Associated Press
There's renewed interest in what kind of young man Mitt Romney was.
Whether one considers Mitt Romney's actions as a young man relevant or not in 2012, the story took on a life of its own yesterday, as the public got a better sense of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's personal background.
After the Washington Post reported that Romney, as an 18-year-old high-school senior, assaulted a younger classmate believed to be gay, the Romney campaign started reaching out to the school's alumni to say nice things about the Republican to the media. That didn't go well -- ABC News talked to one former student who said Romney's behavior was "evil" and "like Lord of the Flies."
The controversy was made more complicated when, as Rachel explained last night, Romney reflected on the details of incidents he simultaneously claimed not to recall.
But as the day progressed, there was a sharper focus on far more contemporary events, which are clearly more relevant in the presidential race, and whether the Republican has a problem with gay people. The New York Times, for example, reported that Romney, during his Senate campaign, questioned whether gay men would make good Boy Scout leaders, implying that there's a connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.
More relevant still were Romney's actions as governor.
Mitt Romney clashed with a state commission tasked with helping LGBT youth at risk for bullying and suicide throughout his term as Massachusetts governor over funding and its participation in a pride parade. He eventually abolished the group altogether. [...]
The Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, created by Republican Gov. William Weld in 1992 in response to newly released statistics showing alarmingly high suicide rates among gay and lesbian teens, was designed to combat harassment in schools. It served at the pleasure of the state's chief executive. The commission funded Gay Straight Alliances in high schools and provided training and information for teachers.
And it's against this backdrop that the Republican, if elected president, will fight for an anti-gay amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Had Romney taken this opportunity to show some leadership, express sincere regret (instead of laughing his way through a pseudo apology), and take a firm stand against bullying, the day probably would have unfolded quite differently. Instead, it appears likely this will be an issue that lingers and helps define the candidate's character.
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Thank goodness that the mainstream press has finally done due diligence on the background of Mitt Romney and unearthed this important and telling incident from his past. Romney's dark history of pervasive and brutal bullying is a testament to his un-American character and his utter disregard for his fellow Americans. He has grown up with the same arrogance and hate that he displayed as a young man. Attacking a gay classmate with quite literally a lethal; weapon is terribly disturbing and disqualifies Mitt for the job of commander in chief. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Have you noticed that following the suicides of gay students, when attempts are made to make bullying illegal, that Mitt's groupies resist this infringement on their hatred? It seems their hatred of blacks and women and hispanics and atheists and poor isn't enough to satiate their hatred. These are some very sick puppies.
Barack Obama has often spoken about the invaluable lessons of walking in someone else’s shoes. Mitt Romney seems to have difficulty getting beyond the thought of wearing someone else's shoes.
Yes, because they've done such a fantastic job of ignoring Obama's past. Even when it's put in their lap, they turn a blind eye to it.
The main stream media will either make this disappear or be back tracking just like they did with Tayvon Martin. When the facts come out. I call BS just for the fact that people weren't openly gay in high school in the 40 and 50s. Second the person that this was supposed to of happen to is now dead so he can't be asked but his parents stated yesterday that he wasn't gay. So if this isn't an issue about Mitt picking on a gay person then why aren't we talking about President Obama picking on a girl in school. He talked about it in his book.
As I said elsewhere, this story is garbage and the Democrat slime merchants need to go back to the slime pit, because it has quickly gone CODE BLUE !!
I'll be more than happy to make similar comments when Republican slime merchants come up with a similar sort of bogus story about the President in HIS youth, just as I have denounced the birther nonsense from the beginning.
Mitt's laughter during his non-recollection of his leadership of the hair-cutting mini-mob, did not seem to be uncomfortable. It sounded disdainful, ie it is not important to Mitt. If I did do this it was not because the victim was gay. Selective memory again. Homophobia is more typical in someone insecure about how others see them I guess being a cheerleader, he needed to overcompensate to appear macho.
Let me throw out a possibility that might explain some of Mitt's reaction: what if this isn't the worst incident in which Romney was engaged at Cranbrook--an all boys school with hundreds of adolescents?
Could the nervous laughter be associated with Mitt thinking, "If they've found out about this, what else will they uncover?"
Once a bully, always a bully... but now that he has more money than gawd, he gets others to do his bullying for him!
He always had more money than gawd.
Even if he didn't think the young man he attacked was gay, what makes it okay for an 18 year old to attack a fellow student with a scissors? And then he says he "might" have gone too far. His repeated poor choice of words every time an issue comes up is a strong indication that he is clueless, and has no remorse. "The dog liked to crawl into the kennel on top of the car", really?
