Posted on 01/11/2012 2:34:37 PM PST by Libloather
Right wing rips Gingrich, Perry for attacks on Romney, capitalism
By Justin Sink - 01/11/12 12:31 PM ET
Conservatives are savaging Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry for their attacks on Mitt Romney’s years at the private-equity firm Bain Capital.
The attacks from Gingrich and Perry, whose presidential campaigns are on life support, are meant to resonate in South Carolina, the next state on the GOP calendar and a place hit hard by the economic downturn.
Yet in slamming Romney as a corporate raider, the two candidates fighting for their party’s right-wing might have done what Romney never seemed capable of: rallying conservatives around the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign.
The influential Wall Street Journal editorial page denounced the criticism as “crude and damaging caricatures of modern business and capitalism” on Tuesday, saying that “desperate” GOP candidates “sound like Michael Moore,” the left-wing filmmaker and provocateur.
Other prominent conservatives similarly bemoaned what they viewed as liberal attack tactics that will be copied by President Obama’s campaign in November.
Conservative talk radio stalwart Rush Limbaugh said Monday of Gingrich’s criticism that “you could have read this in an Occupy Wall Street flier.”
“You could, after all these bites, say, ‘I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message,’” Limbaugh said.
Former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Tuesday warned on Fox News that candidates should shift the debate from “anti-capitalist mantra to what it is that the GOP really represents in free markets.”
Some conservatives are also warning that the attacks will backfire by galvanizing conservatives who see criticism of Romney’s Bain record as an attack on the cornerstone principle of free market capitalism.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) — who has not endorsed in the GOP primary race — predicted the arguments would drive Republican voters toward Romney in the upcoming South Carolina primary.
DeMint said Tuesday that Romney’s critics were “sounding like Democrats” in their attacks
“Frankly, I’m a little concerned about the few Republicans who have criticized some of what I consider free market principles here,” DeMint told talk radio host Mark Levin. “We know over half of new businesses fail ... that’s part of the creative-destruction process of free enterprise.”
Gingrich and Perry are giving their critics plenty of ammunition as they attack Romney.
A pro-Gingrich political action committee in South Carolina spent $3.4 million on a buy featuring ads deriding Romney as a “predatory corporate raider” and “scavenger.”
Perry piled on, calling attempts by Romney to sympathize with voters worried about losing their jobs “the ultimate insult.”
“I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company Bain Capital with all the jobs that they killed, I’m sure he was worried that he’d run out of pink slips,” Perry said while campaigning in South Carolina.
GOP strategist Ford O’Connell warned that Republicans are playing with fire.
“If the Romney attacks are seen as an attack on ‘free enterprise,’ it will backfire, because fiscal conservatives see ‘free enterprise’ as the cornerstone of conservative ideology and will protect ‘free enterprise’ at all costs,” he said.
Gingrich has maintained that his criticism is not anti-capitalist but an issue of fairness.
“I think you have to look at the specific companies we are talking about and you have to ask yourself a very tough-minded question: Is it fair to have a system, is it right, is it the kind of country you want to live in, to have a system where somebody comes in [to] take over your company, take out all the cash and leave behind a wreck, and they go off to a country club having a great time and you go off to the unemployment line,” Gingrich said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News.
“Now this is not anti-capitalism, I am not for socialism, I am not for government stopping risk-taking, but I am for some sense of fairness that the entrepreneur and the worker have a joint investment in something succeeding.”
Romney said Wednesday that Bain-related criticisms “fell flat” in New Hampshire.
“They tried it very hard, ran ads here, were up and down the state campaigning, and people in the state here said, ‘Look, we want a guy who spent some time in the private sector, not someone who spent their entire life in Washington.’ So I think it’s working for my benefit,” he told ABC.
But judging from Vice President Biden’s comments Tuesday night, conservatives are right to think Democrats are gleeful to have Republicans using their talking points on the likely GOP standard-bearer.
“He thinks it’s more important for the stockholders and the shareholders and the investors and the venture capital guys to do well [than] for those employees to be part of the bargain,” Biden said during a teleconference with New Hampshire supporters.
Newt Gingrich is a Socialist and his supporters are Socialists.
They do not understand Capitalism.
Let companies run their businesses in the best way they see fit.
It is very revealing the way Newt is dancing around this mess. It is the same way he dances around everything else. He is always either apologizing for everything he did before he was a candidate or he is dancing. It’s like when he said his $1.6 million payoff from Fannie Mae was “free enterprise.”
Newt is a slimy character. Please do not believe anything he says.
Newt and his supporters do not understand capitalism and free enterprise. They are underneath essentially socialists.
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It’s a lot of things but it’s NOT capitalism when Vulture Willard goes unpunished for looting taxpayers..some have gone to jail for much less.
