In an effort to win over auto workers in Ohio and across the Midwest, Team Romney this week unveiled a jaw-droppingly fraudulent ad rewriting Mitt's opposition to the federal bailout that saved the entire industry. But largely overlooked in the shocked response to his bogus claims about Jeep shipping U.S. jobs to China has been the union-bashing that was at the center of Romney's primary campaign to win the Republican nomination for president. As a quick glance reveals, Mitt Romney may profess "I love American cars," but not the Americans who make them.

During the GOP primaries, Governor Romney didn't merely back a national "right to work" law, support Ohio Governor John Kasich's now-overridden SB5 law banning collective bargaining rights for all public employees and denounce President Obama's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board as "union stooges." (That last charge was particularly ironic, given the later resignation of a Republican NLRB member for leaking confidential information to the Romney campaign.) Using vitriolic language his campaign would prefer Ohioans forget, Mitt Romney blasted the United Auto Workers despite the sacrifices its members made to save Detroit. As he boasted in Grand Rapids, Michigan back in February:

"I call it crony capitalism and that's the path that [Barack Obama] is taking. He got hundreds of millions of dollars from labor bosses for his campaign. And so, he's paying them back in every way he knows how. One way, of course, was giving General Motors and Chrysler to the UAW. I saw that Bob King said that I don't care about the auto industry. I'm sorry, Mr. King. I care very deeply about the auto industry. I want to make sure we have good jobs, not just for a few weeks but for many, many years. I want the auto industry to come back in a big way and I've taken on union bosses before, I'm happy to take them on again because I happen to believe that you can protect the interests of the American taxpayers and you can protect a great industry like automobiles without having to give in to the UAW and I sure won't."

Not to content to stop there, Romney in a Valentine's Day op-ed called President Obama's successful rescue of the auto industry a "sweetheart deal" and "crony capitalism on a grand scale."

Instead of doing the right thing and standing up to union bosses, Obama rewarded them...This was crony capitalism on a grand scale. The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.

In reality, there was no truth to Romney's charge that "The president gave the (auto) companies to the UAW." As Politifact explained:

The reality is Obama was in charge of a bailout deal that resulted in the union's health care trust owning stock in Chrysler and GM. But the trust was owed money to pay for health care under the terms of labor contracts the car companies signed. And the union "gave" plenty too -- in the form of wages, vacation and job security. In that light, the arrangement was a tradeoff, not a giveaway.

What tips Romney's claim even further from reality is the fact that the union itself does not own any GM or Chrysler stock. The trust that manages health benefits for retirees is the stockholder, and it is independent from the UAW. It is not a majority shareholder in either company, nor does it have a vote on the board.

While Romney's union-bashing might play well with conservative Republican primary voters, the general election is another matter altogether.

Continue reading »

For months, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has made Barack Obama's supposed "failure of leadership" a centerpiece of his campaign. But like his ill-advised comparison of President Obama to Marie Antoinette, Romney's sound bite could well boomerang. After all, when Multiple Choice Mitt isn't comically reversing his stands, he's too afraid to take any at all.

That cowardice starts with his tax returns. While John Kerry and John McCain at least presented a summary of their (and their well-to-do wives') payments to Uncle Sam, the $250 million Mitt has so far refused to do so. Despite his famous demand in the 1994 Senate race that Ted Kennedy release his tax returns to show he has "nothing to hide," Romney reiterated his own paperwork would not be forthcoming. "We don't have any current plans to release tax returns, but never say never," Romney said, adding:

"I can tell you we follow the tax laws, and if there's an opportunity to save taxes, we like anybody else in this country will follow that opportunity."

Or as he put it to CNN's Wolf Blitzer last week (at around the 6:40 mark):

"I don't put out which tooth paste I use either. It's not that I have something to hide."

That's one interpretation. Another is that Mitt Romney is desperate to avoid the horrible political optics his tax returns would inevitably produce. After all, because Romney's continuing millions in annual income from Bain Capital (a company the Los Angeles Times recently explained "often maximized profits in part by firing workers") are taxed at the 15 percent capital gains rate, Mitt already pays a much lower share to Uncle Sam than most middle class families.

