Quotes
"
Buenos dias!" -- Mitt Romney's regular greeting to the illegal Guatemalan immigrants who work on his lawn
"Aw, geez." -- Romney to a reporter who asked him about the lawn workers. He then walked away.
"I get speakers fees from time to time but not very much.” -- Mitt Romney. ("Not very much" was over $500,000 in 2010.)
"I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter.
Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15
or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times." -- Mitt Romney, failing.
"Corporations are people, too, my friend." -- Romney
"Maybe I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed." -- Romney, forgetting his $500,000 a year in speaking fees.
"He grabbed my shoulder, and I was like
'boom get off of me.' The man assaulted me. I was protecting myself." -- Rapper Sky Blu of LMFAO,
describing a tussle with Romney in the first class section of an airplane.
"I have always felt that [the White Horse Prophecy] meant that sometime
the question of whether we are going to proceed on the basis of the
Constitution
would arise and at this point government leaders who were Mormons would
be involved in answering that question." -- George Romney
"I haven't heard my name associated with it [
the White Horse Prophecy]
or anything of that nature. That's not official church doctrine. There
are a lot of things that are speculation and
discussion by church members and even church leaders that aren't
official church doctrine. I don't put that at the heart of my religious
belief." - Romney, not really denying anything
"[I don't follow NASCAR] as closely as some of the most ardent fans. But
I have some great friends who are NASCAR team owners." - Romney
“I was a severely conservative Republican governor. I fought against
long odds in a deep blue state.” -- Romney, protesting too much.
"He is the most intellectually dishonest
human being in the history of politics." - Barney Frank, former congressman from Massaschusetts
"I'm a normal person.
I have emotions." -- Mitt Romney, protesting too much.
"“I’m not in favor of his religion by any means. But he [
L. Ron Hubbard] wrote a book called ‘Battlefield Earth’ that was a very fun science-fiction book.” - Romney
--
Quote Sources
It's not just that Mitt Romney is incredibly rich with
ill-gotten money
-- though he certainly is that. Earning about $380,000 puts you in
the top 1% of American earners. Romney makes that every WEEK. But
the real problem is that -- unlike, say, Newt Gingrich or Bill Clinton
or Barack Obama
who started poor and got rich -- Romney has lived in a strange
bubble of wealth for his entire life. He simply doesn't know what
it's like to live as a normal person.
He tries hard to hide this -- way too hard --
but glimpses alip through all the time: offering to bet Rick Perry
$10,000 (who has $10,000?), insisting that he has had to worry about
pink slips (with $250 million
stashed away, much of it in the tax-sheltered Cayman Islands, calling
$347,000 earned in one year by giving speeches "not much", offering a
$1.5 million reward for
the "consulting" invoices Newt submitted to his lobbyist boss at
Freddie Mac. (Hey, Mitt, I get that it's the amount Newt made, but most
hired killers get
around $10,000 for a job that invites the death penalty, so a million
and a half might be kind of overkill for some paperwork.) Romney spent
$42 million
dollars of his own money running for president in 2008, and it barely
made a dent in his fortune.
Now, some people are exaggerating his wealth. He does not have 15
homes -- now. That's how many he has ever owned, and many of us have
owned a few if you
count every time we move as owning another house. He only has two
main houses now, and he sold his ski chalet. And while it's true that
Romney is tearing down
his $12 million mansion in Country Club, California to build one 3
1/2 times larger (11,000 SF) on the same land, his other house on a lake
in New Hampshire is
only worth $10 million. And come one, we all know that most of the
value of expensive houses is in the land anyway. So, pretty much like
any other struggling family.
But incidents keep happening, like when a young boy gave him an
origami-folded $1 bill, and it took Romney a couple of minutes digging
through his wallet to find anything
smaller than a $100 bill. Or when he told a crowd, ""I know what
it’s like to worry whether you’re going to get fired,. There were a
couple of times I wondered
whether I was going to get a pink slip." But, pressed by reporters,
he couldn't name any such time. Or the time he got into an altercation
with rapper Sky Blu of LMFAO,
up in first class, when Mr. Blu (sitting in front of Romney) reclined
his seat before takeoff, leading Romney to yell at him.