Probably the dog preferred this to a beating.
What amazes me about the "dog on top of the car" incident is that the media continually misses his most damning statement: that the carrier was airtight.
Mitt is admitting to an attempt to kill his dog. No air-breathing creature can live in an airtight environment for very long.
Yeah. http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/01/13/romneys-dog-on-car-roof-story-makes-him-unfit-to-be-president/
The pushback has been swift, and broad. Morning Joe Scarborough turned the 18 year old senior into a "14 or 15 year old kid," and told us that the family of the VICTIM is upset by the article.
Of course, that follows on Mitt telling us that homosexuality was not pertinent to the incident- "we didn't talk about that, back then." So it was just youthful hijinks. Kind of like blowing up frogs with fire crackers. -Right, Shrub?
Joe Scarborough has flipped so hard on Mitt. When the nominations first started he bad mouth Mitt's time in office. He and Ann Coulter said he could not win the election. Now old Smuck thinks that Mitt is the answer to all our woes! I wish Mika had her own show, as I can no longer stand Joe the Smuck!!
I finally had to stop watching "morning joe". I do miss willie g.!
Mitt says that people didn't talk about "that kind of thing" back in the 1960s, his knowledge of history is as weak as his grasp of the concept of honesty.
I am not as concerned about the hair cutting incident as his reaction to it. He, alone among all the living participants, is the only person who doesn't seem to remember the incident clearly. His laughing non-apology apology was telling. Every passing incident leads to the conclusion that Mitt Romney lacks the courage and moral character necessary to hold the office President of the United States.
I kinda think we're at the point where the Mittster is just "going through the motions." He knows he's the Republican nominee, but he knows he can't win the presidency.
It is possible he thinks enough "Money" can make anything happen. Think of it as bullying with money. Isn't that what he has been doing with all his opponents? His comments about people being jealous are disturbing. Wealthy candidates are pretty much the norm. The man himself is lacking in many disturbing ways.
The classmate; the dog; the automotive industry. This man has shown a tendency to have extremely limited range of problem-solving ability, at the very least, which is one of the primary prerequisites for POTUS, imho.
To Quote an old favorite song of mine: " I see your true colors shining through". The man has no moral compass. Laughing about an incident that the rest of the group remembers clearly. Laughing about the poor dog on the roof of the car for hours. Saying he saved the automobile industry. The man has no shame!! The only thing he values in power and money. Please Lord do not let this man anywhere near the Oval Office.
Does Romney expect anyone to believe that waaaaay back in the 1960s teenagers didn't talk or think about homosexuality/ Why hasn't he been called out on this obvious bull@!$%# as well?
I know we didn't talk about it much in the 60's and '70s where I grew up. Maybe they did where you grew up, I don't know.
Not everything you don't believe is a BS lie, but then being open minded is something liberals only pretend to be.
I know my kids learned about such things a heck of a lot earlier than I did...
I agree with hell's littlest angel...I knew about homosexuality in the 60's. I had a counselor in Jr. High that was gay. Maybe we didn't have all the TERMS but we knew. My PARENTS knew. There were homophobes back then but THANK GOD we had sane parents that looked at his skills instead of his personal sexuality. Hell, I had an aunt that was gay. What my parents DIDN'T do is sit us down and explain it all to us but we KNEW. There is absolutely NO WAY that Romney didn't know. Even if he didn't know the term 'gay' he knew the boy was 'different' and he bullied him. OK it happened. BUT in his adult life he is not contrite. I talked to my husband about what we remember from High School and guartanteed if we had pulled this crap in HS we would have remembered it with shame our entire life even if we had 'evolved'...
This story feels like it's been around for quite a while. Most people are wondering if Mitt Romney is a bully. I think holding someone down against their will and cutting their hair is undoubtedly the act of one. Has he changed? Perhaps, but I see no evidence of any effort to do so. My concern with all of this is with the victim of this horrible abuse and how he had to live with it every day of his life. I'm guessing that Mitt wasn't punished for this or, if he was, the punishment was very light. Every day, bullies get away with this kind of behavior without consequences. So, why shouldn't they engage in a little "horseplay?"
The article mentioned that Romney was never punished by the school for this attack. On the other hand, the victim of the attack was expelled from the school for smoking.
One can't think much of Cranbrook after this. At schools with administrators who aren't petrified at the thought of what wealthy and famous parents might do (and of losing some tuition money), Mitt would have been the one expelled.
Obviously, the truly important factor here is that the victim's parents weren't as rich and powerful as the Romneys. Cranbrook's reaction to this says it all about what its real values are.
