Romney and Rush are business partners

[RecycleMichael]

It cracks me up to hear Rush Limbaugh denounce McCain while promoting Romney.

Then it occurred to me there might be more to the story. What do you know...

Clear Channel, the company that pays Rush Limbaugh millions of dollars and owns his contract, merged in 2006 with Bain Capital Partners, LLC.

Guess who founded Bain Capital Partners? Mitt Romney.

http://www.mittromney.com/Learn-About-Mitt/Mittxs_Biography

http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1824

No wonder Rush (and other Clear Channel artists like Glen Beck) are pushing Romney all the time. They probably get a sales commission.

[cannon_fodder]

To be perfectly honest, Romney didn't really FOUND the company he merely headed the spin of from an existing firm that he worked for.  He should also be noted that he ran it amazingly well (average return 113% under him!).  He left Bain, then was hired back by the parent company some time later.

What's more, Bain did not merge with Clear Channel, a company Bain owns did.  As an equity fund it owns, buys, sells, mergers and breaks up tons of company and disposes of them for a profit (including Staples, Domino's, Sports Authority and on and on).  The company may or may not have any management involvement with the company.

Romney has had no duties with Bain since 1998.  So the heading that he and Rush are "partners" is totally off base, especially considering this deal took place 8 years after Romney left the company.
- - -

In spite of the misleading headline and errant information, I find the calls of Rush and Hannity annoying.  Calling for Huckabee to quit because he's getting in Romney's way?  Really?  Huckabee did better than Romney in spite of those two calling for voters to abandon Huckabee for a solid week.  As a result, McCain's lead is wider than it surely would have been (not that I'm total against McCain).

Seems counter productive to me.

[swake]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

It cracks me up to hear Rush Limbaugh denounce McCain while promoting Romney.

Then it occurred to me there might be more to the story. What do you know...

Clear Channel, the company that pays Rush Limbaugh millions of dollars and owns his contract, merged in 2006 with Bain Capital Partners, LLC.

Guess who founded Bain Capital Partners? Mitt Romney.

http://www.mittromney.com/Learn-About-Mitt/Mittxs_Biography

http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1824

No wonder Rush (and other Clear Channel artists like Glen Beck) are pushing Romney all the time. They probably get a sales commission.

I checked this out and it is partially true.

I head Romney interviewed and he was talking like he was only a long ago employee of Bain and has no relationship with the company now. So I checked it out. Romney, in this case, is telling a flat out lie.

He was a co-founder and former CEO of Bain, not a simple employee and he personally still owns in excess of $10 million in stock in Bain, and that's not counting what is held in his blind family trust he set up. Far from being just a "former employee of the company".

Clear Channel is Rush Limbaugh's employer but not Hannity's. While Clear Channel is very involved with talk radio being the largest radio station network in the nation, they are not the employer of most of the conservative radio hosts that are backing Romney. Hannity's contract for instance is with ABC/Citadel, the third largest network. Hannity is however carried on more than 80 Clear Channel stations.

That does not change the fact that Romney does have a very close relationship both financially and personally with the largest radio network in the nation, and with conservative talk radio.

[RecycleMichael]

He didn't found Bain and Company, but his website says he founded Bain Capital. That is the company that merged with Clear Channel.

Clear Channel uses the phrase merged.

You may be right that they don't have any direct ties anymore...I tend to believe they still have many of the same people involved and many business dealings with each other...

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

He didn't found Bain and Company, but his website says he founded Bain Capital. That is the company that merged with Clear Channel.

Clear Channel uses the phrase merged.

You may be right that they don't have any direct ties anymore...I tend to believe they still have many of the same people involved and many business dealings with each other...

Good digging...

[Conan71]

RM,

You could have saved a lot of typing there.  Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, etc. are all RNC employees [}:)]

It was hillarious to hear Hannity explain today how he, Limbaugh, and others have not been marginalized by McCain doing so well.  It's the voter's fault for splitting the ultra-conservative vote by not supporting Romney.  I've never liked Hannity since they put him on the air on KRMG.  It's a Rush re-hash with a pedantic Long Island twang.

