Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents

Washington Post ^ | 05-10-12 | Jason Horowitz

[raulgomez05]

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.

A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.

[Sudetenland]

The question is, was this guy, Lauber, actually gay or was he just a jerk? Notice the Post doesn't mention as to whether Lauber is gay or not. I guess it wouldn't have helped their agenda driven report if they had found that out.

Lauber may have deserved this treatment. I knew a lot of jerks in HS some of whom got what they were asking for by their conduct (not by me).

[KGeorge]

Well, this certainly puts a human face on him & makes him more palatable for me. Maybe kind of an “elite” environment, but what’s wrong with that? If the author (& I use that loosely) of this piece was trying to make Mittens look bad, they failed imho.

I still wish it would be (& we are still voting/ supporting, to the end) Newt, but I have to admit that Romney is far & away preferable to Obama. (I believe in upbringings. This articles; these witnesses to his youth, make Romney sound more republican- & even conservative, at his core than his record as governor of Massachusetts would have us believe.
It may be that “Remember who you are & what you represent” may be all that’s necessary. (VERY powerful words, trust me)

[Essie]

The msm looks under rocks in Texas, and they go back fifty years to Romney’s school days. Why don’t they find out some information about President Obama who much younger?

[twister881]

The fact that Lauber was homosexual is not confirmed until the end of the Compost’s long article (typical leftist media tactic). He was a ne’er-do-well who died of liver cancer in 2004. Of course, what is left unsaid is that it likely was liver cancer incurred as a result of AIDS, a not uncommon occurrence.

[popdonnelly]

The lsm doesn’t report the news, they create the news. The fundamental bias of the news media is disgusting.

[torchy]

The real kicker is that he was never punished for the crime.

Mitt was a spoiled brat then, and he's still a spoiled brat now. He is utterly unfit for any office, much less the highest one in the land.

[torchy]

Obama was such a strait-laced bore that even the Hillary attack machine couldn’t dig up any dirt. There’s nothing wrong with his character (just his ideas).

[torchy]

BROKERED CONVENTION
We NEED one.

The best hope at the moment is that Ron Paul's stealth delegate-collection strategy will be enough to put a monkey wrench in Mitt's coronation.

That would be a good thing, both for saving the GOP from a fiasco and for the entertainment value of watching Mitt simultaneously melt down and blow up on the national stage. Given his rotten character as revealed in incidents such as the one described in this story, he just isn't the sort to calmly pick himself up and dust himself off after a defeat.

[torchy]

Like I said above — if the Hildebeest didn’t find the dirt, it’s because the dirt isn’t there to be found. Her operation makes Karl Rove look like Mr. Rogers.

[kalee]

Have any of Romney’s friends blown up buildings or called for the destruction of the US?

[torchy]

Our nominee is a prep-school-pants-wetter.

I'm not conceding that this twerp is the nominee until the fat lady sings.

[torchy]

In July 1966, Romney left for 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary.

If you're in a position to choose, most people would choose France over Vietnam.

[raulgomez05]

The article says that Laubert was gay. He “came out as gay to his family and close friends.” Third paragraph from bottom to top.

[torchy]

Putting the relevant information at the head of the article and burying irrelevant side bits deep down is Jounalism 101.

[dfwgator]

If you're in a position to choose, most people would choose France over Vietnam.

Most people aren't running for the highest office in the land.

[myself6]

I admit that I am hoping for SOME kind of maneuver by either Ron Paul or other faction that results in a brokered convention.

As to Robamas character sans this story.. Meh... its bullsh— from a lib rag. The only thing I need to know about this douche-bags character is that hes a socialist. THAT alone makes him worthy of my opposition to him.

[superdad]

Rumor has it here in Detroit, that the Detroit Free Press has reporters investigating if Romney dirtied his diapers as a baby.

[Trod Upon]

Ditto. People grow beyond their elementary and teen years. Well, maybe not the Democrats.

[kabar]

I didn’t.

[Agamemnon]

Pinging a bunch of folks on the Massachusetts list who might be veterans of and have a long memory of the conservative struggle against liberalism in New England.

He had a different social experience from most of his classmates, since he lived in a Belmont, Massachusetts, house with Ann and two children.

He was non-ideological and did not involve himself in the political or social issues of the day.

I'm not so sure that he was "non-ideological and did not involve himself in the political or social issues of the day."

Mitt Romney's roots are certainly as deeply founded in the Mormon brand of conservatism as is any Bob Jones University acolyte's in the fundamentalist Baptist context.

His residence in Belmont, MA from the late 1960's - 1970's is particularly coincidental. The John Birch Society was (and still is I believe) based in Belmont, MA.