If Romney were to be president, God forbid, we could rename this country "Romneys' Barber Shoppe Corporation" Let me shave your head, let me strip you naked for all the world to see. I will only charge you your job and your life. That's ok I saved the Corporations they are people, you are merely muppets you do not need to eat or live.I will shave your heads and sell your hair to the highest bidder. I will rape your land and sell your children. Please have more children so that I may use them to occupy my many prisons and shine my many shoes. Today I will put on the funny preppy hat of my college days Oh, how funny I was. The leader of the pack how dare they defy me, Do you know who my father was? I have learned much like how to take and never give. Greed my friend now, theres' the ticket. I've already made quite a large down payment on this investment. How could I lose? Perhaps his father was not the greatest teacher. His sons know the answer to that question.
I've been thinking about this and it finally dawned on me why I am so troubled by this. All these men who are now coming forward about this incident claim to be or were "good" friends of Mitt's. Not sure about you but I don't know too many of my good friends who will throw me in front of a bus. Why come forward now? Are they concerned that Mitt's behavior in the past is still an issue? Was what he did so disturbing that they feel the need to speak out now since he has an opportunity to lead our nation? I don't think they did it to get their 15 minutes of fame - they all seem to have been successful without Mitt up to now - interesting timing.
This is not just in school. It has been around that the 'minions' at Bain Capitol didn't like him. NOT because he was the 'boss' but because he's only out for himself and not particularly likeable. In other words, he has no empathy.
Rachel, I thought you might find this interesting:
Excerpt from the Boston Globe 4 Nov 2001.
"Representative Scott Brown wandered into a political thicket last week when he disparaged Democratic state Senator Cheryl Jacques and her domestic partner, Jennifer Chrisler, for deciding to have children...The controversy began last week when Brown, in an interview with the Globe, said it was "not normal" for two women to have a baby. He also dismissed Jacques's role in the relationship as her "alleged family responsibilities..."
"He said he was caught off guard during the Globe interview last week and was not prepared to discuss the issue of lesbians bearing children...
"I don't know what their relationship is," Brown said, speaking of Jacques and Chrisler. "They're certainly not married. There's a difference of philosophy there. Are there two mothers there? Are they husband and wife?"
Later in the interview, Brown said, "It's unusual for two women having a baby. It's just not normal, in terms of what's normal in today's society..."
"Brown is a member of the Legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary, which puts him in the middle of the State House debate over gay marriage and similarly volatile issues. He refused to state his position on the issue of gay marriage last week, saying it would be inappropriate for him to comment while the subject is pending before the committee.
"He said his concerns about Jacques's situation stemmed from his work on the committee. What are the legal rights of a lesbian parent who did not bear the child? Would she have to adopt?
"Brown calls himself a moderate Republican, in the tradition of socially liberal, fiscally conservative Republicans who have found some measure of success in New England. But Jennifer Firth, a Wrentham selectwoman and former Brown supporter, said he is "extremely conservative."
"This just reinforces that fact," Firth said of the Jacques flap..."
Rachael you got it right with your recent story on Willard. He LIES !
Rachael, you are right. Willard LIES!
Rachael, you got Willard right. He LIES.
Romney's and his people call it a prank.This is not a prank, it is felony assault.If Pres.Obama had done this, Fox would be calling for his head. Another error in Romney's long list of error's in judgement. If he were elected,would he show the same contempt for the poor and middle class as he showed the young man in high school? I would say yes.But there's one thing about Romney, like Obama who became the first black president, if elected Romney would be the first president in history to have five grandmother's.
Jeepers, we all have coming out stories with various levels of trauma, but this was awful... and, arguably, the police should have been called. So, we stand with this choice for president: the incumbent, who has just come out in favor of gay marriage, and his chief rival, who may have committed a homophobic assault as an 18-year-old. A choice, not an echo, indeed...
My bottom line is that he doesn't remember the incident. I'm not buying it. You don't forget that sort of thing. He's simply lying and the wingnuts don't care.
Besides which, as Rachel pointed out last night, he claims he doesn't remember the incident but still can remember that it wasn't because the kid was gay. Very believable. About as believable as "I never stole his lunch money, teach, and it was only 70 cents anyway." If you don't remember, you don't remember all of it.
Another pathetic and sad smoke screen from the left. Mitt is a bully, Obama pushes a girl, Mitt with dog on car, Obama eats them, all just to keep people from talking about the real issues. If this stupid stuff stops and we hear about how the economy, deficit, scandals, and all the stuff that truly matters, Obama is finished. I expect more of this stuff as we get closer to November, shameful.
