It's getting to be a habit, the Richard Gorka moments. Just yesterday, Washington GOPer, Michale Baumgartner lost it when he was asked about Akin. He sent the offending a reporter an email telling him to "fuck off."
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/08/michael-baumgartner-goper-goes-rich.html
Now Mitt Romney is at it again, trying to tell Denver TV reporter Shaun Boyd what questions she may and may not ask.
"Denver TV reporter Shaun Boyd wanted to ask Mitt Romney about Todd Akin and the abortion controversy roiling the GOP Thursday. But the Romney campaign refused."
"Boyd told TPM that the Romney campaign offered her station an interview with Romney, one of several local news hits in swing states that Romney conducted via satellite Thursday. A campaign staffer whose name she didn’t divulge told her what questions she wasn’t allowed to ask."
“They said, you know, ‘the only stipulation is we don’t want you talking about the Akin issue,’” Boyd recalled. She also said the Romney staffer told her the campaign didn’t want questions for Romney about ‘the whole abortion controversy.’”
"Boyd said she resisted."
“I said to them, ‘Look everybody’s talking about this. It’s going to seem awkward if I don’t ask about it,’” she said. “And they said, ‘Well he’s said all he’s going to say about it. He doesn’t have anything more to say, you won’t be getting any new information so we don’t want to talk about that.’”
“It was pretty clear: ‘Here’s our one stipulation,’” she recalled.
This is vintage Romney. And this is just his candidacy. Stephanie Cutter was attacked because she pointed out that Romney is the most secretive candidate since Nixon. Yet it's worse than that. Nixon was a very secretive President. As a candidate he could sometimes be forthcoming. Recall, way back in 1952 he was the first politician to start the modern practice of releasing his tax returns.
I think in terms of candidates, Romney is the most secretive candidate in a long time.
"Back in May, Romney snapped at Boyd when she asked about medical marijuana — an issue before Colorado voters in November — and gay marriage. She reported that dust-up with Team Romney on the air at the time, too."
"When Boyd interviewed President Obama last year at the White House, she said, there were no such stipulations."
“None, none,” she said of Obama restrictions on her interview. “I was given a limit of time but I didn’t have to submit questions in advance. “
Team Romney suffers from the same weakness as do Palin, Bachmann, Santorum, Cain, and other gutless political lightweights:
ReplyDeleteMitt regards any reporter or interviewer who has the temerity to hold him accountable for his previously stated positions to be a bullying, biased member of a left-wing conspiracy, and he views any question for which he is unwilling or unable to provide an honest, substantive answer to be a "gotcha" question.
In short, Romney and his campaign staff feel that members of the news media should act as though they are working for his public relations department, only asking him the questions that he WANTS to be asked.
It's curious. Romney says that he is highly qualified to be POTUS based on his extensive experience as a "job creator" and fiscal manager while at Bain ... however we should not be allowed to analyze or critique said business experience, nor his ethics and values with respect to taxation policies.
Mitt to news media and Obama campaign:
"Don't discuss my personal finances, my business practices, my recent overseas trip, the socially conservative policies and legislative proposals of my running mate, and most of all, don't discuss my own policies and programs while Governor of Massachusetts."
Okay, let's talk about something totally benign ... "Mitt, how's Seamus? What? Don't talk about the dog either?"
Yes labman it would be easier if he just told us what we are allowed to talk about. Simply hand the press index cards no doubt would make it easier for him.
ReplyDeleteFrom what we understand, he actually makes people in his office stand in assigned places-each spot on the floor has someone's name on it-true story.
It was mentioned in the Vanity Fair piece I wrote about elsewhere.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/08/mitt-romney-youre-not-my-kind-of-mormon.html