Romney Issues Non-Apology Apology (“Back in high school I did some dumb things...")

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

‘I Did Some Dumb Things’
Mitt Apologizes If Anyone Hurt By Prep School Pranks
JOSH MARSHALL MAY 10, 2012, 10:43 AM 283

Romney: “Back in high school I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended by that I apologize.”

He further said: “I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s.”

Earlier Romney, through spokespeople, had said he didn’t remember the incidents.


Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/05/romney_issues_non-apology_apology.php

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Washington Post Account Details Romney’s Prep School Pranks, Bullying
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mitt-romneys-prep-school-classmates-recall-pranks-but-also-troubling-incidents/2012/05/10/gIQA3WOKFU_print.html

[Scuba]

1. As I posted elsewhere, Mitt doesn't deny, claims he can't remember these incidents...

Apparently the victim was so insignificant to Mitt that he's not worthy of any space in Mitt's memory banks.

Or perhaps his attacking other boys was so commonplace it gets lost in the blur.

Or perhaps he's a lying asshole.

[danbeee46]

2. or...

all of the above.

[chelsea0011]

15. You don't forget this type of behavior. He just keeps lying.

[Submariner]

31. I'm just a few months older than Mittens

and I certainly would remember pinning a guy to the floor and cutting his hair off. I recall many far less significant stupid actions as a high-schooler.

[alarimer]

47. That is typical of rich assholes

They beat up people with impunity because their rich daddies take care of it.

THIS is the key difference between them and the rest of us. They are callous, unfeeling shits.

[get the red out]

3. He will morph again

He will morph again and embrace the attack as soon as someong thinks to tell him his base is pro-bully.

[MadrasT]

4. Lying sack of shit. n/t

[Raven]

5. I was in high school in the '60's and

those things were definately on our minds. Who does he think he's kidding???

[slackmaster]

9. My mom grew up in a small town in rural Iowa in the 1930s and 40s. Who was and was not gay was...

...certainly on peoples' minds, and a common topic of conversation, even then.

[slackmaster]

6. Most people did indeed do some dumb things in high school, and I think we should all pay for our own

...dumbness.

[The Magistrate]

7. This Is Bull-Shit, Ma'am

This line in particular: "I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s."

Anyone male who wore hair long during the sixties, particularly in the middle sixties, grew wearily familiar with being called a queer.

[Lex]

10. Yes, it was pervasive.

Mitt's lying. Again.

[EFerrari]

32. You bet.

I did stupid things in high school, too, but none of them involved assault, weapons or gang violence. "Stupid" is a euphemism here for "criminal except my family was rich at the time".

BushCo sure likes its sociopath candidates.

[Lex]

8. If anyone was offended, I apologize...but if you think it was cool that I did this

then ALL RIGHT!

[LibDemAlways]

11. This ranks right up there on the BS meter with

George "Macaca" Allen's explanation when he was asked by an interviewer in 2006 to explain why he was suspended for spray painting racist graffiti on the walls of his high school. (I was a classmate. I know what happened.) He claimed he couldn't remember the details and he had no racist intent. Major major bullshit. Allen was well-known for his racism. How many teens in Southern Calif. plastered their cars with Confederate Flag bumper stickers and carried a bat that was inscribed "N____r knocker?" I only know of one - George Allen.

Hope the press doesn't let Mitt get away with this, and that the Allen incident - and his ongoing lifelong racism - again becomes an issue in Virginia. These idiots deserve to go down in flames.

[Swede Atlanta]

12. I went to school in the mid-60s to mid-70s in a small town in the intermountain west...

I was called fag and homo all the time. I really didn't understand what that meant at the time.

In reality these other boys knew about my sexuality before I had associated the fact I felt different than other boys with my sexual attractions or sexual preference.

Mitt is lying through his teeth that he didn't know the guy was a homosexual. I wonder if the LDS church promotes public lying.

[Diclotican]

23. Swede Atlanta

Swede Atlanta

I can just say for myself - and for what I have been learned in church, that at least in my little church, lying is not accepted, or promoted in any way.... But again, I can not, and will not talk for all the other churches in the world..

And for the record - I do not think mr Romney is the best candidate, he looks, smell and sounds like a simple bully to me... Nothing more than a simple bully... If I have had the possibility to vote in the US, I would have voted for President Obama anytime..

Diclotican

[brentspeak]

13. Unless Romney often cut off other kids' hair

it's pretty impossible that he could have "forgotten" this particular incident. Either way, he was spoiled brat bully.

[AllyCat]

14. I've always thought the GOP was against anti-bullying legislation

because that is where they get most of their members. This just puts one more piece of evidence that proves that I am right.

What a sick f*ck this guy is.

[Rose Siding]

16. Right, and what about "the fellow" to whom you shouted "atta girl"?

Sexual orientation far from your mind then, too?

[renate]

42. excellent point!

[Auggie]

17. Add it all up: this is one twisted individual

[backscatter712]

18. Typical Republican nopology.

Fuck that psychopathic skinjob!

[Tikki]

19. What if everyone is hurt by what you did and everyone is offended....

You need to stand up and apologize to everyone.


