Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) has inserted himself into the discussion of Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital. The South Carolina liberal Democrat, who has been in Congress for nearly 20 years now, is accusing Romney and Bain Capital of “rape”:
Rep. Jim Clyburn defended the Obama campaign for attacking Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, implying Tuesday that the former Massachusetts governor was involved in “raping companies.”
“This is not an attack on free enterprise. I want say to you, I don’t take contributions from payday lenders. I refuse to do that. That’s free enterprise,” Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on MSNBC’s “Jansing and Co.” “There’s something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there’s something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a real serious problem with that.”
During Romney’s time atop Bain Capital, its investment success rate was 78%. Compare that with Obama’s abysmal record investing public, not private, dollars in his pet green projects. How the Bain record constitutes “rape” — a violent image of the type Democrats decry when they’re not uttering them themselves — is something for Clyburn to answer. He made his comments on MSNBC, which did not challenge him.
If Bain Capital is guilty of rape, then Barack Obama is the top candidate accepting major donations from rapists. The president hauled in $16 million “rape dollars” from Bain in 2008 alone. If Clyburn stands by what he says, Barack Obama is now known to pall around with terrorists and take money from corporate rapists.
As for Clyburn, he is the last person the president needs out there to defend him. But Clyburn is more than welcome to the conversation about capitalism and Romney’s private-sector success. Every time he pipes up, Romney probably collects another big contribution from industries that have caught wise to the president’s agenda.
Update: Rape, Rep. Clyburn, did you say “rape“?
The Obama campaign’s latest attack tells the story of workers at an Indiana office supply company who lost their jobs after a Bain-owned company named American Pad & Paper (Ampad) took over their company and drove it out of business.
Here’s what the Obama Web video doesn’t mention: A top Obama donor and fundraiser had a much more direct tie to the controversy and actually served on the board of directors at Richardson, Texas-based Ampad, which makes office paper products.
Jonathan Lavine is a long-time Bain Capital executive and co-owner of the Boston Celtics. He is also one of President Obama’s most prolific fundraisers. He has already raised more than $200,000 for the Obama campaign this election, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Lavine started working for Bain in 1993. He was one of three Bain executives who served on the board of directors of Ampad for several years, a post he held until 1999. Here’s a news release announcing his departure from the company in April 1999.
Lavine’s placement on the board of Ampad suggests he had a more direct role than Romney in the series of events surrounding the layoffs, labor disputes and eventual bankruptcy of the Marion, Ind., factory featured in the Obama campaign video.
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