Yesterday’s Globe article about Mitt Romney’s departure (or lack of same) from Bain has proven to be very much the bombshell that its authors and editors no doubt hoped it would be. The Romney camp’s embarrassingly lame explanation that describing him as the CEO was merely a technicality because Bain couldn’t get its sh!t together for almost three years to sort out its internal affairs once Romney left … well, that’s just sad. And it’s not convincing anyone.
Today’s follow-up presents a new and exceedingly difficult problem for Romney. Drawing on reports that I think were first published at the Huffington Post (and are this time properly acknowledged), the Globe notes that Romney’s effort to prove to the State Ballot Law Commission that he was a Massachusetts resident eligible to run for Governor included some sworn testimony that may now prove problematic.
In 2002, facing a ballot challenge from Democrats — who contended he had moved his residence to Utah — Romney testified before the state Ballot Law Commission as a gubernatorial candidate that “there were a number of social trips and business trips that brought [him] back to Massachusetts, board meetings” while he was running the Olympics.
Romney said he remained on the boards of several companies, including the Lifelike Co., in which Bain Capital held a stake until 2001. The Huffington Post and MSNBC also carried reports Thursday night about Romney’s continued membership on the Lifelike board.
TPM piles on.
Mitt Romney testified to Massachusetts officials in 2002 that he maintained business ties during his Olympics work, undermining his argument that he had no connection to Bain Capital or related companies after 1999. Notably, his campaign has refused to deny whether he ever held meetings with Bain during his time in Salt Lake City.
Romney, who at the time was trying to convince the state Ballot Law Commission that he should be allowed to run for office in Massachusetts despite living in Utah the previous three years, did not directly address his work with Bain Capital. But, in testimony obtained by the Huffington Post, Romney said that he returned home for “a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth.”
Romney noted that he remained an active member of the board at Staples, where Bain was an early investor and a company Romney frequently cites on the trail, and LifeLike, a toy company where Bain was heavily invested at the time.
A spokesman for the Romney campaign declined to answer questions from Politico regarding whether Romney attended any meetings in person or phone with Bain during his Olympic leave, saying only that he had no “active role.”
There’s really no way out of this. Romney wants credit for the jobs at Staples. He also doesn’t want to undercut his testimony in Massachusetts, which after all was given under oath. That makes it impossible for him to deny that he was showing up at board meetings after the February 1999 cutoff date. But if he was showing up at board meetings, it’s simply not credible for him to maintain that his name on Bain-related SEC documents was nothing more than a technicality.
Checkmate. This round goes to Obama; it remains to be seen how important it is. BuzzFeed has a nice take on how perfectly Team Obama set up the Romney gang for this, all of which lends support to Rupert Murdoch’s concern that Romney’s campaign is not up to the task.
Discuss
36 Comments . Leave a comment below.to find Romney on the board of Lifelike? Life like but not quite alive.
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of blowing up his campaign.
it could do him no end of damage.
Yikes
In fact, the news is old enough for the hard core anti-abortion people, , as I understand it, to have already dealt with it once. Now the anti-abortion part of the electorate will have to deal with it.
Mitt Romney is one of the worst likely nominees for President in decades. I have little respect for Scott Brown’s “work,” but he’s a strong candidate.
Richard Nixon never recovered from the damage of the infamous “18 minute gap” in the White House tapes. It looks a whole lot like Mitt Romney has similar 1,576,800 minute gap to handle (3 years * 365 days * 24 hours * 60 minutes per hour).
Who will be next in line for the GOP after Mitt Romney drops out of the race?
Check my post below, Romney not listed as manager of any funds since joining Olympics. Now, can we get a hold of Obama’s grades at Columbia? Why won’t he release them?
Mitt just goes where the market takes him, that’s all.
… but I’m pretty confident for the vast majority of people for whom this is an issue to hold their nose to avoid the hated alternative of Obama. Whatever he loses here will be more than made up for by the disenfranchising of voters going on in new state voting laws the GOP has managed to cram in.
is to get the hardliners out, in force, to vote. If they stay home in anything but negligible numbers, he is toast.
The Bain stuff has been killing him in the toss-up states… and this stuff is in some ways far more damaging than the stuff he’s been airing.
As the saying goes, it’s usually not the mistake that gets you in trouble, it’s the lie that tries to cover it up. If he just said, “oops,” he may have nipped this story in the bud. Instead, he’s been bizarrely demanding retractions from the newspapers and trying to call Obama the liar.
Now, maybe with John Kerry, that would have worked… but Obama’s campaign loves being on offense.
“… and this stuff is in some ways far more damaging than the stuff Obama’s (already) been airing.”
One can see the appeal:
The original Lifelike was presumably the beta or junior version.
