I am in Omaha, Nebraska today to speak at the Hilton Omaha where Mitt Romney will be raising cash in a private fundraiser for his campaign. It will be interesting if he is pressed on this story picking up steam this week. Romney has been accused of former school chums from his elite all-boy boarding school of attacking a presumed gay student and cutting off his hair. Since in many states the attack on the now-deceased John Lauber would be a hate crime, it is a serious charge even if it was so many years ago. The witness turns out to be a former prosecutor who says that he has been haunted by the act. This week Romney reaffirmed that he opposed same-sex marriage as a personal matter. Update: Romney has apologized for incidents in his youth.
The Washington Post spoke to five students, including one who said that Romney had it out for a younger boy because of his long bleached-blond hair in 1965. The witness say that Romney led friends in tackling and cutting off Lauber’s hair. The witness is Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor. Romney is quoted at the time as declaring “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!”
The response from the campaign was a bit weak under the circumstances. The campaign simply said that Romney had no recollection of the event: “The stories of fifty years ago seem exaggerated and off base and Governor Romney has no memory of participating in these incidents.”
I have met Romney and even flew across the country on a flight back to Washington. He has struck me as a particularly friendly and decent person despite our disagreement on many issues. However, despite the long passage of time, the leading of an attack on a gay student is a serious matter as it would in a racist or anti-Semitic attack. I would have expected a clear recollection that such an attack could never have occurred.
Four other students recalled the incident, including some who admitted to participating in it. Also troubling are accounts like this one: “In an English class, Gary Hummel, who was a closeted gay student at the time, recalled that his efforts to speak out in class were punctuated with Romney shouting, ‘Atta girl!'”
While Romney may claim that it was not an anti-gay attack but just a prank, one would expect him to have an equally clear memory of the event at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Certainly the memory stuck with Lauber who spoke to some of the witnesses years later. For my part, I am equally troubled by the claim of a lack of any recollection of such events.
Romney however appears to be trying to get ahead of the story and the confirmatory accounts of former friends. On a radio show, he said “Back in high school, I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that. I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize.” However, he still denied any recollection of the attack on Lauber: “I don’t remember that incident. I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s so that was not the case.”
Do you think this is a viable campaign issue given the passage of time? If he was a bully decades ago, does it have bearing today on the man running for office?
Source: Washington Post
Jackie and Dunlap have an explanation for Romney’s hair. He uses Rain-X on it.
So let’s see. These are all some allegations of some incidents that happened amongst kids attending a private school of 1%er lineage 50 years past right? Let’s assume the victim is an offspring of the privileged as the tuition today stands at $38,000 per year. I’d say a lot of you here could care less about the victim if you couldn’t try to connect him with Mitt. We all follow the crowd as adults let alone as idiot kids. Look at how many of us follow our flawed heroes blindly. JFK, W, Willy, Reagan with his soothsayer wife, and so on. What are you perfect? Tell me you don’t have some type of malfeasance daily, if not as long ago as 50 years. You don’t have “impure thoughts”? desires to beat the crap out of your real, perceived or imagined rivals? I dare say the good Professor here could tell quite a number of stories about sibling abuses and neighborhood conflicts that he would be both disgusted by and quite proud of at the same time. There is no bottom of any pecking order. Romney never professed to be perfect – only worthy of the ultimate job of leadership in a country desperately in need of it. He had never claimed to be able to hold back the rising seas. and blah X 3.
anon:
that was funny. But I have a jar of Grey Poupon in the frige that is very old. that shit gets better with age.
rALPH:
dam!
Oh, and I was on a yacht.
“I’ll leave it to the comments section to try and find a more elitist way to get arrested and subsequently let off the hook for disorderly conduct!”
I was once arrested for having an expired jar of Grey Poupon in my picnic basket. But Tom Buchanan was able to have all charges dropped when he called his cousins Mortimer and Randolph at the 19th hole and the put in a good word for me with Judge Smails (as well as graciously allowing Smails to re-put the 14th hole.)
