Romney assembles 'political class luminaries' for variation of 'no labels' huddle. Nagging problem for elites is how to silence ordinary Americans, specifically the kind the IRS silenced. Romney tells elites they've got to in effect sell one-party rule, meaning far left democrat. Romney had no desire to be pres., uses his ill gotten perch to sell his sons' careers and urge elites to shut us up

Josh, pal, exactly what "petty, personal stuff" are you referring to? "The event, sponsored by Tagg Romney’s venture capital firm, Solamere Capital LLC."

6/7/13, "Romney’s Utah summit urges post-partisan cooperation," Salt Lake Tribune, Thomas Burr

"Seven months after losing the election, Mitt Romney urged a gathering in Utah of the nation’s political bigwigs and top business leaders to step past partisan bickering and discuss solutions to some of the nation’s pressing problems.

In a closed-door forum this week in Park City, the former Republican presidential nominee listed the many concerns facing America — from its debt to its economic instability — and suggested to a bipartisan crowd that they use their influence to tackle them.

"He’s kind of showing the way he would have led as president," son Josh Romney, a Utahn, told The Salt Lake Tribune after the event Friday. "It showed the kind of person my dad is and what kind of president he would have been, you know, [that] he would have got past the personal stuff, past the petty stuff and take the real issues head on."

The forum’s speakers included some of the political classes’ leading luminaries, including President Barack Obama’s top adviser, David Axelrod, and several potential White House Republican contenders, such as Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as Democratic Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

The event was closed to the news media, though Josh Romney said there were about 200 attendees and a solid discussion of how folks from both sides of the aisle could find compromise.

"One of the great things that came from conference is that there are so many issues where we agree," Josh Romney said. "The goal of the conference is really to influence those certain issues and how to move those forward."

No further retreats are planned, but Josh Romney said the crowd — filled with successful business owners and political elite — could use its influence to keep the ideas flowing.

Josh Romney said he didn’t hear the president’s name mentioned once at the conference, and that his father wasn’t trying to score political points but was attempting to influence the national dialogue.

"It’s not a Democrat problem, not a Republican problem," Josh Romney said. "It’s a Washington problem."

The potential 2016 presidential candidates kept their messages to specific issues, Josh Romney said, and made no political announcements.

Also attending the conference were the co-chairmen of a blue-ribbon commission that suggested several recommendations for the nation to dig itself out of a fiscal hole: Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and ex-Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming.

David Bradford, the executive chairman of the electronic interview company HireVue, posted to Facebook from the event that Bowles leveled with the crowd about the serious challenges facing the United States.

"I don’t care if you are a Republican or Democrat — we need to fix our long-term fiscal problem," Bowles said, according to Bradford. "We don’t have a plan; we don’t have a budget; we are running the largest financial system in the world on a month-to-month basis."

"Remarkable," Bradford added. "Everyone in America needs to hear his message."

The event, sponsored by Tagg Romney’s venture capital firm, Solamere Capital LLC, cost attendees $5,000, though Romney aides noted that the cost simply paid for the space and food and was not tied to any political cause.

Mitt Romney held a similar event in Park City last year during the height of his presidential race, drawing big donors and top advisers to a retreat to discuss political strategy."

 ====================================

12/27/13, "I'm With Tagg: Mitt Didn't Want to Be President," The Nation, Leslie Savan

"And you could see the ambivalence in his body language. When Mitt walks forward, his short, halting steps seem to pull him back, turning a brief trip to the microphone into a parody of a middle-aged white person moon-walking. On stage, during debates, he’d often look on wistfully, almost dreamily, at the other candidates while they spoke, as if he’d be “ecstatic,” as Tagg says, if only somebody like that could win the coveted office.

At the first presidential debate, he was suddenly confident and direct, a change-up that seemed to stagger Obama, and I started to doubt his doubt. It began to seem possible (as Mike Tomasky wrote) that maybe it was Obama who didn’t really want to win the election. But it was truly odd the way Romney dropped that hard-charging, moderate CEO act, which worked pretty well, to start wagging on about Benghazi and assorted bupkis. It was almost like the campaign’s revived fortunes scared Mitt into marble-mouthedness."...

-----------------------------------------------------

Ed. note: The professional left, such as Daily Kos mentioned in the article above, has to have someone to focus hatred on and may have thought it was the GOP candidate. Others on the left joined with the GOP in realizing the Tea Party was their biggest opponent. The IRS helped them solve that problem. As did Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and Fox News by shutting up about the Tea Party after its massive wins in November 2010 and keeping Bush crowd people in front of the cameras to make sure democrats would stay in power. The GOP and the democrat party sometimes pretend they're opponents but it's just for show. The GOP gets what it wants when democrats are in charge which is to silence the grassroots and to grow even more massive government:

Obama re-election helped GOP House Speaker Boehner: NPR

12/8/12, "Once Boxed-In, Boehner May Finally Be Master Of The House," NPR, Frank James

"In a paradoxical way, Obama's re-election victory coupled with congressional Democrats adding to their numbers may have helped Boehner. Some of those wins came at the expense of the Tea Party, the conservative movement whose affiliated House members have been very willing to stand up to Boehner.

In recent weeks, Boehner...has gotten his entire leadership team to sign his tax-raising, fiscal-cliff counteroffer....

Despite complaints from conservative activists and bloggers, however, Boehner remains the most powerful Republican in Washington.".  

=======================

2/20/13, "As Country Club Republicans Link Up With The Democratic Ruling Class, Millions Of Voters Are Orphaned," Angelo Codevilla, Forbes

=======================  

11/4/10, "Ruling Class GOP Declare War on Country Class Conservatives," RushLimbaugh.com

"The ruling class of the Republican Party doesn't want conservatives having any kind of a foothold, any success or any leadership in the party. ...(item half way down page)....So it appears to me they're (GOP) perfectly happy being in the minority if it means not supporting conservatives. (2/3 down page).

Apparently the establishment Republicans will fight harder and more viciously to stop conservatives than to stop Obama and the left. "...(2/3 down page). 

==================================

5/24/13, "The rise of the fourth branch of government," Washington Post, Jonathan Turley, opinion

"The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.

This exponential growth has led to increasing power and independence for agencies. The shift of authority has been staggering. The fourth branch now has a larger practical impact on the lives of citizens than all the other branches combined.... 

Today, we have 2,840,000 federal workers in 15 departments, 69 agencies and 383 nonmilitary sub-agencies.

The rise of the fourth branch has been at the expense of Congress’s lawmaking authority. In fact, the vast majority of “laws” governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations, crafted largely by thousands of unnamed, unreachable bureaucrats."... 

.