The Romney campaign has truly awful timing. After weeks of the Obama campaign undermining Mitt Romney's standing with ads attacking the Republican's controversial private-sector background, Romney punched back hard this morning with a new ad that effectively (and ironically) accuses the president of being a big liar.
The strategy was simple: the whole day was supposed to be about Romney's claim that the president is the lyingest liar who's ever lied. Instead, the ad was released the same day as a new Boston Globe bombshell that catches Romney lying about his Bain background.
As we discussed yesterday, reporting from Mother Jones and TPM got this ball rolling, but it's the Globe piece that's being billed as "a potential game changer."
Government documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital say Romney remained chief executive and chairman of the firm three years beyond the date he said he ceded control, even creating five new investment partnerships during that time.
Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm's "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president."
Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney's state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain "executive" in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.
Perhaps the most brutal element of the article comes towards the end: an unnamed Romney campaign official acknowledged that Romney's claims "do not square with common sense" given the SEC filings. Ouch.
To put it mildly, this has the potential to do some very serious damage to Romney's candidacy.
For one thing, there's the question of which of Romney's contradictory answers is the truth. When the editors of FactCheck.org initially took Romney's claims at face value to reject Democratic criticisms, they said the candidate must be telling the truth about his Bain departure date, because if he didn't really leave until 2002, then "Romney would be guilty of a federal felony by certifying on federal financial disclosure forms that he left active management of Bain Capital in February 1999."
FactCheck.org meant that to be proof that Romney's claims were true. Now that there's ample evidence to the contrary, it's worth considering that whole "guilty of a federal felony" question again.
But even if we put that aside, the underlying point is why Romney wants people to believe he left Bain earlier than the apparent, documented date. On this, there's no great mystery: Romney doesn't want to be on the hook for a series of controversial Bain investments, layoffs, and bankruptcies that Bain oversaw after February 1999.
In other words, Romney isn't just accused of lying about a superficial clerical matter; he's accused of lying to avoid responsibility for his business' actions on his watch.
The Romney defense is that he was technically Bain's chief after February 1999, but he wasn't really involved with the company anymore. He was, as the New York Times described it the other day, "an absentee owner" who "left day-to-day management" to others.
But all of the new details make this defense hard to believe. This week's reporting suggests Romney was actively involved with running Bain Capital and overseeing its operations well after the point at which he claims to have departed from the firm.
What's more, we're looking at a larger story that's starting to snowball. Romney is now burdened by unexplained offshore finances, hidden tax returns, dubious disclosures, controversial investments, unanswered questions about his individual retirement account that somehow ended up with more than $100 million, and claims about his business that contradict SEC filings.
At some point, the Republican presidential candidate is probably going to have to come clean, answer questions from someone other than Fox, and set the record straight. If Romney's smart, he'll do this sooner, rather than later.
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Romney can say whatever he wants to say but he is going down in all the recent polls. Here is the proof: http://www.pollheadlines.com/poll-category.php?category=obama-vs-romney
I love how Rasmussen is literally the only polling organization showing Romney ahead of Obama...time after time.
He will go down
The Republicans don't care about Romney winning the presidency. His candidacy is a diversionary tactic to get Dems focused on this Presidential race while the GOTP funnels their money into Senate and House races. Warning: watch your local and state races very closely.
Nice piece Steve. You know the old joke.
How can you tell if a Republican't is lying?
His lips are moving. :)
People with his kind of money don't get indicted.
Watch an interview with him as he looks off to the side before answering a question. Further watch how much he blinks. He's like a used car salesman that has rolled back the odometer but says, isn't the car shiny?
This guy will be a pure puppet to Wall Street but what scares me more is how war mongering the Republicans are. Nobody remembers that not only did Obama inherit financial meltdown of large banks and rising unemployment, bankrupt auto industry, but we were in TWO WARS. We still are in one. I think our whole system is a travesty with no campaign finance limits so we will never have clean politicians thanks to the Supreme (corporate) court. You don't really think that Roberts upheld ObamaCare because it was good for citizens, do you? Putting a republican in the white house is giving Wall Street the keys to the US treasury and hands into every wallet in America. I do think that Banker's greed is going to cause massive fiscal crisis with looting of pension and retirement funds. Putting Republicans in office WILL speed up the next boom/bust and get us into another war.
