Romney demands apology over Bain claims

The Boston Globe reported that presidential candidate Mitt Romney still controlled Bain Capital for years after he claimed to have left in 1999—a period marked by layoffs and bankruptcies. An Obama campaign official suggested that he committed a felony by claiming otherwise on official forms. The Globe's Callum Borchers follows up: "Romney’s campaign asked for a correction on Thursday’s Globe story, but did not dispute any facts in the article."

• [Rob Beschizza]

  Sure, I am not the first to shoop this shoop. But I believe I am the first to get the font right!

  • [Haz 0]

     El mas grande shop. De todo los tiempos : The greatest shop. Ever.

  • [atimoshenko]

    Are you sure? From the “a” (look at the angle of the stem), the “&”, and the slightly bracketed serifs (especially clear in “Company”)  in the original picture, it almost certainly looks like a cut of Bodoni (though the “i” is a little weird), whereas the stem of the “a” and the unbracketed serifs in “Bane” suggest you used Didot or similar…

    • [Rob Beschizza]

      It’s Bodonis all the way down!

      • [Jim Saul]

        Nice lighting details on the polished surface.

      • [atimoshenko]

        My bad, then! :-)

• [Greg Laden]

  What the heck is that a picture of? ???

  • [malindrome]

    Obviously you’re not a golfer.

  • [Warren_Terra]

    some fellow name of Bane, whose name is homophonous with that of a certain Willard Romney’s employer of, it now appears, 25 years (though he has sometimes claimed only 22).

• [Pablo Defendini]

  Amazing—the guy who’s *not* wearing the Bane headgear looks creepier.

  • [Jim Saul]

    Yeah, his nose looks far larger in the cartoon. And where’s Smithers?

    • [zuludaddy]

      Eeeeexcellent.

• [pjcamp]

  Let me see if I understand this correctly. Romney demanded that the truth be corrected?

  • [Keith Edwards]

    I know, shocking coming form a Republican.

  • [toyg]

    It’s well-known that reality has a liberal bias.

  • [Andrew Singleton]

    Romney didn’t dispute the claims as lain out, but demanded an apology?

    For what, telling the truth that he might have committed a felony?

  • [Bearpaw01]

    He wants the Globe to correct the truth *and* he wants Obama to apologize on behalf of one of his staffers for being truthful.

    Clearly, Rmoney has been spending too much time with Dick Cheney lately.

    • [P.F. Bruns]

      I sincerely hope “Rmoney” was intentional.  I’m going to start using that.  That boy is straight-up GANGSTA!

      • [Bearpaw01]

        It was intentional, but not original to me by any means.

        Also, I think I may not use it anymore because I generally find that sort of name-based humor to be kinda lame, especially after the first few hundred times. (See: “NObama”. Mildly amusing for about a month in 2008. Now? Boring. Especially after 3+ years of Repubs being the Party of No.)

        • [P.F. Bruns]

          I can understand that. “NObama” is particularly stupid to me. I think what I like about “Rmoney” (at least for the next few minutes) is the idea of a hunk of Samsonite like Romney being reinvented as an OG. Corporate raidin’ ain’t easy, yo.

          Okay, I’ll stop now.

• [Stefan Jones]

  When will we learn to treat our Job Creators with the dignity, respect, reverence, and craven obedience with which they are due?

  • [Mark Lee McDonald]

    About the time they start, you know, creating jobs. So… never?

    • [Scurra]

      I believe that they do create quite a lot of jobs.  Not only for lawyers and tax accountants in the US, but also in outsourced factories overseas.  Stop being so harsh on them.

  • [rtb61]

     You know what is really sick about all this, Bain didn’t make it’s money by firing people, it made it by selling those companies afterwards basically to typical Tea Baggers. It used those union layoffs and productivity claims much like putting blood and chum in the water to attract sharks, Tea Bagger sharks, unthinking eating or more accurately greed machines, lured into to investments because unionists were fired.
    Of course all that happened to those Tea Baggers is they were hooked and gutted from their money making Bain billions. No wonder Tea Baggers have such a love hate relationship with Romney

• [Luke B Snyder]

  It would be amazing if this actually mattered. It should matter.