In a maxi or life-sized version, Lifelike would have been able to produce several Mitt Romneys. The liberal or moderate Lifelike Mitt Romney would work to enact a health care mandate paid for via a penalty or tax and would also favor the right to choose. This version would also clearly recognize that human action is causing global warming and would favor a response. The conservative Lifelike Mitt Romney would repeatedly attack any health care plan that looked like the law he himself had signed and would be pro-life. This Lifelike Mitt would dissemble on global warming and refuse to recognize that human action is causing the problem. Lifelike dolls could also solve Mitt Romney’s problems with Bain. One Lifelike Mitt could remain directly involved in the company while the other Lifelike Mitt took a leave of absence.
As for residency, Lifelike would enable one Mitt to reside in Utah while other Mitts were residents of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and California at the same time!
Proof Mitt had no managerial role at Bain since 1999. We all know Mitt is fully capable of saving the Olympics and running a multi-billion dollar business, because he is just that good. Below is proof Obama Team is a lying organization, trying to confuse the voters to hide their economic recovery, creating more people receiving disability than new jobs. BMG needs to be more careful.
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/07/12/mitt-romney-bain-exit/
he himself stated that he maintained business ties during that time.
Can have no managerial role. That is a fact, allowed by the SEC. Do you. Elieve Romney can run Bain and the Olympics? If he can, then he wears an S on his shirt.
Is Steve Pagliuca lying as well? He is a Democrat, or is he the wrong kind?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/12/politics/john-king-bain/index.html
Mitt’s own words:
He did not get a whole lot of love on this site when he was running for Senate, so I don’t know why you would expect that tossing his name out here would have much of an effect.
I think you are under the misapprehension that liberals will believe something just because a someone calling himself a Democrat says it.
In any case, I don’t think that Romney wants a narrative of holding top-executive titles while not actually doing the job. MA voters will not forget how he mailed it in the last year or two of his term as Governor.
You don’t believe Pagliuca even though he is a Democrat, but most, perhaps even you, do believe the John Tierney. CUCKOO…..CUCKOO…..
for two weeks. A promise is a promise.
self-deport?
forever.
But I guess when you can’t win on the issues, this is what we get.
and Mitt was complicit in it.
And Mitt lied to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in his hearings of eligibility to be Governor.
As David said, checkmate.
…and Lawrence O’Donnell spent the whole hour on it last night.
Q: “So, when you are attesting, as Mitt Romney did, that you are the CEO, the Managing Director, you’re essentially signing up for some sort of responsibility and accountability. What does it actually mean to put that attestation on a statement, from the SEC’s perspective?”
Karmel: “Generally, when a businessman is the chairman, CEO, and, in this case, sole stockholder, he’s accountable for the business and affairs of that company. And even if he’s not making day-to-day decisions or managing the investments of a company like this—which was a venture capital company—he’s still legally responsible, and should be accountable, for the business and affairs of that company.”
For the most it’s even easier than being on a nonprofit board because all they expect you to do is listen and nod, or once and a while give management a thumbs up.
I don’t get why everyone is dwelling on this.
I bet this is the first time for many being on the Edgar site as well. Try reading an SEC document not related to Romney and let me know if you understand it.
I wouldn’t characterize this as “checkmate” because that would imply the end of the match. Certainly it seems like this campaign has volleys and returns (tennis) and I’ll grant that Obama scored a point here.
hard to know. but here’s the risk to romney.
my editor at ny magazine told me long ago you need 3 examples for a “trend” narrative. maybe that applies to political ads.
the ad that would get larry david to direct, and then go this direction.
1. i’m pro choice. no, pro life!
2. i get credit for bain, vote for me, get jobs. wait, i have no responsibility for bain. i left bain in 1999. no 2002. no 1999. no 2002.
3. i never raised taxes. no i did – with health care. no i didn’t, it was fees. lots of fees, no taxes. wait, it was taxes! i love his plan. no i hate his plan.
The 13-D filings (some of the actually SIGNED by Mitt Romney) contain paragraphs like this from the Odwalla deal (emphasis mine):
That’s a bit more than a “listen and nod” or an occasional “thumbs up” to management.
I agree that “checkmate” may be a bit hyperbolic, but only a bit. I think this is a serious and material problem, and I think that’s why the GOP is working so hard to minimize it.
the board defines the objectives and the policy of a company. Mitt admitted to participating in these meetings. He was active in defining the objectives of Lifelike through the time Bain held a stake in the company. Period.
… distinction when this was being bandied about at first. Then as saw the term “Sole Managing Director”. Hard to dismiss that title as being an ‘inactive role’ – more so if you describe it as ‘sole’.
Corporations are life-like dolls?
somebody thinks voters are lifelike dolls.
His goal in life is to sink Deval Patrick through Patrick’s membership on Ameriquest’s board. If you’re right, well, …
New Testament, Book of Mark, 4:22
There is nothing hidden, save it shall be revealed; what is done in darkness shall be brought into the light.
Perhaps this is why Ron Paul supporters are still trying to be delegates to the convension. Woo Hoo!
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Mon 20 May 12:20 PM