Newt Gingrich: I Crossed The Line (Bain Criticism)

politico.com ^ | Jan. 11, 2012 | Jonathan Allen

[truthkeeper]

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Newt Gingrich signaled Wednesday that he believes his criticism of Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital is a mistake — and that he’s created an impression that he was echoing Democratic rhetoric.

Gingrich conceded the problem when pressed by a Rick Santorum supporter at a book-signing here Wednesday.

“I’m here to implore one thing of you. I think you’ve missed the target on the way you’re addressing Romney’s weaknesses. I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuous about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market. I think it’s nuanced,” Dean Glossop, an Army Reservist from Inman, S.C., said.

[gogeo]

That said, I think Gingrich can permit himself to say, “oh, sorry if you’re offended, old man” to Mitt - the classic non-apology apology, especially after the trash that the Romney campaign published about Gingrich (and had to withdraw under threat of a libel suit)...

Yes, many seem to forget this was not an opening salvo on Newt's part, but a response to scurrilous lies by Mitt's PAC.

I watched Mitt talk about the 'desperate' actions of others and I was in momentary awe of his shameless cynicism.

[Hoodat]

Romney should apologize for the mega million dollars worth of attacks and lies on Newt in Iowa . . . A mormon that protested in FAVOR of the draft during the Viet Nam war but LEFT the country to serve as a missionary?

Just curious, but what lie was told about Newt in Iowa? And what difference does it make whether Romney did his missionary work inside or outside the US?

[Mountain Mary]

Newt is imploding, Parley.
He has attacked Capitalism and the free market system by attacking Mitt for his work with Bain.
He’s done. Stick a fork in him.

[Palladin]

NOOt says:

Rules for Thee, but not for Me!

[lonestar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdYx19temU8

That should be a link to the old 1994 ad that Ted Kennedy had but didn't use when he ran against Romney. This is from Utube, MSNBC...Chris Matthews was showing...I don't know when. If you have seen "When Romney came to town" (I haven't seen all of it yet) you will know that one of the companies Mitt bought, borrowed money on, bankrupted, and took the borrowed money and ran was in SC.

People lost not only their jobs and benefits but their pensions. I don't have a clue how many companies Bain bought and did this way...but...

It's apparently what Perry referred to as "Vulture capital" ...vs Venture capital. What I really think...If there is a way to screw things up, Repubs, conservatves can figure out a way to do it!

[Hoodat]

The fact that Romney gutted some companies leaving the employees without any hope (or pensions) is disgusting... ...and is worth discussing.

You really don't know what you are talking about here. Gutting companies is not how Bain Capital makes money. Companies that ended up going under represent failure for Bain Capital. It means that Bain Capital invested tons of cash to float the company and ended up losing it. And in every case where this happened, the company was about to go under anyway. Bain Capital simply delayed the inevitable.

You also ignore the successes of Bain Capital as well as Bain. Consider the employees of those companies who were saved from going under.

Bringing up Bain will only cause voters to support Romney - not oppose him.

[Hoodat]

HW was able to walk back “Voodoo Economics.”

He may have shut his mouth about it, but philosophically, he never walked away from it. George HW Bush was the anti-Reagan. In less than two years, he caused an entire nation to abandon the Party of Reagan. His words said 'No new taxes', but his actions said otherwise.

[af_vet_rr]

He should have explained it as a pragmatic decision which is what it was. He didn’t lead the fight on this anyway, simply signed a bill that the Texas legislature had approved by almost a total majority.

And, by the way, this was done ten years ago.

Perry signed the legislation in 2001, this is true, but don't act like he did nothing else since then other than make the heartless comment in the debate last fall.

In 2005, Perry signed additional legislation to clear some legal issues that arose with the 2001 legislation. In 2007, Perry publicly defended this legislation when Republican legislators were talking about repealing it. In 2010, Perry again defended this legislation during his Texas gubernatorial campaign. In 2011 he made the "don't have a heart" comment".

Perry likes this legislation, and has a consistent record of defending this legislation over the last 10 years. Nobody twisted his arm to support this legislation in the years since, he truly believes in it.

I think he truly believes that people who don't support it, don't have a heart.

[RetSignman]

There is another debate coming up next week, he knows Romney is going to try to wrap this video around him so he doing a smart political sidestep.

Knowing what has been seen cannot be unseen.

[truth_seeker]

“Either way, there is something to be said for the nuances being too complicated for the electorate to appropriately understand. I see a lot of self-anointed demagogues who think that reading Ayn Rand makes them a voice of reason when it comes to capitalism, lol.”

Read Milton Friedman, like Reagan did.

I do, and Newt should too.

[JediJones]

That's totally false RomBot spin. Bain set up the deals so they made a bunch of cash even when the companies went bankrupt. I don't think phony spam political ads are allowed here.

Romney has acknowledged having second thoughts about some of the deals he drove, saying his post-Bain career in government had sensitized him to the consequences of his decisions as a businessman.

Reuters reports in "Special report: Romney's steel skeleton in the Bain closet" that Romney's Bain Capital took a $44 million government bailout in 2002 from the federal U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp after they determined that Bain had underfunded its steel mill's pension by $44 million. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they’d been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.

