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
Out of Touch
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
For Seamus: Putting his dog on the roof
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
Ill-Gotten Gains
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
Phony "Varmint" Hunter
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
Predatory Capitalism
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
Medicare Fraud That Made Him Rich
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
Hired Illegal Immigrants
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
Flat-Out Liar
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
Draft Dodger and Chickenhawk
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
Top Aide Illegally Impersonating Police Officers
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
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