Tikki

[marble falls]

20. Yeah we all did some dumb stuff, but he remembers this event and he needs to acknowlege it, .....

and sincerely apologize. That's part of growing up and being an adult. My sympathies and sadness is for Mr. Lauer. My disappointment is for Mitt who formed his own vigilante mob and got away with it. No-one can tell me he hasn't recalled the incident with fondness and recounted it to hooting and chuckles from Scotch swilling acquaintances, even if he was drinking only ice-water himself.

[Botany]

21. non apology apology & he has a bad memory too

“Back in high school, I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that,” Romney said in a live radio interview with Fox News Channel personality Brian Kilmeade. Romney added: “I participated in a lot of hijinks and pranks during high school and some might have gone too far and for that, I apologize.”

snip

I don’t remember that incident,” Romney said, laughing. “I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s, so that was not the case.”

Asked specifically about having interrupting a closeted gay student in English class, Gary Hummel, by shouting, “Atta girl!” Romney said, “I really can’t remember that.”

“As this person indicated, he was closeted,” Romney said. “I had no idea that he was gay and can’t speak to that even today. But as to the teasing or the taunts that go on in high school, that’s a long time ago. For me, that’s about 48 years ago. Again, if there’s anything I said that is offensive to someone, I certainly am sorry for that, very deeply sorry for that.”

*************

What a freaking weasel .... and I am sorry if I offended any weasels

One time is an accident two times is really bad luck but time after time of doing mean things
to other people is a pattern. Be it as a bully to gay kids in high school, having a sight impaired
teacher walk into a door, or laying off thousands of people so he and his friends can make money
Mitt has a pattern of being mean.

[Javaman]

22. "I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual."...

..."That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s.”

so does that mean that mitten's was just a general run of the mill dickhead? He bullied everyone?

what a fucking sociopath.

[Iliyah]

24. Mittens has gotten

all the credentials to be a true red gopper and a so called "Christian" per the hallelujah crowds, ie evangelists.

Ok I do know some evangelists who are loving and caring people and are pro-gay, and will be voting for Pres O. I do believe that the goppers do not have a cap on the evangelicals as they claim (polls).

[Happyhippychick]

25. He doesn't remember. That's interesting. He seems to remember his father walking alongside MLK.

douchebag

[Lugnut]

26. Liar, liar. Pants on fire.

Mittens needs to strap a fire extinguisher on his back.

[amb123]

27. TOO LATE YOU STEAMING PILE OF MITT!

The person you're "apologizing" for attacking died in 2004! GFY you . . . you . . . REPUBLICAN!

[Journeyman]

28. I did some dumb things as a youth too, and some things that were downright cruel as well . . .

but I guess the difference between Romney and I is I apologized for most of those acts when they were still fresh, and those I did not address at that time bother me to this day. I've gone so far as to seek out those to whom I owe an amends and, when I've found them, offer a heartfelt apology.

The unexamined life, Socrates observed, is not worth living. I wonder if a life "unremembered" can possibly be examined.

[murielm99]

34. You are a better person than I.

I wish I had apologized for some of the cruel and thoughtless things I did as a youth. Many of those people are gone now, or scattered.

At least I never attacked anyone physically. Girls usually resort to other cruelties, as I did. I wasn't as bad as some, but it still bothers me.

[Maven]

29. What a piece of shit.

[Joey Liberal]

30. Romney was a bully too? Why am I not surprised?

[indie_voter]

33. I don't believe he doesn't remember

However, how does he think that is better? What type of person attacks another person and doesn't remember? I agree, everyone does things when they're young that they're not proud about, this to me at least is excessive but okay. He was young. The 5 other people who participated in the attack clearly were haunted by it which to me shows conscience.

This is a pattern for Romeny. He's a mean man and a coward. He can't stand up to a person at a rally calling our President a traitor, he straps his dog on the roof of his car and drives long distances, and now this.

Besides this horrible assault the story about giggling when he purposely let his sight impaired teacher walk in to a door (from same article) is just another example what a cruel character he has.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

35. Evenutally he will claim Obama did it and that he was only trying to help the wounded.

[Odin2005]

36. Typical bully.

[JohnnyLib2]

37. That "apology," at this point in time, may be worse than the original incidents.

"That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s." How can any moderately honest person from that era believe that statement?

Romney's just gotta-be-stopped.

[adigal]

38. If he didn't think of homosexuality, what was with the "atta girl"!

Which, of course, he denies.

[jtuck004]

39. Liar. Coward. Bully. What a resume. n/t

[mnhtnbb]

40. Not just a bully, but a liar, too. What an a$$hole from the Bush type family mold.

[AndyTiedye]

41. School Bullies Grow Up to be Repiglickins

Funny how that works.

[polichick]

43. All bullies are cowards - that kind of "apology" is no surprise...

imo this look into his character will have an impact with indies.

[grantcart]

44. I don't remember but I do remember he wasn't Gay

It gets worse.

Which is worse somebody that did it and remembers and is bothered by it.

Or some guy who just can't remember assaultin somebody.

In the third grade I said something really stupid that humiliated a girl in the class. I still remember it.

Can the country afford somebody with that kind of memory problem.

No matter how you cut this Mitt only the truth will set you free.

[Hubert Flottz]

45. Another George W Bush.

Same shit, different asshole.

[DallasNE]

46. Worse Yet, "Nothing Happened"

And that is why bullying continues to happen. It is often done by those immune to punishment because of who their parents are.