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WASHINGTON — Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romneyadmitted on Thursday he "did some dumb things" in highschool, issuing a tepid apology over startling revelations hebullied and physically accosted a classmate who was presumed gay. His remarks came in the wake of a Washington Post story that quotesseveral former Romney schoolmates by name as they recall thepresidential wannabe holding down a classmate and forcibly cuttinghis long, bleached-blond bangs after disparaging the boy"sappearance. "Back in high school, I did some dumb things," Romneysaid during a Fox News Radio interview, although he added hedoesn"t remember the incident. "And if anyone was hurt by that or offended, obviously Iapologize for that." In 1965, at least five students at Cranbrook all-boys high schoolin Michigan witnessed the attack, according to the Post report. Romney, then the teenaged son of the Michigan governor in his finalyear of high school, was outraged by his classmate"sappearance, led a cheering gang of students in an attack againstthe boy, pinned him to the ground and hacked off locks of his hair. "He can"t look like that," Romney told a closefriend at the time. "That"s wrong. Just look athim!" The timing of the story couldn"t be worse for the Romneycampaign, appearing a day after President Barack Obama became thefirst president in U.S. history to throw his support behindsame-sex marriage. His administration is being celebrated by civillibertarians and the country"s gay community for taking abold stance on what"s considered a modern-day civil rightsbattle. Romney, long opposed to same-sex marriage, tried to do some damagecontrol about his attack on the late John Lauber during his radiointerview. "I"m a very different person than I was in high school,of course, but I"m glad I learned as much as I did duringthose high school years," he said. "I"m quite a different guy now. I"m married, havefive sons, five daughters-in-law and now 18 grandchildren.There"s going to be some that want to talk about high school.Well, if you really think that"s important, be myguest." A classmate"s sexuality, he added, was the "furthestthing" from his mind at the time. ABC News reported that the Romney campaign was reaching out toother old high school pals on Thursday, asking them to come forwardwith "supporting remarks." But the hits just kept on coming for the Romney campaign, as videoemerged of another former classmate remembering him not so fondly. "I have to say that I"ve had trouble taking himseriously as a candidate because I have this memory of him as a14-year-old boy who was kind of a jerk, the way most 14-year-oldboys are, including myself," conservative pundit MichaelBarone, now a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said ata recent event. The bullying revelations come on the heels of another story fromRomney"s past that"s caused him trouble on the campaigntrail — his treatment of the family Irish setter. In 1983, Romney strapped the dog to the roof of the family stationwagon in a kennel during a 12-hour road trip to Grand Bend, Ont.When Seamus suffered intestinal distress, Romney stopped the car,hosed him off at a service station, returned him to the crate andkept driving. "No wonder the story of poor Seamus on the roof of the carnever goes away: we have stories of Mechanical Mitt, and Mean Mitt,and very few of Mitt as a man who shows genuine empathy to people(or other living beings) less powerful than he is,"Salon.com"s Joan Walsh wrote in a piece entitled Mitt, ThePrep-School Sadist. Romney was never punished for the ‘65 incident, the Postreported. Lauber, who reportedly remained traumatized by the attack for yearsafterward, was "a soft-spoken new student one year behindRomney … walking around the all-boys school withbleached-blond hair that draped over one eye," the Postreported. Romney rounded up some friends, including Matthew Friedemann,who"s quoted liberally in the story. "They came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to theground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help,Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors,"the Post reported. The boy disappeared from school for a few days after the attack,returning with his cropped hair back to its natural brunette hue,the Post reported. He was later kicked out of the school forsmoking a cigarette. When a witness to the attack ran into Lauber years later inChicago, he was still shaken by it. "It was horrible," Lauber reportedly told David Seed, awitness to the event, who apologized to him for not stepping in tostop it. Lauber died in 2004. That"s not the only troubling incident recounted by Romneyclassmates in the Post story. He also allegedly said "attagirl" to a closeted gay student, and deliberately held a doorclosed while a vision-impaired teacher strolled into it. The revelations, detailed by witnesses who say they now leanDemocrat, spurred a national political debate: Are they relevant? Liberals, predictably, believe they provide a glimpse intoRomney"s soul. Romney "was intolerant in 1965, assaulting a presumedhomosexual with scissors, and he"s intolerant today opposingcivil unions" and same-sex marriage, tweeted Brad Woodhouse,chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Conservatives, on the other hand, were dismissive and accused themedia of failing to delve into Obama"s past in a similarmanner. I am an expert from SZMSAT.COM, while we provides the quality product, such as China Car Key Programmer , Truck Diagnostic Tool Manufacturer, Car Key Programmer,and more.
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