From 1963 - 1974, every 4th of July holiday, the John Birch Society together with other conservative groups at the time held the equivalent of the "CPAC" of its day at what was then known as The Statler Hilton (now the Park plaza) in Boston. This was called "The New England Rally for God, Family, and Country." (chairman of which was JBS's Col. Lawrence Bunker of Wellesley Hills, MA)

It was an annual gathering of "conservatism in the wilderness" of the post-Kennedy assasination era, and 1964 Goldwater election rout, where one could hear speeches of conservative authors (e.g., Taylor Caldwell, W. Cleon Skousen, George Schuyler) politicians (e.g. John Ashbrook, John Schmitz, etc.), ex-gov't conservatives (e.g., Dan Smoot, ex-FBI),Hollywood actors (e.g. Walter Brennan), musicians, academics, WFBuckley's "Young Americans for Freedom," The Bible-Science Association, and "Liberty Lobby." Featured also were religious schools and institutions (e.g., Bob Jones U, Shelton College), "Christian Crusade" (i.e., Billy James Hargis)and a significant presense of Mormons -- Christian and Mormon "End-timers," predominantly.

The JBS slogan, "Will you be free in '73?" was everywhere.

We evangelical Christians had great fun debating the Mormon Missionaries sent to this event to promote that book written by Joseph Smith.

A bumper sticker booth at "The Rally", 1970 (no, that's not a picture of me)

Bible Science Association

American Education Lobby

Liberty Lobby

I mentioned W. Cleon Skousen, author of the exposé-itory conservative tome: The Naked Communist, and a book widely advertised and promoted not only by JBS in their American Opinion and Review of the News publications but also prompted widely by Liberty Lobby and other alternative conservative publications sources.

A little history on Skousen from Wiki: by the way that is Willard Cleon Skousen for all those pointing up that aspect of Mitt's name,

"He was also a prolific popularizer among Latter-day Saints (Mormons) of their theology. A notable anti-communist and supporter of the John Birch Society,[3] Skousen's works involved a wide range of subjects including the Six-Day War, Mormon eschatology, New World Order conspiracies, and parenting.[4] His most popular works are The 5,000 Year Leap and The Naked Communist. A book by Skousen on end times prophecy, The Cleansing of America, was published by Valor Publishing Group in 2010, four years after his death.[5]

"In 1926, Skousen went to the Mormon colony, Colonia Juarez, Mexico for two years to help his seriously ill grandmother. While there, he attended the Juarez Academy. Skousen then returned to California, graduating from high school in 1930. At the age of 17 he traveled to Great Britain as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[7][8]"

Recall Mitt's father, Gov. George Romney. Wiki on George:

"Romney was born to American parents living in the Mormon colonies in Mexico; events during the Mexican Revolution forced his family to flee back to the United States when he was a child. The family lived in several states and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they struggled during the Great Depression. Romney worked in a number of jobs, served as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland, and attended several colleges in the U.S. but did not graduate from any. The JBS/Skousen - Romney - Mexico - UK/Scotland Mormon Mission stuff is coincidental in a forensic sense and though short of absolute, definitive connection, one has to wonder what influences and interactions Mitt Romney of Belmont MA had with pre-Reagan conservatism.

Granted, even if there was a Skousen - George Romney connection going back to Mexico Mormonism and UK Mormaon Missions, George tended to tack to the "moderate" wing as opposed to the Goldwater wing. He did serve as Nixon's HUD Sec'y for a time.

That said, if someone like me was able to meet W. Cleon Skousen, is there a chance that Mitt Romney actually knew him and not just casually? By many accounts Mitt Romney was a leader in his Mormon faith walk - a church whose faith in many ways (some correct and some incorrect) affirms American supremacy? In many ways he was an active, not a casual participant in promoting what at its core espouses political and social conservatism.

So, I have written all that history not to say that I remember seeing Mitt Romney at the God Family and Country Rallies of the '60's and '70's almost all of which I attended for 11 years, but it is my guess that Mitt Romney should he rise to the US Presidency will be looked at by the American left as one who was a Trojan Horse in their midst.

Let me be very clear again: I am an evangelical Christian and staunch conservative from way back. This is not in any way an endorsement in any way of Mormonism as religion. Where conservatism and American supremacy is the issue we are allied with their conservative positions, though most of us are not aligned with them on religious terms. I knew that 40 years ago.

What I am saying is that if Mitt Romney is given the freedom to tack toward what is his core, and not placed in the position of doing only what he can with a 90% (D) legislature like he had as Governor of Massachusetts, I think we might all be surprised to see how much of a core conservatism might actually reside there.

FReegards!