Ha! Some reporting from the Boston Globe already begins to deflate Mitt Romney’s presidential aspirations.
As Governor Mitt Romney explores a presidential bid, he has grown outspoken in his criticism of illegal immigration. But, for a decade, the governor has used a landscaping company that relies heavily on workers like these, illegal Guatemalan immigrants, to maintain the grounds surrounding his pink Colonial house on Marsh Street in Belmont.
Hypocrisy? Check. Illegals? Check. Pink house in Massachusetts? WTF dude.
Well, we’ll soon know if he’s the frontrunner, by how fast the right rallies around him and explains why this hypocrisy is good for America.
Oliver, did you even read the article? It says Romney didn’t that they were illegal, so how can you accuse the man of hypocrisy?
No come on Niraj…ollie asks for a green card everytime he gets a burger at mcdonalds….just to make sure…
It’s hypocrisy because like every winger Romney talks up his anti-illegal credentials.
Oliver:
You make no sense. You still haven’t explained what Romney did or say that constitutes hypocrisy. I swear, sometimes your explanation are clear as mud.
Oh, I use that same excuse when I am caught speeding…..”I didn’t know the speed limit officer…”
You would think maybe, just maybe someone who is outspoken against them would maybe I don’t know…check on something like that. No, he’s typical of all you right-wingers, just assume something and pretend reality doesn’t exist.
Yea joey dumbnuts, he is going to do like Oliver and request the “carde verde” everytime he has a service from someone with hispanic heritage…that should get some headlines eh?
Typical liberal argument, damned if you do, damned if you don’t
Typical liberal argument, damned if you do, damned if you don’t
No no no.
Damned if you do, then say nobody else should.
Is that hard to understand?
Wow, they are really making doctors ignorant these days…
Typical ignorant response, why don’t you just say it’s someone elses job to make sure. God help us all if he were a democrat. The good doctor would be the first one calling for his head.
You are going to tell me someone who is so fucking outspoken against illegal immigrants would not inquire at all? Are you that dumb, seriously, are you? Jesus, all you fucking do is pass the buck and make excuses.
So if Romney would have asked the company that he hired to do his landscaping to produce proof of legal status of all the Hispanic workers they have employed, would you instead be calling him a racist?
Should Romney have assumed that the company with Hispanic workers were illegal and and insisted on using a company with only “American” workers?
(Funny- I thought the Boston Globe had a policy to call “illegal immigrants” undocumented workers. I suppose that only applies when in reference to Democrats.)
(wow- I botched that sentence. Well- you get the gist…)
The Republican Party seems to have the hard-on about illegal workers (and to be toally fair, I am not suggesting it’s not a problem, I am realistic, something does need to be done). So you telll me, did he do anything wrong? If he did, you tell me, what should he have done?
Pedro,
Have you ever been a Governor?
No?
Then your opinion on this matter is invalid. You don’t get to say any more.
If you can provide proof of your gubernatorial service, then you can opine on the subject. Otherwise, stfu.
Uh, Mike? You aren’t serious, are you? Then who would be able to talk about it? Only Governers and ex-Governers?
It’s a carryover from another thread, Marty.
To the business at hand:
I’m sure that all of our conservative friends here are sincere in their belief that Mr. Romney should be held blameless for the hiring practices of a company for whom he is merely a customer. In fact, if it were discovered that any other Massachusetts politician–named, say Kerry or Kennedy–had made the same error, they would leap to their defense as well.
Am I right, friends?
Seriously, before one can charge Mr. Romney with hypocricy, one should be prepared to present what he has had to say on the subject. The Globe article only hints at one such example, in which Mr. Romney supported an effort to prevent companies that hire illegal workers from receiving state contracts.
Verdict: insufficient evidence.
Actually, Quake, you are correct. In fairness, any politician (including those you named) who did the same thing would get the same consideration from me in the same kind of case.
It’s little different hiring a company to do work that you later find out employs illegal workers than say owning a vinyard (or other company) that hires illegals or hiring a housekeeper that is an illegal. The burden of proof is on the people that do the hiring, and not on the people who contract with their company.
In fairness, any politician (including those you named) who did the same thing would get the same consideration from me in the same kind of case.
How absolutely splendid of you. Do you suppose the rest of the right side of blogistan would join you?
Honestly, I don’t. I suspect we’d be reminded constantly, for no less than six or eight years, in extravagant language, that Democrat X hired an illegal!
Kimba Wood, anybody?
Kimba Wood hired the nanny herself and it was her burden as the employer to verify the legal status of her employee.
And just as you have been so kind to give Romney the benefit of the doubt in the left of blogistan, I would do the same in the right.
Just like you don’t speak for the left, I don’t speak for the right. (I speak for me and what I believe.)
“Where were the stories in the Boston Globe regarding Kerry’s landscapers in 2004?”
Kerry lives in a swank townhouse on Beacon Hill, right in downtown Boston. There’s no yard.
LOL!! Great final line. Classic.
That would make a shred of sense if John Kerry, Hillary Clinton or the party to which they are both a member made illegal immigration and the people involved in it the subject of derision, discussion, and demonization the way Republicans have.
Quite a haystack you have there, Tyfoc.
Marty wrote:
“I don’t speak for the right. (I speak for me and what I believe.)”
Allright. I’m asking what you believe right-wing bloggers would do if this story concerned Mr. Kerry instead of Mr. Romney. The comments that have oozed out since our last exchange should prove instructive.
Let’s take tyfoc’s monkeyshines in the order they were presented:
Point one:
By Oliver’s tortured logic, anyone who patronizes a business that employs illegal aliens is a hypocrite.
