Mitt Romney was arrested for disorderly conduct in 1981, spat with officer

[rbrnmw]

During the summer of 1981 Mitt Romney took his family to Lake Cochituate, located in Wayland, Massachusetts for a boat ride. It was here that he got into an argument with a park officer, and was promptly arrested for disorderly conduct.

In a rarely referenced moment of his life, Mitt Romney lost his cool on a local park officer. He now denies an wrongdoing.

As Romney tells the story he brought his family down to the lake for a relaxing boat cruise, and was loading his boat into the water. Apparently his boat license, which was affixed to the boat, had been painted over. Because of that a park officer warned Mitt that putting his boat in the water would yield him a $50 fine. The officer then walked away from Romney.

Considering Romney is a multi-millionaire, he was not daunted by the hefty fine and continued to introduce his boat to the water. Mitt acknowledges he did not follow the officer's orders in an interview. He said:

"I figured I was at the state park with my kids. My five kids were in the car wondering why we weren't going out in the boat, so I said I'd launch and pay the fine."

Excerpt

link to full article

http://www.examiner.com/article/mitt-romney-was-arrested-for-disorderly-conduct-1981-spat-with-officer

[left on green only]

1. It has been a while for me, but at least during the earlier years of my life.....

.....something like that would be enough to prevent a person from getting a DOD secret clearance at their job.

That having been said, it blows my mind that in light of that, a person can be still qualified to be president of the United States.

[Revolutionary Girl]

2. "I can just pay money to get around the rules, they don't apply to me!"

Yep. Sadly this almost certainly won't get the play it deserves. Did nobody know? Was this only just dug up? Surely this could've been trotted out before now?

[rbrnmw]

3. I had never heard about this before this morning

I hope it gets some MSM coverage soon maybe this is just more of the stuff McCain had on him or maybe Harry Reid but it goes to the mindset of Romney he's a loose cannon and can lose his temper when somebody challenges him Someone that acts like that has no business near the nuclear football

[MuhkRahker]

4. I've never heard about this. Too bad there is no mugshot.

Anyone have knowledge of past Presidents or candidates for the job having an arrest record? Is it uncommon?

[sarge43]

6. Didn't Bush get nailed in Maine for a DWI? n/t

[underoath]

9. Yes he did

[flyguyjake]

5. As every rich snob does.

Why do all rich people feel above the law?

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. it isn't just "rich"

it's being the son of a high-ranking executive and governor who's never not known some degree of deference; when he was a kid his dad was president of American Motors, and then governor of Michigan when he was 16. You think a police officer in Michigan who recognised him and knew who his father was would have arrested him in his youthful days? I suspect not, and I'm sure he knew it. Living with that sort of deference creates an expectation that it's the treatment and respect one is due, for being a member of a special privileged class. Merely having money doesn't create that sort of attitude.

[rbrnmw]

8. And he ran across one who didn't know he was born priviliged

GWB had his record ex sponged so he could run and so did RMoney makes me sick

[MindPilot]

10. Frankly I'm a little suspicious of this story.

Mitt "hardware stuff" Romney just doesn't seem like a guy who would have the skill set required for boating.

[slampoet]

11. They teach boating in prep school. Hardware, not so much.

Especially Michigan prep schools.

[Motown_Johnny]

12. Skill set for boating?

It sounds like he was towing a trailer with a boat on it. You back the trailer into the water so the boat can float, secure the boat so it doesn't float away and then pull the car up and park it with an empty trailer.

If you can wade into hip deep water you can launch a boat.

[Generic Other]

13. Slightly off-topic

but did you see the links to the tortured skewed polls on the sidebar of that article? WTF? What kind of math were they doing?

<snip>
There are many heavily-skewed polls favoring Obama from Virginia but an average of the credible polls there (Purple, WeAskAmerica and Rasmussen) shows it as 48.0 percent Obama to 45.7 percent Romney. That is statically a tie and the undecided voters will swing Virginia to Romney in November. North Carolina is a similar story but Romney leads 1.8 percent in the RCP average of polls there despite the inclusion of 1-2 skewed polls. Romney will win North Carolina.
<snip>
http://www.examiner.com/article/mitt-romney-winning-301-electoral-votes-as-projected-by-polling-data-1?CID=obinsite

A site that can draw these kind of conclusions from polls...well I don't know if I can trust it on this Romney arrest story. Is there any other source to verify the story?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

14. "As Romney tells the story"

It probably should read "as Romney tells the stories". I'll bet his version of the facts has changed seasonally over the years, depending on the severity of his "romnesia". At any rate can you trust Romney's version of having an ounce of truth or integrity to it? The man has zero credibility.

[napkinz]

15. another example of Mitt's bullying

Thinks he can push anyone around.

“Danger, Will Robinson!”