these years, and insist he was not ‘involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way’?”
I say Bill Clinton was a lot more persuasive. You’ve got to be a natural-born charmer to get away with this kind of blatant lying, and Mittens ain’t that. Josh Marshall’s impression is that Mittens’s defense makes him look weak.
Even more remarkably, he picked yesterday to announce that he won’t be releasing any more tax returns after all. Nyah nyah nyah.
And even more weird, the Romney campaign says that the Obama campaign is unraveling. They are also “reckless and wild” and “scared to death.” Yeah, like Bugs Bunny was scared to death of Elmer Fudd.
David Weigel looks on in wonder at the degree to which the Romney camapaign is flat-out contradicting the documented record and even some of Mittens’s past statements about Bain Capital.
This is a truly bizarre scandal. At base, we’re seeing a candidate get shamed because he took a (paid) leave of absence in order to successfully turn around the Olympics. But the way he described that decision in his 2006 book Turnaround made it clear — he kept up some Bain Capital ties. “When I talked to my partners at Bain Capital,” he wrote, “I opined that it wouldn’t make sense for me to come back to the company at the end of my tenture at SLOC as I had following my [1994] campaign.” They disagreed and came to a different arrangement — not as much control as he’d retained in 1994, but not zero influence.
If only the campaign had explained this clearly. The reason that Romney’s having trouble escaping this language trap is that it was built and baited by hasty “war room” responses.
But even that explanation could be a lie, because it appears he intended to go back to Bain after the Salt Lake City Olympics but changed his mind in 2001.
As I said yesterday, if Mittens had chosen to defend Bain business practices rather than try to lie his way out of this, it possibly wouldn’t have hurt his campaign that much. But there’s so much blood in the water now even the candy-ass Dem sharks are smelling it.
“But there’s so much blood in the water now even the candy-ass Dem sharks are smelling it.”
Which is a far cry from the usual, which is the skittish Dem guppies swimming in a pool of their own urine and tears.
And let me see if I got this right, from now on, Mitt’s running on “NO NEW TAX RETURNS!!!”?
Oh, goody!
No, he doesn’t look at all like a petulant 5 year-old, or a rich man trying to hide something – or a lot of somethings.
If he’d have had any brains, and if there’s nothing personally apocalyptic to hide, as soon as he had the nomination in the bag, he should have released his tax returns for the last 15 years. Everyone knows he’s an exceptionally wealthy man. And by now, it would have blown over, and been yesterday’s news.
But he and his advisors are either exceptionally stupid and tone-deaf, or they know that there’s something that really needs hiding. And if that’s not the case, then they’re certainly leaving that impression for everyone but his staunchest supporters.
I mean, JEEZ, if you do something that the MSM can’t either ignore or airbrush out of the nations collective non-memory, you’ve REALLY accomplished something!
Just maybe not what you intended.
This Sunday’s gab-fests will be pretty much wall-to-wall Mitt, the NAACP fiasco, his meeting with Cheney, and the offshore accounts and his tax returns – with, I’m sure, a few minutes shout-out to the R’s and their effort to repeal the ACA.
MUST SEE new TV ad from the Obama team:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/obama-ad-firms-slams-romn_n_1673112.html
Yah… he either has to justify his actions, or justify his salary. It’s a lose-lose for him.
Let’s not get too excited yet. We might end up running against Jeb.
We in America have never required truth of our politicians or their supporters.
We no longer even require the remotest plausibility.
Gulag wins this morning’s prize for best turn-of-phrase – I loved “skittish Dem guppies swimming in a pool of their own urine and tears.”
Glad to see you saw that Obama ad – it’s way more ‘in your face!’ than Democratic ads of the past. It’s a bit surprising to see a Democrat willing to go so directly anti-personal, and aiming for the visceral, not intellectual approch, especially when it veers toward touching the class-based ‘us vs. them’ arguments.
You don’t even have to click on this link. Just read it:
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2012/07/flash-mitt-romney-hires-oj-simpson-to-find-the-real-ceo-of-bain-capital-from-1999-2002.html
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Great ad, Gulag, thanks – that made my day. Even for people disgusted with campaign ads, on some level they’re going to hear Mitt trying to sing “America” and wonder what it’s about. It’s great to see our team fighting back effectively.