Thread: Mitt Romney Outed As Anti-Gay High School Bully

Romney's lame response on bullying allegations

We sometimes liken the presidential campaign to an extended job interview, but it's certainly unlike any job any of us has ever applied for.


You've probably never gone into an interview where your prospective employer said, "Your résumé looks good, but of course we'll have to decide if we like your spouse, go through your tax returns, talk to your elementary school classmates, see how you react when crazy people ask you bizarre questions, and make sure the car you drive communicates the proper patriotism and ordinary-guy credibility." It isn't enough to know whether a candidate can do the job well or whether his agenda accords with ours; we need to gaze into the very depths of his soul.


This question becomes particularly acute for candidates who seem awkward or unskilled at the glad-handing part of politics, the requirement to forge deep emotional connections with voters in the span of a few seconds. Mitt Romney is only the latest to struggle with "authenticity" (as John Kerry and Al Gore did), and six months from election day voters and reporters are still trying to determine just what kind of person he is.


So it no doubt caused panic in the Romney camp when the Washington Post published an account of Romney's high school years at the elite Cranbrook school in suburban Detroit, detailing the young man's penchant for practical jokes and what he now calls "hijinks." The worst was an incident involving a socially awkward boy, suspected of being gay, who had dyed his hair blond.


"He can't look like that. That's wrong. Just look at him!" Romney told a friend, according to the Post. He then led a group that tracked the boy down, tackled him, and held him on the ground. As the boy cried and yelled for help, Romney reportedly clipped his hair with scissors.

When he was questioned about the story, Romney gave what has now become the politicians' standard response to the revelation of misbehavior from long ago: "I don't recall the incident myself, but I've seen the reports and I'm not going to argue with that. There's no question but that I did some stupid things when I was in high school and obviously if I hurt anyone by virtue of that, I would be very sorry for it and apologize for it."

You'd hardly expect any politician in his position to say anything different.
Perhaps Romney is being completely sincere. But the Post confirmed the story with five witnesses, four of whom described it on the record, so there seems little doubt about whether it occurred. They were deeply troubled by their participation in it, and recall it vividly to this day.


A candidate who has struggled with seeming human, as Mitt Romney has, could have done himself a favor by using this as an opportunity to show a little more of himself. He could have said: Yes, it happened. It was stupid and cruel. I wish I could go back and undo it. But part of growing up is realizing where you failed when you were young, and learning from your mistakes so you can become a better person.

Most importantly, Romney could have said something that indicated he had a conception of how horrible the assault must have been for John Lauber, the victim. His only mention of Lauber, who died in 2004, was to say "I had no idea what that individual's sexual orientation might be."

By referring to Lauber as "that individual" he makes Lauber a nameless figure, further distancing himself from the incident. Which is exactly the opposite of what he should have done. After all, it's the quality of empathy -- being able to see things from someone else's perspective and feel what they feel -- that Romney has had trouble convincing voters he possesses.

This problem comes up for Romney again and again, often in the form of "gaffes" that are usually taken out of context, but still reveal a tin ear for the lives people lead. To take just one example, when Romney said "I like being able to fire people that provide services to me," anyone who has ever been laid off recoiled in shock, whatever the context. Business owners and supervisors who have had to do the firing -- the humane ones, anyway -- know it can be a painful experience from the other side of the desk as well. It may be necessary at times, but you certainly wouldn't say you "like" it.

Perhaps Romney really doesn't remember the assault on John Lauber nearly a half-century ago, despite the fact that so many of the other people who were there have never forgotten it. Or perhaps he decided that claiming ignorance would be the safest course of crisis management. But what he said told people nothing about the man he is today and how he has changed and grown over that time. We're all different people than we were in our youth, and we all have regrets. The 17-year-old Mitt Romney may have been a privileged, entitled boy with a mean streak. The 65-year-old Mitt Romney missed an opportunity to convince us he's something different.

Romney's lame response on bullying allegations - CNN.com

It is a pity that CNN didn't vet Obama to this extent. I find it interesting that the Washington Post can go looking for people that Romney knew 50 years ago and they were unable to check on Obama's school records before the elections in 2008.

