So Glenn Kessler, faced with an overwhelming amount of evidence and a great deal of pushback, decided to walk back his previous certainty about Romney’s involvement with Bain from 1999-2002, and yet continues to not recognize the difference between fact and opinion:
For some readers, this may not be important. He is listed as chief executive in SEC documents, he hired the people at Bain, and so they might believe he bears responsibility for these deals. End of story. But that’s really an opinion, not a fact.
Actually, he hired those people and is listed as CEO in the SEC filings. Those are facts. The only opinion here is that you think he had no involvement, despite the facts smacking you in the face.
He then moves on to obfuscation and demonstrates a deftness in the art of red herrings:
When evaluating an attack ad, I have to look at the actual facts behind that ad. Can you really say Romney was responsible for the closing of 600 stores at KB Toys in 2004, given that the initial Bain investment took place in 2000, when he was at the Olympics, and he had clearly left Bain by 2002? It would have been fuzzier if the investment had started under Romney’s confirmed leadership, but I could find no evidence of his direct involvement in this deal.
No one in the Obama campaign has ever mentioned 2004. The time period in question is 1999-2002. Tired of obfuscation, he moves on to waffling and contradicting himself:
The years 1999-2002 are a gray period in Romney’s life.
And the reason it is gray is because Romney won’t honestly state who was CEO (HIM, according to the notarized SEC filings) or release his tax returns from the time period in question. And if they are gray, how do you award pinnochios with certainty, and how are political attacks on gray areas out of bounds? Having completely made an ass out of himself, Kessler now commits rhetorical and logical suicide:
In 2011, Romney, as a presidential candidate, filed a public financial disclosure form, under pain of perjury, that stated: “Mr. Romney retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.”
You can see Romney’s signature, on the first page. If Romney lied on this form, that would be a felony.
Well, yes, Glenn. That would be a felony, and it’s exactly what the Obama campaign said when they stated that he either lied on his disclosure forms and filings to the SEC then, or he is lying to the American public now. If I remember correctly, when the Obama campaign said the exact same thing, you awarded them… wait for it… wait for it…
THREE PINNOCHIOS. When will we see the column where he awards himself three pinnochios for using the same exact rhetoric as Stephanie Cutter?
How does this clown have a job?
PeakVT
How does this clown have a job?
The loss-leading Test Prep Daily hires clowns. See: the entire op-ed page.
Jeff Fecke
This is good news for John McCain.
Jay in Oregon
Again, I find it hard to believe that Romney’s plan for digging himself out of this hole involves saying “Well, yes, I signed all those SEC disclosures under penalty of perjury, but c’mon! People lie on those things all of the time!”
masaccio
Actually, on this 2001 form, he lists his principal occupation as “Managing Director of Bain Capital”: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/892058/000092701600002483/0000927016-00-002483-0001.txt
I guess that Winter Olympics thing was part-time.
General Stuck
I been wondering about this as well. Though I don’t remember anyone asking him who was running things as CEO during 1999/2001. If it wasn’t him, and you would think that something that he would know and have an interest him due to his owning the entire freeking company. Maybe it was Elvis, or Alvin and the Chipmunks doing it by committee.
Spaniel
Bizarro-World. That is where he writes his columns.
Hill Dweller
For fuck’s sake, lying on a SEC filing is also a felony. Romney submitted multiple filings between ’99-’02 representing himself as CEO. That was in real time, not a decade later when he was running for President.
TBogg
He really needs to invoke “the fog of war” as an excuse for bad reporting. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone at the WaPo used it.
pseudonymous in nc
It just occurred to me: Kessler is a Bain Birther.
NCSteve
He works for the paper run by Fred Hiatt. The paper that used to pay David Broder to write stuff, even years after he died. That paper that still pays Sally Quinn, Jennifer Rubin, Michael Gerson, William Krauthammer, and George Will to say the stuff they say.
Sure as hell, though, this episode represents the last few shovels of dirt on the coffin they buried his credibility in after that whole “saying Ryan plan would end Medicaid is ‘Lie of the Year'” thing. Don’t be sad. His credibility has got a nice plot right next to the one they buried Politifact’s in.
redshirt
Remember those ear worms in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan?
Yeah, those. But they’re wicked wingnuttey.
Jay in Oregon
And what character traits of Mitt Romney does Kessler base his opinion on, that Romney couldn’t possibly have done something illegal?
Character testimonials from his prep school days?