--
Sources
Mitt Romney drove his family on a 12 hour run to Canada in 1983 -- and
put his dog on the roof, in a dog-carrier. Now, the family swears that
poor Seamus LOVED it -- which
might even be believeable, it's just like a dog sticking his head out
the window and enjoying the fresh air, but more so, right? Except for
the REST OF THE STORY.
While they were driving, Romney's oldest son Tagg noticed a brown liquid
running down the window of the car. That's right, Seamus was making it
very clear to the
family that he was not enjoying his view perch.
But that's still not the weirdest part of the story. Mitt Romney pulled
the car over, got a hose, and washed down the car and the dog. Fair
enough. But then he put the dog back
on the roof and drove the rest of the way!! That's the kind of cold,
heartless logic that made Mitt so good at carnivorous capitalism.
Now (February 2012) there's a new twist. Romney has always insisted the
dog loved riding on top of the car (despite the fact that he defecated
himself, and Mrs. Romney
told reporters that Seamus "lived to a ripe old age." But the New York
Observer reports that two of Romneys' sons told reporters, off the
record, that Seamus actually ran away
when they got to Canada. The Romney campaign has no comment.
--
Sources
Mitt Romney was born rich -- his dad was the the CEO of American
Motors, and later governor of Michigan -- but Mitt got much richer by
through ill-gotten gains.
In some cases, the companies that he ran made him rich through
outright fraud and criminal behavior, but most of the time he it was his
technically legal
predatory
capitalism at Bain & Co.-- leveraged buyouts, taking over
companies by borrowing against their own assets, stripping them of
resources, firing workers, busting unions and getting rid of workers'
pensions.
Meanwhile, he himself gets a multimillion dollar annual pension from
Bain, which he pays minimal taxes on due to tax shelters and hiding his
money in shady,
foreign tax havens (such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg,
and Swiss bank accounts) that have extreme secrecy.
In fact, Romney moved many of Bain's investment funds to the Cayman
Islands or Bermuda, and has somewhere between $13 million and $33
million of his $250 million fortune
hidden there. He earns more than $1 million per year just in the
interest, dividends and capital gains from these tax haven funds.
Romney is earning extraordinary returns on
these funds -- 20% to 30%, according to Brad Malt, the manager of his
trust.
Romney fiercely resisted releasing his tax returns, and then only
released one year -- 2010 -- when it looked like he might lose the
presidential race if he
didn't.
This, even though his dad George Romney started the practice of
politicians releasing tax returns in the first place, when he ran for
president in the 1960s.
Since Mitt has been running for President since 2006, he had plenty
of time to make sure that one year looked good. Now we have an idea why
he didn't release
any returns earlier.
Because even that one, carefully prepared year has plenty of
dangerous items. It revealed his overseas secret bank accounts, and his
low overall tax rate
of under 15%. But there's worse.
Romney was also required to file a financial disclosure form, less
detailed than taxes, when he filed for president. In fact, he argued
that he should have to
release his
taxes because the disclosure form showed everything important. But 23
different investment funds shown on his taxes did not appear on his
disclosure form --
and 11 of
those are in those overseas, secret banking centers. That's a sign
of what he's embarrassed to reveal -- and it's also a felony, if the
government can prove it was
deliberate and not just a sloppy oversight.
The biggest concern is that Swiss bank account, one of the items not
on his financial disclosure. Mitt had it from 2003 to 2010, when his
adviser shut it down.
He closed it in the middle of an amnesty that the IRS had declared
for owners of previously unreported Swiss bank accounts -- if they came
clean, they would not
face criminal prosecution for not reporting it in previous years
(which was illegal - plus most weren't paying taxes on that money). Was
the sudden shutdown
of Romney's secret Swiss bank account part of this
amnesty program? We can't know
unless and until he releases prior returns, like his dad who released
12 years of prior returns. And Mitt is still fiercely refusing to do
so.
