Romney is a Fraud

Token Gesture

Remember when Willard Mitt said "From now on, it's me, me, me"? (source: Boston Globe, 1/4/2005)

We think he was mis-quoted.

Back when he was just the Fraud Candidate, Romney said, "I believe the people in the Commonwealth deserve to have someone like me in their corner. I believe I can be an effective governor. And I believe the people of Massachusetts deserve to have someone who is a capable manager and leader, and I think I fill that need."

In other words, "from now on, it's I, I, I."

Last week Romney showed his effectiveness as the leader of the Massachusetts economy when it was announced that Boston-based Gillette was being taken over by Ohio-based Proctor & Gamble in a move that could cost upwards of 6,000 jobs. (source: BBC, 1/28/2005).

The Fraud Governor's response? "I understand that there are going to be a lot of job losses. That's very unfortunate. I wish I had the power to prevent this acquisition from occurring. I don't." (source: Boston Herald, 1/29/2005)

That's it? "I wish I had the power to prevent this acquisition ... I don't"?

See what we mean about that "I" thing?

Although it does make us wonder what happened to the the guy who promised he would be the state's top-salesman. (Looks like his Vietnam-era tour of France had an impact.)

This is not to say Romney didn't take action.

In fact, he held a citizens rally.

For the New England Patriots.

Let's recap. One of the state's major employers is getting taken over by an out-of-state concern, so Romney decides to fight-back by holding a football rally?

It gets better.

As was first pointed out by our friends at BadTransit, to announce the event, the flack formerly known as the stout, Reese Witherspoon-wannabe dye-job aide to Romney’s $150,000-a-year loathsome spokesman issued a wheezing statement that "the MBTA will run a commuter rail train from Boston and Providence to the stadium that will be free of charge. Trains will leave South Station and Providence Station at 8:15 AM and arrive at Foxboro at 9:20 and 9:15 AM, respectively. Return trains will depart Foxboro Station approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the send-off." (source: office of (fraud) gov, "Romney invites fans to cheer on Pats at New England send-off," 1/28/2005)

Free public trains for football fans, in this, what Team Reform has called the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

So what was the public policy behind this largess?

Who cares? Use it to your benefit. The next time you find yourself short of T-fare, just pull-out a Pom-Pom and sashay through the turnstyle with a breezy "Go Pats."

Tell 'em Fraudo owes you a free trip.

It's the least that Romney can do.

Romney Gets Testy

Willard Mitt wants to add the MCAS science exam to high school graduation requirements. Quickly.

"I'd like (the Board of Education) to make it as soon as possible," Romney said after meeting with the Board on Tuesday. "There is a need to move as aggressively and as rapidly as we can to getting science as part of our graduation requirement." (source: Associated Press, 1/25/2005)

Groovy.

By the way, did anyone think to clue Romney's Education Commissioner, David Driscoll, in on the expansionary plans? Because less than five months ago, Driscoll was threatening to cancel the MCAS science and history tests unless "the Legislature coughed up" more money for his department. (source: Boston Herald, 8/25/2004)

Senator Robert Antonioni responded with a run-on-sentence saying "It's a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black because if anyone has underfunded MCAS in recent
years it's the Romney administration, not the Legislature, so it's disingenuous, I think."

But we got the point.

Now, however, after proclaiming that they can't afford to administer the test, Team Reform has decreed that the test will be a graduation requirement "as soon as possible."

Zounds. Rather than telling Massachusetts students how to study science we think the Fraud Governor should bone up on his math.

Bed Ridden

What did you do when terrorists were thought to be headed to Massachusetts last week?

If you were like Willard Mitt, you went to bed.

"I'm going to be sleeping in my bed in Massachusetts tonight, and I feel perfectly safe doing so," Romney said last Wednesday. (source: Boston Globe, 1/20/2005)

What did you do to prepare for one of the biggest storms in the history of the Commonwealth? If you were like Boston Mayor Tom Menino who spent Saturday night at City Hall, or a Dunkin' Donuts manager who spent the night in his shop, you went to work. But if you were like Willard Mitt, you went to bed.

On Sunday, during several local morning television interviews Romney admitted he was at home, where he had spent the night. Proving he was not without cue cards, he reiterated a quote he had been provided on Saturday, "This is a great opportunity to be a great parent, to be at home with your kids." Too bad Fraudo couldn't find that quote on it being a great opportunity to be a great governor. (Although he did admit to shovelling several times to accomodate his dog.)

Looks like someone didn't get what he needed for Christmas.