Call out the Wahhhmbulance Sean!

Now, let's get on to Ms. Hillary's business partners, or would you rather we not go there?

[RecycleMichael]

This isn't a slam on Romney, it is meant to attack Rush.

There are clearly no ethical standards in radio. For Rush to not at least once disclose any hint of this while blabbering day after day for hour after hour promoting Romney is in my opinion wrong.

He is trying to convince millions of Americans to do something that will probably benefit him and his close business friends quite a bit while never revealing his motives.

At least George Bush admitted he and all his cabinet worked in the oil business together.

[Conan71]

Feh.  Rush was up on Rudy for awhile.  All the talking heads were still being cagey on who they would be willing to support till Dead Fred got in the race.

[YoungTulsan]

I flipped by Hannity yesterday trying to explain himself out of the connection.  He made a decent amount of sense, but I'm not sure what to believe.    It seems to me that if Rush and Hannity were against Mccain merely on principle of him being a moderate Republican with liberal tendancies (as opposed to a true conservative Republican) they would have the exact same arguements against Romney.  Seems a bit hypocritical to me.  But I guess Romney doesn't have as much dirt against him ON RECORD, since the Senate is a very different place than pretty much anywhere else in politics.  My general impression of the Senate is that it is about 95% corrupt versus maybe 50% in the House and various different levels for other positions.

Romney reminds me of Bill Clinton, because he tries to make himself appear to be consistent in issues by explaining intricacies and technicalities of matters.

[RecycleMichael]

What are the rules about equal time on the show for a candidate? Are they affected if Romney is a part owner of the company that airs the show?

What are the possible ways that Rush did this...

1) He was ordered to promote Romney because he is an employee and doesn't want to harm his multi-million dollar contract.  

2) He did it because he is in on it and they all stand to make a lot of money if Romney can win.

3) He doesn't know who owns his company. He is a simple man who just does his job and keeps his nose to the grindstone. Romney's friends bought the company and his name never came up.

4) Rush looked deep in his soul and really believes Romney is the best candidate, somewhat because he has had business dealings with his associates.

5) Rush is really in charge of everything not controlled by Oprah, including Romney and the republican party.

[YoungTulsan]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael


5) Rush is really in charge of everything not controlled by Oprah, including Romney and the republican party.

Imagine if they joined forces..   Unstoppable!

[cannon_fodder]

RM, I hope you noted that I agreed with your major premise.  Rush and his ilk hung themselves out there and came in a resounding third.

I wonder if Anne Coulter will be voting for Hillary?

BUT...

Romney is not a part own of Clear Channel.  He may hold a stake in the company in some round-about way, but so do I (I own a media mutual fund which hold a stake in Clear Channel).  And moving on to your list:

1) Rush is a multi-multi millionaire who is unlikely to be bullied into any position.  If clear channel wanted to drop him several other radio networks would be thrilled to have him - or he could start his own network and be an instant success.  I'd wager to guess he makes more from ancillary ventures than the actual show anyway (books, appearances, lectures).

2) I don't really see how anyone winning makes Rush more money.  Is McCain running on a
"shut down AM radio" platform that I am not aware of?

3) I am confident he is aware of the connections.  But, as I stated before, Romney's involvement in Bain ended YEARS before it's subsidiary "merged" with Clear Channel.  I assume by "Romney's friends" you mean his former partners - Bain capital has 26 partners who act as equals.  Or do you mean his employees when he was CEO of the parent company prior to 1998?

4) I think Rush picked Romney because he thought he was the most conservative candidate with the best chance of winning.  A real dislike of McCain.  I really fail to see any reason for the corporate entity to cheer for Romney - if anything it would bring unwanted attention to a mass media conglomerate.

5) This is a real possibility.  