Charming anecdotes about family vacations?
His jovial, prankster nature?
PeakVT
@General Stuck: Maybe Keyser Söze?
Valdivia
If it’s fucking grey how can he even say then that he is sure Obama is lying? Logic how does it work?
hilts
For BJ masochists, Glenn Kessler discusses his career with Brian Lamb on Q and A
h/t c-spanvideo.org/program/Kess&start=10837
TT
Glenn Kessler can shove his fact check you know where..
Btw, even teabaggers are grudingly acknowledging the new Obama ad as effective. Here is a gem of a comment at free republic:
Obama may be “evil” as you suggest, but the facts are Romney is getting outflanked, out campaigned, and generally trounced. The narrative is set. Romney is a rich out of touch money grubbing outsourcer who is hiding things in his tax returns.
Of course it is probably all BS but the fact remains that is what the news and blogs are talking about. The new ad today even I had to appreciate it for its devestating effects. Some have mentioned Atwater. I think he would appreciate it. At this point he can deny, attack, or scream from the mountains and all anyone will say what about Bain, your taxes, and your offshore accounts. I do not know how he changes the narrative. I can tell you one thing though getting your picture taken on a boat when Obama is campaigning in the rain is probably not the way. I am afraid the die is cast.
Romney goes on the networks and all he said was Obama is mean please apologize. Yeah Obama put the ad out this morning do how did that work?
Wait until Obama runs an ad on Stericycle in the bible belt to depress turnout of evangelicals.
As you can tell I do not see much hope. The electoral math for Romney is tough as it is. He is making it so much easier.
66 posted on Saturday, July 14, 2012 6:03:48 PM by chopperjc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]
freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2906567/posts?q=1&;page=66#66
Narcissus
Kessler is a sycophant. His only concern is propping up the neofeudal oligarchy and making sure the rules of civil society and the social compact only apply to the peons. Kessler knows that the standards don’t apply to people like Mitt, or any member of the Village in good standing.
Linda Featheringill
It is difficult to admit to yourself that you’ve made a mistake. But it’s much harder to accept that your method of analysis is wrong. This can feel like the very matrix of your ego:world interface is crumbling. It can be a real crisis. Every day, lots of people fail to make this adaptation. Some become stubborn and irritating, some succumb to paranoia and commit acts of violence, and others become nihilistic and commit suicide in one way or another.
Glenn seems to be struggling with a crisis of confidence in his judgment. He is deep into middle age, when stubbornness often accompanies stiff joints, and has indeed become an irritation. He is aging, he is stubborn, and he is wrong.
Poor baby. I’m not at all sure how he’ll work all of this out.
JPL
As the CEO he was legally responsible. I could care less whether he was involved in hiring and firing employees or involved in the nitty gritty grind. He Was at the helm..
Change of subject .. how common is it to resign and back date it three years? He signed the paperwork in 2002..
pseudonymous in nc
It’s also Jon Kyl territory: for Kessler, SEC filings are not meant to be factual statements, and shouldn’t be treated as such.
General Stuck
@Hill Dweller:
Almost like he wants to be president more than going to prison. If he wins, he could pardon himself, I suppose, or just president from C block rigged up like the Big House version of Air Force One.
redshirt
Ultimately, of course, like everyone else, the Wingnut can be explained as a creation of belief – will made real, and flesh, with lasting consequences. But we’re all creations of our wills – figments of expression.
JPL
@Linda Featheringill: f..k the poor baby crap
Triassic Sands
When “fact-checking” first appeared, it seemed like a great idea. But it’s turned into a source of constant annoyance in the hands of people who are firmly wedded to the “both sides do it” view of American politics.
Worse, the fact checkers often appear to be afraid of the Right and err on the side of that fear. At this point, I generally avoid the fact-checkers.
Poopyman
He’s just following orders.
Hill Dweller
It’s a grey period, but let’s give an inveterate liar, desperately trying to avoid any accountability for his own company’s shady deals, the benefit of the doubt.
If there is any justice in the world, the Obama campaign has proof Willard was still doing Bain business during the ‘grey period’. And I hope he takes down Willard, Kessler and the hacks at factcheck.org.
JPL
John,…please ask Kessler how many CEO’s that he knows have back dated their resignation letters..
