Mitt Romney quietly distances himself from labor adviser as labor board leak investigation heats up

Three campaign advisers'Kris Kobach, Richard Grennell, Peter Schaumber'gone. (Brian Synder/Reuters)
After close to a month of having no comment on an investigation finding that one of his top labor advisers was the recipient of leaked information about National Labor Relations Board proceedings, Mitt Romney's campaign told The Hill last week that labor adviser Peter Schaumber had left the campaign in December'coincidentally the month the investigation was happening. Of course, Schaumber was still cited on Romney's campaign website through March at least, months after he allegedly stepped down, and Josh Eidelson reports that:

A month after Schaumber's supposed departure, he appeared on Fox News to discuss Republican outrage over Obama's NLRB appointments (one of whom was Schaumber's alleged mole, Flynn). The host introduced Schaumber as a 'top advisor' to Romney ' as did the Fox chyron ' and asked him about Romney's stance on the NLRB.

While Schaumber, a former NLRB member, wasn't himself the source of leaks (that we know of), he was an active participant in leaking by Terence Flynn, a current NLRB member who was at the time counsel to another Republican member. Schaumber and Flynn carried on an extensive correspondence, with Flynn sending Schaumber:

...draft opinions in cases days before the Board had voted on ' let alone released ' a decision. The IG says Flynn also sent Schaumber an e-mail from then-Chair Wilma Liebman setting out which cases were 'her top priorities' to rule on that term. (Liebman declined to comment.) The IG wrote that Flynn provided Schaumber info that the NLRB would have withheld even if Congress requested it.

Meanwhile, Schaumber sent Flynn drafts of op-eds he was having published, with Flynn providing comments and revisions. Schaumber also apparently lobbied for Flynn's nomination to the National Labor Relations Board, creating at least the appearance of a quid pro quo situation'information in exchange for help with a promotion. And while much of the investigation focuses on events before Schaumber joined the Romney campaign, after he was with the campaign he wrote to Flynn asking for Flynn's personal email address, which Flynn provided. This certainly raises the question of what they might have been secretly corresponding about during Schaumber's time as a Romney adviser, particularly given the scope of the ethical violations they had already committed by that time.

In recent months we've watched the Romney campaign try to distance itself from an anti-immigrant adviser, muzzle another adviser because he was gay, and now tell us that Peter Schaumber hasn't really been his labor adviser for the duration of the investigation into the NLRB leaks, even as Schaumber remained listed on Romney's website and on Fox News as a campaign adviser. Can you even imagine what Romney's cabinet selection process would look like if he was elected president?