At times it’s been lost in the billowing dust resulting from the Battle For Glenn Kessler’s Soul, but the entire conversation over whether or not Romney was Bain Capital CEO from 1999-2002 is only important insofar as it relates to outsourcing. Romney’s tried to argue that since he wasn’t CEO of Bain Capital when the private equity firm did most of its investments in outsourcing, he shouldn’t be held responsible. As most of us have since been convinced, this is bullshit — twice over. But the focus has been largely on the first claim (that he wasn’t CEO) rather than the second (that he did not finance outsourcing operations).
Well, here comes Mother Jones‘ David Corn and Nick Baumann to inform us that — surprise, surprise — Romney most certainly did put his money behind outsourcing:
In March 1999, shortly after Romney left Bain to take over the troubled Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Brookside Capital Investors Inc., a Bain-related entity wholly owned by Romney, filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission that listed dozens of companies in which Brookside held a stake the previous quarter. The roster included investments in Singapore-based Flextronics International ($13 million) and Florida-headquartered Jabil Circuit Inc. ($41 million), two companies that were leaders in the fast-growing field of outsourcing electronics manufacturing and offshoring production to low-wage countries. Together, these two investments represented almost 10 percent of Brookside’s $559 million portfolio.
And remember how much outrage Republicans expressed over the Obama campaign’s describing Romney as an outsourcing “pioneer?” I suppose a motivated fact-checker could find ’cause, still, to find that claim outrageous after reading the following. But I doubt most the rest of us will:
Michael Marks, the American chairman and CEO of Flextronics at the time, was an outsourcing trailblazer and booster. “It is increasingly clear that outsourcing of electronics manufacturing is gaining momentum and acceptance in the world,” he declared in early 1999, noting that electronics firms “continue to divest [manufacturing] facilities.” Though Flextronics had operations in the United States, one of its key manufacturing facilities was in China—where it operated a 450,000-square-foot industrial hub.
A 1998 Flextronics prospectus reported: “We plan to significantly expand our industrial parks in China, Hungary and Mexico, and we recently purchased an 88-acre site in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where we plan to establish a new industrial park.” It also noted, “[O]ur growth is driven by the accelerating pace at which leading [electronics companies] are adopting outsourcing as a core business strategy.” Its key clients, it stated, were 3Com, Cisco, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Philips.
In a profile in Chief Executive magazine, Marks dismissed concern about shipping US jobs overseas. “Outsourcing is good for America,” he insisted. The magazine crowned him the king of electronics outsourcing: “Marks, more than anyone else, is responsible for the outsourcing trend in the tech industry.” And Romney had provided him capital for his efforts.
Yes, Flextronics had other backers; Romney wasn’t the sole reason this “outsourcing trailblazer and booster” enjoyed such great success. But for the GOP to argue that Mitt had nothing to do with the boom in outsourcing over the past 15 years is now, inarguably, absurd.
jwb
So I guess this means you’ll probably vote for Obama, right?
wrb
@jwb:
Either he’s too sensitive,
or his head, it’s getting soft.
jwb
@wrb: Ironic, when the guy begins by taking a gratuitous swipe at Kessler.
ETA: not that in general I mind people taking gratuitous swipes at Kessler.
Rex Everything
You’re good, New Guy. You post interesting, thoughtful, insightful, and worthwhile stuff. I like just about everything you post. It’s quality and you have an excellent brain.
But Jesus Christ do you need a proofreader.
spongeworthy
So, you’re saying that Mitt Romney owned companies that outsourced operations?
Any of us who own stocks, whether in a retirement account, a pension fund or a mutual fund, own companies that outsource. Why should we be outraged?
Soonergrunt
The battle in the first part has already been lost. The second has already been won.
Most people now know and have internalized that Mitt Romney made a killing outsourcing and offshoring work and that he has lied repeatedly about it.
But Glenn Kessler will continue trying to give Romney and handjob because access is everything.
gbear
I can’t wait for Tampa Bay. It’s going to be the Clockwork Orange of conventions.
PeakVT
It worse than the 2000 Bush campaign. Way worse.
wrb
Actually there are a number of other intriguing issues.
To consider just one of his businesses,
Some of the questions that Must be asked:
How much profit did he reap from abortion?
