Romney Lied about Profiting from Abortion

Willard Romney loves to etch his sketch.  It does not seem to matter to him that, every time he li9es to cover up a past position or facts about his past performance, someone digs into the documentation to prove that Willard is lying.  I wonder how Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christians will like it that Willard is lying about profiting from abortion.

Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when the Huffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate’s reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion.

But Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, tamped down the controversy. The company said Romney left the firm in February 1999 to run the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and likely had nothing to with the deal. The matter never became a campaign issue. But documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney’s exit from Bain.

The Stericycle deal—the abortion connection aside—is relevant because of questions regarding the timing of Romney’s departure from the private equity firm he founded. Responding to a recent Washington Post story reporting that Bain-acquired companies outsourced jobs, the Romney campaign insisted that Romney exited Bain in February 1999, a month or more before Bain took over two of the companies named in the Post’s article. The SEC documents undercut that defense, indicating that Romney still played a role in Bain investments until at least the end of 1999… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Mother Jones>

Photo credit: SoINeedAName

Lawrence O’Donnell interviewed Karen Finney and David Corn, the author of the article referenced above.

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Frankly, I have no problem with Bain investing in Stericycle. Rmoney favored women’s rights back then, and had not yet etched his sketch to goose-step with the Republican base. Romney signed the papers for this deal, but now he lies about his involvement.  It’s the lies and hypocrisy that define who he is.