Isn't it amazing? This incident was so brutal that it still haunts the memories of most of the participants -- just not Mitt Romney. Apparently it just slipped his mind, just one more "boyish prank." I could do some armchair analysis of the type of personality that is so lacking in empathy at such an early age, but it would only be conjecture. So I'll let the incident speak for itself.

We've all known Golden Boys who felt entitled to do whatever they wanted, and so rarely suffered consequences. We've also known their enablers, who were often just as scared of these bullies as their victims were, and who carry the weight of their inaction with them.

Phillip Maxwell, an attorney in Michigan, confirmed to CBS News that the incident with John Lauber is accurately described in The Washington Post piece. Maxwell was one of the Post's four on-the-record sources. A fifth asked not to be named. Maxwell says the only thing not accurate is that the Post reporter said the incident occurred in a dorm room, but it happened in a common room.

"Mitt was a prankster, there's no doubt about it. This thing with Lauber wasn't a prank. This was, well, as a lawyer, it was an assault. It was an assault and a battery. And I'm sure that John Lauber carried it with him for the rest of his life," Maxwell told CBS News.

The Post's article details Romney's teen-age years spent at Cranbrook, a prestigious prep school in Michigan, and focuses on the many pranks played by the future presidential contender. Several were harmless but others are remembered as cruel, insensitive or frightening to the victims.

Maxwell, who is not a Republican and wasn't planning to vote for Romney, says "this isn't a politically motivated thing for me. I got asked questions by [Post reporter] Jason Horowitz and I responded honestly to him. I didn't decide to bring this thing up. But I think it probably is relevant."

"I've carried this story with me a long time. It was very disturbing. I think that view is shared by everyone involved in it," Maxwell says. "It just was a black mark on my character that I didn't stop it."

The hair-cutting incident, according to The Washington Post, was confirmed by five of Romney's classmates who described the event as "senseless, stupid, idiotic" and "vicious." Candy Porter was the victim of a well-known prank in which Romney and his Cranbrook friends posed as cops, complete with fake siren and badges, and pretended to bust some friends and their dates. Porter told the Post she was "terrified."

Romney was also remembered as having shouted "Atta girl!" when another closeted gay student tried to speak up in the classroom.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (621)

PLAYS: (7812)

Embed

Digby caught this bit of bizarre right-wing behavior from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie this weekend:

Keith Chaudruc, of Madison, got the final question of the night.

The Livingston school district elementary teacher launched into a list of complaints about drops in municipal aid, increasing NJ Transit fares and tax cuts for those making more than $1 million.

His question: How could Christie sign off on a tax cut for the most wealthy, ignoring the regressive nature of the sales tax, while those at the bottom were getting squeezed with increases like the transit fares?

The two adversaries went back and forth for a few minutes, until Chaudruc, a Republican, interrupted the governor.

"You want to come up here?" Christie shouted. "You come up here ... Let’s have a conversation.."

Chaudruc, who stands 5’6" and weighs about 160 pounds, backed away until the governor insisted "bring him up here," and a state trooper escorted him to the stage.

Christie, a few inches taller and several pounds heavier, loomed over Chaudruc as he launched into a tirade.

"Your wonderful increase in taxes would have killed jobs in this state," Christie said pointing his index finger at Chaudruc. "You and I have different ideas of what being a Republican is all about because I’m not going to raise taxes."

Before he could get another word in, Chaudruc was ushered off the stage and out of the room by a trooper.

It looks like the schtick is wearing thin in New Jersey, at least:

Continue reading »

Joe Klein is calling the McCain campaign's assault on the media "insidious", "bullying" and "not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme."

The story of the day out here in Minneapolis is the McCain campaign's war against the press ... So what's going on here? Two things. McCain is just plain angry at us. By the evidence presented in the utterly revealing Time interview, he's ballistic. This is a politician who needs to see himself as the man on the white horse, boldly traversing a muddy field...any intimations that he's gotten muddied in the process, or has decided to throw mud, are intolerable. The second thing is more insidious: Steve Schmidt has decided, for tactical reasons, to slime the press. He wants the public to believe that there is an unfair--sexist (you gotta love it)--personal assault going on against Palin and her family. This is a smokescreen, intended to divert attention from the fact the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media--about the substance of Palin's record as mayor and governor. ...There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Continue reading »

(Photo of hands warming up on a cuppa hot coffee via di+mars.)

The Sunday Talking Head thread is up and ready for perusal this morning.  It's a whole lotta Iraq and bloviating, and not much else, frankly.  But there could be some interesting sparks on CNN's Late Edition if Rep. Tom Lantos gets asked about why Rush Limbaugh is an ill-informed, bloviating moron.  (Here's hoping Blitzer gives him the chance...but I'm not exactly holding my breath.)   I wanted to highlight a story from Nova Scotia that one of my readers (Audrey -- thanks!) linked up in my comments.  It makes for much better Sunday morning contemplation.  Via the Chronicle Herald:

Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.

The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.

The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying.

"It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something," said David.

They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one.

"I made sure there was a shirt for him," David said....

So, what's catching your eye in the news and on the blogs this morning?