  Buuuuuuuuuuuut, it doesn’t. 

  • [franko]

    you should read it again. it matters a lot.

    • [LinkMan]

      Yeah, because the law firm that filed those documents with the SEC is going to get fired by Bain if they haven’t already.

    • [Luke B Snyder]

      It matters? Is anything going to remotely happen to Romney? I doubt it.

      • [Scooter Jackson]

        Romney being outed as the crook he is and not winning the Presidency is good enough for me.

        • [Boundegar]

           You say that as if there was any connection between the two.  Where were you in 2000?  Ouagadougou?

• [Nicky G]

  Does Bane’s headgear look like goatse, or is it just me?

  • [Mitchell Glaser]

    Gee thanks. You’ve just ruined the whole new Batman movie for me. Now I won’t be able to think of anything else!

    • [Antinous / Moderator]

      Take a bottle of poppers with you when you see it. If you’re going to laugh, you might as well do it hysterically.

• [lava]

  I guess its time to “save America” by not voting for the big fat lying cheater.

  • [Frederik]

    Then there would be no politicians left to vote for….

    /captain obviouse makes a bad joke

• [Sasha@librtee]

  Romney has absolutely committed several felonies. Bain controlled one company while it was engaged in massive Medicare fraud.

  I sometimes think the GOP set him up to fail so they can blame Obama for the bad times that may lie ahead.

  • [P.F. Bruns]

     Great.  You’ve just qualified him to become the next Governor of Florida.

• [ultranaut]

  There is nothing in this little squalid number that could possibly effect anybody!

  • [Sasha@librtee]

    He lied and committed felonies. It’s all more relevant than where Obama was born.

    Romney has a terrible history with the truth. Bain gutted jobs, rather than created them. Romney used his personal money to buy and destroy all hard drives from his office when leaving the governorship – legal, but unprecedented and shady as hell.Romney truly was the worst pick of a sad bunch.

    And this coming from someone who would love to see Obama go.

• [tw1515tw]

  Bainers demand to see the long share certificate. 
  There must be a pun/joke around the words “Natural” “Bain” and “American”, but I can’t work it out at the moment.

  • [Drabula]

    Natural Bain Killers

    • [lknope]

       Citizen Bain.

• [elix]

  “Stop reporting facts about me!”

• [Lord Humongous]

  Who gave you permission to photograph one of my minions?

• [StreetEight]

  Already debunked by the fact-checker at that hive of rabid right-wing nuttery, the Washington Post….. he says “it really feels like Groundhog Day again. There appears to be some confusion about how partnerships are structured and managed, or what SEC documents mean.”

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romney-and-his-departure-from-bain/2012/07/12/gJQAASzUfW_blog.html

  As the Post correctly notes, “Millions of dollars of attack ads by the Obama campaign are hanging in the balance.”, so I’m not surprised at the continuing attempts to prop up this story.

  • [sincarne]

    That’s a little bit weak. “Yeah, you guys found documents stating that he was the CEO, but we found some that don’t say that, so you’re wrong.” Which has more weight: SEC filings, or a prospectus? At the very least, there is conflicting information generated by Bain themselves.

    Also, are you actually claiming that the Washington Post is not conservative? I can’t quite parse your snark.

    • [P.F. Bruns]

      Generally, the Washington Post is derided as a liberal rag by self-described conservatives, and regarded as a teensy bit center-right by self-described liberals and progressives.

      I’d say they might be doing something right.

    • [StreetEight]

       By comparison to Mother Jones (which is apparently where the Globe lifted the bulk of this story) I suppose that yes, one could term the Post “conservative”.

    • [StreetEight]

      http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/13/massachusetts-commissions-finding-romney-left-bain-in-99/

      Massachusetts Commission’s finding: Romney left Bain in ’99

      Posted by
      CNN National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta   

      (CNN)
      – In 2002, before Mitt Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts, political opponents in the state were out to knock him off the ballot. So they challenged his eligibility to be a gubernatorial candidate based on state residency requirements.