JPL
This is a shitty night..Kessler is following ALEC’s orders and standing his ground and gw bush has decided he’s an economist.
redshirt
At some point, surely, Mitt will concede the least legally painful explanation – which is? I’ve been lying to you, Americia. But in our current MSM, this does not seem to represent too big an obstacle.
Linda Featheringill
@JPL: #21
I’m glad to see you too, dear.
David Koch
I hope they cast the ravishing Stephanie Cutter in “The Avengers”‘ sequel.
Man, she knows how to use a knife.
runt
The annoying thing is, I’m sure some Democrat will soon offer Romney the apology he’s asking for. My money would be on Harold Ford, Jr.
Speaking of truthiness, Jay Rosen flags a brilliant clip of Luke Russert in a state of shock as Martin Bashir asks him to actually provide their audience with some factual information. It’s unheard of!
Poopyman
@NCSteve:
That’s Charles Krauthammer. Doesn’t change what you’re saying one iota, but you may be slandering some relative of his who already thinks he’s a jackass.
PeakVT
@JPL: Any day that Shrub reminds US voters that he exists is a good day.
Jay in Oregon
I just had a terrifying thought.
I think Mitt Romney actually believes that being President of the United States is like being the CEO of some venture capital firm.
He shows up every couple of months for photo ops and makes a few speeches in order to keep the investors happy, and the rest of the time it’s golf and sipping lemonade on the veranda. There are subordinates to handle the nitty-gritty details of running things.
He has not seen how being POTUS takes a toll on people? He can’t foist ordering drone or missile strikes on suspected terrorist hideouts off to the Secretary of Defense and then, when international condemnation rains down on us, see “Gee whiliskers, I’m not really involved in the day-to-day workings.”
MazeDancer
It is actually fascinating Kessler went this far. Kessler is perpetuating the discussion, laying out the Obama team felony notes like reading from a Freudian typo script. This is not helping Romney. It is almost enough to make one consider something is going down and Kessler recognized he does not want to look too attached to the post-truths. Even at the Post.
The question of if you weren’t running the company, Mr. CEO Romney, who was, seems so easy to ask. As has been noted, why haven’t five guys come forward to discuss how they were the Bain management team, not Mitt.
feebog
How do these clowns even get the patina of “fact checker”. Kessler seems to be more concerned that a former SEC official (gasp) donated to the Obama campaign, and therefore is an unreliable source than with the documents themselves. I don’t have a problem with questioning someone’s motives, but the documents speak for themselves. And they are completely, utterly damning for Mitt Romney.
There is no way for Romney to spin his way out of this. Newspaper accounts at the time say he was on a leave of absence, or a “partial” leave of absence. The SEC filings indicate that he was the sole stockholder, Chairman, President and CEO. I think that covers all the conceivable management positions. His sworm testimony to the Election Commission determiing his eligibiltiy as a candidate completely undermines his assertion that he no longer had a management role in Bain or any company associated with Bain.
He has spun an intricate web of lies on this issue, and he is now entagled in the web. Suck on it Mitt.
sqeptiq
So Romney’s defense is that he was a do-nothing CEO who got a nice paycheck for doing nothing? That’s some defense.
Richard
What an intellectually dishonest piece of shit.
ABL
That is downright absurd.
Hill Dweller
The Willard campaign is refusing to say if he flew to Massachusetts for Bain business after ’99.
Yesterday they refused to say if Willard conducted any Bain business in Utah while there “saving” the Olympics.
They’re scared.
redshirt
This has been the most delicious political story in some time. So tasty!
amk
Well done, cole. Another tear. Another hole. If wapo had any sense at all, they will drop this whole fact checker shtick. They don’t want to soil their ‘reputation’, being what it is, any further.
Heliopause
I keep telling y’all, let Romney’s explanation be that he had all those fucking titles yet bore no responsibility for the company’s actions. Give it to him. It doesn’t help him.
RSA
I think Kessler is a little bit out of his depth. Here’s one example:
Notice how Kessler starts out by talking about responsibility and then shifts to “responsibilities” [for managing Bain]? But it really is responsibility (as JPL ponts out). Imagine that the corporation had committed a crime between 1999 and 2002. Would the CEO/owner/sole stock holder really not be responsible? That doesn’t make sense.
And another issue: One of Romney’s spokespersons responded to Obama’s recent ad by saying, “It is sad and shameful that President Obama would mock ‘America The Beautiful.’ But sadly it’s not surprising for the man who launched his presidency with an apology tour.” Kessler has already awarded the “apology tour” accusation four Pinocchios. Kessler doesn’t seem to recognize that he’s dealing with a candidate that lies pretty much constantly. Fact checking just once doesn’t help much.
