Lord Of The Lies

(Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich and published 7/13/2012 by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Click on image to enlarge and then please return.)

I am still bewildered by the fact that today's politicians don't get that lying is not such a good campaign strategy, even if Fox News and GOP outlets will trumpet their bogus assertions. There are still plenty of people, either working for news outlets or bloggers who care about more than truthiness that will fact check. It's so much easier now with the internet and access to government and newspaper files on line. Yet, the lying continues, sometimes with real consequences. The latest case in point is Mitt Romney's lame-ass response to the Obama campaign's claims that his tenure at Bain Capital led to the loss of US jobs.

Mitt claims that he left Bain Capital in 1999, before jobs were outsourced by his company. Unfortunately, government records seem to reflect something different.

At issue is when Romney left Bain, and whether he was at the helm when it sent jobs overseas.

The documents, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, place Romney in charge of Bain from 1999 to 2001, a period in which the company outsourced jobs and ran companies that fell into bankruptcy.

Romney has tried to distance himself from this period in Bain's history, saying on financial disclosure forms he had no active role in Bain as of February 1999. Obama has labeled Romney a job killer in hopes of undercutting the Republican's claim that his private business experience gives him the ability to turn around the struggling economy.

But at least three times since then, Bain listed Romney as the company's "controlling person," as well as its "sole shareholder, sole director, chief executive officer and president." And one of those documents — as late as February 2001 — lists Romney's "principal occupation" as Bain's managing director. ...

The SEC documents — which have received modest attention despite being reported in recent days by publications including the political website Talking Points Memo — raise questions about Romney's role at Bain in 1999, 2000 and early 2001. If he turned his full attention to the Olympics in early 1999, as his campaign says, it's hard to square with the Bain SEC filing, two years later, listing his "principal occupation" as the company's managing director and his titles as CEO and president.

James Cox, a securities law professor at Duke University, said the SEC's Schedule 13D forms have always been under legal scrutiny by SEC officials and company executives. He said law firms hired to file such reports — known as "beneficial ownership reports" because they deem who can sell securities — "pay great attention to these forms. I don't find that these parts of the documents are casually reported."

"It's hard for me to believe you could be listed as 'management anything' without it taking up a bulk of your time," said Cox, who had not reviewed Bain's statement on Thursday.

During the years in question — 1999 to 2011 — Bain oversaw investments that either sent jobs abroad of filed for bankruptcy. For example, in late 1999, Bain-controlled Steam International set up overseas call centers, and a subsidiary moved jobs from California to Mexico. In 2000, the Ampad company declared bankruptcy. The following year, so did steel-maker GS Industries — just as Bain made $58.4 million from its investment. [Emphasis added]

Keep in mind that those SEC documents are filed under penalty of perjury. If Romney was not acting as CEO, Managing Director, and President, then he has committed a felony for filing a false report.

Also keep in mind that Romney still refuses to produce his income tax returns for 2000 and 2001, which just might show earnings from Bain Capital for those years. That would confirm the lies.

In other words, Romney has painted himself into a corner labeled "Liar" and "Dumber Than A Box Of Rocks."

And this from a man who claims he is presidential material.