Romney campaign seeks retraction of Washington Post outsourcing story that it originally stonewalled

Ads like this clearly have
Mitt Romney spooked. When The Washington Post's Tom Hamburger asked the Romney campaign for comment on his story about Bain Capital's investments in outsourcing companies under Mitt Romney, they said no. "Romney campaign officials repeatedly declined requests to comment on Bain's record of investing in outsourcing firms during the Romney era," Hamburger wrote.

And when the article came out, the Romney campaign entered a cone of silence, deflecting questions about the story with attacks on President Obama. Their only substantive public comment was to complain that the story didn't distinguish between offshoring and outsourcing. But now that polling is showing the story is doing serious damage to Romney in swing states, the Romney campaign is suddenly changing gears.

Mitt Romney campaign representatives will meet with the Washington Post today to seek a formal retraction of its June 21 report that Bain Capital invested in firms that specialized in outsourcing American jobs, POLITICO has learned.

The representatives will meet with executive editor Marcus Brauchli and other senior Post staff at 2 p.m. today at the Post's offices in Washington.

The group intends to argue that the Post's allegations against Bain Capital and the firms in question are either incomplete or inaccurate, sources familiar with the meeting say. Specifically, the group will argue that the Post misinterpreted the SEC filings it examined for its report and failed to adequately account for the support these firms gave to U.S. exports or U.S. businesses through foreign hiring.

But even though they are demanding the retraction, the campaign is still not going public with its case against the original report. In fact, it wouldn't even comment about the meeting.

Romney campaign officials did not respond to repeated requests for an interview or confirmation.

Sound familiar? At this rate, Willard might as well get "no comment" stamped on his forehead. Presumably if they had a strong case to make, they wouldn't insist on making it behind closed doors. They'd open Bain's books and make their case out in the open. They'd make Mitt Romney available for questions and he'd answer them all day long. But none of that is happening. Instead, we are left to wonder why they are hiding if they have nothing to hide.

12:33 PM PT:

Meeting between top WaPo editors and Romney camp over Bain outsourcing piece, in main 5th floor conf room, has wrapped up.

' @mlcalderone via web

12:43 PM PT: Romneyland, denied. The Washington Post will not retract its story.

"We are very confident in our reporting," Washington Post spokesperson Kris Coratti told POLITICO following a meeting between the Post's executive editor Marcus Brauchli and Mitt Romney campaign representatives, who had sought a retraction from the paper.

The Romney campaign would not discuss the meeting. "It was an off the record private meeting so I don't have anything for you on that," campaign press secretary Andrea Saul told POLITICO.

12:44 PM PT: Fitting'and funny'that Romneyland wouldn't discuss the meeting, isn't it?

12:45 PM PT: Who woulda thought strategy of no-commenting, then demanding retraction, cld fail RT @BuzzFeedAndrew Post will not retract outsourcing story
— @aburnspolitico via web 12:51 PM PT: BREAKING: Romney campaign convinces the Washington Post to confirm that he's an outsourcing pioneer, for the second time. #nicework
— @LOLGOP via TweetDeck