Salon.com > Ron Johnson

GOP reprises ’90s scandal playbook

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:39:00 +0000

First things first: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never said “Who cares?” about how four Americans died in Benghazi. Sen. John McCain either misspoke or flat-out lied about that on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

“Remember when she said, ‘well who cares how this happened,’ in a rather emotional way?” McCain asked guest host Martha Raddatz. “A lot of people care.” It’s too bad Raddatz didn’t tell the senator that no, she didn’t remember that – because Clinton never said it.

Remarkably, I’ve seen no one follow up on McCain’s misstatement today either. (I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.) Instead, reporters are breathlessly parsing each new GOP charge on Benghazi (while also decrying the very real abuse of the IRS overscrutinizing the tax-exempt status of conservative groups.) The National Journal’s Ron Fournier tweeted “Welcome to the 90s,” with no apparent irony or self-awareness about the role of the media in ginning up that decade of phony scandals that paralyzed our last popular second-term Democratic president, Bill Clinton.

JC Penney turns to former CEO

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:40:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney is hoping its former CEO can revive the retailer after a risky turnaround strategy backfired and led to massive losses and steep sales declines.

The company's board of directors ousted CEO Ron Johnson after only 17 months on the job. The department store chain said late Monday, in a statement, that it has rehired Johnson's predecessor, Mike Ullman, 66. Ullman was CEO of the department store chain for seven years until November 2011.

The announcement came after a growing chorus of critics including a former Penney CEO, Allen Questrom, called for Johnson's resignation as they lost faith in an aggressive overhaul that included getting rid of most discounts in favor of everyday low prices and bringing in new brands.

The biggest blow came Friday from Ullman's strongest supporter, activist investor and board member Bill Ackman. Ackman had pushed the board in the summer of 2011 to hire Johnson to shake up the dowdy image of the retailer. Ackman, whose company Pershing Square Capital Management is Penney's biggest shareholder, reportedly told investors that Penney's execution "has been something very close to a disaster."

JCP ousts CEO Johnson

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:45:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney is naming Mike Ullman as its new CEO. He takes over from Ron Johnson, who is leaving the company.

Ullman was head of the department store chain, based in Plano, Texas, prior to Johnson's appointment to the top spot in 2011 in an effort to halt the department store chain's sliding earnings.

Johnson came under pressure after his turnaround strategy failed to win over shoppers. His drastic changes included slashing the number of sales in favor of everyday low prices, bringing in hipper designer brands such as Betsy Johnson and remaking outdated stores.

J.C. Penney shares dropped 42 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $15.45 in after-hours trading.

Johnson had come to J.C. Penney from Apple, where he was credited with creating the stores, and their Genius Bars

Hillary faces down the angry men

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:31:00 +0000

Three weeks after her release from a New York hospital with a blood clot on the brain – a health emergency mocked on the right as “Benghazi flu” -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Senate Republicans their day of rage over the Sept. 11 Benghazi killings on Wednesday.

From the intellectually underwhelming Ron Johnson of Wisconsin to the ever-angrier John McCain, with cameos by unimpressive 2016 hopefuls Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, Clinton stood up to the raging bulls with grace and fire of her own.

The stature gap between Clinton and those possible 2016 rivals – OK, nobody’s announced they’re running, but I couldn’t help thinking about it – was enormous. When Rand Paul huffed “had I been President at the time and I found that you did not read the cables [from Benghazi] I would have relieved you of your duties,” it wasn’t intimidating but funny. President Rand Paul? Try to say that without laughing.

Steely yet sometimes emotional, Clinton defended the State Department’s handling of the Benghazi story while not denying the underlying Libyan unrest or security troubles that caused it.

Sen. Ron Johnson offers to mansplain the budget to Tammy Baldwin

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:06:00 +0000

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., offered to help out his new colleague, Democrat Sen.-elect Tammy Baldwin, by explaining the federal budget thing and how it works.

"Hopefully I can sit down and lay out for her my best understanding of the federal budget because they're simply the facts," he told the Chippewa Herald. "Hopefully she'll agree with what the facts are and work toward common sense solutions."

He also offered this explanation for Obama's win: "If you aren't properly informed, if you don't understand the problems facing this nation, you are that much more prone to falling prey to demagoguing solutions. And the problem with demagoguing solutions is they don't work," Johnson said. "I am concerned about people who don't fully understand the very ugly math we are facing in this country."