Note: Bain Capital was not "venture capital" investment, as many
news stories have incorrectly said. That's an essential part of new
company formation in today's economy.
Romney practiced what is known as "private equity" takeovers, the
kind of leveraged buyouts that Kolberg, Kravis and Roberts are infamous
for.
--
Sources
Back when he was liberal, Romney supported the Brady Bill, assault
weapons bans and Massachusetts' very strict gun control law. Now that
he's a conservative
Republican, Romney has claimed that the NRA endorsed him in previous
campaigns.
(Oops -- that was easily proven to be a lie. His Democratic opponent
actually had a better NRA rating.)
He also claimed he was a "lifetime hunter" back in 2007, though he
didn't own a gun, has never had a hunting license and had only joined
the NRA in August 2006 -- as a "Lifetime Member" --
just about exactly the moment he started campaigning for President.
("Lifetime Member" means you pay a lot of extra money, and don't have to
renew your membership each year.)
When pressed on that, his "lifelong hunting" turned out to be a total of
two hunts -- one as a teenager, hunting rabbits with his cousin in
Idaho, and one just about the time he started running for president,
chasing fenced-in quail at a Republican fundraising event.
His explanation was even funnier -- "I'm not a BIG-GAME hunter. I've
made that very clear," he said. "I've always been a rodent and rabbit
hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I
have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."
This year (2012), he claimed again that he was a big hunter, claiming he
had hunted moose in Montana. No wait, make that elk. "I'm not a
serious hunter, but I must admit, I guess I enjoy the sport and when I
get invited I'm delighted to be able to go hunting."
Sure. He's DELIGHTED to go varmint hunting. If you will. it's
FRIGHTFULLY fun, n'est ce pas?
--
Sources
Romney brags about his business success, but the vast majority of his
money comes from technically legal, completely predatory and unethical
business pillaging. He
was very successful at leveraged buyouts -- not investing in new
companies, but using borrowed money to buy established companies, strip
them of resources, and
quickly sell them for a profit. How can you make money off a company
that fails, you
might ask? It's simple -- have it borrow a lot of money and give it to
you, take its pension money and any cash in the bank, then sell it or
take it public,
quickly before it goes bankrupt. If you sell when the economy is good,
people will go for it, and you get rich. Sure, a lot of people lose
their jobs, and other people
lose their money, but you're rich!
The most famous example is an office supply company called American Pad
and Paper. Romney and Bain Capital bought it from Mead Company, when it
had total debts of
$11 million. By the time they sold it, the company had $400 million in
debt -- and Bain had earned $100 million off the deals, between fees it
charged the company for
managing it
and for buying other companies, and profits from selling the company's
stock after they took it public (for yet another fee). Bain was later
sued by stockholders for
fraud in overstating the value of the company.
--
Sources
In 1989, Romney led Bain Capital's purchase of Damon Corp., a medical
testing company, and took a seat on the Board of Directors to better
manage it. During Romney's four
years, Bain tripled its investment, and Romney personally made $473,000
-- while Damon plumped its profits with Medicare fraud (running
thousands of medical tests
doctors didn't want, and billing Medicare for them). The company pled
guilty to crimes
committed during his tenure and paid a record fine of $119 million.
Company President Joseph Isola pleaded no contest to fraud, and a vice
president was also convicted.
Romney claims he "uncovered" the fraudulent claims and "took
corrective action," but court
records show that he did
not notify prosecutors or stop the fraudulent billing. He just asked
company lawyers what changes they could make to avoid prosecution, after
the feds' LABSCAM
prosecution targeted a different medical testing firm. The cheating
continued, prosecutors say, until the day Bain sold the company to
Corning. Furthermore,
Damon Corp. was required to list in various SEC filings any significant
legal risks it faced. Romney made no mention of the fraud he
"uncovered," even though
it led to a $119 million fine, the largest in history. Damon Corp. is
another Bain acquisition that later went bankrupt, killing over a
thousand jobs -- but not before Bain
made $7.4 million in profit.
