A flurry of dishonesty and deception: Romney hack Ed Gillespie claims Romney "retired retroactively" from Bain

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Okay, here goes: Why are you and your hacks lying so much?

Romney advisor and unabashed partisan hack Ed Gillespie was on the teevee earlier today defending his lord and master's... uh... retirement from Bain Capital:

He took a leave of absence and in fact he ended up not going back at all, and retired retroactively to 1999 as a result. He left a life he loved to go to Salt Lake City and help a country he loves more, and somehow Chicago... is trying to make it something sinister.

This is the sort of bullshit we've come to expect from the likes of Gillespie. Let's unravel it by asking a few questions:

First, how exactly do you retire "retroactively"?

Second, if he took a leave of absence, why did SEC filings still list him as Bain's Chief Poobah long after 1999?

Third, did the "life he loved" involve making a fortune outsourcing jobs (which went on at Bain well before he supposedly left the firm) and destroying companies (or, more to the point, the workers at those companies)?

Fourth, did he leave Bain to help his country (this claim that Romney is oh-so-patriotic being oh-so-transparently opportunistic) or to make a name for himself and build his political capital running the Olympics being hosted by the city that is home to his church?

Fifth, isn't it ridiculous to refer to the Obama campaign as "Chicago," the intent being to suggest that it's run by some thuggish political machine, as if to show utter disrespect for the president?

Sixth -- and this isn't a question -- the Obama campaign doesn't have to try to make this something sinister. It is sinister.

Everything Romney has done in his career has been either to make shitloads of money at any cost, including at any human cost, and/or to sell himself like snake oil and pander shamelessly for the sake of his political aspirations, cynically counting on voter ignorance to give him a free pass.

Lying about what he did at Bain, and about what Bain did, is just par for his course.