      The bipartisan panel that handled the case, the State Ballot Law Commission, ruled in Romney’s favor. But buried deep in the 40-page document detailing its decision, the commission found the following:

      “The Respondent remained actively employed at Bain Capital until January 1, 1999, at which time he left to take the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.”

      In the interests of full disclosure, I plan to vote for Gary Johnson. – StreetEight

      • [malindrome]

        There is the legal definition of CEO and the common-sense definition of “who is running things”.  Romney was probably not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, since he had plenty on his plate for the Olympics.  But he was still the CEO at Bain, as certified with the SEC!  They certainly paid him for it.  So these are two separate issues.  If he didn’t want to retain legal responsibility for Bain’s actions, he could have passed on legal control to someone else and given up the $100,000 per year salary.

  • [jerwin]

    There appears to be some confusion about how partnerships are structured and managed

    Confusion? Who cares? That’s rich person talk.

  • [malindrome]

    That Washington Post article “debunking” the story agrees the following facts are true:
    1) Romney filed SEC forms after 1999 certifying that he was CEO of Bain Capital
    2) CEOs are legally responsible for the actions of their company
    3) If Romney WASN’T actually CEO of Bain (but signed the forms anyway), that is a felony

    It seems clear that he either was the CEO, and was legally responsible for the actions of the firm (regardless of his actual involvement in management decisions), or he lied on the SEC filings and broke the law.  The former seems much more likely than the latter, especially considering that he got paid millions of dollars as CEO during his time in Salt Lake City.

    • [Aaron Gilliland]

      I would “like” this post a thousand times if I could.

• [Yep]

  Wait…my spidey senses are tingling…. hey! Steepled fingers! Steepled fingers! 

• [flyoverland]

  The picture isn’t from Romney’s company. It is spelled B-A-I-N, not B-A-N-E. 

  • [Flugfrei Jones]

    then what on earth was mittens doing hanging out at bane & company, inc.. and why is he wearing that crazy mask?

    • [Jesus]

      Both of you are so un-hip.  +1 for comic book nerds.

      • [Flugfrei Jones]

        oops.. i’ll label my snark next time. =/

    • [malindrome]

      When Romney was at Harvard Business School, they injected him with a mysterious drug known as “Venom”, which is like a financial super-steroid, allowing him to leverage debt to increase profits 1000-fold.  

• [sdmikev]

  You gotta hand it to them.  Retract this!  Are you disptuting any of the fact?  No, retract this!
  Right wing echo machine takes over, etc, etc..

• [chgoliz]

  I think this is useful info regarding the limits of their attack plan, actually.

  The Reactionaries have no problem telling lies outright.  Over and over again, until their dupes believe them.  They have no problem shouting down the truth with lies.  But once the truth is published in a formal way (newspaper, not internet), they will quibble but that’s it.  They let the truth stand rather than claim lies at that point.

  So, we need to stop thinking that telling the truth via the internet is going to work.  It needs to be in published media that is delivered to Average Joe’s home on a daily or at most weekly basis.  We need to bring back journalism as the 4th estate.

  A girl can dream, right?

  • [Boundegar]

     You think Average Joe has a newspaper delivered?  And I thought Romney was out of touch…

• [thecleaninglady]

  It’s good to see Romney without make up once in a while.

• [pshaffer]

  Rob – your uncritical credulity is showing.

  “But first, is there anything other than the SEC filings to suggest a hands-on Romney role at Bain post-February 1999?
  No is the word from four sources who communicated with CNN on Thursday — all of whom have firsthand knowledge of Bain’s operations at the time in question. Three of the four are Democrats, and two of the four are active Obama supporters in Campaign 2012. “Pagliuca, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2010, told CNN: “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.”"In explaining the SEC documents filed in 2000 and 2001, Pagliuca said, “Due to the sudden nature of Mr. Romney’s departure, he remained the sole stockholder for a time while formal ownership was being documented and transferred to the group of partners who took over management of the firm in 1999.” http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/12/politics/john-king-bain/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

  So now we see the Dems can play the “birther” game, too.