Mitt Romney has gathered the old Bush Fraternity as advisers and special advisers and formal advisers. As far as anyone can tell, including Mitt himself and the rest of his campaign staff, his economic policy is the same as George W. Bush's -- but on steroids -- according to Bill Clinton, Paul Krugman and Ed Rendell. On Hardball with Chris Matthews, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele would not, or could not, describe a difference:
Here is an attempt at a transcript of the relevant portion of the debate:
CHRIS MATTHEWS: "My question to you, and it's a tough one: Give me the profound differences between the presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, and former President George W. Bush when it comes to economic policy?"
FORMER RNC CHAIR MICHAEL STEELE: "Chris, that's an irrelevant comparison."
CHRIS MATTHEWS: "That's my question to you."
MICHAEL STEELE: "But I'm not answering that question."
CHRIS MATTHEWS: "Everyone knows why you won't answer it."
One of the reasons that Mitt Romney's plans look like Bush's, smell like Bush's and read like Bush's, is because he has surrounded himself with Bushies. Take foreign policy for an
example: "When asked how Romney foreign policy would differ to Bush foreign policy the best an aide could manage was a bumbling: 'Clearly the governor recognizes the importance of soft power resources. On the other hand it’s not all soft power.'" Here's why:
Christopher Burnham cashed in on his Bush connections initially with a position as Managing Director and Vice Chairman at Deutsche Bank and subsequently with a gig as Romney Foreign Policy adviser.
Cofer Black cashed in on his Bush ties with the title of Vice Chairman of Blackwater USA, for three years from 2005-2008. Blackwater, of course, was the private security firm which received the largest State Department security contracts. He ultimately cashed in as "Vice President for Global Operations at Blackbird Technologies, a defense contractor specializing in electronic tracking, communications and cybersecurity." No surprise, Romney calls for a "unified national strategy," with "defense and intelligence resources ... fully engaged."
Eliot A. Cohen, besides his grotesque Bush credentials, was a founder of PNAC, or Project for a New American Century. Almost all of the Romney/Bush team have ties to PNAC of one kind or another. "The Washington, DC-based PNAC was an influential incubator of neoconservative policy ideas whose members later went on to successfully push for the invasion of Iraq." Now they want to invade Iran and Syria.
Karl Rove is not an "official" spokesman for Mitt Romney, but he is his most influential "unofficial" spokesman as co-founder and adviser to Romney SuperPACs American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, which had combined to raise over $100,000,000.00 in donations. "Democrats have struggled to compete with the two groups, which are aiming to spend $240 million on this election."
And that's not it for Mitt Romney's foreign policy Bushies. Here's more:
Vin Weber, Pro-Pakistan Lobbyist, and a "Managing Partner in the Clark & Weinstock lobbying firm," which has a lobbyist clientel that also includes defense contractors General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. "In Romney's major foreign policy speech ... at The Citadel, the candidate pledged 'to prioritize the full deployment of a multilayered national ballistic missile defense system.'"
Stephen Rademaker, another Lobbyist with deep Bush ties, also lobbies for General Dynamics as well as massive defense contractor Raytheon, which is "another major defense contractor involved in ballistic missile defense."
Dan Senor has huge Bush credentials and "is a former intern for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and still has ties to the lobby group. His sister, Wendy Singer, runs AIPAC's operations in Israel." He's the ultimate "Netanyahu guy inside the White House."
Pierre Prosper is already infamous for his recent policy proclamation in a Romney conference call: "The United States abandoned its missile defense sites in Poland and Czechoslovakia." As Thinkprogress note, "Aside from the fact that “Czechoslovakia” broke up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia nearly 20 years ago, the Obama administration never “abandoned” missile defense sites because they were never there to begin with."
Colin Powell, of all people, is already on record about the Bush/Romney foreign policy fraternity:
"I don’t know who all of his advisers are, but I’ve seen some of the names, and some of them are quite far to the right, and sometimes they, I think, might be in a position to make judgments or recommendations to the candidate that should get a second thought. For example, when governor Romney not too long ago said, you know, the Russian Federation is our number-one geostrategic threat. Well, c’mon Mitt, think."
Mitt Romney is not only living in the past, he's also living with the people from the past. That includes Romney's selections for education advisers, many of whom are familiar faces:
"On May 23, the Romney campaign released its education policy white paper titled 'A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education.' If you liked the George W. Bush administration’s education reforms, you will love the Romney plan. If you think that turning the schools over to the private sector will solve their problems, then his plan will thrill you."
If you're looking to demonize teachers, promote charter schools and voucher programs or create unlimited class sizes, while putting commercial banks back into student loans, the Bush/Romney team is for you.
Also, if you are looking for lobbyists in the field of education lobbying, you'll find three of them in the Bush-now-Romney camp. One of those is William Hansen, who was a lobbyist for Charwell Education Group for five years. Also, Hansen used his Bushie influence to become the President of Scantron. You know what Scantron sells, don't you?
Scott Fleming didn't make the composite picture above, but he did serve Republicans during the Bush era as Senior Education Policy Advisor to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for four years. He's still a registered lobbyist.
Christina Culver did make the composite, as she's a Bushie. She's also a former lobbyist. The eleven clients that she represented over a two-year period "paid Dutko Worldwide $2.25 million for their lobbying."
The third team that the Romney Campaign has fully rolled out is their list of Hispanic advisers. Prior to President Obama's recent policy statement on the issue of Immigration, Romney/Bush Hispanic advisers warned him that he couldn't continue to be a Vogon on the issues of illegal and legal immigration:
"Hispanic advisers to Mitt Romney have told him that it is vital that he soften the sharp rhetoric on immigration that he adopted during the Republican primary race and that he work to make inroads with one of the fastest-growing segments of the electorate."
It wasn't until recently that the Romney Campaign hired a full-time messaging coordinator for Hispanics.
Stupido! But Mitt has loaded up on Bushies: