2008 McCain / Huckabee: Romney a Heartless Capitalist; 2012 McCain / Huckabee: Romney a Successful Entrepreneur

Well, ain't this convenient. When John McCain was a candidate running against Mitt Romney in 2008, he went after Romney over Bain Capital. Now that he's supporting Romney, Bain Capital is apparently the beacon of capitalism. Paging Rush and Sean.....

John McCain then, via the New York Times:

Mr. McCain, speaking at a shipyard in Jacksonville, swatted aside Mr. Romney’s charge that he is a “liberal Democrat” by saying: “He is consistent. He has consistently taken both sides of every major issue. He has consistently flip-flopped on every major issue.”

He cited Mr. Romney’s support as governor for a regional greenhouse gas emissions control program, for a lenient policy toward illegal immigrants and for campaign finance revisions, all positions he has reversed as a presidential candidate. “People, just look at his record as governor,” Mr. McCain said. “He has been entirely consistent. He has consistently taken two sides of every major issue, sometimes more than two. So congratulations.”

Mr. McCain also went after Mr. Romney for his work as head of Bain Capital, a leveraged-buyout firm. “As head of his investment company he presided over the acquisition of companies that laid off thousands of workers.”

John McCain now, via CBS News:

McCain, the party's 2008 nominee, said that the Bain Capital firm, where Romney worked as its chief executive, profited from businesses that ultimately didn't succeed "perhaps more than they should have in a fair and equal world." But McCain also said that attacks from Romney's challengers, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, go against Republican principles.

"These attacks on, quote, Bain Capital is really kind of anathema to everything that we believe in," said McCain. "We believe in job creation, and the record of Bain Captial is to take companies that would otherwise fail and restore them to some kind of viability, and sometimes that doesn't work, but, you know, when it always works is a thing called communism, where you keep everybody in business."

The other Republican nominee from 2008 - Mike Huckabee - has a similar problem. This, via Media Matters, is an excerpt from Huckabee's newsletter defending Romney's record at Bain Capital:

Romney has come under a lot of fire for Bain Capital's investments in some companies that were then scaled down with layoffs to become profitable. That's been demonized thoroughly by the media as corporate raiding, But it's surprising to see so many Republicans embrace that leftwing argument capitalism.

Uh, here is Romney in 2008 on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital, via the AP:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee criticized rival Mitt Romney's past as a venture capitalist Thursday, saying some workers lost their jobs as a result.

In 1983, Romney founded Bain Capital, a firm that developed a reputation for turning around ailing companies and earned him millions of dollars. Asked about Romney's experience, Huckabee said the former Massachusetts governor's success came at the expense of workers.


"If that's the turnaround, a lot of Americans would not want to see their lives turned around like that," the former Arkansas governor told reporters before running with a group of supporters about four miles along sun-drenched Fort Lauderdale beach.

McCain and Huckabee should be choking on their hypocrisy right now.

Never thought I'd say this but h/t to Think Progress and Media Matters.