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Debating in Tampa, Florida in late-January, while falsely characterizing Newt Gingrich’s income from his government consulting work, Mitt Romney denied that Bain did “any work with the government like Medicaid and Medicare”. Now we learn that Bain, under Romney’s “supervision”, purchased and ran the Damon Corporation, who pled guilty to Federal conspiracy charges as a result of tens of millions of dollars in systemic Medicare fraud committed under Romney’s and Bain’s control. Damon was fined over $119-million which was, at the time, the largest criminal healthcare fine in Massachusetts history and Mr. Romney’s participation was characterized in 1996 by Corporate...

In 1989, Bain Capital purchased controlling interest in Damon Corporation, a medical testing company located in Needham, Massachusetts. During the time that Bain held its ownership of the company Mitt Romney personally sat on the Board of Directors. And during that same period, Damon Corporation was busy submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars charged for unnecessary blood tests. ... By the time Damon pleaded guilty to defrauding the United States Government of $25 million - and paid a total of $119 million in what was, at that time, the largest penalty of its...

7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is A Myth Dec 27, 2011. by John Hawkins Mitt Romney was a moderate governor in Massachusetts with an unimpressive record of governance, who left office with an approval rating in the thirties, and whose signature achievement was a Hurricane Katrina style disaster for the state. Since that's the case, it's fair to ask what a Republican who's not conservativeand can't even carry his own state brings to the table for GOP primary voters. The answer is always the same; Mitt Romney is supposed to be "the most electable" candidate. This is a baffling...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Monday defended his administration’s efforts to cover its electronic tracks with the purchase of hard drives from state computers, saying he had no intention of providing ''opposition research teams'' with electronic communications from his term as governor. Meeting with the editorial board of the Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, Mr. Romney was questioned about a Boston Globe story (snip) Last week, Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades accused Mr. Patrick of running a ''dirty tricks''shop for the president’s benefit and requested documents on any contact his administration has had with top Obama White House or campaign operatives.

Just before Mitt Romney left the Massachusetts governor’s office and first ran for president, 11 of his top aides purchased their state-issued computer hard drives, and the Romney administration’s e-mails were all wiped from a server, according to interviews and records obtained by the Globe. Romney administration officials had the remaining computers in the governor’s office replaced just before Governor Deval Patrick staff showed up to take power in January 2007, according to Mark Reilly, Patrick’s chief legal counsel. Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, said the governor’s aides did nothing wrong.

Two new sets of Republicans are feeling deflated today -- the Chris Christie hopefuls and the Sarah Palin stalwarts. The Christie decision didn't surprise me, perhaps because I grew up in Jersey. In fact, Christie and I attended the same high school! Anyway, Jerseyans are many things (not all of them nice), but slick dissemblers we are not. When Christie said, repeatedly, and in ever more colorful terms, that he wasn't running, I believed him. And, while I understand the boomlet for him, I'm also a little relieved to see that he is indeed a truthful guy. Sarah Palin, by...

Luxury jets, hotels on Mitt Romney’s $5 million campaign tab (flip-flop alert) "... Mitt Romney shelled out more than $5 million in campaign cash over the past three months, including blowing $80,000 on hotel rooms in Las Vegas, $50,000 on a security squad and $125,000 on private jets — despite a pledge to scale back on luxury travel, new campaign filings show. The Beverly-based flights were aboard a 2005 Cessna Citation CJ3, an eight-seat luxury corporate jet with leather interior and a staggering $5.8 million price tag. "News of the flights comes after an April speech in Iowa, during which...

The evidence suggests otherwise — but for the wrong reason. There’s a long list of reasons why Mitt Romney might not be our best choice to go up against Obama, and some of them are really good reasons. One reason is Romney’s part in creating the Massachusetts health system that Democrats claim (perhaps rightly) was the blueprint for ObamaCare. Another is that as governor of a very liberal state, Romney signed into law all sorts of bills that are going to be used by Democrats to persuade many middle of the road and even conservative voters that there really is...

Deval Patrick’s records under lock & key "You think all those cyber sleuths searching Sarah Palin’s e-mails would get a similar thrill looking at, say, Gov. Deval Patrick’s BlackBerry? The answer is no, and not just because MSNBC would never mobilize an army of reporters to go after a Democrat. The real reason people will never see Patrick’s e-mails is because they can’t. The Massachusetts governor is citing a court ruling used by Mitt Romney and Paul Cellucci to exempt himself from the state public records law." "Let's con them all!"