Big Game Hunter

When was the last time your business received volunteer state employees to help out with a marketing venture? Your monopoly business.

If your name is John Henry, the answer is "earlier this month." Because incredibly, state tax dollars are paying to not only sponsor the Boston Red Sox World Series Trophy Tour, but state employees are also coordinating the New England advertising blitz.

According to the Red Sox, the Massachusetts State Lottery "will serve as presenting sponsor of the World Series Trophy Tour." (source: Boston Red Sox, 1/4/2005) The tour will cost the Lottery $225,000 of its $10 million ad budget, a budget that was intended to pay for Jackpot Awareness. (And if the Lottery kills that link, here's another showing the ad campaign was intended to create "jackpot awareness in the casual player." (source: Lawrence Eagle Trib, 1/27/2004))

So the Lottery will be reaching out to the casual player by ... bringing the World Series Trophy to a junior high school near you? How did the marketing wizards at Philip Morris let this opportunity slip through their fingers?

Worse, according to the Associated Press, "the Lottery will work with the team on sites, security and logistics of the tour." (source: Associated Press, 1/5/2005) Security and logistics? Isn't this just a wee diversion from the Lottery's mission, which is to raise monies for local aid?

So what does Beth Lindstrom, the Fraud Governor's director of consumer affairs and business regulation who also sits on the Lottery Commission, say about the fact that Lottery jackpot awareness monies are funding a Boston Red Sox public relations tour that is being coordinated by state employees?

Who knows? She hasn't said anything, yet.

Questions:

-is it a coincidence that Beth Lindstrom, the Fraud Governor's director of consumer affairs and business regulation who also sits on the Lottery Commission, used to work for former Treasurer Joe Malone, and Lottery chairman Tim Cahill's First Deputy Doug Rubin used to work as a political consultant for Joe Malone's brother, Russ? (source: Boston Globe, 11/7/1999)

-did the Lottery Commission vote to spend $225,000 of the Lottery's $10 million marketing funds on a Red Sox goodwill tour?

-did Beth Lindstrom, one of Romney's Lottery Commission appointees, vote to spend $225,000 of the Lottery's $10 million marketing monies on a Red Sox goodwill tour?

-does Beth Lindstrom, Romney's Lottery Commission appointee, think that Massachusetts state employees should be used to help run what is essentially a private sector company's marketing campaign?

-the Red Sox Trophy Tour will be travelling throughout New England. Is the New Hampshire State Lottery paying for the New Hampshire part of the tour, or are we paying for that, too? How about Maine? And Connecticut? And Rhode Island? And Vermont?

-will Romney's Lottery Commission appointees send state employees to other private sector companies around the Commonwealth to help run their marketing campaigns?

Earlier this month, Willard Mitt said he wanted to increase local aid by gradually doing away with the Lottery cap. (source: office of (fraud) gov, "Romney pledges 4.3 percent increase in local aid," 1/7/2005)

Forget cap. If the Lottery has enough money that it can pay and coordinate a Red Sox goodwill tour, we say lose the cap, the shirt, the pants, everything. Well, almost everything.

Even we have standards.

Romney is a Plagiarist?

Willard Mitt's 2005 State of the State address was less an oration than a rushed litany of bullet points that seemed not as much written as pulled together by a series of marketing focus groups.

It contained, however, one Hallmarkesque line that strove to reach beyond the PowerPoint speak that routinely traps the Fraud Governor:

"Not all teachers can be parents, but all parents must be teachers."

Unfortunately, the unattributed line was written by someone else. And we don't mean a ghost-speech-writer. It belongs to William Bennet ( see paragraph seven) the strong-arm moralizer who was later found to have a weakness for one-arm bandits.

Which begs the answer: of all the right-wing advisers that are out there, why did Willard Mitt feel the need to crib from one of the more prominent hypocrites of the past ten years? Or was Dick Morris not available?

Surplus Remarks

Shortly after Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly (D-Cambridge) launched what some called the 'opening shots' of the 2006 gubernatorial campaign Willard Mitt Romney's $150,000-a-year Loathsome Spokesman fired back, saying since 2002 the Commonwealth has 'made significant reforms in transportation, public construction and school building assistance.' (source: Boston Globe, 1/11/2004)

Which harkened back to those heady days when Romney was but a Fraud Candidate, criss-crossing Route 2, promising to clean up the mess in public construction and school building assistance.

Sure sure.

