Open Thread: Willard the Well-Practiced Liar
(Mike Thompson via GoComics.com)
In the Washington Post, DFH William D. Cohan (“He has worked at Lazard Freres, Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Chase.”) says that when Romney ran Bain Capital, his word was not his bond. It’s well worth a read, especially for those touting Romney’s “business acumen” as his biggest asset as a candidate.
In a post titled “The most glaring lie of the night“, Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen points out that Romney still can’t be trusted:
It’s hard not to marvel at just how dishonest Mitt Romney is prepared to be in order to win. The notion of politicians misleading the public to advance their ambitions isn’t exactly a new phenomenon, but Romney acts as if he doesn’t even care about getting caught, leading to blatant and obvious falsehoods.
This one, from last night’s debate, was just shameless.“We’ve got a president in office three years, and he does not have a jobs plan yet. I’ve got one out there already and I’m not even president, yet.”Look, I realize Romney’s busy, and keeping up on current events may be difficult, but Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress just four months ago, and at the time, presented a jobs plan. The whole thing has been online ever since. It’s been scrutinized, analyzed, and subjected to CBO scoring. It’s been debated; it’s been the subject of advertising; and it’s been voted on in the Senate….
In all likelihood, of course, Romney knows full well that the president has presented a detailed and credible jobs plan, but prefers to say otherwise because he (a) assumes voters are easily fooled; and (b) expects the media to give him a pass. He may well be right.
But that doesn’t make Romney’s dishonesty any less brazen.
Postscript: Incidentally, the former governor with an abysmal jobs record added, as part of his comment, that he’s “got [a jobs plan] out there already.” He really doesn’t. Romney has a plan for cutting taxes on the wealthy and giving Wall Street free rein to do as it pleases, but this does not a jobs plan make.
And this, our Media Village overlords assure us, is the best of the available Republican candidates…
January 18, 2012 4:52 am
Posted in: Assholes, Election 2012, Excellent Links, Open Thread, Republican Venality, Romney of the Uncanny Valley
64 Comments
64 Responses
MikeJ - January 18, 2012 | 5:10 am · Link
Snopocalypse has begun! Went to QFC and my car was covered in snow where I came out with my groceries. The amount of snow that was on my car would have been enough to shut down Seattle.
Going to hunker down at M&P’s. M has bo ssäm in the fridge so I’ll have southern (korean) bbq on which to gorge myself. Yes, the one from the Sunday Times.
I’m going to spend the next day or two drinking cocoa, shoveling the walk so dad doesn’t have a heart attack, and alternately reading 1Q84 and The Psychopath Test. Which I suppose brings us back to Mitt.
Joseph Nobles - January 18, 2012 | 5:21 am · Link
I look forward to the Politifact Lie of the Year contest in which nine whoppers of Candidate Romney will be overlooked to promote one actual truth spoken by still-President Obama.
Schlemizel - January 18, 2012 | 6:25 am · Link
had a PET scan yesterday to check the results of the radiation treatments. The good news is the cancer is gone. But my name isn’t schlemizel for no reason. The ureter is mostly blocked on my only kidney for some reason. I am going to have to have surgery for this.
Anyone familiar with the story of Job? After “Trading Places” I always pictured God & Satan wagering a buck on the outcome, like the Duke Brothers. If he won that buck from the Job bet it lost it with me.
Joe Miller - January 18, 2012 | 6:25 am · Link
Steve Benen is doing a FANTASTIC job of collecting Willard’s non-stop DAMNED LIES. This son-of-a-bitch Romney would lie to his own mother if he thought it would benefit him. I have a blog devoted solely to cataloging Mittens’ bullshit. It’s called (simply enough), Romney the Liar, right here: http://romneytheliar.blogspot.com/
Good name, huh? Short, sweet, to the point. And it’s kind of an honorific. Ivan the Terrible; Typhoid Mary; Romney the Liar. Heh.
Joe Miller - January 18, 2012 | 6:32 am · Link
Schlemizel—all my best to you. I hope everything goes well with your treatments.
SiubhanDuinne - January 18, 2012 | 6:34 am · Link
@Schlemizel: I’m so glad about the good-news part of your post. Wonderful news that the cancer is gone! I’m sorry to hear that you need to undergo more surgery, though, and hope this will be the end of your health troubles.
As for any comparison between you and Job, you have better friends at Balloon Juice than Job had IRL.
Waldo - January 18, 2012 | 6:47 am · Link
Guess we’ll see how Mittens’ whoppers go over when Obama can smack them down in person in the debates. My guess is his pathological lying will prove as endearing as McCain’s cranky old white guy routine.
