Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
First of all, Bucco, I never said he committed a federal crime. That's a question that can only be determined by a federal court.
What I did say is that it appears as though he may have violated federal securities laws and that could be a big problem for him. I went on to say that it remains to be seen whether federal attorneys will choose to prosecute him, but the conviction of the Attorney General by the House of Representatives on mostly a political basis might come back to haunt the Republican candidate.
It's clear that Romney either misrepresented his role with Bain to the public in order to defend against allegations that he was in charge when Bain-owned companies went bankrupt or moved jobs from the U.S. to foreign countries, or he misrepresented his role at Bain to the SEC. The former could be explained as an intentional falsehood uttered while campaigning for office and is not a violation of any law. The latter is a criminal federal offense. It'll be up to the SEC or federal attorneys to decide whether to prosecute and the courts to decide.
Other than the evidence that Romney may have lied, does any of this disqualify him from being President? Not in my opinion. If he lied, so what? Politicians lie, intentionally mislead or parse words all the time.
As far as the "evidence" of what Romney has done, it's not hard to find. The following took me about a minute to find...
Government documents indicate Mitt Romney continued at Bain after date when he says he left - The Boston Globe
Did Romney Break the Law?
Romney's Bain Tenure Seized On Again by Obama Camp - NYTimes.com |
No federal crime but you say
"it appears as though he may have violated federal securities laws " I suppose that comes from the postings on here because the only folks I know who are saying this is ONE Boston Newspaper and the Obama campaign. All the others simply quote the initial attack and that is it.
Allow me to say a few thing please....first I wish that you and others had payed as much attention in 2008 to charges made and dismissed with comments such as "so what", etc. But not going to dwell on that as that is in the past but I think will become relative later.
Now, in one of your links is a link to Fortune magazine. I hope that everyone who reads this post will read the link as I dont want to cut and paste it all.....
"Mitt Romney did not manage Bain Capital's investments after leaving to run the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, according to confidential firm documents obtained by Fortune.
The timing of Romney's departure from Bain became a lightning rod earlier today, when The Boston Globe published an article suggesting that Romney remained actively involved with the firm longer than he and his campaign have claimed. The sourcing is largely SEC documents that list Romney as Bain Capital's CEO and sole shareholder through 2002 -- or three years after Romney officially left to run the Salt Lake City Olympic Games.
These claims are very similar to ones made last week by David Corn in Mother Jones, which we disputed at the time.
Now Fortune has obtained new evidence that supports Romney's version of events."
It goes on to list all the forms and the FACTS surrounding the situation.
There is a lot of info in the article but want to share two things with you...
First is a response from the Obama team when given the Fortune facts..
""Mitt Romney either misled the American people or misrepresented himself to the SEC. Romney has said he had no authority or responsibility for managing Bain since 1999, but that has been proven false. Regardless of whether he was on the management committee for this particular deal, he remained President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board and he was legally responsible for every investment and decision made by Bain."
You and I both know that, and I will borrow from one of the comments given to Fortune..
"It is all about a simple legal and practical distinction: Active management vs. passive control. Before 1999, Romney was involved in management and afterwards, he was in a passive, controlling position. Board memberships or even signature CEO activities are a far cry from active management."
Documents: Romney didn't manage Bain funds - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blog Term Sheet
The other sentence I want to share is this..
"All of this could prove problematic for the Obama campaign, which has spent the day crowing over the Globe story (going so far as to hold a media call about it)."
I am not blindly supporting Romney here......if he did wrong let the chips fall where they may....what I am saying is that the Obama campaign has done a great job keeping any discussion from issues and are doing a great job with their aim to, as they have said, "destroy Romney the man". They have you and others just panting for the destruction...much as I suppose I did back in 2008 when you told me "no problem" and the media treated everything as such. Although then, my problem was NOT with the man but with the philosophy.
Again, your post left me very disappointed but if correct...kudos to you. But there is so many refutes to this story and I choose to go with them and if it is a lie as I think it is, then shame on Obama