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan, the second part of which aired tonight on the network, presidential candidate Mitt Romney pushed back against the host's questions about how his Mormon faith might influence his policy should he win the White House in 2012. Asked whether it's actually possible to separate his faith from his job as president should he be elected, Romney responded, "Absolutely. You don't begin to apply doctrines of a religion to the responsibility of guiding a nation or guiding a state." Romney explained that he opposes abortion rights and that he is in favor of gay...

Washington (CNN) - Mitt Romney has a message to Tea Party candidates nationwide: If you lose your Republican primary bids, stay on the sidelines. The former Massachusetts governor on Monday warned the grassroots movement not to mount third party efforts in general elections, which he said would siphon votes from Republican nominees. "If there is a conservative candidate that runs in the general election, then obviously, divide and fail is the result," Romney said in an interview with the conservative Web site Newsmax. "Hopefully Tea Party candidates will run in respective primaries and they will either win or lose. And...

Romney to announce in New Hampshire next Thursday.

Right now Laura Ingraham is talking about “Republicans need to step forward now, now is the time, if they are going to run”, and so I am wondering myself who are the Republican candidates (for President) in 2012? It doesn’t matter if they say they are running or not, can someone give me the complete list? I want to start making a decision early this time so I can jump in with good spirit and enthusiasm, I think this battle needs to start early and start now because it’s going to be a long campaign. So who has the “long...

In his new book, Mike Huckabee trashes “RomneyCare” – saying it’s “socialized medicine” that has exploded costs, worsened care for patients, and proves why President Obama’s unpopular health care reform won't work. In a chapter in "A Simple Government," Huckabee uses Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care program to bolster his arguments against Obama's reforms, yoking the two tightly together. "If our goal in health-care reform is better care at lower cost, then we should take a lesson from RomneyCare, which shows that socialized medicine does not work," he writes. In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday night, Huckabee...

SALT LAKE CITY — There are new hints that former Utah Olympic leader Mitt Romney is gearing up to announce another run for president. Politico reported Thursday that Romney aides are telling other Republicans that he expects to launch his campaign in April. The online news source noted Romney has already taken "another methodical step toward his 2012 run" by stepping down from the Marriott hotel chain board of directors — again. The last time Romney left was before he ran successfully for governor of Massachusetts following the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He rejoined the board in...

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire in the early stages of the race for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, according to a new survey commissioned by NH Journal and conducted by Magellan Strategies. The survey is the first statewide survey of Granite State Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in 2011. Romney leads former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by 23 points, with Romney earning 39% and Palin earning 16%. Mike Huckabee (10%)...

Speculative fun from the Boston Phoenix. All along I’ve been assuming that Iowa would be the de facto social con primary (or rather, caucus) and New Hampshire the de facto centrist primary, with the winners to meet down the road in South Carolina, Nevada, and Florida. But what if New Hampshire’s now a lot redder than we think? What if the Iowa winner rolls into Concord a week or two later with tea partiers ready to rock and blows the centrist frontrunner out of the water? That would all but decide the nomination; it’s hard to imagine any candidate winning...

One prominent Republican calls on his party to drum Palin out of the 2012 race. Here's why he'll be disappointed. "Morning Joe" Scarborough earned a splash of attention within the politerati this week with a Politico column calling on the Republican Party to "man up" and denounce Sarah Palin. His main point is that Palin is poison for the Grand Old Party: The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected. And yet the same leaders who fret that Sarah Palin could devastate their party in 2012 are too scared to say in public...

It’s time honored tradition to attempt to gauge the political landscape and prognosticate who our next elected leaders will. But now, you can gamble money on it. According to data provided to TFoP by bodog.com released its 2012 odds for the Republican presidential nominees. Coming out on top, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is an early favorite at 3/1 (+300), along with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at 4/1 (+400). However, one of the bigger eye-catching surprises seems to be how high Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is on the list, giving him the third best odds at 6/1 (+600). Rounding...

Matthew Amorello, the disgraced former “Big Dig” honcho who resigned after a fatal tunnel collapse, was arrested for drunken driving early yesterday morning in Haverhill, police said. Amorello, 52, of Wenham was arrested about 2 a.m. on River Street near a tire shop. He was taken to the Bailey Boulevard police station and booked for operating under the influence as well as two counts of leaving the scene of property damage, police said. Police would not say whether Amorello submitted to a breathalyzer nor would they discuss details of the police report. He was held in the lockup until about...