Raven - January 18, 2012 | 6:52 am · Link
Chris Dodd explaining to Mornin Joe that you are all a bunch of crybaby motherfuckers about this internet thing.
MattF - January 18, 2012 | 6:55 am · Link
The Cohan column is important because it shows that lying is a basic element in Mitt’s behavioral repertoire. It’s not just the usual ‘do what it takes to win’ political bullshit, he’s a habitual, life-long, practiced liar.
WereBear - January 18, 2012 | 7:06 am · Link
@Schlemizel: Glad for the good news, at least. My best to you.
Lojasmo - January 18, 2012 | 7:10 am · Link
@Schlemizel:
Here’s hoping they can just stent that sucker. Not exactly a walk in the park, but much easier than open surgery.
WereBear - January 18, 2012 | 7:16 am · Link
Something he has in common with other followers of oppressive religions.
It might seem strange for me to say that when the public face of Mormonism is chirpy whitebread wholesomeness. But that is their mask. Women are told God commands them to “stay sweet” and never indicate just how unhappy they are. Judging by the ex-Mormon sites I’ve visited, that is considerable.
But this applies to the men, too. They are the tin gods of their household; but they don’t get to do what they want, either. There’s always another tin god over them. Any woman or child who is out of line reflects on them, driving people who want to be loving husbands and fathers into closed-door acts of harshness that are truly against their nature.
And no one winds up happy. No one.
burnspbesq - January 18, 2012 | 7:20 am · Link
It’s twoo, it’s twoo. Just shows how those people are … gifted.
WyldPirate - January 18, 2012 | 7:24 am · Link
@SchlemizelHaving had serious health issues of my own; it’s always good to hear positive health news from fellow posters, Schlemizel. Best wishes clearing the next obstacle.
MikeTheZ - January 18, 2012 | 7:25 am · Link
@Joe Miller: You and Steve are damned Truth Vigilantes! Don’t you know real journalists only publish “facts”?
Chris - January 18, 2012 | 7:26 am · Link
@burnspbesq:
What do you call a Republican candidate with half a brain?
GIFTED!
(Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all night).
JPL - January 18, 2012 | 7:31 am · Link
@Schlemizel: It’s sounds like the radiation was worth it. Are you able to eat yet? The second part of your story really sucks though. You must want to scream..enough already.
WyldPirate - January 18, 2012 | 7:35 am · Link
@Raven: I wonder who the fuck Dodd is lobbying for now? Too damned early to use the Google.
Dodd, one of the supposed “good guys”, personifies what is so broken in our democracy—influence for sale to the highest bidder and to hell with what is best for the country.
Another good post, Anne Laurie. You’re one of my favorites here as biting sarcasm goes well with my AM coffee.
Raven - January 18, 2012 | 7:40 am · Link
@WyldPirate: He’s the head of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Schlemizel - January 18, 2012 | 8:02 am · Link
@JPL:
No, food still has little or no taste, sometimes bad taste. The no saliva part is even worse. Eating meat is like trying to swallow a sponge, I’m probably going to be a vegetarian forever instead of just occasionally.
This will be the sixth surgery just between my belly button & my crotch – stomach looks like Ypres in 1916 already 8-{D
Emma - January 18, 2012 | 8:13 am · Link
@Schlemizel: Sometimes it’s just one da(mn) thing after another, isn’t it? Hang in there.
Emma - January 18, 2012 | 8:15 am · Link
@WereBear: Sure they do. The psychopaths enjoy themselves every step of the way.
TK - January 18, 2012 | 8:15 am · Link
Yes, Willard’s a sonuvabitch but this is the natural outgrowth of a dumbass media more concerned with sensationalized bullshit than simple fact checking.
Schlemizel - January 18, 2012 | 8:19 am · Link
The New Repugnant has some new comedy gold dug up from the Ron Paul newsletter, including some sludge he actually put his name on.
http://www.tnr.com/article/pol.....o?page=0,0
The most interesting thing to me is that no matter how much the world changes these conspiracy theories never do.
rikyrah - January 18, 2012 | 8:28 am · Link
It is true though…it is how you know Willard is lying…
the mouth is open.
rikyrah - January 18, 2012 | 8:33 am · Link
Schlemizel, you are in my prayers
R. Porrofatto - January 18, 2012 | 8:33 am · Link
Right now, Romney is lying mostly to Republicans. These are people accustomed to being lied to, or more correctly, bullshitted. In my memory, this really got under way with Reagan, whose flacks realized that it doesn’t matter if something is true or not, you just have to say it and repeat it, a lot. (Nixon was a supreme liar, but I don’t know if the media of the time was more observant or that people were more skeptical but I don’t think he would have gotten away with saying something so patently, provably wrong as Romney’s lie about Obama’s jobs plan. Reagan would.)