By amazing coincidence, Rick Santorum also
made a lot of money off of a company involved in Medicare fraud:
Universal Health Care.
--
Sources
Romney makes a big issue of being tough on illegal immigrants. He has
pushed for a wall on the Mexican border so hard that Bill O'Reilly
offered to call it the "Mitt Romney Memorial Wall."
The only problem is, Romney has hired illegal immigrants to tend his
gardens for over 10 years. Three illegal immigrants interviewed by the
Boston Globe said
they have worked on Romney's lawn for years, that he greets them with a
"Buenos dias", and that his wife was friendly and often asks how they
are. Two were interviewed back in Guatemala,
where they have returned. They made $8 to $9 per hour working 11 hour
days. "They wanted that house to look really nice," said one worker,
now back in Copado, Guatemala. "It took a long time." The other,
Rene Alvarez Rosales (now in Suchitepequez, Guatemala) said it cost him
about $5,000 to have a smuggler take him across the border.
They all work for "Community Lawn Care with a Heart," a small company
run by legal Colombian immigrant Ricardo Saenz. Asked about his
workers' statements that they were illegal immigrants, Saenz said
"What you've heard is not my problem. ... I don't need to tell them to
show me documents. I know who they are, and they are legal." When
Romney was asked about the workers, he said "Aw geez" and walked away.
On one occasion, a (real) state trooper with the Romney security detail
asked about the workers' immigration status. Saenz said they were legal
but forgot their papers that day, and the matter was dropped.
--
Sources
In his 2008 presidential campaign, Romney simply lied repeatedly while
trying to reinvent himself as a conservative. For example:
-- "I have a gun of my own."
(Not true. He was talking about a gun one of his grown sons own.)
-- "I've been a hunter pretty much my entire life."
(He hunted once at 15, and a second time in his late 50s.)
-- "I told you what my position was, and what I, what I did as governor; the fact that I received the endorsement of the NRA."
(No - and his Democratic opponent actually had a higher NRA rating)
-- "I saw my father march with Martin Luther King."
(No, they never marched together. They were both in Michigan at the same time once, but Mitt was in France on his mission.)
-- "My father and I marched with Martin Luther King Jr. through the streets of Detroit."
(even more false...)
This last lie was the funnest because of all the waffling that Romney
did trying to explain it. After a Boston newspaper showed that they
couldn't have marched together, Mitt's spokesman said that
"George W. Romney and Martin Luther King Jr. marched together in June,
1963 -- although possibly not on the same day or in the same city."
And Mitt then explained "I've tried to be as accurate as I can be. If
you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw'
includes being aware of — in the sense I've described.
I'm an English literature major as well. When we say I saw the
Patriots win the World Series, it doesn't necessarily mean you were
there -- excuse me, the Super Bowl. I saw my dad become president
of American Motors. Did that mean you were there for the ceremony? No,
it’s a figure of speech."
--
Sources
Mitt Romney, incredibly, was able to avoid serving in Vietnam because
he was on his Mormon mission, driving around the French countryside.
(The Mormon church defined missions -- which all good young Mormon men
go on -- as a form of priesthood.) In fact, not one of Romney's five
sons has served in the military either,
despite Mitt arguing for U.S. military involvement in Iraq and
elsewhere.
Even more outrageously, when he was asked to justify this hypocrisy,
Romney claimed that his sons were serving the country by driving
Winnebagos around Iowa and campaigning for him.
--
Sources
The most bizarre scandal of Romney's 2008 campaign involved Jay Garrity,
Mitt's director of operations (basically, his right-hand man.)
Garrity resigned from the campaign after several allegations that he
claimed to be a policeman, and used that authority to intimidate people.
