March 18, 2012

Could These Guys Be in Romney’s Cabinet?


The boys in the backroom?: photoillustration by Adam WeinsteinThe boys in the backroom?: photoillustration by Adam WeinsteinIn its latest story on Team Romney’s nomination machinations, the Washington Post dropped a minor bombshell: Some scary/funny names of possible members in a President Mitt Romney cabinet.

The far ranging article, “Romney advisers try to lay groundwork for united GOP against Obama,” details how the Romney camp has been working overtime to court Richard Land, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention and a heavyweight among evangelical conservatives. Land told the paper that Romney’s advisers have been in constant contact. What did they talk about?

Land said he recently told them that Romney could win over recalcitrant conservatives by picking Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) as his vice presidential running mate and previewing a few Cabinet selections: Santorum as attorney general, Gingrich as ambassador to the United Nations and John Bolton as secretary of state.

Rubio’s been bandied about as a veep candidate, though he’s kind of a yawner…when he’s not legislating ladies’ uteruses and keeping bad company, that is. The other members of this Land dream team sound like specters from a liberal’s sweaty Jungian nightmare. (I, for one, am haunted by neoconservative handlebar mustaches.)

Then again, bluster is cheap on the campaign trail. Land—who laments America’s “God-sized problems” (and who gave us a shoutout as an anti-Christian “leftist magazine” in his recent book)—is a culture warrior angling for some added clout in the Republican party. His fantasies don’t necessarily become realities—like when he championed a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants a few years back. So don’t start hoarding birth control and mustache wax quite yet. But don’t be surprised if Romney dangles a few Cabinet spoils before the right, if that’s what it takes.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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