Glenn Kessler Jumps the Shark

Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler, who has dismissed the significance of Mitt Romney’s role at Bain Capital after 1999, announced yesterday that he would reconsider his assessment following the landmark Boston Globe report.

Today, he offers this:

Despite the furor, we did not see much new in the Globe article. We had examined many SEC documents related to Romney and Bain in January, and concluded that much of the language saying Romney was “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” was boilerplate that did not reveal whether he was actually managing Bain at the time. (For instance, there is no standard definition of a “chief executive,” securities law experts say, and there is no requirement for anyone to have any responsibilities even if they have that title.)

One more time, in case you missed it: “much of the language saying Romney was ‘sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president’ was boilerplate that did not reveal whether he was actually managing Bain at the time.”

Brad De Long, the liberal economics professor and deputy assistant Treasury secretary under President Clinton, has called on Kessler to provide one example of another person who has simultaneously worn the four titles while claiming no responsibilities whatsoever with the business.

Stand by on that… though you may want to sit.