Mitt Romney vs. Facts Written Down On Paper

Just the other day, the Boston Globe dropped this bombshell (as covered by Boston.com):

Mitt Romney Stayed At Bain 3 Years Longer Than He Stated

For years, political opponents of Mitt Romney have successfully dipped into the Bain Capital well for attack ads, going all the way back to Ted Kennedy in the 1994 Massachusetts Senate race.

The strategy worked very well for Kennedy as he soundly trounced Romney.  When Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts, his opponent, Shannon O'Brian, did the same thing.  She had less success thanks to Romney attack ads that linked O'Brian's husband to the Enron scandal and let's be honest, the Enron thing was bigger than whatever Bain dirt might exist, but the Bain attack remained a viable strategy.  Even President Obama has continued the Bain strategy:

The fact remains that Romney never quite figured out how to defend against attacks on his Bain record, so he eventually went with a defense perfectly captured by Shaggy with a little help from RikRok:

Romney has claimed for years that when he got called to work on the Salt Lake City Olympics, he left Bain Capital and therefore couldn't be attacked for whatever happened at the firm after 1999.  Sure, it didn't really address past attacks, but at least it stemmed new ones from popping up during his 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial efforts.  It's something Romney's continued to fall back on during his current run as well. Turns out it wasn't true.  As the Boston Globe reports, while Romney claimed his tenure at Bain ended in 1999 -

(P)ublic Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.” 

Also from the article linked at the top:

Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.

It's not hard to make some inductive leaps from this point.  Did Romney just collect substantial paychecks from the economic hardships Bain might have created despite having no say in the matter?  I guess technically he can't be blamed for what happened in that case, but he still got paid.  Or is it just too much to believe that as the sole owner of Bain Capital he wouldn't offer up some input at some point as to what his company should do?  Furthermore:

The Globe found nine SEC filings submitted by four different business entities after February 1999 that describe Romney as Bain Capital’s boss; some show him with managerial control over five Bain Capital entities that were formed in January 2002, according to records in Delaware, where they were incorporated.

Managerial control doesn't feel the same to me as retired three years ago.  I loved this response from an anonymous source inside the Romney campaign:

A Romney campaign official, who requested anonymity to discuss the SEC filings, acknowledged that they “do not square with common sense.” But SEC regulations are complicated and quirky, the official argued, and Romney’s signature on some documents after his exit does not indicate active involvement in the firm.

I know it doesn't make any sense whatsoever but sometimes paperwork can be crazy... that's the response.  I know the Texas GOP platform accidentally included a line about wanting to end the teaching of critical thinking skills in school, but that needed to be implemented decades ago for the Romney response to fly.  I know the Romney campaign would really like me to dismiss the SEC paperwork, but, as pointed out in the article:

A former SEC commissioner told the Globe that the SEC documents listing Romney as Bain’s chief executive between 1999 and 2002 cannot be dismissed so easily.  

“You can’t say statements filed with the SEC are meaningless. This is a fact in an SEC filing,” said Roberta S. Karmel, now a professor at Brooklyn Law School... 

...“If someone invested with Bain Capital because they believed Mitt Romney was a great fund manager, and it turns out he wasn’t really doing anything, that could be considered a misrepresentation to the investor,’’ she said. “It’s a theory that could be used in a lawsuit against him.” 

Romney's always has trouble when he says things in the presence of devices intended to make sure people in the future can perfectly recall his exact words:

The written word is also proving not to be Romney's best friend either.  Between the Globe's investigative reporting, government documents, and Vanity Fair's recent and fascinating piece (seriously, read this one):

Where The Money Lives

It seems like Mitt Romney can't catch a break from the actual facts of his life.  The way he does things works very well in the world of business.  Maximize every opportunity... hold an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules so that you can find the spaces between them... make sure you get yours and once you do, make sure you hold on to it.  This is how someone becomes insanely rich and stays that way.  I don't begrudge Romney his success. But if you ask a lot of people if that's the kind of person you want serving as President, I bet most would answer no.  Liberals might talk about wanting someone who can empathize with those worst off so that the president remembers who he or she is fighting for.  Conservatives might talk about the "sit down and have a beer with" factor of a candidate to the same effect. Those descriptions don't fit Romney. If you've ever hosted some kind of board game night with friends over a few glasses of wine, you may have encountered someone known as a Rule Lawyer.  Rule Lawyers make it a point to forget the idea that everyone is just there to have a good time and instead get into the minutiae of the game in order to milk the system and maximize their chances.  Rule Lawyers technically follow the rules as written, but everyone ends up hating their guts. Mitt Romney is that kind of Rule Lawyer, and he keeps tripping up trying to avoid the consequences of that personality streak.  He's not fit for political life, his personality just doesn't suit it.  I don't mean that as an insult, my personality might not suit a political life either, so why put people through the agony of watching me fail to morph into someone I'm not? Maybe it's time Mitt took a few hours to listen to Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors" on repeat and realize he's not what's best for the Republican Party. ONE LAST THING (edit): Looks like Time Magazine has a great follow-up article:

Obama Campaign Says Mitt Romney Is Either A Crook Or A Liar

 Here's one particular quote that I loved...

Either Mitt Romney, through his own words and his own signature, was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the SEC, which is a felony. Or he was misrepresenting his position at Bain to the American people to avoid responsibility for some of the consequences of his investments.