In one case, Garrity pulled over a New York Times reporter, ran his
plates and ordered him to stop following the campaign caravan. In
another, he allegedly called
a plumbing company to complain about one of their employees, whose
driving upset him, and identified himself as "Trooper Garrity of the
Massachusetts State Police." Garrity denied that allegation, but
he was cited by Boston police in 2004 for having police equipment --
including flashing lights -- in his Crown Victoria sedan without
authorization. The phone call was recorded
because an answering service actually fielded the call, which the
person who called himself "Trooper Garrity" apparently didn't notice.
Despite his resignation, Garrity remains under investigation in two states for impersonation of police.
Well, it gets worse. According to three different anonymous sources,
one who works for the Romney campaign, Garrity made up fake police
badges -- bright silver plates with the seal
of Massachusetts on them -- and gave them to several other staffers, who
used them to order reporters and other people out of events, get past
security guards, and avoid paying highway tolls.
In fact, Garrity has been handing out badges since Romney was governor
of Massachusetts.
So this was not just one staffer's personal fetish. Sources named at
least two other Romney staffers who used the badges -- Mark Glanville
and William Ritter. "They knew the badges were fake and probably
illegal," the campaign source said.
In fact, Garrity was Romney's right-hand man and rarely left his side.
It's hard to believe that Mitt Romney himself did not notice the
fact that Garrity was constantly flashing a police badge as they blew
through security into various events. The Romney campaign has not
commented on whether Mitt Romney knew about the badges.
Using fake badges is, of course, illegal.
--
Sources
Sources
White Horse Prophecy:
The White Horse Prophecy, The Relief Mine website, Sunday, 09 March 2008
"Romney candidacy has resurrected last days prophecy of Mormon saving the Constitution", by Thomas Burr,
The Salt Lake Tribune, 06/04/2007
The White Horse Prophecy, research paper by George Cobabe, FAIR (a Mormon apologetics organization), 2011
White Horse Prophecy, MormonWiki, viewed January 18, 2012
"
Did Mitt Romney’s Dog Seek Asylum In Canada?, by Hunter Walker, The New York Observer: Politicker NY, 1/31/2012
Seamus -- dog on a roof sources --
Back
What our fascination with Mitt Romney’s dog Seamus says about
our culture, By Neil Swidey, BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE, January 08, 2012
Out of Touch Sources --
Back
Romney to quadruple La Jolla home size, by Christopher Cadelago, San Diego Union Tribune, August 20, 2011
Romney Paid 13.9% Tax Rate on $21.6 Million in 2010, By Richard Rubin, Bloomberg News Service, Jan 24, 2012
Sky Blue --
LMFAO's Sky Blu and Mitt Romney
Scuffle on Flight to L.A.", By Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone magazine, February 19, 2010
Romney Camp Offers ‘Reward’ For Missing Newt Freddie Mac Docs, by Thomas Lane, Talking Points Memo, January 24, 2012
Mitt Romney's Most Out-of-Touch Moments,
by Julian Brookes, Rolling Stone magazine, January 12, 2012
Misleading Readers on Romney’s “$12 Million Teardown”: The value is almost all in the land, By Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review, January 12, 2012
Romney's $12 Million Tear-Down: His Small Way To Boost Housing Sector?, by Frank James, NPR News, August 22, 2011
Ill-Gotten Gains Sources --
Back
"Island tax havens factor into Romney's business success", by Bob
Drogin, Los Angeles Times, December 17, 2007
"Romney Parks Millions in Cayman Islands," by
MATTHEW MOSK, BRIAN ROSS and MEGAN CHUCHMACH, ABC-News: The Blotter, Jan. 18, 2012
Romney Conference Call: Why Did Romney's Trustee Close The Swiss Bank Account? by Pema Levy,
Talking Points Memo, January 24, 2012
Romney tax returns detail
funds not identified in ethics forms by Matea Gold and Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times, January 26, 2012
Predatory Capitalism Sources --
Back
Plenty of 'pitting' preceded Romney's
profits, By Robert Gavin and Sacha Pfeiffer, the Boston Globe (reprinted in the Utah Deseret News), July 3 2007