Hey, here's a cool idea. Let's go to our Wicked Big Media File and see how many times we can cross-reference Willard Mitt and the terms "public construction" or "school building assistance" during his 2002 campaign. Zounds! "School building assistance" came up once. In an Alex Beam column. About Warren Tolman. (source: Boston Globe, 9/12/2002) "Public construction" came up zero (0) times.

Glad to see that Team Reform's campaign themes are being well-respected.

As for Romney's successes in transportation, Team Reform is being sued for reneging on several transportation improvements promised as mitigation for Big Dig air pollution (source: Boston Herald, 1/12/2005), they've hiked MBTA fares to their highest levels ever, and they're cutting bus routes. And this is something they're claiming as a success?

Hey Tom Reilly, the next time you want to whack Willard Mitt in a political speech let Romney's mouthpiece have the podium instead.

Romney's $150,000-a-year Loathsome Spokesman also alleged that Willard Mitt should be rewarded with a second term because 'the state has moved from a $3 billion budget deficit to a $700 million budget surplus.' (source: Associated Press, 1/11/2005)

Really?

Willard Mitt became (fraud) Governor in January 2003. This was the middle of fiscal year 2003 - a.k.a.: the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, according to Angry Eric Kriss, Team Reform's Secretary of Administration and Finance.

The Commonwealth ended FY2003 with a $133 million dollar surplus. (source: Boston Globe, 7/8/2003) A surplus, Mr. Loathsome Spokesman.

One year later, the Commonwealth ended FY2004 with a $700 million surplus caused by a revenue "windfall" of increased tax revenues. (source: Boston Globe, 7/2/2004) This during the (ahem) worst economic crisis since the great depression. The FY04 "windfall" was so excessive that Romney used it as an excuse to renew his campaign call for a cut in the state's Income Tax. (Hmmm. Wonder if that 'initiative' will appear in Romney's FY2005 budget submission? The same one that will promise to increase local aid by 4.3 percent.)

Perhaps the $833 million budgetary surplus that the Commonwealth has realized since 2002 says less about Team Reform's fee-raising/management abilities and more about their inability to correctly forecast revenue.

Of course, one question remains unanswered that may set Tom Reilly apart from Willard Mitt. If elected, will you pay your spokesman $150,000-a-year?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Cyber-Squat

One down. One-thousand to go.

Lunch Meat

According those those who purport to know these things, the Massachusetts Republican State Committee had planned to sponsor a luncheon (with Willard Mitt as the headliner) at the Union House in Boston to curry favor with members who would be voting for the state Party Chair. Romney, of course, is hoping that GOP Strongman Darrell Crate will be returned to his august post. (So are many Democrats who watched as Crate drove Team Reform's 2004 legislative election campaign into the sewer (after running it from the gutter, but we digress).)

The state GOP are set to hold their Strongman strawpoll this week. So, Willard Mitt and friends scheduled their 'here's some food now promise us your vote' shin-dig for last week - Friday, January 7. Invitees were asked to RSVP by Monday, January 3.

Unfortunately, as of Tuesday morning (January 4) only nine of the eighty members were said to have RSVP'd that they would attend.

Nine! To save face, the state Committee decided to cancel the lunch and replace it with a dinner to be held at a later date.

Here's hoping they pick a headliner who is able to attract a crowd.

Strongman Crate's inability to run a successful election campaign has seemingly done little to dampen his ability to access the Corner Office, however. At the last Republican State Committee meeting Crate was allegedly heard to announce that "anyone who is interested in appointments to state boards or commissions should talk to me."

Nice to see that the Clean-Up of the Mess on Beacon Hill is continuing on schedule.

Which brings us to our "Rat the Hack" contest of 2005. The first person to send us the name of a Republican State Committee member (or RSC member family member) who receives a verifiable appointment to a Massachusetts state board or commission will receive a nifty prize - a can of lunch meat, the flavor and brand to be determined by the RiaF Nifty Prize Committee. Said hack must be a new appointment; re-appointees are not eligible for said nifty-osity. (For prize claiming purposes, said hack will be deemed "verified" once their name appears on an official (either physical or electronic) document.) The usual RiaF confidentiality rules will apply.

Ladies and gentlemen: start your dimes.

Profiles in Underwear

Hey hey, kids, it's a brand new year. But while you and yours are bravely carving out new frontiers, Willard Mitt is clinging to his rudderless auld ways, and displaying his trademark profiles in courageousless-ness.