Eric your are as far out of touch as Mitten's. Don't your remember when you got the Majority in the House that their FIRST priority would be jobs?? How many bills for jobs have you seen come out of the HOUSE. ZIP, none, nada. You think Mitt is interested in helping middle class or poor people find jobs? Not a chance in Hades!
Oh yeah. Obama can remember as a child (as early as age 6 regarding being introduced to eating dog meat!) these incidents and can recall them in detail in a book, and Mitt yet simply brushes it off as not remembering it when he was an adult? Another rightwing attempt at false equivalences.
Actually, I'd love to see an argument on the economy. In any honest debate, Obama would clean Mitt's clock. Mitt's supposedly a great businessman, but he understands the economy in exactly the same way a tick understands a dog.
"...he (Romney) understands the economy in exactly the same way a tick understands a dog." Perfect, and so on target! Thank you, Art!
I too would love to see this election cycle get back on track. It's gone far beyond the ludicrous at this point. We're discussing what Romney did 48 years ago as a high school student, and whether or not Elizabeth Warren is 1/32nd Native American? Are these issues that relevant to the problems we're facing today?
Don't get me wrong, I think Romney is a slick, sleazy politician who should be explaining why his views change from audience to audience, instead of dwelling on what he did in high school, which takes focus away from his current lies. As an old lady, I can truthfully say I've got things I did in high school that I am both horrified by and deeply ashamed of. I suspect many of us are in that same boat. (Although it would be nice if Romney would just say "Yeah, I was a jerk. I've grown up since then.")
And the idea that Harvard has to accept faculty members that are less than qualified because of some ethnic ties from generations ago is absurd at best. I'm guessing Harvard has its pick of candidates from wherever and whoever it wants.
Can we get back to the real issues, please?
Amen, @artfulskeptic!
If Romney really, really wants to talk about the economy, jobless claims numbers came in on the low end again this week (good news), consumer confidence is at a 4-yr high (great news) the American auto industry is speeding along (spectacular news), U.S. manufacturing is at a decades-long high, as are our exports (more great news), under the Obama administration, the U.S actually produced a monthly budget surplus in April - for the first time since 2008 (really great news - all of this can be Googled) -- and it goes on and on.
On the other hand, Romney and the GOP have been DEAD WRONG on EVERYTHING to do with the economy, and simply now resort to out-and-out lies and deception when "talking about the economy." So, conservatives may want to "talk about the economy," but there's no way they want to have an honest conversation about it.
Unemployment at 8.3%
The longest recovery from a rescission.
Jobless is down, likely because people have given up.
Solandra, GSA, fast and furious, secret service, EPA (crucify the gas companies) scandals
Out of control spending
Auto buy back program = pay off to Unions
Has had more fund raisers than the last 5 President combined.
@Eric, - thanks for providing Exhibit A for what I referred to in my previous post. Conservatives simply cannot make an honest argument about the economy.
Eric ... The fact that unemployment is still over 8% shows just how deep a hole Bush and his buddies on Wall Street put us in.
in a 1994 interview with LGBT newspaper “Bay Windows,” Mitt Romney said that he would be “better than Ted (Kennedy) for gay rights” during his unsuccessful campaign to unseat the late Massachusetts Senator.
http://newsone.com/2006845/mitt-romney-gay-rights-bay-windows/
Mitt He's One of us . I would imagine the rates were comparable in the 60's
Just sayin'
Cranbrook School 2012-2013 Tuition
Half Day M-W-F Pre-Kindergarten (age 3): $6,300
Half Day Pre-Kindergarten and Junior Kindergarten (3- and 4-year-olds): $9,900
Full Day Pre-Kindergarten, Junior Kindergarten, and Senior Kindergarten (Age 3, 4 and 5): $18,900
Grades 1-5: $22,300
Grades 6-8: $24,300
Grades 9-12 (Day): $28,300
Grades 9-12 (Boarding): $38,900
Cranbrook is one of the 3 most expensive schools in the metro Detroit area. (The other 2 are Roeper and Country Day.)
Just my point He has never , never had to experience life and work, like you and I know it .
That roll up the sleeves , jes' folks persona he is trying to portray makes me want to puke .
Bush "clearin' brush" take 2
Cranbrook is the only boarding school. Roeper and Country Day are not. That kicks it up a couple notches as far as exclusivity and image. You don't have to live at the school to go there, but it certainly adds to the panache.
