To the Editor:
Finally, Barack Obama is channeling LBJ as opposed to FDR and JFK.
He, at long last, is learning to play political hardball, and it’s about time.
Had he played a little hard ball earlier, instead of trying to get along with the GOP and Tea Party bullies who have dominated the Washington sandbox for far too long now, and whose only agenda is to see this president fail, the economy would be in better shape than it is today, even though it is in significantly better shape than it was when Obama took office almost four years ago.
The “political hardball” I am talking about, however, involves the Obama team’s questioning of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, when it ended, and whether or not the outsourcing of US jobs to foreign countries Bain helped facilitate on behalf of its investors occurred on Mitt Romney’s watch.
Our former governor and wanna be president insists any outsourcing of U.S. jobs by Bain, most of which are said to have occurred bewteen 1999 and 2002, happened after he had left the firm in 1999 to save the 2000 Olympics in Utah from terrible mismanagement.
But, and this is important, documents filed by Bain with the Securities and Exchange Commission name Mitt Romney as the “controlling person” as well as the “sole shareholder, sole director, chief executive officer and president” of Bain, and leading Bain was listed as Romney’s “principal occupation” up until February, 2001. That’s two years after Romney claims he stepped down as head of the private equity firm that was a leader in outsourcing US jobs to foreign countries in order to enrich its shareholders at the expense of American workers.
This is an important story and the Obama reelection team has an obligation to keep asking tough questions and demanding honest answers from Gov. Romney.
People also need to remember that Mitt Romney’s history of destroying American jobs in order to benefit the kinds of wealthy investors he served at Bain predates the current debate over when he actually terminated his tenure as CEO of the private equity firm he founded.
Almost twenty years ago, when Mitt Romney challenged Ted Kennedy and presented himself as a pro choice, pro gay rights Republican US Senate candidate to Massachusetts voters, the Kennedy campaign unearthed evidence of Bain Capital buying out businesses and laying off those businesses’ employees in pursuit of hefty dividend returns for Bain’s select group of private investors.
It seems that pattern of destroying the livelihoods of American workers in pursuit of profits for elite investors continued at Bain under Mitt Romney’s leadership for another decade and a half, until he finally, or supposedly, severed all ties with the firm in 1999 to save the Olympics..
It’s about time Barack Obama started playing political hardball in the style of LBJ, as opposed to always playing the patrician game, ala FDR and JFK.
And Mitt Romney, as Ricky Ricardo used to say to Lucy, has “ ... some “splainin’ to do” about just when he really left Bain capital and what he knew about its role in devastating the lives of the working class many in order to financially benefit an entitled, select few. Lots of “‘splainin’” indeed.
MICHAEL COOK
Gloucester and Vieques, Puerto Rico