Anya
This ABC reporter does a better job. He mentions what Romney said then points out that the documents show Mittenz was still CEO.
Linda Featheringill
@runt:
Russert in the hot seat: I enjoyed that clip.
JPL
@Linda Featheringill: You do know that was meant at your last sentence about poor baby..right. yes you know. He could be surrounded by quick sand.standing his ground and I wouldn’t call him poor baby but that is just me.
Nellcote
@feebog:
Even Miss Ann is quoted at the time as saying Mitt was still involved with Bain.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Rmoney keeps saying that he wasn’t at the helm of Bain after 1999 yet I haven’t heard exactly who was running things after he ‘left’ Bain. Wingers keep excusing this by saying that ‘these things take time’ for the changeover to occur. If it takes almost four years to transition to a new CEO/president then Rmoney is one incompetent ‘leader’. I read some winger (at Redstate, if I remember correctly) say that he had handed control off to “26 managers”, proving that he no longer controlled the company.
I think they meant ’26 employees’.
Linda Featheringill
@JPL:
I think your sarcasm detector needs to be adjusted.
Nellcote
@Linda Featheringill:
Martin Bashir’s show is a daily snicker fest. Better than the Daily Show lately.
ABL
Ridiculous. This did not happen. It is preposterous.
JPL
He wasn’t involved into day to day activities..What does that mean? Most CEO’s will escape for days on end so can they now plead ignorance. If a CEO doesn’t delegate they are not doing their job. Is Kessler just an idiot… never mind..
J.D. Rhoades
They–the WaPo, the MSM, the RNC, the Romney campaign, the entire wingnut axis–are entirely unprepared for Democrats who fight back. And it’s freaking them out.
Linda Featheringill
@ABL:
“the uncertain nature of his future employment”?
He owned the company. He ran the company. How much uncertainty could there be?
[which is close to what you said]
Robin G.
@Jeff Fecke:
I keep waiting for that to get old, but it never does.
j
Obama wants to reign in those expensive “for profit” diploma mills (which own the WaPo). Romney wants to allow them to continue ripping off people.
Kessler knows on which side his bread is buttered.
He’s in it for himself. He’s a hack.
runt
@Linda Featheringill:
In Luke Russert’s universe there is no truth, only good or bad talking points.
FlipYrWhig
Is it at all false or misleading to make statements like “While Mitt Romney was CEO of Bain Capital, the firm did X and Y,” if the firm actually fucking did X and Y while Romney was CEO? Even if Romney simply signed off on someone else’s idea, or just let it happen, it’s still a truthful statement. Like how you can say “Since Barack Obama became president, job losses have totaled X,” even if Obama’s policies weren’t fully in effect at the beginning during the worst of it. It’s _true_, it just needs to be rebutted. Seems to me the “fact check” should be that it’s true, and Romney should be saying that he wasn’t the one making the decision the ad criticizes. It’ll sound wussy, but, you know, them’s the breaks.
pseudonymous in nc
@Jay in Oregon:
Grover Norquist definitely believes that Rmoney believes that. He’s salivating at the idea of someone in the Oval Office whose only role is to — sign his name! — at the bottom of all the batshit laws Grover dreams up and forces his congressional harem to back.
Roy G.
I think the juicy part comes from the fact that the SEC has been castrated so hard by the Wall Street Boyz that the Rmoney team really does think it doesn’t matter that Mitt filed these legal, binding, fiduciary documents as a matter of public record.
In other words, they’ve gone totally through the postmodern rabbit hole and are hoping/trusting that most people can’t see the fire for the smoke.
pseudonymous in nc
@Nellcote:
I get the feeling that he’s watching rebroadcasts of British news shows — where it’s generally a lot harder to get away with bullshit, whether you’re a pol or a pundit — and thinking “let’s have some of that.” Or he’s just waiting for the new series of The Thick of It.
redshirt
@J.D. Rhoades: Ramen. I was thinking just this today – Obama’s team punches hard, and keeps them on the ropes. This is a change from the past 30 years, 30 years in which our country has been poisoned by Wingnuttery. BO’s the man to show us the way, but dear FSM I hope others learn from him and keep the fight on. Otherwise, it’s back to Rendell Fords and Shrums for protection.
hueyplong
“Romney’s departure for the Olympics was sudden, nearly breaking up Bain, and he clearly left open the possibility he would return to the firm. The terms of his separation agreement, dating his resignation as 1999, were not reached until late 2001, so these materials reflect the uncertain nature of his future employment at Bain.”
