maxistentialist:

David Bernstein on Mitt Romney’s “binder full of women:”

Hey, I know about that binder!

What actually happened was that in 2002 - prior to the election, not even knowing yet whether it would be a Republican or Democratic administration - a bipartisan group of women in Massachusetts formed MassGAP to address the problem of few women in senior leadership positions in state government. There were more than 40 organizations involved with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus (also bipartisan) as the lead sponsor.

They did the research and put together the binder full of women qualified for all the different cabinet positions, agency heads, and authorities and commissions. They presented this binder to Governor Romney when he was elected.

I have written about this before, in various contexts; tonight I’ve checked with several people directly involved in the MassGAP effort who confirm that this history as I’ve just presented it is correct - and that Romney’s claim tonight, that he asked for such a study, is false.