Otteray Scribe 1, May 10, 2012 at 12:39 pm
anon, if you have evidence that Romney is NOT some kind of psychopath or sociopath, I am interested in hearing about such evidence.
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There is an interesting video here (mid-page) of a professor who teaches psychiatry, has done so for decades, and who was surprised to find out he has the “markers” of a sociopath, and psychopath to a lesser degree.
Evidently if one is not practicing, not walking the walk, or ever has, then it is a benign potential only.
But when, from childhood on one walks the walk, I glean that then it can be said that the condition is active, not benign, not passive.
From Americablog: On its face, a rap sheet isn’t the worst thing for a candidate like Romney. The multi-millionaire, who’s in the process of installing elevators for his cars in his beach house, is struggling to convince America that he’s an average guy who isn’t afraid to mix it up now and again even if it means an altercation with the boys in blue.
But the nature of Romney’s arrest deviates so little from his image of, to quote Jon Stewart, someone who looks like they “just stepped off the Monopoly board,” that I laughed out loud when I first read the details.
From Jackie Koszczuk:
Romney was arrested…for putting his pleasure boat in the water at Lake Chochituate in Massachusetts. The crime unfolded after a park ranger told Romney to cease and desist because his boating license was not properly visible [a violation that would incur a $50 fine]. Romney later told the Boston Globe that he felt that the license was sufficiently visible and that it was worth it to him to be fined $50 in order to enjoy the day on the lake with his family.
Additionally, the charge of disorderly conduct was dropped and sealed after Romney appeared in the local courthouse the next day and threatened to sue.
I’ll leave it to the comments section to try and find a more elitist way to get arrested and subsequently let off the hook for disorderly conduct.
!
Atta boy Willard!
Myself, I dont want some person who went to a prestigious boys prep school to be our President. I want someone who grew up with some hard knocks. I dont want any Franklyn Delano Roosevelts, or Bushies, or Johnboy Kennedies. Willard was raised to be the Bain of Capitalism. He is. Willard was named after the Willard Hotel in DC where he was conceived. The tag Mitt came from the insurance companies who own him. Mitt in Swedish translates to My in English.
It is probably lame to criticise Willard for being a bully at age 18. But it is lame to want a schmuck like him to be near the White House after sundown.
mr. ed, don’t know about you but I never threw stones at horseback riders:
From Wonkette_ now Mitt Romney is detailing his horrible Mormon mating rituals:
“We met in elementary school – we did. I was a Cub Scout, and she was riding a horse bareback over some railroad tracks. What do Cub Scouts do when they see a little girl on a horse? We picked up stones and threw them.”
As in Gore Vidal’s 1960 play, The Best Man, Obama’s team is busy trying to collect dirt on the other guy, rather than focusing on the issues that are truly important, like the economy, unemployment, energy, national defense and terrorism. It’s the time-honored political deflection technique, and, unfortunately, far too many people are swayed by these distractions, which is why they’re done in the first place: because they work.
Obama’s need to keep the media highly focused on non-issues like this one– an irrelevant purported incident involving Romney when he was a teenager–is made clear by the recent results in West Virginia’s Democratic primary in which Obama did not do all that much better than than Keith Judd, federal Inmate No. 11593-051, who received nearly 43 percent of the vote. Although Obama won, the results were clearly an embarrassment for him.
While the Leftists–who are never gun-shy to call anyone else who disagrees with them a Bigot, a Blank-a-phobe (fill in the blank depending on who the Lefitsts are defending), or just a plain-old “hater”–they were just as quick to apply their own broad brush to the West Virginia voters, calling them stupid, ugly, low-IQed, rednecks, hillbillies, or whatever perjorative terms they can think of. Of course, the Leftists are not bigots when they do this, as they are merely the rational, objective, profound, deeper thinkers that they have always been.
Kids are cruel. And stupid. How many of use turned out halfway decent is a mystery. Except psychologists, who took the course to get free analysis of their narcissistic obsessions.
I went to college in Michigan in the early sixties. I remember the Cranbrook boys to be snobbish, unfeeling, and unrepentant. Jerks.