Like Romney, Reagan was transparently full of shit to anyone not seeing him through their own tribal cataracts. But this is the shoveling of pure bullshit that right-wing radio has perfected over the last few decades, and truth doesn’t even enter into the equation. Just endless lies about liberals and Democrats, endless lies about the greatness of themselves, endless lies about even their own policies.
To right-wingers, lies are the expected canons of the creed; there is no lie about Obama not believable within this doctrine. Obama has a jobs plan? Not if Romney, or Fox, or Limbaugh says he doesn’t.
rikyrah - January 18, 2012 | 8:36 am · Link
@Joe Miller:
thank you for the blog. will pass the word around
Linda Featheringill - January 18, 2012 | 8:41 am · Link
Sullivan:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/n.....itics.html
I now understand the obsession with Sullivan around here. When he’s good, he’s very very good.
[Do I owe John Cole an apology?]
Schlemizel - January 18, 2012 | 8:46 am · Link
@Linda Featheringill:
no, when he is good its an accident & will quickly pass.
Hippie Joe - January 18, 2012 | 8:49 am · Link
I think the lie test is much easier than that. Just look for movement in his lips.
Jay in Oregon - January 18, 2012 | 8:54 am · Link
That audio clip from the debate where he was asked flat-out if he would release his tax returns was outstanding.
http://videocafe.crooksandliar.....ng-tax-ret
Uh, uh, I understand that people do release their tax returns, uh, I’m tired of people asking me about this, and uh, I anticipate being asked to do that in April and I’ll consider doing it then uh, uh, if I become the candidate, I will look at doing that in the April timeframe, uh, boop BEEP fizzle ][bluescreen][
WTF? It’s a yes or no answer. People wonder why he has a credibility problem when he gives an answer like: “But I anticipate that most likely I am going to get asked to do that around the April time period and I’ll keep that open”??? He’s being asked NOW!
WereBear - January 18, 2012 | 9:09 am · Link
@R. Porrofatto: It’s interesting about the lies; it’s been my constantly reinforced conviction that Republicans now love the lies. It’s been demonstrated that they prefer a lie they like to a truth they don’t.
Frankensteinbeck - January 18, 2012 | 9:10 am · Link
@R. Porrofatto:
You are 100% correct, and that is well pointed out.
If the pattern holds, however, he’ll try to do this in the general, too. That’s a different audience, and being caught in even one absolutely blatant lie may turn a lot of voters off. Hell, the ‘I never said that’s followed by tape of him saying that should fall like rain.
Hill Dweller - January 18, 2012 | 9:34 am · Link
Newt has escalated the Bain attacks again, which tells me they’re seeing some success in their internal polling.
McCain’s ‘08 oppo-research file on Romney has leaked.
The bloated bully from New Jersey has told Romney to release his tax returns.
The truly scary part is Romney, despite being a lying robot, has a good chance of being President. The new Quinnipiac poll has Obama leading Romney by just 2 (46-44) in Ohio.
redshirt - January 18, 2012 | 9:49 am · Link
I am fascinated by this use of lies, and the Big Lie, and delusions in general. It dominates a good part of world, in many areas – is not religion (all religions) built on agreed lies?
So it doesn’t shock me that the 27%ers can accept lies as truth even if they don’t know it. This is standard operating procedure for Fundamentalists of every stripe.
What intrigues me is how this phenomena impacts the media, supposed watchdog of truth. Normally Media doesn’t have to wade into this pool in it’s natural home – Religion. But “Conservatism as Religion” has changed that, and we’ve seen how the media struggles to deal with it.
But that’s all minor in the scheme of things. More insidious is the dominate corporate control of the media and everything else. That ensures the financial backing for this new Religion, since of course like all Religions since the dawn of man, it benefits the powerful.
JCT - January 18, 2012 | 9:58 am · Link
@Hill Dweller:
One thing, though—Romney is still getting the benefit of the doubt and he just doesn’t wear well. This is not a guy you can grow to like, in fact those numbers are probably close to his ceiling because folks are still dissatisfied with Obama over the economy (fairly or not) and are looking for a “different” guy. Obama and his team will relentlessly hammer Romney over his out-of-touch rich boy approach to life and complete cluelessness over foreign policy, etc (the list could go on forever). The watch word will be do you want to take a “risk” with a shameless liar with a 15% tax bracket who could care less about you and hates immigrants more than anyone else.
