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
Oro,
While I do both see and recognize the utility of the distinction you are making, those are pretty big caveats you point to in an industry famous for its profit taking. I would bet that that minority of the transactions either adequately recycle capital or go to a beneficial reinvestment when they do. Those in that line didn’t earn the label “corporate raiders” for nothing.
Oro Lee,
Great video. Thanks.
Just in case the various post re ASPD, psycho- and sociopaths, and other such truck have you worried, help is as close as your phone —
Gene H. May 11, 2012 at 4:26 pm “destructive capitalism and constructive capitalism”
.Without knowing the details of the transactions or the ins and outs of the industry, liquidating ailing although viable companies may actually benefit the economy if the proceeds are properly reinvested and garner a higher rate of return. There are some caveats.
It is very likely that the trauma of closing a plant will be localized while the benefit of reinvestment may be very diffuse or take place in another locale.That is a transactional problem — how everything gets sorted out.
There is a larger systemic problem, which is that success is measured in earnings, profits, and rates of return. There is no social utility scale to judge whether the product or service actually increases the general welfare of the people.. Perhaps the company that was shuttered was in the solar power industry and the reinvestment is in tar sands development.
Of course I present the clean model where capital is freely flowing through capital market is allocated to its best use (i.e,. bigger profits) and no one was getting screwed out of their retirement or termination benefits. That’s something different.
I’m talking about the economic equivalent of the dung beetle, not a thieiving skunk.
Mike,
“Sadly, no one in the Republican primary field seemed to be a better person emotionally.” Which brings us back to the sad truth that the mode of modern politics appeals to the emotionally crippled and usually in the form of narcissists and/or sociopaths of some sort. However, although I did disagree with a lot (most) of his platform, I will have to say that Huntsman did not appear to be cut from that mold. He may be and such facts may have been revealed had he stayed on the campaign trail, but at first blush he seemed to be someone legitimately interested in public service for the right reasons.
shano,
True. Mitt is the poster boy illustrating the difference between destructive capitalism and constructive capitalism. He’s every bit the robber baron, but I doubt if he could build something if his life depended upon it.
anon: yes, Romneys bad behavior continued, in fact he made a career out of being a corporate bully at Bain Capital. He was extremely good at making a profit from taking away peoples living standards & employment security.
Obama helped people in his chosen careers.
Romney only helped himself and his already rich buddies get richer by bullying workers out of a job and destroying sources of tax revenue in communities all over the USA.
Regarding Romney’s denial, I think, as I said earlier, that Romney clearly remembers this incident.
If I recall correctly, and paraphrasing, Vincent Bugliosi once said it was stupid and foul for Prosecutors to ask Bill Clinton if he had ever committed adultery, because oath or not, prosecutors, everyone, knows everyone will lie about that.
Romney’s denial is about what one would expect. Who is he going to please if he admits it? His rightwing supporters? Or the left? And why would he want to please the left and the expense of his rightwing supporters?
Oh? You’re shocked, shocked Romney lies? Romney lies and flip-flops about a dozen times a day.
Mainly what I see here is another round of partisan, gotcha, race to the bottom politics, which is great, it very nicely distracts from real issues.
I have a tune which is similar to chants sung at high school sporting events. This should be sung at any political gathering where the Romney guy appears:
Atta girl Willard, atta Girl!
Atta girl Willard, atta Girl.
Stupid things in high school, stupid things.
Williard is your name, its your name.
“Actually Nick I would raise the rafters had this been Obama, or any other Democrat, which illustrates the difference between today’s conservatives and everyone else. To you politics is like rooting for your home team. Decency, morality or other virtues have little to do with it. For you all it’s about the money and you’re willing to even hi-jack Jesus to win. Every single person who has commented negatively here about this incident, would have been just as outspoken had it been Obama, perhaps more so.”
It might be one thing if we had the same information available on all the candidates, but we’re not in that Facebook era just yet.