The New York Times reported in their article "After a Romney Deal, Profits and Then Layoffs" that Bain structured its deals so it would be hard for Romney and his partners not to come out ahead. In the case of their medical company Dade, the creditors threatened litigation against Bain, accusing them of "professional negligence" and "unjust enrichment." Bain argued that the claims were baseless, but agreed to forgo about $68 million owed to them by Dade.

[kenavi]

Bain bought one firm for $30 million and immediately forced the firm to give Bain a “payout” of $180 million, which was all the cash it had. Essentially, Bain bought it just to strip it of cash. I fail to see that this is investing in growth or, at any rate, the growth of anything except Romney’s bank account.

If anyone could do this, anyone would. But anyone can't. Only the government. Not a private firm like Bain.

[JediJones]

I don’t know if it was forced, but you could say it’s like taking advantage of poor people and charging a 100% interest rate at a check-cashing joint. It’s capitalism, but it’s nothing admirable and ought to put someone far down on the list of who should be considered for President.

[Hoodat]

You didn’t post a link, so there’s no way for me to check out what you are referring to. Are you referring to the GST Steel plant in Kansas City?

[af_vet_rr]

If that's true then what attack is going to work? The Bain stuff is probably the best attack available on his electability since it can be used in the general election, unlike attacks "from the right."

If I knew the 100% answer to that, I wouldn't be talking about it on the internet, I'd be making a big chunk of change telling one or more candidates :)

We have a couple of problems with Romney: He's got that consistent 20-30% who support him across the board - RINOs, Mormons, Democrats angry at Obama, former McCain supporters. Basically liberals and weirdos. No candidate will be able to make a dent in that group. You have to wash your hands of that group of people, because chances are they would rather support Obama than a true Conservative.

Another problem: the mainstream media, including Fox News, is doing everything they can to promote Romney as the only one who can beat Obama. They have a vested interest in seeing Romney get the nomination. The only way to counter that is to see Romney defeated in the primaries. That can't happen until after South Carolina.

Another problem: The primaries so far. Up through South Carolina, either the primaries are open or tilted in Romney's favor (New Hampshire). Democrats can and will cross over in South Carolina for Romney. This idea that SC should be so damned important to Perry and Gingrich's campaign is utterly retarded. As far as I know, Florida is not an open primary, however Florida has plenty of liberals - the state went for Obama in 2008, nearly went for Gore in 2000. Florida will be the first true test, but it will be a tough test.

What to do? Hang tight and stop buying into the MSM's bs about how South Carolina will determine the winner. It makes me angry to see Perry and Gingrich place so much emphasis on SC because it feeds right into the media dialogue that it's important. Romney has a long way to go before he gets the delegates he needs, but people are already throwing up their hands and acting like he'll clinch with SC.

Romney needs to be attacked a lot more during the debates. I liked that Cain and Gingrich and even Santorum held back through most of the debates and stayed positive, but the media is doing everything it can to make these debates a platform for Rommey, so Santorum, Perry, and Gingrich are going to have to rattle Romney. I don't like seeing Conservatives beat each other up, but Romney is not a Conservative. Treat him like they'd treat Obama if they were debating him.

The other thing is that some candidates will have to drop. I think it's too early to decide who, but after Florida, I think it will become more clear, especially if anybody finishes in single digits from here on out through the next several primaries. This one I'm not a big fan of, as long as folks have money in their campaigns to continue. At the very least, if they are going to stay in it, they need to make this about Romney and Obama and only Romney and Obama.

I think you have to ignore Ron Paul. A lot of his supporters are not Republicans, and he's just going to repeat his 2008 performance. It's like Romney - Conservative Republicans are not going to be able to pick up Romney or Ron Paul supporters.

I do not believe Romney will do well once you get away from open primaries. Just don't believe the hype from the media or from Perry or Gingrich about how important South Carolina is. It's an open primary, it's useless to use it as a gauge. Turn off Fox News and the other MSM outlets and load up your browser and read Free Republic.

Keep the faith.

[Josh Painter]

Old Politico trick. Notice there’s no quotation marks around *I Crossed The Line* in Politico’s title. That’s because Newt never said it. But Politico wants you to believe that he did.

[Utmost Certainty]

Read Milton Friedman, like Reagan did.

I do, and Newt should too.

I like Milton Friedman, but prefer Friedrich A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, etc. Friedman is still too much of a government-interventionist for my tastes. If you want free-market purity, go Hayek.

I know Newt references Hayek quite a bit, which is pleasing to hear.

[JediJones]

You don’t know to Google for an article when you have the title and the publication? No wonder everything you post is so poorly researched.

[CharlesWayneCT]

How could anything about Bain Capital be “Crony Capitalism”? Nobody is saying they paid off politicians to change the rules to help them buy up and sell off companies. “Vulture Capitalism” may be a good but loaded description, but not “Crony Capitalism”, unless there is a tie-in with government.

[Hoodat]

So you want me to provide your citations for you. Nice. Again, are you referring to the GST Steel plant in Kansas City?