Romney's pusillanimity extends to his own tax proposals as well. Unlike virtually all of his GOP rivals, Romney has held back on endorsing either a flat-tax or the complete elimination of the capital gains tax. As he seemed to suggest to the Wall Street Journal, discretion is the better part of valor when it comes to telling voters about the massive windfall the Romneys would reap under the tax policies that dare not speak their name:

What about his reform principles? Mr. Romney talks only in general terms. "Moving to a consumption-based system is something which is very attractive to me philosophically, but I've not been able to sufficiently model it out to jump on board a consumption-based tax. A flat tax, a true flat tax is also attractive to me. What I like--I mean, I like the simplification of a flat tax. I also like removing the distortion in our tax code for certain classes of investment. And the advantage of a flat tax is getting rid of some of those distortions"...

Amid such generalities, it's hard not to conclude that the candidate is trying to avoid offering any details that might become a political target. And he all but admits as much. "I happen to also recognize," he says, "that if you go out with a tax proposal which conforms to your philosophy but it hasn't been thoroughly analyzed, vetted, put through models and calculated in detail, that you're gonna get hit by the demagogues in the general election."

Mitt Romney's fear of getting hit was also on display during the debt ceiling debate this summer. As the GOP's brinksmanship over defaulting on the U.S. debt reached its climax in late July, Romney turned his tail and fled. As MSNBC reported at the time:

NBC's Garrett Haake reported that Mitt Romney told reporters in Ohio yesterday that he would not comment on the debt negotiations in Washington. And so far, he has refused to either endorse Boehner's legislation (as Huntsman has done) or oppose it (as Pawlenty and Bachman have done). Our question: How does someone who wants to be the leader of the Republican Party not have a position on one of the biggest issues facing Washington, especially after the dueling primetime speeches by Obama and Boehner? It's actually quite surprising; this isn't just another Washington fight. Is the lack of a position proof of how fragile Team Romney believes its front-runner status is right now?

(Ultimately, Romney used Facebook to announce his support of the Boehner bill, but only after it passed the GOP House.)

As it turns out, Ohio was the scene of another of Mitt Romney's moments in cowardice.

Continue reading »

A compelling new ad from Ohio features several military veterans who now work as fire fighters urging voters to reject Issue 2 on Tuesday. The fire fighters marvel at the fact that they have to fight in the country they have served to protect in order to have a voice in their own safety and workplace conditions.

Issue 2, if it is voted down, would repeal Gov. John Kasich's Senate Bill 5, which was an assault on the collective bargaining rights of Ohio workers. The ad featuring the fire fighters is sponsored by the International Association of Fire Fighters.

More on the ad:

More than 1,000 Ohio fire fighters and paramedics are serving in the military, and after putting their lives on the line to protect our national security, these veterans have been stunned to learn that politicians used SB 5 to take away the voices of those who preserve our domestic security.

Extreme right-wing conservative radio host Bill Cunningham recorded a video wherein he called for Ohio citizens to vote against State Issue 2, which would repeal Gov. John Kasich's anti-collective bargaining Senate Bill 5. Cunningham blasted Kasich for refusing to meet with the union members hurt by the bill, particularly police officers, fire fighters and teachers, who he said were the best Americans he knows.

The stance is surprising coming from Cunningham, who is a rabid birther who frequently blasts the poor as being lazy, compared Barack Obama to the Adolf Hitler and said that Obama wanted to "gas the Jews."

The latest Quinnipiac poll out of Ohio shows that Republican Gov. John Kasich's Senate Bill 5 -- an assault on the collective bargaining rights of government employees -- is likely to be repealed, with 57 percent of voters opposing the bill and only 32 percent supporting it.

The campaign to save Senate Bill 5 is taking on water, with a new poll showing voters favor a repeal of the collective bargaining crackdown on Ohio’s public workers by a 57-to-32 percent margin.

The findings in the Quinnipiac University poll also show Gov. John Kasich’s popularity is in the same neighborhood as the S.B. 5 measure he has been campaigning to save. The survey of 1,668 registered voters found them disapproving of the governor’s job performance by 52-36 percent, up from a 49-40 percent negative rating in late September.

Voters will determine the fate of S.B. 5 on Nov. 8 when they vote on State Issue 2.