1. Has he seen that documentation or is he taking dictation from the Romney campaign? I’ll take a stab at the latter. This is defensive campaign spin under the guise of a third party “fact checker.”
2. If the terms of his separation were not reached until late June 2001, how is that not conceding that he was in fact what the SEC filings say he was throughout 1999, throughout 2000, and for the first half of 2001?
3. Doesn’t he now have to say that the attack ad gets zero Pinocchios? Or is this “independent” “fact checker” going to continue to waterboard the English language at his master’s behest?
FlipYrWhig
@ABL: And it doesn’t even matter. He was officially the head of the company in multiple ways while the company did some foul shit. The guy who owns the New York Giants isn’t making decisions about who’s on the roster, but he still gets to lift the damn trophy when they win the Super Bowl.
Mnemosyne
Okay, I realize that this only bugs me because it’s a name I see often at work, but, John, it’s Pinocchio (one “n,” two “c”‘s), not Pinnochio. Goddamn it.
Jay
“But that’s really an opinion, not a fact.”
Jeebus Frist. Kessler sounds like Jay Paterno talking about the Freeh Report.
General Stuck
I don’t make a habit of watching footage of Michelle Malkin, for any reason, other than maybe getting vibes of potential unintended comedy/
Most of it was boilerplate wingnut drivel, but
I particularly loved and giggled a little, with her characterization of Obama, and dems in general as “the command and control mindset” paraphrased/ that reminded me of the Will Rogers quote of I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
I suppose this will be the next Orwellian clownese, for these clueless people from a galaxy far far away.
BigD
It is very disturbing to me when I understand that Mitt can be tied administratively to Bain Capital from 1999 to 2002.
hueyplong
The bottom line is that he was the President and CEO. Maybe an absentee President and CEO. Maybe a bad President and CEO.
But it takes a special contempt for your audience to equate negligence with immunity from responsibility.
JPL
@Linda Featheringill: haha.. maybe or maybe it was the NYTimes article about gw working with economists to develop a 4% solution for our growth problems that threw me into a tailspin. Sometimes I feel like Hoover has risen from the dead.
Chris T.
@Linda Featheringill: “As sole owner of my company, I have no control whatsoever of whether I will hire myself next year as CEO or not. The uncertainty is unbearable!”
brendanm98
Bain statement: “Mitt Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to run the Olympics and has had absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities of the firm or with any of its portfolio companies since the day of his departure.”
Kessler: “The report said he returned to Massachusetts “to attend meetings at Staples,” but it does not mention that he attended any meetings at Bain.”
The only reason Romney was involved in Staples was because of his position at Bain, which invested heavily in Staples (the success story Romney often touts).
Not to mention that “The Romney campaign declined to comment on the record about whether the business trips and board meetings were related to Bain Capital obligations.” !
J.D. Rhoades
@FlipYrWhig:
And that’s the winning argument. The guy that’s on the log as Captain is responsible if the boat hits the rocks, even if he was below decks asleep. Romney’s on the record as controlling party, he owns whatever they did.
pseudonymous in nc
The “nearly breaking up Bain” sounds like stenography to me, though what it does say is this: Bain Capital was Rmoney, and Rmoney was Bain Capital. It was his baby, birthed from the Bain mother(ship) and there’s no fucking way that he left it running around.
Look at those filings, and the Russian-doll way they use corporations owned by partnerships run by partnerships owned by Bain Capital, Inc., owned by Romney. Mittens doesn’t need a herd of tax lawyers to get a $102 million IRA: fucker can set up a five-layer dip of corporate subsidiaries and siphon the proceeds to a handful of Caribbean tax havens in his fucking sleep.
JPL
@brendanm98: We could get rich if we could invent a medicine to combat the feeling one gets after trying to explain facts to kessler. .
hueyplong
“The guy that’s on the log as Captain is responsible if the boat hits the rocks, even [ESPECIALLY] if he was below decks asleep.”
