About THOSE Women In Binders:

[kpete]

Mind The Binder
Published Oct 16 2012, 10:46 PM by David S. Bernstein 227

Hey, I know about that binder! And guess what -- Mitt Romney was lying about it.

Not a true story.

What actually happened was that in 2002 -- prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration -- a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.

First of all, according to MassGAP and MWPC, Romney did appoint 14 women out of his first 33 senior-level appointments, which is a reasonably impressive 42 percent. However, as I have reported before, those were almost all to head departments and agencies that he didn't care about -- and in some cases, that he quite specifically wanted to not really do anything. None of the senior positions Romney cared about -- budget, business development, etc. -- went to women.

Secondly, a UMass-Boston study found that the percentage of senior-level appointed positions held by women actually declined throughout the Romney administration, from 30.0% prior to his taking office, to 29.7% in July 2004, to 27.6% near the end of his term in November 2006. (It then began rapidly rising when Deval Patrick took office.)

Third, note that in Romney's story as he tells it, this man who had led and consulted for businesses for 25 years didn't know any qualified women, or know where to find any qualified women. So what does that say?

http://blog.thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2012/10/16/mind-the-binder.aspx

[tosh]

1. I hope this spreads like wildfire.

[ffr]

2. Remind me never to cross kPete. Damn, you're ripping Robme a new one!

BTW, I forwarded your link from last night to my entire mailing list. Awesome write up!

[Indydem]

3. I've read this 3 times now.

And I do not understand how this is a lie.

Romney ask groups for recommendations on women to include in his cabinet and he got binders from those organizations with women's names and profiles in it.

He never says he asked them to put to put together the binders, he never said he asked for the study group to be formed. He asked for names and he got them.

I just don't understand how what he said is a lie.

Please enlighten me.

[Spazito]

4. He DIDN'T ask for recommendations at all...

The groups he talked about had put together a selection of qualified women, BEFORE Romney was even elected , with the intent of presenting it to whoever won the election which is what they did. Romney outright LIED, he didn't ask for it at all.

[beac]

5. MassGAP brought the binders to Romney and insisted he use them.

Romney clearly tried to leave the impression that he suddenly noticed all the candidates for cabinet positions were men and that he sought out female candidates. THAT WAS A LIE.

He did not "ask" for them.

HE LIED.

[HopeHoops]

6. It says he's a useless asshole, that's what.