We will have to work hard to GOTV and surmount the voting restrictions, but Mittens isn’t going to inspire anyone except the ultra rich and I’m pretty sure they haven’t figured out how to vote more than once…
And the interview with that asshole Christie is devastating—“c’mon Mitt, just release them all—several years back right now, just like I did”. There are some ugly things in those recent tax returns—interesting that Romney hasn’t tipped his confederates off.
Villago Delenda Est - January 18, 2012 | 10:04 am · Link
@Linda Featheringill:
Stopped clock, etc.
Beating the dead horse that is The Bell Curve demonstrates just how broken the clock is.
Cacti - January 18, 2012 | 10:04 am · Link
@WereBear:
Having been a Mormon and having many in my family circle, I can attest to this being true.
Like any other group, Mormons come in all personality types. However, they coat it all with a veneer of well-practiced saccharin sweetness for “the world” as they refer to non-Mormons.
There are some genuinely nice Mormons, and a whole lot of phony-nice Mormons. Willard screams phony-nice to this former Mo.
Cacti - January 18, 2012 | 10:09 am · Link
@Hill Dweller:
I actually find this a lot less scary than if Romney was shown with a solid lead nationally or in key battleground states.
He’s been in full campaign mode for several months now and Team Obama hasn’t even started other than a few jabs here and there.
AC - January 18, 2012 | 10:12 am · Link
Mitt could plausibly claim that what he means is that Obama doesn’t have a jobs bill that’s worth a damn, if ever pressed on the issue.
See, if he actually referred to the president’s jobs plan then he’d have to address it’s specifics. ...which he doesn’t yet have an answer for.
Yutsano - January 18, 2012 | 10:24 am · Link
@Cacti:
FTFY. Willard has been constantly running for President since at least 2006. Of course with a massive passive income from Bain it’ not like he has to worry about anything else.
Aardvark Cheeselog - January 18, 2012 | 10:39 am · Link
@R. Porrofatto:
I concur about Reagan, but the remarks about Nixon miss the point that the Press (not yet the Village in those days) hated him with a hatred that was not seen again until the Gore candidacy.
EconWatcher - January 18, 2012 | 10:46 am · Link
@Cacti:
This.
Romney is mostly just “generic Republican” to the general electorate right now, and in this horrible economy, generic Republican should be doing a lot better than 50-50.
Obama’s liabilities are already known and incorporated in the polling; Romney’s aren’t. The polling looks good to me right now.
Now if Euope can just keep itself together, we’ll be all set….
Linda Featheringill - January 18, 2012 | 10:48 am · Link
About Sullivan:
Okay, I guess I just got lucky today. It is a good essay, though and I agree with it.
[Sorry John. No apologies today. :-)]
Mnemosyne - January 18, 2012 | 10:48 am · Link
@Schlemizel:
Man, it’s always something, isn’t it? Good luck with the surgery.
chopper - January 18, 2012 | 11:14 am · Link
@EconWatcher:
exactly. at this point in reagan’s first term mondale was way ahead in the polls IIRC. then people got to know the guy and determined he was a choad.
every challenger starts out strong during election year because they represent generic opposition to an incumbent which is strong in the minds of voters. then the voters get introduced to the challenger and make up their minds. which is going to ruin romney for two big reasons. first, he’s more wooden then the pope’s bathroom. second, he’s basically a wall street fatcat, and putting forth a wall street fatcat is about the dumbest fucking thing the GOP could possibly do in this election.
efgoldman - January 18, 2012 | 11:16 am · Link
@Schlemizel:
Helluva metaphor. You a historian?
And: all the best. I don’t pray (not even on my own behalf) but wishing you the best.
WereBear - January 18, 2012 | 11:16 am · Link
@Cacti: Thank you so much for chiming in, Cacti: I was not trying to denigrate any truly nice folks of whatever religion.
And those without stress can often navigate the demands of their faith without too much trouble. But stress, sadly, is what religion is supposed to help us with; not be a source of.
feebog - January 18, 2012 | 12:01 pm · Link
I’m thinking that the tax return issue is going to be the iceberg that sinks the Mittanic. He blathered and ducked the question during the Saturday night debate. The half promise to maybe release a tax return that hasn’t even been prepared yet is not going to cut it.