Seriously RM, take a step back.  This reads like an AOX conspiracy with a minimal thread of truth and the rest made up.  It doesn't even pass the sniff test and similar shame arguments could be made on any number of levels (Oprah wants Obama to win because she owns real estate in Chicago and Obama was involved with Chicago real estate).

I didn't vote for Romney and I'm not a big Rush fan, but the facts and logic don't back up your theory.  Romney has had nothing to do with Bain for 10 years - 8 years before they merged with Clear Channel.  NO evidence has been presented to indicate he has any significant financial interest in Clear Channel, that such interest if it existed would be befitted by having Rush tout him, nor that such influence was exerted.  

The cold hard fact is that at this level of politics every figure has well known connections in any number of circles.  You can play 6 degrees of separation and concocted any fantasy you want with nearly anyone (quick, someone find a movie released to support a democratic cause and a subsequent link to a politician and studio/director/actor).  

Bain capital has controlled scores of companies:
Burlington Coat Factory
TCBY
The NHL
Staples
SunGard Data Systems
Domino's
Sports Authority
Bombardier
Maytag
HCA
part of Phillips Electronics
Home Depot
3Com
Bright Horizons Family Solutions
American Standard
KB Toys
Outback Steakhouse
and yes, Clear Channel to name a short list.

Partners he worked with were from GE, PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Morgan Stanley, SBC, Met, BlackStone, and on and on and on.

Are all these companies in on the conspiracy too or just Rush?  If my pizza man shoes up and hands me a Romney flier I'm calling his donkey out.
- - -

and RM, for what it's worth... you're now cited in the financial reference section under Bain Capital:
http://finance.google.com/finance?ci=709905

[Breadburner]

I heard Kevin Bacon was involved too.....

[RecycleMichael]

I disagree. I think it is a big deal. Rush should disclose the connection between his employer and the campaign.

Yes, I may be prone to conspiracy, but Bain Capital is still run by Romney's business partners and he still has a big stake in it's success. Rush's radio show is a big part of the future of Clear Channel. They are still connected.

Former CEO's of companies can provide quite a bit of help to that company wanting contracts or preferential treatment of government. Look no further than Cheney and Halliburton. Halliburton received a billion dollar no-bid contract.

What could be the agenda for a Clear Channel insider running the White House? I don't follow radio politics enough to make a good guess.

[cannon_fodder]

quote:Rush should say
My employer clear channel was bought by a subsidiary of a company that my chosen candidate was a partner in 10 years ago.

Really?  Does anyone that makes an endorsement have to disclose all links to anyone that used to have anything to do with the candidate... the list would be endless.  See my 6 degrees reference.  Who has Buffet endorsed - I'm sure he has a business connection there somewhere.  Or any other high profile business man.

And as far as the "no bid" Halliburton contract that you're still complaining about list one other company that would be eligible to bid - none.  The process would be like the US Military have bids for flying machines when the Wrights held the only patent (really happened).

RM, I'm sorry, it was a nice try.  But there is no legitimate connection here.  A conservative talking head chose a candidate that was a business man involved in transactions involving hundreds of companies.  After he left hundreds of other companies transacted business - one such transaction happened to be with Clear Channel, to the surprise of no one (struggling media company has been rumored for a take over for ever).

What other former executives of Clear Channel, it's parent company, or Bain capital have run for office?  There are hundreds of executives between them, surely some have run for office. What about Disney, NewsCorp, ABC, NBC, CBA, or the other media companies? Track them down and expose them!

Seriously, did you see the list of companies above that you could write conspiracy theories about with anyone related to Bain?  
- - -

The alleged connection is 10 years old and several parties removed (Romney worked for Bain Finance who owns Bain Capital who bought Clear Channel Holding, which owns Clear Channel Communication, which operates the network that carries the Rush Limbaugh show, that employs Rush who endorsed Romney).  There is no evidence of wrong doing.  And you don't know why they would do it.  

Just not very convincing.