Issue 2 has created a contentious battle across the state. The issue would keep S.B. 5, which restricts the collective bargaining rights of public employees.

The Quinnipiac findings come a week after a survey by Public Policy Polling predicted S.B. 5 will be repealed by a 56-36 percent margin.

Support to kill the law is mounting if the Quinnipiac poll results reported Tuesday are accurate. The current 25-point margin favoring repeal is up from a 13-point margin – 51-38 percent – back in September.

When asked if he had a back-up plan if SB5 is repealed, Kasich said "I never think ahead." He also accused opponents of the bill of spreading misinformation and of acting out of emotion and not facts.

To learn more about the issue or to contribute to the efforts to repeal SB5, visit We Are Ohio.

The campaign to repeal Ohio Governor John Kasich's anti-collective bargaining SB5 law released a new video Tuesday, called "Loophole." The video takes on Kasich and other Ohio Republicans for the hypocrisy they have shown by protecting themselves and their friends while attacking firefighters, police and other public servants:

Politicians didn’t have to attack Ohio workers like firefighters, police officers, teachers and nurses, they could have chosen a different path. To make matters worse at the same time they were asking hardworking Ohioans to make ‘shared sacrifices’ they were literally giving out huge pay raises and bonuses to their staff members.

Ohioans deserve to be treated fairly and won’t put up with double standards. Now is the time to volunteer to make sure Ohioans know the truth.

If you are in the Ohio area, you can volunteer to help the campaign or you can contribute to support it from anywhere.

Ohioans are stepping up to take on their Tea Party Governor, John Kasich.

Daily Kos:

The effort to get a referendum on Ohio's SB 5 needed 231,149 valid signatures from 44 counties. Today, pro-repeal groups marched in Columbus to deliver 1,298,301 petition signatures to the secretary of state.

Two weeks ago, when the repeal campaign announced that more than 700,000 signatures had been collected, Chris Bowers provided an overview:

The only public polls released on SB 5 have shown wide majorities of Ohio voter in favor of repeal. A Quinnipiac poll from mid-May showed repeal ahead 54%-36%, while a PPP poll from later in May showed repeal winning 55%-35%.

This signature gathering campaign does not just force a November referendum on the bill. It actually prevents the bill from going into law until the results of the referendum are certified. As such, if the repeal wins in November, which seems likely, then SB 5 will never become law. This is shaping up to become a total defeat for Ohio Governor John Kasich and his union-busting allies.

That defeat won't come without a lot more hard work, but today the campaign to get enough signatures to force a referendum ends, and the campaign to win the referendum begins.

Excellent news.

NY Times has more:

An effort in Ohio to repeal a law reducing the power of public workers to bargain collectively moved forward this week, with the group leading the effort saying it had enough signatures to put it on the ballot and could deliver them to the state on Wednesday.

Volunteers from We Are Ohio, a coalition of public and private sector workers, collected 714,137 signatures over about two months, said Melissa Fazekas, a spokeswoman for the group. Some will probably be declared invalid by county officials, but the number is still far more than the approximately 230,000 required to get the measure on the ballot in November, she said.

The law, Senate Bill 5, was introduced this spring by a Republican member of Ohio’s Senate. Similar to legislation in Wisconsin, it sought to limit the bargaining power of public workers in order to give local governments more control over their costs. Its passage struck a nerve, and Democrats promised to put it on the ballot this fall, arguing that it dealt a blow to an already weakened middle class.

The bill would reverse decades of practice in labor disputes, by making it illegal to strike, and allowing public employees to bargain only if their employer chose to do so. Unlike Wisconsin’s law, Ohio’s also applied to the police and firefighters.

As protests spread to Ohio and Indiana from Wisconsin, Republicans are taking a harder and meaner stand against them. Look at that video above. Those citizens exercising their First Amendment rights are being called "a danger", which is the excuse given for limiting the number of people allowed to enter the statehouse today. Do they look dangerous to you?

Maybe it's dangerous to sing "God Bless America" with bagpipe accompaniment?

It seems the public doesn't think so. Today's USAToday/Gallup poll shows a majority oppose the effort by Governor Walker to take rights away from public employees.

Continue reading »