Back in 1965, Mitt Romney apparently thought a boy at his tony all-boys prep school had a haircut that was a little “too gay.” So, the Washington Post reports, Romney took out a pair of scissors, ambushed and pinned the boy to the ground, and gave him an amateur snippy-snippy.
Here are all the troubling details:
John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
If there’s a silver lining to this story, I guess it’s that we can now call Romney an amateur cosmetician with a dissatisfied gay client. The not-so-silving lining: Lauber changed his hair back to brown and got kicked out of school before graduating for smoking a cigarette. A classmate of Romney’s ran into Lauber at the airport years later, and Lauber told him the incident was “horrible.”
Lauber also admitted the experience was traumatic: “It’s something I have thought about a lot since then.” Just another piece of evidence that, far from being a rite of passage, bullying has lifelong negative consequences.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Randy
From a school-yard bully to a professional bully.
Does this surprise anyone?
Mark
1965 huh. Does it bother you that before his election and for 3 years as President of the United States, The Washington Post not once has expressed interest in the grades Obama made in college or law school. Yet they reported the report card of the Virginia Republican Governor, from kindergarten when he didn’t do so well.
I’m sort of glad the usually suspects are jumping in so whole heartedly with their bias so early. If Tuesday didn’t convince you, the country is angry as hell at the double standard and ready to punish anything he touches. The Washington Post is hemorrhaging money.
Daez
@Mark: Yes, because you get to be the President of the Harvard Law Review because you are a complete and utter idiot with horrible grades. Maybe the reason they have left Obama alone regarding his grades is because reporting constant 4.0 GPAs is boring!?!
Spike
Hardly a surprise. He has not evolved much with respect to his tolerance to those whom do not reflect his life experience. Imagine the LGBT community has a lot more horrible experiences to look forward to if this country elects that racist homophobe.
Cam
Does anybody see the tactics of the right wing??
This story which was well researched and has multiple sources and witness both GOP and Democrats backing up the claims looks bad for Romney.
So what did “No. 2 · Mark” try to do? He came in here, took a jab at Obama hoping to deflect the attention and all the posts into talking about that.
The e-mails have gone out in the LDS Wards and the Romney campaign instructing them to do this exact move.
Nice try Mark.
The fact is, Romney, a child of complete privilege still wasn’t happy unless he was attacking, physically assaulting, and humiliating other students at his school. Nice guy you’ve chosen for your nominee there.
Adam
I’m not sure that we can judge Romney now for what he did in high school (even though it was atrocious). But we can can definitely judge Romney for what he is doing now (which continues to be atrocious).
Chuck
Sounds just like what he did to American companies he raided. Seriously though, Mitt is a total bully. If he were on Glee he’d be Karofsky. What a douchebag.
Mark
Oh yeah! Obama is ashamed of his 4 point oozy grades in law school.
What a humble guy. I would have thought her have mentioned it in his 3rd autobiography.
1equalityUSA
What you are as a child is genuine. This is Romney’s genuine self. His dog would tell you stories. This man cannot be the president of the United States! He will be his own undoing. He can’t help it. King Shit on Turd Island will be layed low over the next few months. His hateful stance on civil law, “No on same sex marriage or anything similar.” tells us a great deal about his heart. He is basically pinning us down and cutting off our hair with the help of cruel friends that don’t have the guts to stand against bullying. This childhood story is very telling.
1equalityUSA
“laid low”–I need Peet’s coffee
LaTeesha
@Mark: Do you understand that your comment has nothing to do with the topic at hand? Or, do you always have trouble staying on task?
Cam
@Mark:
Once again, since the right cannot defend Romney’s behavior they are DESPERATELY coming in here to try to deflect the conversation onto ANYTHING ELSE.
Thank you Mark, for pointing out so clearly that even Romney supporters cannot defend this behavior.
Belize
@Cam: “Thank you Mark, for pointing out so clearly that even Romney supporters cannot defend this behavior.”
Could not have said it better myself. Where’s a like button when you need it?
Codswallop
This event was apparently disturbing enough that FIVE men remember it vividly and with regret 50 years later. That says a lot about it. And considering the Right makes hay out of WHERE Obama went to school as a child (a madrassa!), you can fuck off about claiming that Romney’s ACTIONS in high school aren’t important.
I’m seriously beginning to think Romney is a sociopath. I’m not kidding in the least. Look up “Hare’s psychopathology checklist” and count the number of Romney’s actions, from his treatment of his dog to his business practices, his artificiality, and willingness to say ANYTHING that will benefit in the short-term and see how many fit.
Ralph S
On Huff Post Mittens says he did not know the boy was gay, he just did not like his hair style! Mittens is too stupid to figure out he should have said, “Yes I knew he was gay, I did it because that is a sin”. This would have gotten the right wingnut hypochristians fired up behind him. What these people may think, if they think, is, “Didn’t like his hair style, that wasn’t very christian”.
Cave Man
The assistant headmaster of the school at the time (1965) has stated adamantly that no such incident was reported to the school, because all of the offenders would have been expelled. He even went so far as to say he couldn’t imagine Romney would partake in such an incident, becasue Romney was such a straight shooter. And yet, his accuser is the one who got expelled. This is just more evidence of the sudden realization that Obama is in serious trouble this election, and the libs are panicking by throwing every rationalization they can at us. Such as, eating dog is more humane than putting one on the roof of your car.
Clockwork
This proves Romney wants all of us dead.