DH
It can’t be said enough: The Washington Post can’t go bankrupt fast enough. And by that I mean fiscally bankrupt. It’s already morally bankrupt
hilts
Robert Parry has written a nice takedown of Glenn Kessler and the other factchecking bedwetters:
“The behavior of these “fact-checkers” is rapidly becoming the journalism scandal of Campaign 2012 as the likes of Brooks Jackson at Annenberg’s FactCheck.org and the Post’s Glenn Kessler act more as querulous lawyers protecting Romney than as journalists seeking the actual facts surrounding Romney’s curious business narrative. Much as the Post’s Ceci Connolly and the New York Times’ Katharine Seeyle engaged in aggressive – and dishonest – journalism to portray Vice President Al Gore as a serial liar during Campaign 2000, Jackson and Kessler are performing a similar role in portraying President Barack Obama and his campaign officials as liars now.”
h/t The Romney ‘Fact-Checking’ Scandal consortiumnews.com/2012/07/14/the-romney-fact-checking-scandal
Linda Featheringill
@Chris T.: #73
:-)
Bago
You can always say that whatever happened, Mitt cashed the paychecks like a boss!
Calouste
So, let me summarize this:
– Romney’s departure from Bain takes three years
– Romney starting at the Olympics takes two weeks
Hypatia's Momma
@JPL:
Such is already available and referred to as “opium and its derivatives”.
handy
I love that one of our “papers of record” gives out Pinocchios to people. USA! USA! USA!
ChrisNYC
Love that Mitt has full on embraced the defendant stance. “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.” If the American people have EVIDENCE of precisely what he did at Bain, they can produce it or STFU. He doesn’t have to answer to anyone about anything. And he’s sure as hell not saying a word unless his counsel is present.
Those pics his campaign released from his day off today are satisfyingly similar to tabloid photos of a suspect (the not-so-grieving spouse, the family-values star who’s rumored to be having an affair). Long lens and slightly grainy. “OOH there he IS! The cipher!”
Bago
Mister Romney, how does forgetting 3 years of documents as a chief executive qualify you for the highest office in the land?
angelfoot
He hired the people and created the culture at Bain. Assuming that he did leave in February 1999, would that have changed overnight? He should be defending their decisions rather than running away from them, it seems to me.
Woody
1. Kessler’s in the same spot as PolitiFact – they run the risk of being called Democrats if they attempt to point out every FOX/GOP lie. Jay Rosen had a good take on this on Thursday.
2. It’s the $100K that Bain paid Mitt that is the key on this — why would a company pay six figures to someone who swears they’re not involved with the company (Huck: Romney reminds voters of the guy who laid off their dad).
Normals or Poors can’t comprehend $250M. Every American can comprehend $100K, though.
Mnemosyne
@Heliopause:
Dude, strategy. Obama haz it. There’s no reason to decrease the pressure right when the Romney campaign is backing themselves out onto a very narrow limb.
Joseph Nobles
Maybe President Obama should issue Mitt a pardon for 1999-2002 and see if he takes it.
rikyrah
@Jay in Oregon:
I have long been convinced that he doesn’t want to do the JOB of President. He just wants to BE President. He’s quite satisfied with being the hand that signs shyt – as Grover Norquist said months ago.
Zach
There’s actually an article from 1999 (in one of the Salt Lake papers, I think) where Ann and Mitt Romney are saying how Mitt’s work a billion hours a day on the Olympics and they don’t have time for anything else at all (this doesn’t mean that Mitt’s still not responsible for whatever Bain did during that time). It’s sort of the perfect story for Mitt’s campaign, yet they aren’t pushing it to the media because it’d look pretty bad to say that the Olympics are too much for Mittens to handle when he’s trying to be President.
pseudonymous in nc
@Mnemosyne:
But the strategy here is broad and definitional. Team Obama want Rmoney to step up to the podium at the RNC in six weeks, and for the public to see Mr Bullshitting Corporate Fuckhead. There’s two weeks before the Olympics, when it’ll be be difficult to make a huge amount of political hay (even with Rmoney’s dancing horse, though that’s perhaps factored in), then there’s two weeks between then and the GOP convention, then the Dems get their turn.
If Rmoney has to rely upon the fart-chuckers for the next fortnight, it does him no good.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I’d like to ask you to keep hitting Kessler about this for weeks or even months if you need to. Enough people read this blog, and link to it, that this might just become a big story if you keep at it, and Lord knows it needs to be.
I’d guess that some readers will begin to tell you they’re bored of this after a while, and ask you to get on to something else, but I hpe you won’t listen to them if they do. The unwillingness of our press to call lies lies is one of the biggest threats to this country over the long haul, or at least that’s how I see it. What reason do liars running for office have not to lie if none of the Serious People call them on it? None. And we can’t hope to keep going for too awfully long as long as one of the major parties knows it can lie about anything and get away with it.
So, keep on flogging this, and maybe it’ll become enough of a story in its own right, and maybe Kessler will get enough heat, that other “fact checkers” and reporters and columnists and other assorted and variegated Serious People will start to worry that they’ll have to deal with this kind of shit, too, if they don’t get their heads out of Republicans’ asses, and begin to look into whether what Romney, or some other clown, is telling the truth or lying.
I can’t put into words how saddening and sickening it is that you or anybody would even have to tell these dickwads that it’s their fucking job to call people who tell lies liars, much less beat them into the ground over it, but that’s how it is today.
Kane
Romney is like the deadbeat dad in Family Court who refuses to take responsibility for his children and who argues that because is not involved in their daily lives he is not accountable for their welfare.
smintheus
Wouldn’t be the first time Romney lied on federal filings. As I’ve pointed out several times at BJ, Romney made substantial false SEC filings in the 1990s before he and Bain sold off their control of Damon Corp. Those SEC statements make no mention of the likelihood that Damon might be fined for engaging in false Medicare billing practices during the years that Bain/Romney controlled Damon. (It was in fact fined for Medicare fraud, after Bain sold Damon.)
Romney knew the govt. was investigating these kinds of billing practices, and in 2002 he told the Boston Globe that he personally had put a stop to those practices when he was on the board at Damon. That claim was false according to court filings; the Medicare fraud continued until the new owners put a stop to it. But at least Romney’s on record as knowing about the problem. So his failure to mention that in the SEC filings would amount to fraudulent misrepresentation of the likely future liabilities of Damon.
Oh, yeah, the “owned a company involved in Medicare fraud” part of that story won’t help Romney any with his public perception either.
RaflW
@rikyrah:
Well, Dubya spent a LOT of days on his ranch clearing brush. [But then, he had Darth to mind the Empire for him]
Raven
HI girls and boys. This is what you get when you go on an all night fishing trip with Capt Fuzzy on the Die Hard!
Violet
@Raven: Wow! That’s awesome.
Suffern ACE
Been out of the country for a week so I haven’t been following the news. But…seriously…the latest line is that CEOs are figureheads? Really? Once there is a C in your title, you don’t know what’s going on anymore at your own company?
rikyrah
I don’t know if this has been brought up, but there is a wicked karma going on here.
Willard only sang America the Beautiful, because he was trying to imitate the President after he sang Al Green.
That the campaign would turn around and then use his mimicking the President against him in this way….
Karma remains undefeated.
Suffern ACE
@smintheus: Yeah. It sounds like someone got out of their “C” role because the eebil government started to make CEOs start signing attestestations as part of Sarbanes Oxley. Sounds like someone enters politics when one’s past experience as a flim flam man only works in that arena once the feds start scrutinizing things. See Scott, Rick.
For the reverse process, see Quayle, Dan.
MikeJ
@Raven: I’ll bring the wasabi.
danielx
Because Villagers use politesse rather than say somebody is a lying sonofabitch.
Yutsano
@Kane: Willard as Joe Walsh. Awesome.
jon
I wish I had joined my pension plan a year earlier, so I could join a class-action lawsuit against Bain for misrepresenting its management. I’m sure others would love to claim some sort of damages for that company’s financial mismanagement. Somehow or other.
danielx
Because Villagers use politesse rather than say somebody is a lying sonofabitch.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Raven: Hey the most awesome thing to me is the lack of a sunburn on the top of the head (fellow sufferer here). Side benefit of an all NIGHT fishing trip?
Yutsano
@Kane: Willard as Joe Walsh. Awesome.
Yutsano
@MikeJ: I’ll swing by Uwajimaya and get nori and steamed rice. This could be fun!
NCSteve
@Poopyman:
Ahhh, anyone who shares a last name with that supercilious acid spewing asswipe probably had it comin anyway. It’s like sharing the last name of some demonically evil twentieth century dictator and refusing to change it.
rda909
@Zach: There are also articles a couple years after that where he’s talking about being a “part-timer” at Bain still. It really doesn’t matter what he says in any articles anyway, since we all know as a proven fact, many times over, that Mittens is a pathological liar, so what proof is it to quote his quotes? SEC filings are much more proof than anything he would ever say, and those show he was still in charge until 2002 (hell, I’d like to investigate where this 2002 time came from anyway, since I bet he’s been actively involved long after 2002 too.) Kind of like how his “blind trust” magically invested millions into his son’s company.