I imagine having Willard away at boarding school made it a lot easier for Ann Romney to raise the rest of her boys, what with her being a stay-at-home mom and all. <cough, cough>
There is much more that is horrific about this with Romney’s vicious attack on a fellow classmate. It is the shocking talk from his wife Ann Romney saying how Mitt was really funny in his so-called pranks in high school. Like Ann Romney in addition thought these activities of vicious attacks were also funny and acceptable. It is like my God what type of parents are they and how their boys were so troublesome at times, what did they teach their children to be like. These 2 people as a couple is just too shocking and questioning as to what a family should be. And as they sit there and describe how their boys like to play pranks, what do these people call pranks, when it has caused pain and misery onto someone else. A prank is one thing when no one really gets hurt, but to call something a prank that is not really a prank that is another matter. And as these 2 people try to continue on how they like their so-called pranks and how funny they are, we need to question what does Mitt and Ann Romney really call a prank. Because to have a person like this in the white house would be a disaster for America and its people, since there is really no care or concern on the well being of other people.
Good Morning Rachel and Staff:
I truly appreciate your dedicated support of the progessive left causes but not to the extent that I think it is right to let one of your statements go unchecked. You may consider me old, you would be correct. But it is exactly my age that allows this criticism. I am no fan of Romney but I am his age and whether or not he remembers or not the incidents of his youth one thing you implied is just wrong, based on my experience. In my early adulthood in the mid 60's I did not know there were same sex couples or that you could be attracted sexually or romantically to a member of the same sex. Based on my experience with girls from all over the country at age 18 at Paris Island, SC I can say with assurance that I was not alone. Many, if not most, were shocked learning of this. In the religious households of the 50's and 60's it just didn't come up. When many years - late 70's - I told my mother I was upset in recruit training that she did not tell me about this. Her response was "I didn't know". So, whether or not Romney knew is not the my issue. My issue is at the time of the incident many did not know or understand the LBGT community if they even knew about it.
I believe you but it sounds like I am your age and as I've stated before I knew there were people that were 'different'...that didn't marry but had 'partners'. My parents would just say they were 'funny'...What I find interesting is that the Stonewall Riots were in 1969. Maybe in SC this wasn't 'news' but I find it amazing that Mitt Romney and his entitled friends didn't know what was happening just over in NY. What I DO believe is that he thought they deserved to be beaten down.
Ok, I am clearly younger than you. I was a child in the 70s. I don't remember knowing any gay couples as a child; but I saw Liberace on TV as a very young girl and was completely cognizant that he was NOT like other men I knew. He was DIFFERENT. I didn't know "gay". But I clearly got Liberace's vibe.
That being said, forget about the "gay" or "not gay" aspect of the story for a minute. He still organized a posse, which held someone down and forcibly cut his hair. Whether they did it because they were aware or homosexuality or not, that is still WRONG.
I grew up in the '50s and'60s and I knew at a very young age that I was "homosexual." The word "gay" was not used in those days. Growing up in the metropolitan Detroit area, from late elementary school and on, I dealt with the sometimes whispered but most time shouted epithet of queer, lesbo, homo, etc.
The movie "The Group" came out at the end of my high school years and the last 6 months of my senior year I was shunned by my friends. My high school counselor, who I strongly guessed was gay, told me to hold my chin up, walk tall, and don't let anyone's opinion hold me down. How much more real it would have been if she could have told me she was also gay and had survived those tumultuous years.
Just because "we didn't talk about that back then" doesn't mean many weren't knowledgeable and knew and understood all those slang epithets.
Mary Ann ... I grew up in an upper middle class enclave in the SF Bay Area in the 50s and 60s. This topic was anything but off limits among kids at our junior high and high school. Lots of epithets were tossed back and forth, and sometimes not in jest.
It wasn't exactly ignored in the music of that time, either. Go look up the lyrics to the song, "A Well Respected Man," by the Kinks.
Anyone who claims that at any time in the past people weren't aware of homosexuals is simply burying their head in the sand, then and now. Denial is a form of acknowledgement.
@mpguy
i don't think the kinks meant what you're implying they meant. that word has multiple meanings, not all oppressive.
Someone asked why his old school friends shared the story now. He was corrupted with power at 18 and now with the chance to be POTUS his old chums are probably afraid what he will now be in position to perpetrate. I was in a frat with a former VEEP . While I thought he was a spoiled rich kid, I never thought he was dangerous, so there was no need to share my opinion. If he was cruel or dangerous, I would have shared the story.
I assume you're talking about Dan Quayle. If so, he seemed to me to be dumb but not dangerous. His son, on the other hand, seems to have the character of his mother, who does seem to be dangerous.