He had a business that took away the corpses of aborted babies, mostly Christian and Jewish- one must assume- and did something with them.
What did he do?
Why did he want them?
Did they all receive proper Christian or Jewish burial?
Are they all accounted for?
Did this Mormon appetite for baptizing the dead and capturing their souls play a role?
Or did Romney profit in other ways?
Did he refrain from actions that might have increased his harvest?
Only when such questions are fully explored by those sages who populate the teevee panels shall we be able to sleep soundly again.
Surely they would be asking if Obama had such a business.
JoyceH
Hey, what doesn’t he lie about?
This is humorous – go to Mitt Romney on Twitter and click on his followers. Little Green Footballs is breaking the ‘Romney buys Twitter followers’ story – just look at some (most!) of Romney’s followers, they’re so obviously bogus.
jwb
@JoyceH: This is the site the broke the story, as LGF properly notes.
Southern Beale
Something else Mitt Romney may be lying about: his large number of Twitter followers. Seems he got 75,000 in one day, but the campaign denies buying followers. The internet says most are fake or don’t speak English.
Maybe they’re cyborgs, just like him.
jwb
@Southern Beale: This is my favorite quip about twittergate.
I think someone linked to this on an earlier thread, but I thought it would be good for your Good News Friday edition: Gorilla Youngsters Seen Dismantling Poachers’ Traps.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@jwb: Speaking of voting for Obmama, how did I miss this? It’s really quite unusual for NAMI to make a statement about politics. I mean, WTF? This needs to be widely reported – the Lt. Gov of VA insults not only all supporters of the President, but a huge population of people with chronic illnesses.
Chyron HR
@spongeworthy:
Well, you shouldn’t, because you literally worship Mitt Romney as a messiah (or, in the Mormon lexicon, “white horse”), and in your eyes he can do no wrong.
But the fact that you guys have been sobbing and soiling yourselves in terror over this Bain thing for weeks now is reason enough to keep hammering it.
Ruckus
Wouldn’t it be easier to list the things mittens is not lying about? The list sure seems to be shorter.
@efgoldman:
spongeworthy
Would that imply an ability to absorb, say, reality?
Or would it imply that the sponge has already absorbed too much shit and so there is no room left?
geg6
@efgoldman:
And I highly doubt he’s spongeworthy, too. Selfish, self-centered assholes aren’t good lovers.
I have yet to meet a Republican or libertertarian who is.
Hill Dweller
@PeakVT:
This can’t be said enough. Willard is lying about everything. Even shit that doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. It’s pathological.
JoyfulA
@JoyceH: “Mitt Romney” was a promoted suggestion for me to follow on Twitter yesterday. Wonder what the fruitless ad cost?
JoyfulA
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I hadn’t seen it either. I tweeted it.
burnspbesq
Now wait just a god-damned minute.
So you don’t care, even a little bit, about whether a candidate for President of the United Fucking States of America lied in a document that he signed under penalty of perjury?
Seriously?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@JoyfulA: Thank you!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@burnspbesq: Word. But how to persuade people to care that a candidate is a serial, most likely pathological liar, is the question of the moment.
wrb
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
They care.
They think it shows talent.
mainmati
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Wow, thanks for linking to this story, which I hadn’t heard (of course everything is being drowned out by Aurora). Good for NAMI. VA GOP is notoriously sleazy, of course.
Amir Khalid
@jwb:
It’s certainly good news that gorillas are protecting themselves against human poachers’ snares. But those simple spring-loaded nooses are a device probably as old as our own species. The gorillas must have been destroying them for a good long while, and it’s only just been noticed by humans for the first time.
Soonergrunt
@burnspbesq: IOKIAR
Soonergrunt
@spongeworthy: Some of the stocks in my portfolio are in companies that do that. I don’t do that specific thing to make money and then lie about it.
Try to keep up.
Tonal Crow
Kessler probably will award you 3 “Pinocchios” for this truthful post. Or possibly 4, because the reporter is from Mother Jones and therefore clearly not a Republican.
Bill D.
“Romney lying” is unnecessarily redundant. It’s like saying “satanic devil”.
Anyone Romneyed lately?
Kimberly Smiths
let the truth prevail..it will set you free, men!