While I never met Willard, I did meet his dad, for whom I campaigned for governor. Nice guy, and very quietly Mormon, when they were still Christians. At that time, the bigots were having too much interest in black civil rights to pay attention to Mormons.
FWIW:
http://allpsych.com/disorders/personality/antisocial.html
“The symptoms of antisocial personality disorder include a longstanding pattern (after the age of 15) of disregard for the rights of others. There is a failure to conform to society’s norms and expectations that often results in numerous arrests or legal involvement as well as a history of deceitfulness where the individual attempts to con people or use trickery for personal profit. Impulsiveness if often present, including angry outbursts, failure to consider consequences of behaviors, irritability, and/or physical assaults.
“Some argue that a major component of this disorder is the reduced ability to feel empathy for other people. This inability to see the hurts, concerns, and other feelings of people often results in a disregard for these aspects of human interaction. Finally, irresponsible behavior often accompanies this disorder as well as a lack of remorse for wrongdoings.”
e.g. the ex-wife
Speaking of folks who may suffer from ASPD, Sheriff Joe got sued
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/justice_department_sues_sheriff_joe_arpaio.php
“I know this is going to come as a shock, anon, but “psychopath” and “sociopath” are not clinical diagnoses. They are descriptions of behavior patterns. Whether the subject fits the clinical diagnosis of “Antisocial Personality Disorder” (DSM-IV-TR code 301.7) is quite another question.”
I know this will come as a shock, but twits that prate about how they are forensic psychologists and courtside expert witlesses should know better than to describe how they have diagnosed over the interwebs that their political opponents are crazy.
And you should probably have a go at fixing the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder
Psychopathy and its synonym, sociopathy, are terms related to ASPD. ASPD replaced psychopathy as a diagnosis in the DSM but the terms are not identical. Psychopathy is now usually seen as a subset of ASPD
http://www.dogsagainstromney.com/2012/05/mitt-romneys-pattern-of-cruelty.html
Excerpt:
“”It was a hack job,” said Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer and friend of Romney’s who saw what happened that day. “It was vicious.”
David Seed, a retired principal who witnessed the incident, ran into Lauber years later at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Seeing an opportunity to get something off his chest, Seed brought up the incident and apologized to Lauber that he “didn’t do more to help in the situation.” Lauber told Seed “it was horrible,” explaining how frightened he was during the incident. “It’s something I have thought about a lot since then,” Lauber said.
A dentist, a lawyer, a prosecutor, and a principal all remember the incident clearly. The only person who doesn’t remember it is the GOP nominee for president of the United States.”
FWIW:
http://allpsych.com/disorders/personality/antisocial.html
“The symptoms of antisocial personality disorder include a longstanding pattern (after the age of 15) of disregard for the rights of others. There is a failure to conform to society’s norms and expectations that often results in numerous arrests or legal involvement as well as a history of deceitfulness where the individual attempts to con people or use trickery for personal profit. Impulsiveness if often present, including angry outbursts, failure to consider consequences of behaviors, irritability, and/or physical assaults.
“Some argue that a major component of this disorder is the reduced ability to feel empathy for other people. This inability to see the hurts, concerns, and other feelings of people often results in a disregard for these aspects of human interaction. Finally, irresponsible behavior often accompanies this disorder as well as a lack of remorse for wrongdoings.”
Of course he doesn’t remember, here is a guy who’s opinions and legislative thoughts change from election to election, heck, sometimes day to day…Why anyone, liberal, conservative or independent would put creedence to anything that Romney says is a mystery to me.
I know this is going to come as a shock, anon, but “psychopath” and “sociopath” are not clinical diagnoses. They are descriptions of behavior patterns. Whether the subject fits the clinical diagnosis of “Antisocial Personality Disorder” (DSM-IV-TR code 301.7) is quite another question.
“You were probably very good at playing dodge ball.”
Actually, I got beaned once and hit the asphalt, went home with a headache, went to bed, my mom later got a call from the school saying I had a probable concussion. And I did!
/not sure if I ever woke up