Well, Romney's response is in and surprisingly, it doesn't directly address the question of how a person identified as "sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president," and being paid a hundred large in salary (not passive gains or bonuses or delayed vesting benefits, salary as in a paycheck for services rendered--though I'm sure he got a lot more from that) in an SEC filing, signed under penalty of perjury and subject to up to twenty years in prison for making material false omissions, is totally consistent with his having given up all management responsibilities in said business two years earlier.
Nope, basically, Romney just says "they're lying! Liars, liars, pants on fire! Because shut up! So there!"
Not that there aren't hundreds of corporations in the financial sector that wouldn't run better if their CEO, president and chairman of the board just took a three year hike on the Appalachian Trail, of course . . .
I'm no Romney fan, but I am a law student and I have to say Factchecker's analysis on this appears pretty fair. From what I know about the legal structure of a private equity firm (had Corporate Law just last semester), evidence that Romney wholly-owned or was even CEO/President of Bain on SEC filings through 2003 is NOT evidence that he was managing the investment decisions. Not even close. (It's not evidence that he WASN'T, to be sure...but there's probably less here than people think.)
I guess I can open a sweat shop , employ children , collect all the profits , then just claim I really wasn't in charge of anything ..
The snake oil salesmen have been made the kings , and america seems to be not all that outraged , tho everyone I know is really pissed off obama did not go after them with criminal charges
Take the Bain issue at it's most shallow face value then, it appears Romney is not the business man he says he is, and isn't that one of his main "qualifications" for the presidency? It appears he'll keep the title and the money, but won't bother actually doing any of the work, choosing to be elsewhere doing whatall.
If that's the way he wants to head a company, fine. Is that the way to lead a troubled nation?
Wow is it really all or nothing with you? Maybe you should try Decaf!
JJ, who are you responding to?
Interesting, if the average person lied about his or her work history this way, he or she would be guilty of lying on an employment form and it would be grounds for immediate dismissal, if they were hired. Not so with the rich and untouchable.
OMG!! Lets fire Obama! For exactly what you wrote!!!
I wanted to say that listing yourself as CEO, taking salary, and then essentially doing NOTHING for the money is a fraud against your shareholders. But if Mitt maintained 100% of the shares, then no one else has an axe to grind.
However, I still think that if you are the titular head of the company, sole owner, and taking the profits, then you are responsible for the actions that led to those profits.
Remember when simply having investments in South Africa was a big no-no? Public opinion forced most American comanies to divest. Those companies weren't managing apartheid, simply tolerating it. Why should Mitt be off the hook for everything Bain did since 1999? He took the money, whether he "actively" made those decisions or not.
Question can a person that has committed or is guilty of a federal felony be elected president?
Obama slid right on thru!
JJ, really?
What felony did Obama commit?
It's pretty comical how Rachael directs everyone to a Romney ad to refute it only to find that it's an ad with overwhelming support...so what's so great about Obama?
1. Health care "reform" that was supposed to be "broadcast on CSPAN" done behind closed doors.
2. Nearly 5 trillion dollars in NEW debt.
3. Sweetheart deals for company's like Solyndra (which ended up out sourcing jobs before going broke ON THE TAX PAYER'S DIME).
4. Executive privilege for something he "knew nothing about" to save his buddy Holder (his useless lap dog).
5. Attempting to outsource America's 2nd Amendment to the U.N.
6. 3 years of blaming everything on the previous administration. 1 year of campaigning and attending Hollywood fundraisers to get money from the "1%"
7. Gitmo- Still open, operational, and now undergoing multi-million dollar improvements.
I'm not saying Romney is the end-all savior, but he certainly can't do worse than the junior senator from Illinois.
You forgot all the leaks, which has done alot of damage not only to the credibility of America, but the Dr who was helping us, is now in jail for 30+ yrs being tortured!
