Another Mitt Romney Lie : "I started Staples, for gosh sakes."

Romney Lies: He Did Not Start Staples

by Dave9000         Sun May 06, 2012

When running for governor, senator, and president, Romney has endlessly repeated the same claim with differing nuances. Sometimes it's "I helped start Staples" while other times it is "I started Staples" or even "I started Staples, for gosh sakes." On occasion it's the more modest "When I was at Bain, we helped start Staples."

The reality is that Romney didn't start Staples at all. He thought Staples was a bad idea. He even tried to prevent Bain from investing in the company.

Here's the truth:

Two men named Leo Kahn and Thomas Stemberg started Staples.

As they grew their business, Stemberg approached Bessemer Venture Partners, a competitor of Romney's Bain. Stemberg wanted to borrow money from Bessemer to open more Staples stores. Bessemer then approached Bain about joining in the venture to spread the risk.

But Romney didn't like the idea at all. He thought Staples was a bad investment and turned Bessemer down. Not once, not twice, but three times.

Only after other people at Bain pushed did Romney reluctantly reconsider. He still expressed strong opposition to the deal, but would not stand in the way of providing some backing. The proposed investment in Staples was tiny compared to other Bain deals.

Bain then made a modest $650,000 investment in Staples. Because he headed Bain, Romney was offered a seat on the Staples board. While on the board, Romney had no direct involvement in the company nor any management control. He simply showed up at a board meeting every few months. He was absent from meetings more times than he was present.

Bain made additional modest investments in Staples, for a total of $2.5 million. As soon as the company went public, Romney dumped Bain's share and was out of the investment.

When Bain got rid of its stake, Staples was still a small chain, with only 24 stores in New England and barely a thousand part-time jobs. It was nowhere near the mega-giant it would become. With time, Staples grew to more than 2,200 stores with 89,000 employees.

All of that growth occured long after Romney had left Bain and long after he had any connection whatsoever with the company.

A company Romney thought was a bad investment. Which he demonstrated by pulling out as quickly as he could.

What's troubling most about this is how the lie "Romney started Staples" is endlessly repeated by his supporters and even some of his opponents.

Romney no more started Staples than he started Apple or Microsoft. He made a small investment in the company, pulled out early and that's it. His investment was barely anything more than buying stock in the company.

Romney's claim that he started Staples is no more valid than an investor who bought Apple stock in 1990 claiming, "I started Apple."

To learn more about Romney's real record, read The Real Romney, by Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, the primary source for the information in this piece.

Technorati Tags: Mitt Romney,Liar,Bain Capital,Staples,1%,Current Events

Senator Marco Rubio: Another Republican Thief

 From the Atlantic:

“Rubio's political committee has also "spent more than $40,000 for investigators to research for negative attacks that could surface against him." This month, he asked the Florida State Ethics Committee to "closeout a complaint that he misused Republican Party and campaign money" to run up excessive food and travel bills on GOP credit cards”

From  Politico :

“In a negotiated settlement finalized last month but only publicly released now, Marco Rubio for Senate acknowledged taking in more than $210,000 in “prohibited, excessive and other impermissible contributions” during his Senate campaign and failing to refund or “redesignate” the funds within the allowed time frame.

Even after an internal audit, the Rubio campaign failed to identify more than $83,000 in improper or incorrectly characterized contributions, according to a March 19 agreement between the campaign and the FEC.

…A spokesman for Rubio could not be immediately reached for comment.”

More issues from CREW and the Tampa Bay Times:

1.  Rubio and his staff charged personal expenses unauthorized party credit cards including car repairs, and grocery purchases. Mr. Rubio’s chief of staff racked up thousands of dollars in expenses on behalf of Mr. Rubio on his card including dinners and a Rubio family trip to a Georgia resort.

2. Rubio also admitted he double-billed both the Republican Party and state taxpayers for eight flights totaling about $3,000 in 2007.

3. While preparing to leave his position in the Florida House of Representatives, Rubio accepted an “unadvertised” part-time gig at FIU that paid $69,000 per year. Maybe that’s because of the $29 million he steered their way which led to FIU”S president saying that Rubio was “worth every penny.

4. He was hired as a consultant for Jackson Memorial Hospital after he earmarked $20 million for them. They paid his firm $8,000 per month and hired his former aid.

5. Rubio’s wife was listed and paid as treasurer over a committee that paid $51,000 in unidentified travel expenses. Another Rubio political committee listed $14,000 in payments to family members, at least one of whom had a non-existent address.

6. Rubio, routinely charged personal expenses to his party-issued credit card from 2006 to 2008.

7. He billed the Republican Party of Florida 4k for a rental car in Miami and repairs to his family minivan, which he said was damaged by a valet at a political event.

8. As a Florida House Rep, Rubio started two political committees and raised nearly $600,000. He failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in expenses and concealed others by lumping them in credit card charges, the Times/Herald reported.

In one of the complaints filed against Rubio, this is how he was described:

"It appears that Mr. Rubio believes that PAC stands for 'personal access to cash,' " Ryan said in the complaint, calling it a "fraud upon his donors whose donations were solicited for political purposes, not to subsidize his lifestyle."

Technorati Tags: Marco Rubio,Congress,Elections,Barack Obama,Mitt Romney,Election Law,Current Events,Politics