About the only part of Mitt Romney’s resume that isn’t being publicly trashed at the moment is his gig at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. But that could change.
Charles “he da man” Pierce points to a 2001 Sports Illustrated article that explains how the 2002 Olympics turned into a big, fat pork pie for a few Utah businessmen:
Is this a great country or what? A millionaire developer wants a road built, the federal government supplies the cash to construct it. A billionaire ski-resort owner covets a choice piece of public land. No problem. The federal government arranges for him to have it. Some millionaire businessmen stand to profit nicely if the local highway network is vastly improved. Of course. The federal government provides the money.
How can you get yours, you ask? Easy. Just help your hometown land the Olympics. Then, when no one’s looking, persuade the federal government to pay for a good chunk of the Games, including virtually any project to which the magic word Olympics can be attached.
For the past few years, while attention was focused on the Great Olympic Bribery Scandal—in which Salt Lake City boosters dispensed as much as $7 million in gifts, travel, scholarships, medical care, jobs and other goodies to IOC members (and their relatives and companions) to ensure that Utah’s capital city would be chosen to host the 2002 Winter Games—private and public interests have siphoned an estimated $1.5 billion out of the U.S. Treasury, all in the name of those same Olympics.
To be fair, Mittens is only mentioned twice in the article.
This is not to say that the recipients are unappreciative. Mitt Romney, SLOC’s president, has acknowledged the U.S. government’s contribution by saying, “We couldn’t have done it without them. These are America’s Games.” …
… Security is costing you about $240 million. Given the events of Sept. 11, few people would quibble with so large an outlay even though it’s a 150% increase over the federal tab for safeguarding the Atlanta Gaines, which had twice as many venues and four times as many athletes to protect. What’s surprising is that $200 million of this was approved before Sept. 11. Less than 24 hours before the attacks, in fact, Romney was in Washington seeking $12.7 million to cover a portion of salaries and expenses for Utah police who will be involved in Games security.
One of the major recipients of federal largesse named in the article is Robert Earl Holding. Holding is an oil billionaire who owns a resort that was the site of several ski events. Last February the Dems accused Mitt of cronyism regarding his ties to Holding, and at the time it didn’t make much of a splash. But maybe it’s time to trot it out again. I found this little snip from February about Holding at Forbes, of all places —
And now Mitt Romney, about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his leadership of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, is being accused of cronyism.
Politico notes that one of the biggest players in the 2002 games was Idaho billionaire Robert Earl Holding.
Holding owns Snowbasin, a Utah resort that served as the venue for many 2002 events, including the men’s and women’s downhill races. He also held a seat on the Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee.
Politico points out that Holding was kicked off the board at Romney’s request. Romney continued to back him, however, saying he had done nothing wrong.
Holding, in turn, has backed Romney, contributing $9,600 to his campaigns in the past five years and co-hosting a fundraiser in 2011.
Romney helped out cronies and at least one campaign donor. One of the biggest players in the games was Utah oil and real estate magnate Robert Earl Holding, who sat on Romney’s Olympic board — while also garnering a $14 million contract for from the committee for use of his ski resort in downhill events.
Holding’s project, Snowbasin, also reportedly benefited from earmarks for road improvements, and a controversial land-swap deal that Romney helped push for.
Holding was eventually booted off the board by then Utah-Gov. Michael Leavitt — at Romney’s request. But he defended Holding’s honor, saying the businessman “hadn’t done anything inappropriate.”
He’s also publicly claimed that such “conflicts of interests” were a natural part of business and only wrong if those involved didn’t recuse themselves from discussion of their own projects.
Holding, incidentally, has contributed $9,600 to Romney’s campaigns since ’07 and co-hosted a fundraiser for Romney in Ketchum, Idaho last summer.
John McCain, now a Romney man, slammed the Holding-Olympics axis a decade ago as part of his anti-earmarks crusade.
“It’s one thing to rip off the taxpayers… but then you also enrich developers for tens of millions more through land swaps and building roads for them,” McCain told NPR in 2003, “referring to Holding,” according to the network.
Mittens, of course, is now lamely accusing President Obama of “crony capitalism.”
I’m starting to feel better about Election Day.
Yes, I know the R’s are doing everything legal, illegal, and in between to suppress the rights of some people to vote.