Be afraid, be very, very, afraid.
Boomer
@Codswallop: Your bitter, angry statement, “You can fuck off about claiming that Romney’s ACTIONS in high school aren’t important,” got me to reading up on Obama’s high school days, since you believe those indiscretions are so important in today’s elections. In 2007, the L.A. Times reported that while in high school Obama actively associated with communist classmates and “Felt his first stirrings of anger against whites, and even delved into black nationalism.” Hmm, I think I’ll take the Mormon over the racist any day.
Cam
@Cave Man:
And once again, the Romney supporters have to try to distract from this by claiming some sort of conspiracy.
Again, all this does is show that they cannot defend this behavior so they have to keep trying to deflect from it. nice try.
Romney seems like a pure sociopath.
1equalityUSA
Mittens could have denied it ever happened, like the supposed assistant headmaster did (per caveman’s post.) This boy Mitt must have really been a big-shot. I bet he was proud of himself after humiliating this new kid in school. Was it Santorum who told the boy in the bowling alley that he can’t use a pink ball…”We won’t let you do that.” If Mitt and Rick were friends in school, they could have humiliated gays together. Santorum would have stood by and watched, while alpha-male Mitt climbed on top of the long-haired boy and chopped it short, in front of the group. These men are really, really sickening! Women, LGBT, thinkers, and young people need to run away from the Republican party. Let them be saddled with Bachmann, Palin, Santorum, NOM, Perry, and the like. They deserve each other. Just don’t wear a pink tie.
Kristopher
The sad thing is that a story like this might actually help Romney with the conservatives who are afraid he isn’t conservative enough. Personally I think it’s sad to see Gay rights being used like this during a presidential election.
Timmeeeyyy!!!
@Cave Man:
The Washington Post reporter had five eye witnesses corroborate the incident in independent interviews. And Mitt never actually denied the incident happening, he simply said that he didn’t remember the incident. BTW, lots of things go on in schools without the headmaster knowing (or wanting to know) about it.
kevininbuffalo
My heart aches for John Lauber. I read the Washington Post story and this man seemed to have a pretty sad life. God rest his soul.
As for Willard…he’s a sociopath who is unfit to hold any elected office much less President of the United Stated. If the dog story didn’t convince people John Lauber’s story certainly should!
1equalityUSA
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I’m entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives…You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty…we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use ’em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I’d rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.
Kaffee: Did you order the code red?
Jessep: You’re goddamn right I did!!
seth_g
If you think a prep school would ever even consider expelling the son of a state governor, you’ve obviously never spent a moment in one. And the victims know not to report bullying to the administration, particularly if a bright, attractive, popular, rich athlete in involved.
seth_g
And you don’t need to be gay to be brutalized. You just need to be weaker than the “posse.”
Olive Austin
@15 — The administrators of the school would be about a million years old now. If they’re still alive they don’t remember breakfast.
Montana
Well, thank God Obama never did anything like this—he just spent his high school days being stoned and coked-up. At least Romney’s parents didn’t desert him when he was in high school and pawn him off on his grandparents.
Codswallop
Yes, and instead of serving in Vietnam like only poor and lower middle class people’s children did, Romney cruised on over to France to push his made-up religion on people.
The guy is a fucking psychopath so don’t even try to change the subject.
Mistreats animals. Check!
Likes Being able to fire people. Check!
Is glib and says whatever serves himself best at the time. Check!
His emotional reactions seem slightly “off” and inappropriate. Check!
Made his money by basically destroying the livelihoods of others. Check!
A bully. Check!
Always has excuses for his behavior, never accepts responsibility. Check!
I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a few dead hookers buried somewhere.
1equalityUSA
Montana, If I had to be stuck on an island with either of these men, Romney would not be my first or second choice.
Danny
Romney spent his formative years in the Mormon cult when it openly and proudly epsoused nonwhites as the race of the devil (now it does so behind closed temple doors). He is still a cult member. Not surprising he’d commit a crime like this assault. If he didn’t do jail time for this assault then he should turn himself in for a 10-20 year stretch of jail time to prove he did not use his family’s status as part of the 1% elite to circumvent justice. Otherwise he is just corrupt.
Cam
@Montana:
The e-mails have gone out in the LDS (Mormon) Wards telling folks to come on these sites and do whatever they can to distract from anything insulting to Romney. The tactic is to either attack Obama to try to deflect the topic, or make vague insults at the other posters, insinuating they are saying crazy things etc…
The Mormons aren’t great at debating.
Zane
@Cam: Has their been an official announcement from the church? I’m sincerely asking. I’m not in the loop anymore. I was stuck in a Mormon Church during Prop 8, and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they were “encouraging” everyone to vote for Romney.
Zane
@Zane: There! Not their! Damn’t!
UsualPlayers
Dear Crazy Republican Trolls:
You aren’t doing yourselves any favors by defending this. See, you got a real problem here. Americans may not like us queens by some 50 percent of the population, but more than 50s (around 70 depending on the polls) don’t think its fair for you to attack us physically either.
My advice, if you want to be smart, do what Mittens did today- apologize and hope the press moves on. Right now, and I mean this sincerely, you are coming across as fucking idiots who don’t understand politics, much less simple moral decency.
Sincerely,
UsualPlayers
ScaryRussianHeather
5 G’s, the “victim”‘s family is denouncing the story and having their lawyer make a statement.
Wapo has changed the story without issuing a correction.
LOL typical. More contrived left wing hysterics.