Obama Super PAC Reprises GOP Attacks on Romney, Bain
Priorities USA Action, the pro-Obama super PAC, is out with a scathing reminder to Republicans that just a few months ago many of the party's leading voices were the ones attacking Mitt Romney and his record at private equity firm Bain Capital.
Remember when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said it's "pretty hard to justify rich people [like Romney] figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company"?
Or, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's disputing Romney's claim of creating 100,000 jobs?
Or, Texas Gov. Rick Perry's calling Romney and his Bain cohorts "vulture capitalists"?
Democrats and the Obama campaign are now essentially making the same argument, that Romney was a wealth-seeking corporate raider whose business experience disqualifies him for the nation's highest office.
A new Priorities Web video, simply named "Republicans vs. Romney's Record," is a greatest clips reel from the GOP primary, highlighting that Democrats are not breaking new ground with their anti-Bain campaign and that many Republicans also considered Bain fair game.
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Video Transcript:
NEWT GINGRICH: I'm for capitalism. I'm for people who go in to save a company. I'm for people who take real risk. But if somebody comes in and takes all the money out of your company and then leaves you bankrupt while you go off with millions …
RICK PERRY: They sit there until they see a distressed company then they swoop in and pick the carcass clean and then fly away.
GINGRICH: Loot companies, leave behind broken families, broken towns, people on unemployment.
JON HUNTSMAN: Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs.
PERRY: It's the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain. Because he caused it. There is something inherently wrong getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business. I happen to think that's indefensible.
GINGRICH: Those of us who believe in free markets and those of us who believe that the whole goal of investment is entrepreneurship and job creation, find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 people without a job.
SARAH PALIN: Gov. Romney has claimed to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain and people are wanting to know is there proof of that claim and is it US jobs created for US citizens? And that's fair, that's not negative campaigning, that's fair to get a candidate to be held accountable.
JOHN BRABENDER (Rick Santorum spokesman): While Mitt Romney was at Bain Capital almost one out of four companies they were involved with went bankrupt or out of business.
PERRY: I happen to think that companies like Bain Capital could have come in and helped these companies if they truly were venture capitalists, but they're not. They're vulture capitalists.
GINGRICH: Somebody who's very wealthy comes in, takes over your company, takes out all the cash and leaves behind the unemployment. I don't think that's a model we want to advocate and I don't think any conservative wants to get caught defending that kind of model.