And that the electronic voting machines are still a bit, well, “hinky,’ shall we say?
And that this is a deeply divided country where the level of insane voters is somewhere between 25% and 30 percent, and that there’s another 20+ percent of genuinely stupid and ignorant people, and ones who are racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and/or homophobic.
But watching Mitt Romney and his campaign unravel like a 3-piece suit bought at the Dollar Store, is really fun.
Mitt realized early on that he couldn’t be his father – not only did he lack the integrity, but the party had goose-stepped far, far, more to the right in the last 40+ years.
And he couldn’t run on his record as MA Governor, because, as Charles Pierce points out, he pulled a mini-Palin – but, rather than quit, he sat around the last few years, figuring ways to pay back cronies for past work, AND for future work when he decided to run for President.
So Mitt decided that, as a fabulously successful and wealthy businessman, he’d run on that success during these turbulent and perilous economic times.
Ah, but he didn’t figure anyone would want to look at how he got his wealth, and what he did with it when he’d gotten it!
Nobility has it’s privileges, as everyone knows.
So, why should “The Help” be allowed to see how the Massa lives, and where his money’s stashed, and how low a tax “burden” he’s paid?
How could they ask him. Why would they ask him. What business was it of theirs?
And, so, he continues to hide his tax returns.
For what it’s worth – I really don’t think there’s anything technically illegal in them.
Just that he had his CPA’s and Tax Lawyers find every available loophole – like the $70,000 tax break on his wife’s dressage horse.
He’s afraid to two things, I think:
-He may have had years where he paid virtually, or NO, taxes.
-And how much he tithed to the Mormon Church.
The first will piss-off the taxpayers who aren’t committed Conservative lunatics, who, after slicing off their noses to spite their own faces, look for other people noses to hack off.
And the latter will piss-off the Dominionist Evangelical base. ALL THAT MONEY GOING TO A CULT – when it could, should, have gone, to their Churches coffers.
Their Convention should be a lot of fun.
The unenthusiastic and lame, trying to drum-up some enthusiasm to support the rich and indefensible.
So, have a nice time!
Don’t get caught with any hookers, you uber-Christian politicians and attendee’s – male or female.
Doing that isn’t creating any jobs. Many of these people are doing what they’re doing because there aren’t any jobs.
It’ll just add another layer onto the cake that is your “Christian” hypocrisy.
Your second paragraph is missing a verb:
“…how the 2002 Olympics into a big, fat pork pie …”
‘Turned’ into a big fat pork pie?
paradoctor — yes, thanks.
Another good anti-Mitt ad from the Obama folks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uMo5pykT4uw
There was an article a while back in Harpers on the Mormon church’s goal, apparently above all other ‘goals’, of accruing as much wealth as possible. It claimed that the goal’s inception began with Joseph Smith (“obsessed with wealth”) continued with Brigham Young and continues today.
A few months ago a rumor was floated around that Mitt is equally obsessed even to the point where he lives in abject fear of having to spend any of his own money on his campaign for president. (I can’t help thinking that he tied that poor, sick dog to the roof of his car because he was too cheap to take it to the nearest vet – isn’t that what most people would do?)
More ‘Row-row’ for Mitt!!!
http://angryblackladychronicles.com/2012/07/17/romneys-olympics-sized-problem-outsourcing-jobs-to-burma/
It seems he outsourced the uniforms worn in the 2002 Olympics to Burma – yes – THAT Burma!
What, the slave-laborer’s in the Marianas Islands were TOO American?
It cost too much, so Reed and Abramoff cut Mitt a deal with Burma?
Mitt’s running into the same problem as McCain, in that the more you learn about each the less admirable they are (and neither started from a particularly high point). So even the episodes in each’s life where there seemed to be perhaps a smidgeon of good turn out to be self-serving crap.
And now McCain has said Palin was simply the better VP choice regardless of tax returns, making — according to McCain, Romney a worse choice for president than Sarah Palin. That restricts his voters to the nuttiest of the nutty.
@anthro: yea to be compared unfavorably to a national laughing stock (Palin) must burn. I’m sure Mittens feels like an accomplished, valuable human being in his own narcissistic self-view, rather than the oily greed-weasel the rest of us see.