Romney recently announced that he had a plan to recover monies from the Big Dig. He said that he'd boldly establish a bi-partisan commission to appoint a special prosecutor for the task. (source: Boston Globe, 12/29/2004)

Several days later he tossed his plan in the hopper saying he'd support a Democratic plan 'to put Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly in charge of pursuing refunds for botched work on the Big Dig.' (source: Boston Globe, 1/4/2005)

Then he said he'd file his own plan after all - a plan that would not put Reilly in charge of the recovery efort. (source: Boston Globe, 1/4/2005)

Hey Fraudo, tell us again how John Kerry flip-flopped on major issues, will you? (source: Worcester T&G, 9/2/2004)

But that's not the best part. After showing that his new leadership is as weak as his old leadership, Romney also demonstrated how the new year has done nothing to erase the yellow stripe that mars his nattily tailored back.

Willard Mitt decided to whack state employee sick leave banks. But rather than face an angry workforce himself, Romney made his Lightweight LG Sherry Kerry Healey announce the change.

Brilliant!

Decisive? Not too much. Courageous? Not too much. Presidential? Maybe. At least that's what someone appears to be thinking.

For while Willard Mitt was ducking and dodging, someone over at Cafepress (aka - Good Guys for Bush) let loose a whole mess-o-Willard-Mitt-orabilia.

We know what you're thinking: this is a joke, right?

Wrong-o. Because look at what the Rat dragged in:

Willard Mitt 2008 collectibles!

These gifts are obviously quality products. Several even appear to not have been imported from overseas sweatshops!

Our favorite, commemorating the most moral man in Massachusetts, is the "I love My (fraud) Gov Romney" thong. Good guys for Bush, indeed.

And check out that groovy slogan. "Honesty and integrity?"

Guess "Weak leadership and cowardice" wouldn't fit on the button.

Should auld employer be forgot

The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!

Not quite. But it sounds better than running around yelling "the new New England Economic Indicators is here. The new New England Economic Indicators is here."

But it's one of our favorites, if only to watch Team Reform squirm as they read the record of their policy mewlings.

For if history is any guide, Willard Mitt is growing to like this publication as much as Navin R. Johnson's nemisis liked cans.

Indicators is perhaps the best barometer of Romney's "success" in the all-important category of "jobs created."

But before we see how the Fraud Governor has been doing, let's set the Wayback Machine for February 2003 when Romney proposed how he was going to create jobs in Massachusetts:

"Setting his sights on economic revival, Governor Mitt Romney today announced an innovative plan to spur job growth in every region of the Commonwealth by tapping the expertise of area business, community and education leaders through Regional Competitiveness Councils. 'In the past, state government has had a poorly coordinated approach to identifying our strengths and weaknesses, and as a result, our public policy has been clumsy in terms of maximizing our overall growth potential,' said Romney. 'These Regional Competitiveness Councils will provide us with the information we need to boost regional growth and bring more jobs to the state.' (source: Office of (fraud) Gov., "Romney targets job growth through regional councils," 2/13/2003)

Now that's a Plan. Note all the groovy action words: "poorly coordinated," "clumsy," "weaknesses." Wait a second. Those aren't action words. Skip it. Move along.

Okay, so Romney was going to use Regional Councils to create jobs. Lets see how he's made out. As a benchmark, we'll use September 2002 and contrast it against September 2004, the latest month for which data is available.

All figures supplied by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Construction
Sept. 2002 = 140,500 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 137,800 jobs
Trade/Transit/Utilities
Sept. 2002 = 579,800 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 567,600 jobs
Information
Sept. 2002 = 99,600 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 86,500 jobs
Financial Activities
Sept. 2002 = 227,000 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 221,700 jobs
Manufacturing
Sept. 2002 = 343,800 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 323,600 jobs
Professional/Business Services
Sept. 2002 = 451,100 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 431,100 jobs

The above five-categories represent a loss of 73,500 jobs. When you toss in the 19,000 governmental positions that have gone the way of the campaign promise, Massachusetts has lost over 92,000 jobs since Willard Mitt and friends have decided to dabble with the people's business.

To be fair, several categories have realized gains.

Education
Sept. 2002 = 570,600 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 579,600 jobs
Leisure & Hospitality
Sept. 2002 = 286,800 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 296,400 jobs
Other Services
Sept. 2002 = 117,500 jobs
Sept. 2004 = 120,000 jobs

However, the overall private sector workforce is down by 48,200 jobs from September 2002 to September 2004.

Remember how Willard Mitt likes people to call him "Ike"? Sounds like Romney is modeling himself after the wrong former President.