Mitt Romney arrested for disorderly conduct

Published: 09 May, 2012, 21:24

If you thought Mitt Romney was a robotic cyborg programmed by the Republican Party solely to give Barack Obama a run for his money, think again. It is now being reported that the GOP frontrunner once did something — gasp — human!

According to a nearly two-decade old Boston Globe article that has been unearthed by Buzzfeed, at one time the presidential hopeful wasn’t the stiff, white bread, robot-like humanoid he comes off as today. In fact, Romney even had a run in with the law during the wild 1980s that ended with the future governor of Massachusetts being hauled off to a police station in cuffs.

Back in 1981, Bad boy Mittens stood up to Johnny Law by refusing to hear a Wayland, Massachusetts police officer’s plea to keep the Romney family boat out of the water. While running for Senate in 1994, Romney explained to the Globe that he was trying to enjoy an outing on the beautiful Lake Cochituate years earlier when a local cop demanded that he produce the applicable paperwork. When Romney followed through, though, he was allegedly told that his license looked painted over and he’d be subjected to a $50 fine for launching his boat without authorization.

That’s when Romney got rebellious.

In a classic millionaire move, Romney told reporters,” I was willing to pay the fine” and so he just went ahead and launched the boat anyway.

"I figured I was at the state park with my kids," he told the paper. "My five kids were in the car wondering why we weren't going out in the boat, so I said I'd launch and pay the fine."

For ignoring the officer’s warning, however, the cop handcuffed Romney — who was clad in a dripping wet bathing suit — and brought him in to be booked for disorderly conduct.

Romney? Disorderly? Even the could-be commander-in-chief thought that was a bit too much so he stormed back into court a few days later. It was there that he insisted that the charge should be dropped because he was unlawfully detained.

"He did not have the right to arrest me because I was not a disorderly person," Romney explained. "This was an obvious case of false arrest.”

Remarkably, Romney’s word was enough to convince those in the courthouse to suspend the charges.

“The officer obviously agreed because he agreed to dropping the case,” he told the Globe.

Could Romney’s rehashed arrest record hurt his chances come Election Day? Probably not. After all, the last Republican US president — George W. Bush — wasn’t exactly a model citizen either. Back when he was only 20 years old, Bush was also booked for disorderly conduct. In that case, however, he did something a bit more rambunctious than launch a boat against a police officer’s warning: Bush was charged after having a few beers and stealing a Christmas wreath from a hotel in Connecticut.

Like Romney, that charge was dropped as well.

Mitt Romney arrested for disorderly conduct — RT

Mitt Romney Not First Politician Dogged By Misbehavior From Past

By TOM RAUM 05/11/12 01:56 PM ET

George W. Bush was once arrested for disorderly conduct, and Bill Clinton admitted briefly experimenting with marijuana while a student in England.

-- Once again, a politician is being haunted by allegations of youthful misbehavior.

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney would rather talk about the economy than a news report that he bullied a gay classmate in prep school. But the controversy isn't fading.

Romney couldn't recall the incident but said "I did some stupid things in high school." He apologized if his "hijinks and pranks" offended anyone.

He's not the first candidate to battle ghosts of the past.

When he was 20, George W. Bush was arrested for disorderly conduct for stealing a Christmas wreath from a hotel. A 30-year-old Bush in 1976 was arrested for driving under the influence near his parents' compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. He was fined $150 and lost his drivers' license for two years.

He has said he quit drinking after waking up hung over from his 40th birthday party. The former president never flatly denied persistent allegations of youthful cocaine use.

President Bill Clinton admitted briefly experimenting with marijuana while a student in England but famously "didn't inhale."

President Barack Obama has acknowledged using alcohol, marijuana and cocaine when he was college-aged. "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it," he wrote in "Dreams from My Father." They were "bad decisions," he said later.

Obama's lately been getting some GOP flak for writing that he ate dog meat as a young boy in Indonesia – when he was between five and ten.

How far back is one accountable?

The late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., may have set the gold standard for age-doesn't-matter when he dismissed a years-ago extramarital affair as a "youthful indiscretion." He was 41 at the time of the relationship.

Romney was campaigning Friday in Charlotte, N.C. while Obama was in Reno, Nev.

Mitt Romney Not First Politician Dogged By Misbehavior From Past