Suffern ACE
@danielx: Isn’t that the type of language you’d use to cover for a coke and hooker filled extravaganza?
johnny phlox
@ABL:
If Mitt was CEO, President, Chairman and sole stockholder, who was he negotiating his separation agreement with for almost 3 years? The janitor?
[edit] IOW, Yeah what you said.
Raven
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: We bait fished and then headed for deep water for sunrise. It was VERY rough, 4 out of the 6 never touched a pole. I got sick but kept on pushin!
TenguPhule
And yet Kesseler’s programmer can not connect elections to circuit boards.
TenguPhule
But Opium is illegal already.
slightly_peeved
What I like, and what I’d like some journalist to point out, was that Bain’s specialty was implementing new management practices at other companies.
So when the head of Bain left, apparently it took them 3 years to sort out how to actually manage the transition.
Physician, heal thyself (and since it’s Mitt Romney we’re talking about, give thyself every possible medical test thine owns then overcharge thyself, claiming the maximum possible from thine own insurance company, whilst thou is at it).
MaxxLange
I think it’s likely that Romney wouldn’t do the Salt Lake Olympics gig until he made arrangements to not have to give up or risk in any way any of his Bain positions; so, his name stayed at the top. Then, if the Olympics don’t work out, he has no downside. That’s typical of the way he has operated all his life; he wouldn’t do Bain Capital until he got a deal ensuring that there would be no cost to his Bain Consulting career if it failed.
kay
@JPL:
I wondered about the backdating too, but it seems to me it’s even worse than backdating. Backdating is changing a date. Here, they changed what actually transpired btwn 1999 and 2002.
Bain made Mitt Romney’s resignation retroactive to 1999. He was signing as CEO after 1999, but they removed that history in 2002.
Romney was CEO from 1999 to 2002. Then they made his resignation retroactive. Now Romney wasn’t CEO from 1999 to 2002.
This is apparently legal, which is godamn amazing.
SFAW
@Raven:
A couple of things come to mind:
1) How did pushing on a fishing line work out for you?
2) If you had PULLED instead of PUSHED, you might not have needed to be out all night to land that sucker.
Sorry, caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet.
All that aside: nice job!
SFAW
@Joseph Nobles:
Win.
I would LOVE to see someone suggest this on MTP today.
Strontium 90
@FlipYrWhig: Thanks for reminding me of that! That really brightened my day. Looking forward to the title defense this season.
Elie
Campaign Obama is giving Rove a dose of his own medicine. Going right into his candidate’s so called “strength” (HA!), as corporate overlord and turning it into shit and a pile of whinning apologias. Absolutely what someone said upstring — they have hard Lord Mitt (or Bishop Mitt if you prefer), on the defensive and on the ropes for weeks now. He is still on his feet but he has a cut over his eye and he is dropping his gloves to protect that now very vulnerable core. Frankly, I think that the right wingers have to be completely shocked and apalled at how fast this is happening.
And a small cherry on top from none other that Poppy Bush who said “who is [Grover Nordquist} anyway?” in comments he made in an interview about the fallacy of not comprimising.
Ya know, I don’t know how this is all gonna work out, but I am totally liking O’s fighting team..
Elie
@kay:
Okay, Kay — so even if its apparently legal, it still doesnt effectively answer the question about who was indeed making the CEO decisions during those years. No one? Can that retro-retirement signature make time and the material world disappear? Can he temporally truly abdicate any responsibility for time he was actually in the saddle? While retroresigning may be “legal”, it leads to certain practical, reality based problems… would all of his decisions then disappear? Would all his signature on items for approval no longer be valid? And finally, WHO would then take the responsibility for that time period and when was that announced? That would have been announced properly at the same time he retroretired, right?
Its all a big vat of steaming bullshit!
xian
@MaxxLange: it’s true. he’s been playing heads I win tails you lose all his life.
Heliopause
@Mnemosyne:
By all means keep the issue alive, but don’t overplay it. If you keep screaming that Romney is a liar every five minutes it ceases to have meaning after a while. My point has been that even Romney’s own explanation is dodgy and is hurting him, we don’t need to develop a grand conspiracy theory.