The speculation about what is in those returns is going to put enormous pressure on him. And I don’t think the MSM will be able to ignore it. Not if millions of peeps on facebook and twitter start asking the question over and over. I can also envision billboards across the country; “Wheres the returns?” Kind of a left wing birther movement, but with a real issue instead of a bogus one.
maya - January 18, 2012 | 12:08 pm · Link
@Cacti: As a kid, my family used to listen to the Morman Tabernacle Choir every Sunday on the radio (WQXR) with “the spoken word” by Richard Evans. It had to be the best PR for the Morman faith there was. That was all I ever knew about them till I read Fawn Brodie’s infamous account of the Mountain Meadows massacre. Come to think of it, Mountain Meadows Mitt has a nice alliteral roll.
handsmile - January 18, 2012 | 12:13 pm · Link
Always relevant to discussions of the GOP electorate’s penchant for mendacity is the classic, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds:
http://www.amazon.com/Extraord.....051788433X
Written by one true Scotsman, Charles MacKay, in 1841 (though seemingly “ripped from today’s headlines”), it is an entertaining and richly detailed historical account of mass psychology and manic social behavior. Financial schemes (e.g., Holland’s Tulipmania, England’s South Sea Islands investments) and religious fervors (witch hunting, the Crusades) are included among Mackay’s chapters.
A work that has enjoyed support from scholars and general readers alike since its publication, it is supremely worth seeking out for both its history and its contemporary application.
gaz - January 18, 2012 | 12:18 pm · Link
@maya: “Mountain Meadows Mitt” sounds like something they’d sell at Bed Bath & Beyond
rea - January 18, 2012 | 12:22 pm · Link
As I’ve said before, Romney’s workiing up to a campaign in which the fact that he is a liar is one of his selling points. “Oh, I know he said a lot of wingnutty things to the Republican base—but he’s a liar, he’ll really govern as a moderate!” Hell, I’ve already heard some PUMA-types saying that very thing . . .
Ruckus - January 18, 2012 | 12:36 pm · Link
How else do you swindle people for all their money? You have to lie to them.
It’s the nature of the deal. And the dealer.
Smile and lie. Lie. Lie. Lie. Practice. Lying. Practice. Lying. Practice.
Lie, lies, lying, lied, lie through one’s teeth…
Ruckus - January 18, 2012 | 12:41 pm · Link
@Schlemizel:
A small, very, very small consolation, you aren’t the only one that life craps on. It’s actually a pretty big club. We have jackets and everything.
Wishing you good results, especially on the health front.
handsmile - January 18, 2012 | 12:47 pm · Link
@feebog:
Listening to the CNN morning program today, now hosted by Soledad O’Brien, I heard the clanking of MSM memes being hammered into shape on this issue.
Dismissing comparisons of the tax rates and payments of Romney and his maid as “trite arguments,” several of the program panelists, including CNN’s business editor Andy Serwer, insisted that the “real question” had to do with whether “investors should be incentivized” with a lower tax rate on capital gains. After all, that was the original rationale for reducing taxes on such income. And apparently such incentives must be maintained or something bad might happen to the economy!
Why should bold investors such as Romney have to answer to the envious caterwaulings of maids and liberals? Why must success by penalized by the peons?
“Incentiving investors.” Expect to hear that phrase quite a lot in the coming days. And this was CNN, not Fox Noise or CNBC. What the corporate media does not ignore, it spins and Wurlitzers.
Cris (without and H) - January 18, 2012 | 12:50 pm · Link
I wonder how the NYT Public Editor thinks they should report on this?
The Other Chuck - January 18, 2012 | 12:54 pm · Link
This is why Obama is going to take Romney apart in debates. Romney is building a campaign based on throwing fact-free allegations out there day after day and he’s used to getting nothing but cheers for it. The Mittbott will start throwing sparks when Obama comes back and lays out all the details of his plan in front of him.
trollhattan - January 18, 2012 | 12:55 pm · Link
Administration will reject Keystone pipeline application, instantly killing seven point three kajillion jobs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z1
Boehner’s little trick has been treated.
maya - January 18, 2012 | 1:00 pm · Link
@Cris (without and H):
Well, 47% don’t even pay 15%, ya know!
That’s how.
p - January 18, 2012 | 1:52 pm · Link
In the most recent debate Mitt said the top rate should be 25%.
If you go on his website his tax policy is to maintain current individual rates.
Princess - January 18, 2012 | 1:58 pm · Link
@chopper: If this source is correct, Reagan was even with Mondale and Glenn by Jan. 22, 1984.
But I too don’t think the Ohio news is bad—- in this economy, I’m amazed Obama is ahead at all there. To know Mitts is not to love him.
The Mahablog » Great Cartoon - January 18, 2012 | 2:05 pm · Link
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