So you’re getting a very narrow glimpse of one candidate that is not available on the others.
Upthread I said, if there’s a pattern of repeat performances of this, then this is relevant. If there’s not, then it’s actually evidence of maturation, or reformed views. And a couple of posters were able to show some events that perhaps point to a pattern.
Me, I don’t know. It was the height of Vietnam, and the middle of the sixties. It occurred between teenagers in a prep school, and in the article there is not a whole lot of evidence it was gay oriented and not just hippie/long hair/anti-war oriented.
But worse, look at the posters in this thread that you Mike, would find hard to believe ever engaged in bullying or anything like that, that confess to bullying and stuff like that.
So go over past Presidents and tell me which ones you are certain never bullied others during K-12.
By the way, the dipshit Althouse has a small story of Obama being goaded into teasing/bullying a companion.(It’s a stupid claim from Althouse, because mainly what Obama did was what all boys in elementary school might do, deny they like girls. Yuck, Cooties.)
But currently. we can’t tell who bullied someone in their youth or not, and it’s pretty ridiculous to believe that anyone ambitious enough to be President was incapable of bullying others, so it’s a stupid reason to get your poutrage on.
As I said earlier, if we make it okay to crawl through candidates stupid youth experiences like this, can we elect anyone?
So if Obama had bullied someone in K-12 (and hey, my best friend from college went to elementary school with Obama), I would care as little about it as I do that Obama smoked marijuana at Occidental.
It’s the pattern in adulthood that matters.
Did George Washington torture cherry trees as a kid?
Mike S. Absolutely. Exactly. My conservative friends are always puzzled when I criticize Obama. I have to tell them that although I have some criticism of him, I am never going all the way over to the dark side and support any of the GOP corporate puppets, lol
“anon: yes, Romneys bad behavior continued, in fact he made a career out of being a corporate bully at Bain Capital. He was extremely good at making a profit from taking away peoples living standards & employment security.”
Anon,
There is your answer right there. Way above I told about the effect on me of a bullying incident when I was 16. That was one of many, many incidents I suffered in High School. Did some of those kids turn out all right, no doubt. However, I’ve never physically bullied anyone and people I stand up to verbally have been on equal footing with me, or in some cases more powerful.
The other descriptions, by his ex-friends of Mitt’s behavior reflect a person with little compassion for anyone, but himself.
Now should this alone keep anyone from voting for Mitt, probably not. However, putting this in context with the man’s apparent inability to understand and feel compassion for ordinary, based on his own statements, then I think it is reasonable to infer a kind of sociopathic/narcissistic in this man. By the way although I owned and loved dogs in my youth, I’m not someone who finds articles about pets cute. However, when I heard he put his dog in a kennel on top of a car I found that outrageous, since that should never be done. That adds in to the fact that Mitt has the kind of rich boy, entitled mentality, that characterized George W. Bush. Given that, I doubt that Mitt’s conscience would be any better and that others misery wouldn’t phase him at all. Sadly,
no one in the Republican primary field seemed to be a better person emotionally.
Mike S.,
Well said. These very same Republicans all voted no to prevent a vote in the Senate to approve of the Student Loan Interest bill from moving forward. I think Sen. Snowe voted present and Lugar and Kirk didn’t vote. This was just another filibuster that doesn’t get reported as a filibuster. Romney will fit in well with these idiots. He is a punk who never grew up and did not have to because of his family’s position and wealth.
You know its easy to say well it was 50 yrs ago and we all did stupid things as a teenager…well when your on the receiving end of that stick it isn’t so easy to forget….”Oh yeah, I used to beat the hell out of guys who were different than me, but that was long ago I’m better now”
From me to you that’s f’ing BULLSHIT!
. . .and the Mittster, spinning around so fast trying to keep up with the message and audience of the day he makes flip flop accusee John Kerry seem like steady Eddie.
Elaine, “I’m also tired of the “handlers” and political strategists/advisers ”
Yeah, really. Bush is a great example. All hat, no horse. Totally picked and packaged by handlers from start to finish. And that, of course, is why Jebbie just has to be a natural. The boys in the board room say it’s so.
DonS,
“I guess I’m just tired of politics and politicians.”
I’m also tired of the “handlers” and political strategists/advisers who tell their candidates what to do/what not to do/what to say/what not to say.
“I think these Romney prep school stories speak to who this man is beneath the smiling face.” — Elaine M.
We all remember chapter and verse on Dubya — from the kid who blew up frogs for kicks, to the drunken lout of a Yalie, and the coke-stoking playboy. Yeah, we can “evolve” , some of us anyway. We certainly all change. Politicians have to be especially astute at finessing their pasts and, where not possible, presenting a reasonable facsimile of having “evolved”.
At least that’s the way it used to be. Maybe in today’s cultural wars, punching a hippy, so to speak, is not considered bad. Gotta check the polls. I guess I’m just tired of politics and politicians
Bullying and Mitt Romney’s Empathy Problem
Josh Barro
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbarro/2012/05/11/bullying-and-mitt-romneys-empathy-problem/
Excerpt:
This incident, and the reactions of his classmates, reflect quite badly on Romney’s character as a teenager. But do they tell us anything about Romney today? Romney has had lots of formative experiences in the intervening 47 years—college and graduate school, a Mormon mission, marriage, raising five children, founding a successful company, running the Olympics and a state. Lots of people are pretty horrible as teenagers (I don’t look back fondly on my teen self, either) and yet grow into more responsible, more compassionate adults.
Full disclosure: in the summer of 2002, before my sophomore year of college, I was a summer intern for Mitt Romney’s campaign for governor of Massachusetts. It was a big operation and I actually worked for his running mate, so I only spoke with Mitt a handful of times. Still, I always found him to be completely polite and respectful, an ethos that spread through the campaign. I worked more closely with his son, Tagg, who was a stand up guy.
That said, there is a difference between learning to treat others respectfully and having empathy for them. It seems like teenage Mitt Romney fell down on both of those counts, and I’m confident that adult Mitt Romney has figured the respect thing out. But does Romney have empathy for people who are different from him?
The tone of Romney’s reaction today does not look good on the empathy front. Referring to an assault on a classmate as “hijinks and pranks” is pretty tone-deaf. Let’s say you were told about an incident in your teenage years that you had forgotten, where you behaved cruelly and caused a lot of distress to other people. Wouldn’t you, as Dan Foster describes, feel a little bit ashamed? That’s not at all evident in Romney’s reaction to this story.
And while Romney denies that he would have thought that a classmate was gay, it’s clear that Lauber was singled out for his nonconformity. This incident reflects not just that teen Romney being a jerk, but that he was using his in-group status to pick on an outsider—has adult Romney reflected on that?
Romney’s actions as governor also suggest that he doesn’t view bullying as a significant problem. In 2006, Romney threatened to dissolve the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, established by Republican Governor William Weld in 1992, and then to expand its mission to cover all youth. The legislature established a independent commission, overriding a Romney veto, in response to these threats. A key part of the commission’s mandate is the prevention of anti-LGBT bullying in schools.
His administration also repeatedly delayed the publication of an anti-bullying handbook for public schools, which had been developed in 2002 by Governor Jane Swift’s Task Force on Hate Crimes. Kathleen Henry, who chaired the Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth at the time, said she thought the guidebook was held up due to its LGBT-related content, particularly content to do with transgender students. Ultimately, the handbook was published under Governor Deval Patrick, six years after it was first drafted.
Why Romney’s Teenage Bullying Actually Matters
Frederick E. Allen
5/11/2012
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/05/11/why-romneys-teenage-bullying-actually-matters/
Excerpt:
We all now know that as an 18-year-old prep school student in the 1960s, Mitt Romney rounded up a group of friends, assaulted a student who would later come out as gay, pinned him to the ground, and hacked off the hair he had grown long and dyed blond over vacation. Does it really matter what Romney did as a kid almost half a century ago?