It appears Susan Collins doesn't want to risk having a career ending blooper, like George "Macacca" Allen. One of her supporters posted this today on the Maine Web Report:

Markos Moulitsas’s hate-site The Daily Kos, the foul-mouthed fem-blog FiredogLake, and other ‘netroots’ extremists like MoveOn.org, have become the dominant fundraisers for Tom Allen’s senate campaign. This may be good news for Allen financially, but allowing these fringe fanatics to take over his campaign is creating a political atmosphere that will undoubtedly be rejected by Maine voters come next November.

Tom Allen’s involvement with these groups, particularly his participation in the website The Daily Kos, came onto the radar screen of Maine voters recently, as national media exposed a pattern of hateful, vulgar, and anti-semitic postings on the site. Now Allen’s extremist friends have landed on the ground in Maine, and are engaging in the same childish bullying campaign tactics that made Connecticut voters reject their attempts to unseat Senator Joe Lieberman in 2006.

The comments have been very interesting on MWR, especially this one:

(click the image to go to the actual comment)

Ironically this comment is still published on the site, more than 18 hours after it first appeared. What makes that so interesting is how Daily Kos is attacked in this article for a post which was deleted within minutes after it appeared.  

So is it an "extremist" position to take interest in your political party and try to get your people elected, or would it be considered "extremist" to wish for innocent Americans to die in a terrorist attack just so your party could maybe gain support? Perhaps Susan Collins could answer that.

And throw some cash Tom Allen's way if you can...

It really bothers Collins team.

Eleanor Clift says Webb doesn't suck up to power. I kinda like that.

Newsweek:

A quirky individualist who wants no part of the phony collegiality of Washington, Webb was rightly insulted when Bush pressed him in that bullying way—“That’s not what I asked you”—trying to force the conversation back to Webb’s son. Webb could have asked how the Bush girls are doing, partying their way across Argentina. He could have told Bush he was worried about his son; the vehicle next to him was blown up recently, killing three Marines. Given the contrast between their respective offspring, Webb showed restraint….

But that’s not how much of official Washington reacted. Columnist George F. Will was the most offended, declaring civility dead and Webb a boor and a “pompous poseur.” Were the etiquette police as exercised when Vice President Dick Cheney told Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy to perform an anatomically impossible act on the Senate floor? Or is that amusing by Washington’s odd standards?…

DOWNLOADS: (376)

PLAYS: (3707)

Embed

What a delicious bit of video from Heather at Video Café. Tamron Hall lost her temper at the right wingers who tried really hard to distract everyone from Mitt Romney's bullying ways and more importantly, his disingenous denials and half-apologies.

Carney, a right-wing writer for The Examiner, did what wingers always do when they're on the "liberal network." He tried to filibuster and dodge her specific question, which was not about what Mitt Romney did 50 years ago, but how he handled it when confronted with five witnesses—four of whom were willing to speak on the record—about the incident. Via The Atlantic, who reported it as a story where Hall was in the wrong:

Here's what happens when they don't. Tim Carney, a columnist with the conservative Washington Examiner, was on MSNBC's NewsNation with Tamron Hall this afternoon to talk about Romney. Carney came out of the gate fast: "What you're doing here is a typical media trick. You hype up a story and then you justify the second-day coverage of the story by saying, oh, well people are talking about it." Hall almost immediately lost her cool, chastising Carney, telling him he didn't need to come on the show, shouting over him, and eventually cutting his mic. Sample line: "You don't [want-sic] me to go anything on you, because you're actually irritating me."

The Atlantic's David Graham says Hall was wrong and Carney was right; that viewers don't care about how Romney handled the story or whether it will do any long-term damage to Romney's campaign. I disagree. I think it's a story that's entirely relevant to voters and one that should be given as much attention as possible. Not because it's negative, but because Mitt Romney's reaction was dismissive. He seemed shocked that it was even something that was being talked about.

Sorry David Graham, but Digby's right on the money about this and you're not:

I wasn't joking when I said this would actually help Romney with the base. This bullying is one of the defining characteristics of modern American conservatism. The idea that the good people all work hard and it's only the lazy that ever need help is fundamental to their worldview. Even the Tea Partiers who are on government assistance insist that unlike all the others, they have worked hard and so deserve it.

I've been writing about this for a long time, often in the context of the torture debate. But it also plays a large part in our political system. It's actually a very well developed form of social control called Ritual Defamation (or Ritual Humiliation:

Which is why it was good to see Tamron let Mr. Carney have it with both barrels. He was condescending to her and evading her actual questions. When it became clear that he simply intended to filibuster and not respect what she was asking or why it was being asked, she cut him off. Good for her.

One last note to David Graham at The Atlantic:

Moreover, he's exactly right about how TV news inflates stories. It's a bipartisan tactic: Jon Stewart showed some time ago how Fox News built up narratives by a two-step process: First, the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity talk up non-controversies; the next day, news anchors like Megyn Kelly would bring up the stories with the same "some people say" formulation.

Citing Jon Stewart exposing Fox News does not—I repeat, does NOT—make it a bipartisan tactic. Really, let's leave the false equivalence to the pundits and think-tankers, shall we?

If only Harry Reid could end Senate filibusters so cleanly, eh?