"Fake Cop Sources" --
Back
"Romney aide, targeted in probe, takes leave of absence", by Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe, June 22, 2007
"Romney aide’s bogus badges: Sources detail ‘illegal’ security tactic"",By Casey Ross,
Boston Herald, July 20, 2007
"Romney Aide Resigns",By Sarah Wheaton, New York Times -- The Caucus Blog, July 21, 2007
"Liar Sources" --
Back
"Romney
Aims Again to Explain Hunting -- Republican Presidential Hopeful Romney
Takes Second Shot at Explaining His Hunting Experience", by Emily Udell, Associated Press on ABC-News web site, April 6, 2007
"Guns, trust, and Romney, By Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, April 8, 2007
"The Trail: Romney Claims NRA Endorsement He Didn't Receive," by Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, December 16, 2007
"Did Romney Actually See His Dad March With MLK?", by Scott Conroy, CBS-News website, December 20, 2007, 2:03 PM
"Romney never saw father on King march - Defends figurative words; evidence contradicts story", by
Michael Levenson, Boston Globe, December 21, 2007
Medicare Fraud Sources --
Back
Plenty of 'pitting' preceded Romney's
profits, By Robert Gavin and Sacha Pfeiffer, the Boston Globe (reprinted in the Utah Deseret News), July 3 2007
Romney Supervised Medical
Testing Company Guilty Of Massive Medicare Fraud, by Rick Ungar, Forbes Magazine, 1/21/2012
Romney profited
on firm later tied to fraud, by Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, 10/10/2002
"Hunting Sources" --
Back
"Romney
Aims Again to Explain Hunting -- Republican Presidential Hopeful Romney
Takes Second Shot at Explaining His Hunting Experience", by Emily Udell, Associated Press on ABC-News web site, April 6, 2007
"Guns, trust, and Romney, By Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe, April 8, 2007
"The Trail: Romney Claims NRA Endorsement He Didn't Receive," by Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, December 16, 2007
"Romney Hunting License", WIBW-TV News, Jan 18, 2012
"Illegal Immigrant Sources" --
Back
"Romney aide is the focus of probe - Allegedly acted as State Police trooper",
By Stephanie Ebbert and Scott Helman, Boston Globe, June 22, 2007
"Illegal immigrants toiled for governor: Guatemalans say firm hired
them", by Jonathan Saltzman, Maria Cramer and Connie Page, Boston Globe,
December 1, 2006
"Romney's lawn firm draws new scrutiny: Massport, Chelsea eye workers' legal status",
By Jonathan Saltzman and Maria Cramer, the Boston Globe, December 2, 2006
Quote Sources --
Back
"Ann Romney Criticized for Cancer Comment
"ABC-News Political Radar, July 31, 2007
Sky Blue --
LMFAO's Sky Blu and Mitt Romney
Scuffle on Flight to L.A.", By Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone magazine, February 19, 2010
The Big Money", by Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, January 17, 2012
Congressman Frank blasts the ‘real Romney’, Boston Herald, Monday, June 11th, 2007
White horse quote --
"Romney candidacy has resurrected last days prophecy of Mormon saving the Constitution", by Thomas Burr,
The Salt Lake Tribune, 06/04/2007
NASCAR:
Romney: I have friends who own NASCAR teams By Sarah B. Boxer, CBS News, February 26, 2012
severely conservative --
Appealing to Activists, Romney Calls Himself ‘Severely Conservative’
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, New York Times, February 10, 2012
"Candidate Has Another Teary Moment", By Michael Levenson,
Boston Globe, December 19, 2007
"Romney Favors Hubbard Novel" by Jim Rutenberg, New York Times Caucus Blog, April 30, 2007
The public relations
battle surrounding the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline kicked up once
again Tuesday, but the people on centre stage at the start of
environmental hearings delivered a more quiet plea and warning.
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It
seems that 2011 has been a year spent on the brink. Since January,
Americans have faced the looming threat of a government shutdown, a
national default, and now, the possibility of a collapse of the U.S.
Postal Service. Last Tuesday, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe