The Bane Of Bain
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, the Obama campaign focused on a Boston Globe story that reported Romney remained at Bain through 2002. The Romney campaign says the story “isn’t accurate.” Romney has said repeatedly he left leadership of Bain in 1999 to head up the 2002 Winter Olympics.
It was after 1999 when Bain outsourced jobs and shut down Kaybee Toys. To tie Romney to those unpopular Bain moves, the Obama campaign needs to show that Romney was still running the show after 1999. That way they can paint him as an outsourcer and a job killer. Plus, if he was running Bain after 1999, he’s a liar and a felon.
Deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter:
“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 investment. If he was lying to the American people,” she added. “then that’s a real character and trust issue that the American people need to take very seriously.”
Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades issued a blistering statement in response.
"President Obama's campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign. President Obama ought to apologize for the out-of-control behavior of his staff, which demeans the office he holds. Campaigns are supposed to be hard fought, but statements like those made by Stephanie Cutter belittle the process and the candidate on whose behalf she works."
So what’s the truth of the matter?
FactCheck.org – no friend to Republicans – provides this insight:
... After reviewing evidence cited by the Obama campaign, we reaffirm our conclusion that Romney left the helm of Bain Capital when he took a leave of absence in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics – as he has said repeatedly – and never returned to active management. The Obama campaign’s recent ads thus mislead when they point to investments made by Bain, as well as management decisions made by companies in which Bain invested, after that time.
... We have never disputed that Romney remained the owner of Bain while he was running the Olympics committee. The issue always has been, who was running Bain? Nothing in the SEC documents contradicts what Romney has certified as true.
Fortune Magazine reports:
... Romney did not leave Bain Capital as part of a long-term, planned succession process. Instead, his departure was fairly sudden – borne of a desire to help salvage an Olympic Games that was $1.4 billion in the hole and tarred by a massive bribery scandal. The very first reports of Romney being considered for the Salt Lake City job were on Feb. 2, 1999. Just nine days later, he officially took over.
Not surprisingly, Bain Capital hadn’t worked out all the details of Romney’s departure. It eventually would discard the CEO position in favor of a horizontal management committee made up of numerous partners, and provide Romney with a golden parachute that included limited partnership interests in all Bain-related funds raised through 2009 (including the option for Romney to invest additional monies). But none of that was in place when Romney took the Salt Lake City job.
Moreover, unwinding a private equity firm’s ownership structure is extremely complicated. The “firm” itself is largely a legal construct of convenience, since it doesn’t pay salaries, make investments or do much of anything else. Instead, what matters are the individual funds.
In the case of Bain Capital’s funds, it’s reasonable to assume that Romney was considered a “key man,” meaning that each fund’s limited partners could have voted to end the fund’s investment period — or take over fund management themselves — if a super-majority felt it prudent. But that didn’t happen, and Bain saw no reason to expend massive administrative effort to amend existing funds. Instead, it asked Romney to sign documents when necessary, and made the managerial/ownership changes on new funds going forward….
The part about lying to the SEC is absurd, since the SEC doesn’t require an owner to be the operational decision-maker (Romney delegated such responsibilities, as is his right).
A few things come to mind.
It makes me chuckle to hear the Obama camp toss around the word felon. I mean, this from the campaign of a guy who used to pal around with convicted felons Rod Blagojevich and Tony Rezko.
It seems, if they really believe that Romney is a felon, they apparently don’t understand how private equity firms operate. That’s a little scary. My guess is they probably do understand and they just want to purposely mislead folks.
Finally, it makes the Obama campaign look a little desperate. Is their best shot at Romney some obscure SEC filing from more than a decade ago?
Why not run on your record?
Fast and Furious gunrunning, Solyndra and other green energy bankruptcies, soldiers urinating on dead Afghans, kill teams preying on hapless Afghan civilians, soldiers posing with mutilated Afghans, the GSA Las Vegas fiasco, Secret Service hookers, Panetta running up an $800K flight tab, White House exec staff owes $800K in back taxes, Treasury Secretary Geithner owed back taxes, debt ceiling fiasco, unemployment remains above 8 percent, high gas prices, record foreclosure numbers, $5T in budget debt, $1T health care bill price tag increases to $3T, individual mandate is a tax, multiple “czar” appointments, promise to end earmarks, promise to close Guantanamo, promise not to hire former lobbyists, promise not to take SuperPac money, terror trials in New York – or not, Keystone Pipeline shut down, forcing Catholic employers to provide contraceptives, hot mic sellout to Russia regarding missile defense, food stamp rolls exploding, more people on welfare than any time in history.
Oh.
Maybe Bain is their best bet after all.[[In-content Ad]]
In a conference call with reporters earlier this week, the Obama campaign focused on a Boston Globe story that reported Romney remained at Bain through 2002. The Romney campaign says the story “isn’t accurate.” Romney has said repeatedly he left leadership of Bain in 1999 to head up the 2002 Winter Olympics.
It was after 1999 when Bain outsourced jobs and shut down Kaybee Toys. To tie Romney to those unpopular Bain moves, the Obama campaign needs to show that Romney was still running the show after 1999. That way they can paint him as an outsourcer and a job killer. Plus, if he was running Bain after 1999, he’s a liar and a felon.
Deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter:
“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 investment. If he was lying to the American people,” she added. “then that’s a real character and trust issue that the American people need to take very seriously.”
Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades issued a blistering statement in response.
"President Obama's campaign hit a new low today when one of its senior advisers made a reckless and unsubstantiated charge to reporters about Mitt Romney that was so over the top that it calls into question the integrity of their entire campaign. President Obama ought to apologize for the out-of-control behavior of his staff, which demeans the office he holds. Campaigns are supposed to be hard fought, but statements like those made by Stephanie Cutter belittle the process and the candidate on whose behalf she works."
So what’s the truth of the matter?
FactCheck.org – no friend to Republicans – provides this insight:
... After reviewing evidence cited by the Obama campaign, we reaffirm our conclusion that Romney left the helm of Bain Capital when he took a leave of absence in 1999 to run the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics – as he has said repeatedly – and never returned to active management. The Obama campaign’s recent ads thus mislead when they point to investments made by Bain, as well as management decisions made by companies in which Bain invested, after that time.
... We have never disputed that Romney remained the owner of Bain while he was running the Olympics committee. The issue always has been, who was running Bain? Nothing in the SEC documents contradicts what Romney has certified as true.
Fortune Magazine reports:
... Romney did not leave Bain Capital as part of a long-term, planned succession process. Instead, his departure was fairly sudden – borne of a desire to help salvage an Olympic Games that was $1.4 billion in the hole and tarred by a massive bribery scandal. The very first reports of Romney being considered for the Salt Lake City job were on Feb. 2, 1999. Just nine days later, he officially took over.
Not surprisingly, Bain Capital hadn’t worked out all the details of Romney’s departure. It eventually would discard the CEO position in favor of a horizontal management committee made up of numerous partners, and provide Romney with a golden parachute that included limited partnership interests in all Bain-related funds raised through 2009 (including the option for Romney to invest additional monies). But none of that was in place when Romney took the Salt Lake City job.
Moreover, unwinding a private equity firm’s ownership structure is extremely complicated. The “firm” itself is largely a legal construct of convenience, since it doesn’t pay salaries, make investments or do much of anything else. Instead, what matters are the individual funds.
In the case of Bain Capital’s funds, it’s reasonable to assume that Romney was considered a “key man,” meaning that each fund’s limited partners could have voted to end the fund’s investment period — or take over fund management themselves — if a super-majority felt it prudent. But that didn’t happen, and Bain saw no reason to expend massive administrative effort to amend existing funds. Instead, it asked Romney to sign documents when necessary, and made the managerial/ownership changes on new funds going forward….
The part about lying to the SEC is absurd, since the SEC doesn’t require an owner to be the operational decision-maker (Romney delegated such responsibilities, as is his right).
A few things come to mind.
It makes me chuckle to hear the Obama camp toss around the word felon. I mean, this from the campaign of a guy who used to pal around with convicted felons Rod Blagojevich and Tony Rezko.
It seems, if they really believe that Romney is a felon, they apparently don’t understand how private equity firms operate. That’s a little scary. My guess is they probably do understand and they just want to purposely mislead folks.
Finally, it makes the Obama campaign look a little desperate. Is their best shot at Romney some obscure SEC filing from more than a decade ago?
Why not run on your record?
Fast and Furious gunrunning, Solyndra and other green energy bankruptcies, soldiers urinating on dead Afghans, kill teams preying on hapless Afghan civilians, soldiers posing with mutilated Afghans, the GSA Las Vegas fiasco, Secret Service hookers, Panetta running up an $800K flight tab, White House exec staff owes $800K in back taxes, Treasury Secretary Geithner owed back taxes, debt ceiling fiasco, unemployment remains above 8 percent, high gas prices, record foreclosure numbers, $5T in budget debt, $1T health care bill price tag increases to $3T, individual mandate is a tax, multiple “czar” appointments, promise to end earmarks, promise to close Guantanamo, promise not to hire former lobbyists, promise not to take SuperPac money, terror trials in New York – or not, Keystone Pipeline shut down, forcing Catholic employers to provide contraceptives, hot mic sellout to Russia regarding missile defense, food stamp rolls exploding, more people on welfare than any time in history.
Oh.
Maybe Bain is their best bet after all.[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092