Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney cries ‘uncle!’, wants a ‘truce’

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Are you effin' kidding me? Willard "Mittens" Romney, the candidate whose entire campaign is premised upon his private sector business experience at Bain Capital (because he does not want to talk about his record as Governor of Massachusetts), is calling on President Obama to agree to a truce over his business career.

“Our campaign would be — helped immensely if we had an agreement between both campaigns that we were only going to talk about issues and that attacks based upon — business or family or taxes or things of that nature,” Romney said, according to excerpts of an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd released Friday.

Romney's central qualification for the presidency is now an issue that he wants off the table, free from all public scrutiny. Romney just cried "uncle!"

Which makes the earlier taunt from his campaign surrogate, John Sununu, so ironically funny. Sununu: Obama is a wuss.

Worst. Candidate. Ever.

I keep telling you Tea-Publicans, it's not too late. Not a single vote that counts — delegates at the GOP convention — has been cast. You can still have an open convention and choose the candidate your dark hearts desire, and kick this loser to the curb.

UPDATE: Sweet! Pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA launched a new TV ad Friday aimed at attacking Mitt Romney’s business record (video below the fold).

Romney Economics: The Middle Class Under the Bus Tour

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: This is what you get for being such a dick driving your "Etch-a-Sketch" bus around Obama events honking the horn and making a nuisance of yourself. The Democratic National Committee announced on Thursday that it will stage its own four-day bus tour alongside the Romney campaign’s trip through Virginia, North Carolina, Florida … Read more

Jon Huntsman, Sr. tells Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney to release his tax returns

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Mormon brother elder Jon Hunstman, Sr., the founder of Hunstman Corporation and the father of the former GOP presidential candidate, and a long-time supporter of Willard "Mittens" Romney (he supported Romney's early campaigns; he was the national finance chairman of Romney’s 2008 presidential campaign; and he has raised a lot of money … Read more

Joe Soptic ‘understands’ what is at stake

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA ad "Understands" (below the fold) features Joe Soptic, who speaks emotionally about "when Mitt Romney came to town" and Bain Capital shut down the steel mill. Soptic lost his job and health insurance, and later lost his wife to cancer. His life was forever altered.

The media has tried to superimpose a "but for" causation analysis from tort law to this ad. The media asserts the ad implies that "but for" Bain Capital shutting down the steel mill and firing all its employees who lost their health care, Joe Soptic would still be working there with health insurance, and his wife might still be alive. Some A-holes in the media have gone so far as to assert that Joe Soptic is claiming that Mitt Romney "murdered" his wife.

On the contrary, Joe Soptic never makes a "but for" causation analysis. I have watched this ad several times, and I think one has to want to see a "but for" causation analysis to see one. Joe Soptic speaks about the emotional pain of losing his job and losing his wife to cancer. He simply states “I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he’s done to anyone,” and “furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned.”

Joe Soptic has identified "when Mitt Romney came to town" and Bain Capital shut down the steel mill as the date his life was forever altered. That is an emotional marker to which he is entitled — we all have these kinds of emotional markers in our lives. Joe Soptic's emotions and beliefs are not subject to fact checking. They are his reality and how he copes with his loss and grief.

Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact check of the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXIX: Joe Klein reflected briefly on Mitt Romney this week, noting, "I can't remember a candidate so brazenly allergic to facts. What a travesty." Kevin Drum offered some related … Read more

Post Truth Politics: Lies Are Now The Truth

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Back in 2010 I posted about a new political science term that has come to define our era, "post truth politics." See, for example David Roberts at Grist, Democrats should stop trying to change politics with policy concessions (March 31, 2010). Paul Waldman writes at the American Prospect, Lies Are the New … Read more

Romney’s illegal ‘Son of Boss’ tax avoidance scheme

August 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I have previously posted about Bloomberg News' report on Willard "Mittens" Romney's "The Italian Job," in which Bain Capital ripped off the country of Italy and used foreign tax avoidance shelters to avoid paying any taxes on their profits. Romney Persona Non Grata in Italy for Bain’s Deal Skirting Taxes – Bloomberg.

And I posted about how Romney hired a lobbyist to get a property tax break for his McMansion in la Jolla, Californa, the one he is tearing down to build a bigger McMansion with its own car elevator. Romneys, caught in housing bust, got property tax cut in La Jolla – latimes.com.

Now we learn of an ever bigger tax avoidance scheme by Romney when he was the audit chair of Marriott — the "Son of Boss" tax shelter scandal. Romney as Audit Chair Saw Marriott Son of BOSS Shelter Defy IRS – Bloomberg:

Mitt Romney has long had close ties to hotel operator Marriott International Inc. The candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, whose full name is Willard Mitt Romney, was named after the chain’s founder, J. Willard Marriott, a friend of his father. He joined the company’s board in 1993, and has served on it for 11 of the past 19 years, including six as chairman of the audit committee.

During Romney’s tenure as a Marriott director, the company repeatedly utilized complex tax-avoidance maneuvers, prompting at least two tangles with the Internal Revenue Service, records show. In 1994, while he headed the audit committee, Marriott used a tax shelter known to attorneys by its nickname: “Son of BOSS.”

A federal appeals court invalidated the maneuver in a 2009 ruling, siding with the U.S. Department of Justice, which called Marriott’s transaction and attempted tax benefits “fictitious,” “artificial,” “spectral,” an “illusion” and a “scheme.” Marriott had argued the plan predated government efforts to close such shelters.

Employing another strategy, Marriott legally avoided hundreds of millions of dollars in income taxes thanks to a federal tax-credit program criticized and allowed to expire by Congress. Marriott has also shifted profits to a Luxembourg shell company. During Romney’s years on the board, Marriott’s effective tax rate dipped as low as 6.8 percent, compared with the federal corporate statutory rate of 35 percent.

* * *

As a Marriott director, [Romney's] responsibilities included oversight over the tax planning conducted by management, according to a company statement.

Romney’s position as chairman of the board’s audit committee for six years gave him and the other members responsibility to review financial reporting, according to Marriott’s annual proxy filings. Members of that committee review “the results of internal and external audits, the accounting principles applied in financial reporting, and financial and operational controls,” according to the company proxy filed covering his first year heading that committee.

Romney, 64, regularly attended the meetings of the audit committee and board, said Gilbert M. Grosvenor, who overlapped with Romney for more than nine years on the Marriott board and also sat on the audit committee.