MITT ROMNEY: Ugly On The Inside

[Artwork by DONKEYHOTEY]

BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I’ve long felt that if you want to learn something about the character of a Presidential candidate, do a little “spotting” of the backgrounds and beliefs of those they’re “nesting” with. In the case of the likely Republican finalist, a careful scoping reveals no less than a bevy of buzzards. Nowhere in this carrion banquet masquerading as the Republican primary can the maxim patch “guilty by association” be more justly sewn than onto the empty suit aka Mitt Romney. Mitt’s that “paragon of virtue” (their words, not mine) who installed Robert Bork and Frank VanderSloot as his top legal adviser and national finance co-chairman respectively.

Bork, if you’ll recall, is the originalist former Federal Appeals Court Judge and Solicitor General/Acting Attorney General (under Nixon) who acquiesced to carrying out the Saturday Night Massacre, and who Ronald Reagan attempted (disastrously) to place on the U.S. Supreme Court. Some noteworthy Borkisms include: describing the federal ban on whites-only lunch counters as “unsurpassed ugliness”; believing the government is free to ban contraceptives outright; and, asserting that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment shouldn’t apply to women. All things considered, I can find no reason to believe that Ted Kennedy’s passionate assessment of Robert Bork’s America as ” … a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch-counters, rogue police could break down citizen’s doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, … .” is any less applicable today than it was in 1987. Worse yet, consider what Bork’s position within the Romney inner sanctum augurs for his appointments to the highest court in the land.

As for fellow Mormon Frank VanderSloot [pictured, below left], he’s not only Mitt’s national finance co-chair, he’s also his number one benefactor (to the tune of $1 million and climbing) and close friend. You may better recognize him as CEO of Melaleuca, aka one of America’s top MLM pyramid schemers. This unabashed bigot (as so described by more than half-a-dozen reputable, and apparently courageous, websites) has been known to quiet even his most unassailable critics with threats of endless litigation and the possibility of financial ruin attached thereto. In one of his more infamous reprisals he attempted to destroy a newspaper and its still-in-the-closet reporter for having exposed the Boy Scouts of America’s and its Mormon Church sponsor’s cover-up of pedophilic acts committed by their counselors in the Grand Teton Council. In another he and his wife Belinda attempted to intimidate Idaho Public Television into canceling a planned documentary to educate children about issues of sexual orientation by flooding state media and real estate with anti-gay tirades and billboards excoriating any such efforts. By the way, Belinda contributed $100,000 to the “Yes on Proposition 8” campaign that ended same-sex marriage in California. But perhaps the larger question is why the national press and his Republican opponents have failed to call Romney out on having such an anti-gay/anti-free-press individual so integral to, and influential within, his campaign organization — not to mention their beloved Mormon Church until the late 1970’s having held to some of the most atrocious racist doctrines and policies ever conceived.

And then there’s Kris Kobach, [pictured, below right] the controversial Kansas Secretary of State and anti-immigrant extremist who’s Mitt’s close confidant and endorser as well as his top adviser on immigration issues. Actual Kobach quote: “If you want to create a job for a U.S. Citizen tomorrow, deport an illegal alien today.”  But perhaps his greatest claim to infamy, as his own website so proudly proclaims, is eagerly assuming the role of opposing litigator-in-chief in any matter that offers up the ACLU as adversary. Did I mention that he’s also a Constitutional Law professor running for Congress who doesn’t cotton to separating church from state. When questioned about soliciting votes on the basis of his Catholicism, his campaign spokesman replied, “That’s ridiculous, there’s no expressed separation of church and state in the Constitution.”

Kobach is also the racist-associating chief architect of half-a-dozen draconian (and prohibitively expensive) state anti-immigration laws in some seven states so far. Most all of these laws have already had major provisions shot down by their respective state courts and all are being challenged at the federal level. Equally damning is the list of Kobach’s affiliations and connections which should bring a chill to every equality-cherishing American. From the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) to the Federation for American Immigration Reform and its founder John Tanton to the Pioneer Fund to Sheriff Joe Arpaio and more, Kobach has shown himself to be the very kind of hate-inspired individual America needs fewer of. Heidi Beirich, Director of Research for the Southern Poverty Law Center recently commented that, “Kris Kobach has done more to rile up communities around the issue of immigration than any other figure. These laws he’s been pushing in small towns as well as Arizona have been devastating to those communities. They’re expensive, they’re losers in court, and the basic result is racial strife.” Just the kind of right-hand man that would appeal to the morality of a man like Mitt.

In closing, allow me to call your attention to a not insignificant corollary to this “character” matter: Mitt Romney receives ZERO torches on Civil Liberties from the ACLU. No, that’s not a misprint or mistake, folks. He in fact receives not so much as a single lit torch in ANY of the nine civil liberties categories the ACLU assesses. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Fed up early stage septuagenarian who has actually been most of there and done most of that. Born and raised in the picturesque Pocono Mountains. Quite well educated. Very lucky to have been born into a well-schooled and somewhat prosperous family. Long divorced. One beautiful, brilliant daughter. Two far above average grandsons. Semi-retired (how does anyone manage to do it completely these days?) and fully-tired of bullshit. Uncle of the Editor-In-Chief.

1910 = The number of Americans killed in action in Afghanistan.

100,000 plus = The number of Americans seriously wounded in Afghanistan including those requiring extensive long-term treatment for severe mental trauma.

0 = The number of financial industry kingpins indicted for having committed the most massive FRAUD in American history and wrecking the global economy, plunging untold millions into lives of misery and deprivation.