No. Not by itself. Almost every teenage boy is a jerk. We all do things in adolescence that we can be ashamed of. The problem is that the story doesn’t end there. In the hours since the story came out, Romney has made it worse, in characteristic fashion.
He has laughed it off. He has also insisted he doesn’t remember it. Five of his classmates all remembered it. Phillip Maxwell, a fellow student who was there when it happened, told ABC News, “It’s a haunting memory. . . . because when you see somebody who is simply different taken down that way and is terrified and you see that look in their eye you never forget it. And that was what we all walked away with.” The Washington Post article that broke the story quoted several students who remembered the incident all too well. Who could ever forget such a thing? Andrew Sullivan writes, “We have two options: this man is so callous that, unlike all those others involved in this assault, he has forgotten it. Or he is a liar.”
It is unbelievable that he couldn’t remember at all, but he is definitely callous, too. For a response to the story yesterday, the best he could come up with was, “As to pranks that were played back then, I don’t remember them all, but again, high school days, if I did stupid things, why, I’m afraid I’ve got to say sorry for it.” If I did stupid things. He didn’t take the opportunity to say something like, as Joe Klein suggests, “I did a really stupid and terrible thing. Teenage boys sometimes do such things, and deserve to be punished for them. What I most regret is that I never apologized to John, and won’t be able to now that he’s gone, but let me apologize to his family and friends.”
Romney’s reaction not only seems almost certainly dishonest, it also, together with the anecdote itself, adds to his solid reputation as almost reptilian in his lack of warmth and sympathy for anyone unlike himself or in a situation unlike his own. He has fought that problem throughout his candidacy, but he keeps on only making it worse. And so he again raises questions about his character as a person and therefore as a leader.
Bully Pulpit Second Thoughts
By Joe Klein, May 11, 2012
I fear that I went too easy on Mitt Romney with regard to his high school bullying escapades. It’s not the incident itself that troubles me–though it was, obviously, outrageous and disgraceful–so much as his current response: He doesn’t remember it. This is patent nonsense. How could he not remember it? Obviously, he remembers it or he wouldn’t have been so quick to issue his blanket apology yesterday for any and all hurt he may have caused at Cranbrook. And this transparent fudge once again raises questions about his character.
It comes during the same week that he claims credit for saving the auto industry, even though he opposed the bailout that made possible the “structured bankruptcy” he favored. It comes the same week that he expresses his opposition to gay marriage, even though he promised to be a more aggressive proponent of gay rights than Ted Kennedy when he ran for the Senate in 1994–of course, it’s possible that Romney has “evolved” in the opposite direction from President Obama, and most Americans, on this issue, but I doubt it. It seems that a day can’t go by without some Romney embarrassment, or bald-faced reversal of a former position.
I’m still waiting for the moment when Romney actually tells the truth about something difficult. He could have said, “You know, I’ve been troubled by the Cranbrook episode for most of my life, and I feel relieved, in a way, that it’s come out now. I did a really stupid and terrible thing. Teenage boys sometimes do such things, and deserve to be punished for them. What I most regret is that I never apologized to John, and won’t be able to now that he’s gone, but let me apologize to his family and friends. Bullying is unacceptable under any circumstances. It is especially unacceptable when prejudice–against race, ethnicity or sexual orientation–is involved. If elected President, I will try to atone for my teenage behavior by campaigning against bullying all across this country. What I did back then should be an example of how not to behave. I hope we can all learn from this. I know that I have.”
Instead, Romney has a near-perfect record of cowardice, obfuscation and downright lies. It shows enormous disrespect for the intelligence of the public.
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/05/11/bully-pulpit-second-thoughts/#ixzz1ua2oubGG