BUT why should American taxpayers have to be forced to pay for Willard’s business incompetence and greed?
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Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they’d been promised, and their pension benefits were cut..
What’s more, a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT insurance agency had to PONY UP $44 MILLION TO BAIL OUT the company’s underfunded pension plan.
Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/01/bain-drip-drip-drip/
The Wall Street Journal analysis is ALSO devastating for Willard the Vulture/Lib at Bain.. (Google it)
Adding insult to injury, Bain would hide its profits in tax havens, not even paying the rate it was supposed to on the profits it made laying off workers.
Let’s see how the taxpayers feel about bailing out these companies’ pension funds and receiving no tax money back from Bain. Let’s let the people decide what they think of bailing out Romney.
Bottom line again: Why should American taxpayers have to be forced to pay for Willard’s business incompetence and greed?
"Lately, Bain founder and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has found himself in a spirited defense of the private equity industry, doing all he can to spin decades of data which confirm, without failure, that PE Leveraged Buy Outs are nothing but "efficiency maximizing" transactions whose only goal is the "maximization" of EBITDA in the pursuit of dividend recap deals, IPOs or outright sales, while loading up the company with untenable amounts of leverage. All this with a 3-5 year investment horizon, which ignores the long-term viability of a company and seeks to streamline (read fire as many as possible) operations as quickly as possible in the goal of maximizing short-term returns. We wish him luck in his endeavor."Shame we have so many wannabe Capitalistas here at FR and elsewhere, who adamantly defend this kind of shuck and jive financial paper shuffling as exemplary acts of free-market enterprise.
You are completely wrong. I support Newt and find him to be closest to Reagan when it comes to the economy, individual rights, and turning this country around and back onto the RIGHT track.
Newt is no socialist, and neither am I. You might want to reconsider your judgemental attitude, or at least remove that plank from your eye first.
“Let companies run their businesses in the best way they see fit.”
Madoff and Milken 100% agree with you.
Letting the taxpayers pony up for Vulture Willard’s greed is NOT capitalism. But it could be criminal.
Let the voters decide THAT now or in November. Either way, Willard the Lib is toast. And I’m fine with THAT.
BUT why should American taxpayers have to be forced to pay for Willard’s business incompetence and greed?
Sorry to inform you about this, but everything that Romney did that you talked about *is* legitimate capitalism.
It's okay to fire people to make your company more profitable. It's okay to collect insurance. It's okay to legally take advantage of government handouts.
Newt called his $1.6 million payoff/bribe from Fannie Mae "free enterprise." Sorry, but that is *not* free enterprise or capitalism.
The Socialist Gingrich supporters and Newt Gingrich himself will never understand this. They are dangerous. They cannot be let anywhere near the presidency.
(Note: I *hate* Romney, but Gingrich might actually be more dangerous.)
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“shuck and jive financial paper shuffling”
Is exactly what Willard was doing too often.
The democrats would use this against Romney IF he gets the nomination whether it has been raised as an issue by his Republican primary opponets or not. As Romney himself would say “if you can’t stand the heat” Where was all the outrage when the anti-Newt ads containing lies were being spread by the Romney PAC and Romney maintained after being challenged to stop the lies he lied by saying it was illegal for him to make a public statement to those who were doing it to stop, the fcc said he had the freedom of speech to do this and he choose to ignore that. He must think we’re all idiots.
Again, this shows a dangerous lack of understanding of Capitalism by the Gingrich supporters.
That is exactly what The Left would say. You belong on the Daily Kos, not Free Republic.
No one has shown anything Romney did to be illegal. His actions might have been mean, unfair, viscous and greedy, but those are words the Socialist use against Capitalism.
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FEDERAL GOVERNMENT insurance agency had to PONY UP $44 MILLION TO BAIL OUT the company’s underfunded pension plan.
Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.
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So you defend this and expect anyone to take you seriously?
IOW we paid for Mitt and his boys’ yachts.
BTTT............Perfectly Explained! It’s not illegal what mittens did, but it sure was unethical. He should definitely NOT be rewarded for it.
Bingo!!
Hear! Hear! Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is not your friend... Newt is a fraud, and its about time people opened their eyes to it.
Of course the Democrats would use this against Romney. THEY ARE SOCIALISTS. They don't like Capitalism. They don't understand Capitalism.
Republicans need to defend Capitalism, free enterprise and free markets. Unfortunately, Gingrich and his supporters are acting just like the Socialists.
As a long time fighter against The Left, I know what a Socialist sounds like.
Newt Gingrich and his misguided supporters sound exactly like and are making the exact same arguments I have been hearing from the Socialists for decades. They are Socialists.
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More Socialist arguments!
What Mitt did to run his business in the best way possible was not unethical! Laying off people and the other actions are not unethical!
That is Capitalism!
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