Seal Team Six and their families lives in danger!
Oh ya, starting another war on our soil!
Not caring about our borders, and what is happening to the American people in the border states! Instead he sues Arizona for trying to protect our families from being killed, kidnapped, raped, the list goes on.....
No .... ,the man clearly has a lot of reality issues he will not disclose without a court order!Sorry,oaths of secrecy is not what this country needs,as we have alot of buttons and executive pens that could get us in alot more trouble with you driving the bus...
I can hardly wait for the presidential debates. This is gonna be fun!
Especially since there won't be a tele prompter.
LOL
mitt can not even do that right (well right yes correct no)
think you not suppose to read "full stop"
Obviously Matt doesn't remember Obama crushing Blinky in 2008's debates. At least McCain usually told what he believed was the truth.
What if the shoe was on the other foot? Look how long the repub's went after Clinton before they found out he got a blowjob by someone other than his wife. Look how they swiftboated kerry. No easy path for him. If he want's to be President, he should have to wade through the same waters his party created. If he doesn't like it, he should go back to his mansion in California with the car elevator, and keep narc'ing on the neighbors.
With negative advertising you just repeat and repeat for it to work. If the feds dont get into it legally, you just splash that paper work up on the screen , show his mouth moving about leaving Bain and slap a FELON stamp over his head.
And you people wonder why the honest party wants people to show a picture I.D when voting!
Romney come clean? Give me a break. Romney will continue to throw back the charges made against him against Obama and that is exactly what he is doing here. But one thing is for sure, if you liked Nixon you will love Romney. They are made of the same cut of cloth.
If you like Carter, you'll love Obama. If you loved Nixon, you'll love Obama's "executive privilege." The only cloth that Obama is made out of is my underwear.
You have 1/2 black underwear?
OK, 'yall, see the illustrious Mr. Corn's new tome, legally sound and tight as a drum for FC.O: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/bain-capital-mitt-romney-outsourcing-china-global-tech
What's his exposure level? Is Mr. Corn out there any further than preaching to his own? Even the best expose journalism can be buried if the story is too isolated from the MSM.
Oh man, I got me a big ole tub of hot buttered popcorn. Now we got a show!
All this spinning about is not getting anyone anywhere... I think what will truly settle this once and for all are Romney's tax returns for the past 10 years. THEN we will see if he was still on Bain's payroll. That will be the smoking gun.
Go to fact check, and if your serious about this, why not check it out yourself? He was a Gov of MA. Hmmm.... Hes already released documents back then.... Not to mention, he has released what he is required to.
Let's see. Mittens was CEO and sole shareholder, but wasn't in charge? I'm confused.
Sure - Mittens know SO much about the economy and creating jobs, he doesn't even have to be at a company for it to thrive. Of course, if that were true, every company in the US would be uber-succesful just by virtue of Mitt being alive.
(It's the magic underwear...)
Doesn't take much huh?
What this means is we now know exactly what Romneys' job strategy will be and his excuse will be he left it to others.
And the "others" will be all the usual suspects from the Bush/Bush/Reagan administrations. It's not Mitt being voting in so much as it's them being voting back in.
In a sane political world, this would be the end of Romney's candidacy. He'd be forced to step aside and the Republican Party would find a different nominee.
Instead, we should expect other leading Republicans to rally to his side, defend the practice of making false SEC and FEC filings as old fashioned sound business sense, dismiss the seriousness of lying to the public, describe tax evasion, offshoring, stealing pension funds, and vulture capitalism as good for America. Oh yes, and they'll accuse Romney's critics of cynicism, hypocrisy, and envy and warn of the horrors of class warfare.
There is a test at http://arkancide.com/psychopathy.htm for psychopathy. If you were Mitt, what answers and score would you get?
I think Team Obama will be on this in a few months. Let the Repubs have their convention and be full of themselves and then they will unleash Biden and Obama to bring these facts up. If you hammer it home 100mph every day no one will care if they hear it volume 10 all the time and get bored.
Obama did it to McCain all the time in 2008 when it seemed he would leave things unsaid and then unleash on him.