In South Carolina, just over a week ago, Mitt Romney declared, “I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign.”

It is a statement that is true, only if carefully parsed.

Here is the video of Romney being confronted by AP reporter Glen Johnson.

Coming out of his primary victory in Michigan, Romney has begun positioning himself as the Washington Outsider, railing against the failed policies of Washington DC Politics-as-usual. A populist of sorts, vowing to fight for every single good job, although his past business record suggests something quite different.

A quick check of the number of his K Street endorsements (more than any other Republican) shows the “Washington Outsider” role to be only a matter of creative casting:

Phil Anderson (Navigators)
Alexander Annett (Patton Boggs)
Elliott Berke (Barbour, Griffith & Rogers)
Henry Bonilla (The Normandy Group)
Michael Bromberg (Capitol Health Group)
Cesar Conda (Navigators)
John Feore (Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal)
Amy Flachbart (K&L Gates)
Ben Ginsberg (Patton Boggs)
Nate Gatten (American Capitol Group)
Gregg Hartley (Cassidy & Associates)
Ron Kaufman (Dutko Worldwide)
Ed Kutler (Clark & Weinstock)
Drew Maloney (Ogilvy Government Relations)
Fred McClure (Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal)
Phil Musser (New Frontier Strategy)
Darryl Nirenberg (Patton Boggs)
David Norcross (Blank Rome)
Jason Roe (Federal Strategy Group)
Bill Simmons (Dutko Worldwide)
David Tamasi (Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide)
Robb Watters (The Madison Group)
Vin Weber (Clark & Weinstock)
Tom Worrall (Whitmer & Worrall)
Bill Wichterman* (Covington & Burling)

Mitt Romney: say anything, promise everything, accomplish nothing.

Mitt Romney: If you don’t like his positions, just stick around a few months. He’ll change.

From Washington Times:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, has written a book about the Boy Scouts, and he includes a less-than-flattering story about Mitt Romney, suggesting that the Republican presidential hopeful bowed to the homosexual rights lobby during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Here is a portion of what Mr. Perry had to say about Mr. Romney in the new book, “On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For,” due out in February from Stroud & Hall Publishers:

“The ACLU’s ‘fingerprints’ aren’t on every effort to deny the Boy Scouts access to public facilities and events, though chances are they cheer when kindred groups initiate such efforts. Take the case of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In the planning stages, when it was faltering financially, Mitt Romney stepped in as president and chief executive officer. He soon straightened things out and set plans in motion to make it a success.

“In 2000 he put out a published call for volunteers … The Great Salt Lake Council of the BSA, the largest in the nation, with some 80,000 Scouts and 35,000 adult leaders, answered Romney’s call for volunteers.”

“Some time that fall, however, the Scouts were advised that they were no longer welcome to participate. Chief Scout Executive for the Council, Marty Latimer said, ‘We don’t understand what’s wrong. They just don’t want us and won’t talk to us.’ He said that Romney had not returned calls from several Scout executives seeking an explanation. The Council’s President R. Lawry Hunsaker expressed surprise that Romney had ignored Scout leaders for he had once been a Scout and a Scout leader himself. ‘We can’t get him to return our calls.’ ”

“I would also suggest that one needs to look very carefully at exactly what the business record is,” Huckabee said.”If it’s taking companies that are in serious trouble, buying them when they are in pain, selling off their assets, then making huge profit off of it then that’s not something a lot of Americans can relate to, except those that have lost their jobs because of those kind of transactions.If that’s the turnaround then there are a lot of Americans who do not want to see their lives turned around like that.” source

Before taking a morning jog in Ft. Lauderdale, Mike Huckabee’s remarks regarding Mitt Romney’s business record drew a very sharp distinction between the vision of conservatism espoused by Wall Street Republicans and Main Street Republicans. It is a distinction drawn previously by both Huckabee and Duncan Hunter, and one that has come into increasing focus as the economy emerges as the top issue in the campaign.

Ironically, it is the success of the Bush national security policy, and the counter-insurgency strategy in Iraq that has diminished the war and national security as the primary focus of the campaign. But, if the economy is Romney’s supposed strong suit, a closer look at his record in the private equity business is warranted.

…as the leader of private equity firm Bain Capital from 1984 to 1999, Romney’s record shows that while some of the firm’s investments helped companies grow, others ended in thousands of layoffs, and in some cases, bankruptcy.

Layoffs are a common result of private equity takeovers, with Bain Capital no exception….

Companies such as office supplier Staples Inc. and pizza company Domino’s were successful Bain investments under Romney.

But medical test maker Dade Behring, circuit board maker DDi, American Pad & Paper and auto parts company Cambridge Industries are among the companies that went bankrupt after Bain invested in them with Romney at the helm….

The private equity model is built on loading companies up with debt — which can ultimately prove too heavy a load for the business, as was the case with DDi.

Bain invested $46 million in DDi in October 1997 and later sold shares worth at least $93 million, according to a report by the Orange County Register newspaper. The Anaheim, California, company ultimately went bankrupt, laying off 2,100 employees. source

“It always makes sense to fight for every single good job.”

This was Mitt’s campaign rhetoric in Michigan and SC. It makes perfect sense for a candidate for President to say this.

But, if this had been his attitude as a businessman, this is certain: He would not have amassed the personal fortune that is financing his run for the Presidency, and thousands of “good jobs” at DDI, American Pad and Paper, Cambridge Industries, and others might still be around.

It does help to explain, however the club for growth’s enthusiastic support for Romney, despite his less than sterling fiscal record as governor of Massachusetts — he’s one of their own.

“his support for broad-based tax cuts in liberal Massachusetts together with his enthusiastic embrace of the Bush tax cuts on the campaign trail offers hope that Governor Romney’s previous ambivalence on tax policy is more a function of Massachusetts politics than his core beliefs.”

Ah yes. hope!

The fiscal record of Romney is somewhat similar to Huckabee. They both governed Democrat majority states as pragmatic conservatives. But Romney comports himself as a fiscon, so establishment Republicans give him a pass, and praise his record as offering hope.

He’s one of their own. More “identity politics?”

This man will say anything, take any position, promise any favor.
The man, the myth…the mittster…