No, a politician who want to wants to prohibit the state from doing business with companies that hire illegal workers, but who is perfectly willing to hire those same companies himself opens himself to charges of hypocricy.
Point two:
Where were the stories in the Boston Globe regarding Kerry’s landscapers in 2004?
The Globe–no friend of Mr. Kerry’s–was probably too busy examining Mr. Kerry’s family tree or parsing his quips about being Irish to be concerned about the matter.
Point three:
How quickly will the Boston Globe express its support of the little people, the 90+% of America who make their living as an operator or employee of a small business, after throwing this small business under the bus in order to smear one of its customers?
You’re referring to the company that hires illegal immigrants, right? I thought those were supposed to be the bad guys for conservatives.
Point four:
Isn’t the preferred term among the media for illegal aliens “undocumented workers?”
Varies by newsroom. If you come up with a copy of the Globe’s stylebook, do let us know.
Point five:
Oliver, did you just make a gay joke about Governor Romney’s house?
Haw! I believe that was OW’s imitation of a right-winger!”He looks French!“, “He uses Botox!”, “Windsurfing! Windsurfing!”
Does that about cover it, tyfoc? Now I have a question:
Am I the only one who smells bananas?
The point is that Romney,who has been working overtime to earn his wingnut bonafides by slamming gays and illegal immigrants, has undocumented workers caring for the lawn of his pink house. It’s practically a stereotype cartoon. That would be the very definition of hypocrisy, but kudos to everyone who noticed that the real issue is that illegal aliens are often referred to as “undocumented workers.”
K-U-D-O-S to you, good sir(s).
Quacker see my quip about checking a green card at McDonalds…
My point is that I don’t hold ANY politician responsible for checking the bona fides on a worker for another company. If he HIRED the illegal himself, then they are responsible.
And Joey Numbnuts, yes it is someone elses responsiblity to determine the legality of the people they hire…the business hiring them
What Quaker said (thanks).
And my crack about Romney’s pink house was about the fact that one usually only sees house of such neon color in Florida or California. The fact that you saw it as a gay slam speaks more to your own internal biases.
And I speak on authority on the house color phenomneon. I’ve lived in the wild color stats (FL, CA) as well as the more subtle states (MA, MD).
Pelosi hires only non-union workers for her high-end wineries even as she receives the 2003 Ceasar Chavez award from the United Farm Workers…HYPOCRITE!
She also hires only non-union workers for her hotels and restaurants…HYPOCRITE!
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=247191278714751
Yeah, a biased editorial is the same as hard fact. And I don’t seem to remember Speaker Pelosi say anything about unions, pro or con. And hiring non-union workers ain’t illegal, like the illegal immigrants that Mitt Romney hired to tend to his pink mansion.
Wow, william. Thanks for that link. Now I’ll know not to trust that site any more.
For some reason, the author of the editorial has trouble distinguishing between “non-union” and “cheap, foreign” labor. He (or she) just can’t seem to tell the difference.
The author also seems to think that Ms. Pelosi should refuse to sell to companies that don’t hire union workers. I’ve never heard of any company that did that.
Really, if you’re trying to educate us, send us material that doesn’t carry the stink of a hit job, OK?
william, you can learn more here.
And in keeping with my complaint about sending us a biased link, I’ll give you advance warning that the link above will take you to ThinkProgress. However, the embedded video clip is from the San Francisco ABC affiliate.
Feh.
“By Oliver’s tortured logic, anyone who patronizes a business that employs illegal aliens is a hypocrite.”
Jesus, is this the stupidest comment of the week or what?
Quaker- to answer your question, I think some right wing bloggers- would probably use the same argument I did in defending Romney in this type of case where a company was hired, and not an individual. Michelle Malkin, Rick Moran, Captain Ed, for example, have defended Democrats in the past from badly founded criticism when there were there were so many real policy issues that could be criticized.
Others would probably take the Oliver Willis route and make it a smear. Unfortunately that’s how things are going these days.
However, the story would be different in a case like Kimba Wood’s where the judge made an illegal hire herself. That would probably get no mercy from either side.
have defended Democrats in the past from badly founded criticism
This is just patently false.
Ah, poor Oliver. Just because you don’t want to give anybody on the right credit for anything that you agree with, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
The people you cite, Malkin and company just don’t “defend” Democrats. They’re too busy calling us “unhinged” and worse. To pretend otherwise is to play the idiot.
Hell malkin defended Hillary Clinton against the depredations of code pink loonies for crying out loud….
and Ollie, a lot of you ARE unhinged. Malkin is just “speaking truth to power”…
When?
12/7/05
I actually wanted a link there.
NG, here are the first couple of paragraphs of Malkin’s “defense” of Ms. Clinton:
Hillary Clinton is seeing pink. Code Pink. The unruly group of far-left female apologists for tyranny around the world, most infamous for prancing around in pastel lingerie to protest President Bush and the war on terror, has now launched a nationwide campaign against the New York senator because of her opposition to immediate troop withdrawals from Iraq.
But don’t weep for Hillary.
Code Pink is the group that championed military deserters, cheered Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, traipsed around the Jordan-Iraq border last year condemning America, prayed for the “people of Fallujah,” doled out $600,000 in aid to what they called “the other side” and is planning a New Year’s vacation to Cuba in solidarity with the Castro regime. Sen. Clinton couldn’t have wished for a better Christmas present than having these loony peaceniks barking about her faux moderate makeover. 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, here she comes! If she doesn’t trip on the way to her Senate re-election bid and the unhinged-dominated Democratic primaries, that is. (Two words, Hill: Skip. Iowa.)