Eric Fehrnstom might be the guy who gave us the Etch a Sketch moment, but as the Jason Zengerle writes, “If Karl Rove was Bush’s brain, then Fehrnstrom is Romney’s balls.”This lengthy profile piece is about the man who is Mitt Romney’s consigliere. Like all profile pieces it’s sprinkled here and there with powerful anecdotes and such, but like good profile pieces, the writer is able to give us a his view of what makes Fehrnstrom tick. The 4,000 word article starts with Fehrnstrom working on the Boston Herald and then working on a the failed campaign of Joe Malone for Massachusetts governor in 1994. Ferhnstrom was so brutal to the Malone’s Republican primary opponent that after the losing election, the state GOP shunned Fernstom. It was Mitt Romney who rescued him.
Fehrnstrom used his past life as a journalist to dismantle, and carefully rebuild, Romney’s relationship with the media. The ex-scribe knew all too well what reporters could do to an unsuspecting politician. As one friend from Fehrnstrom’s journalism days puts it: “He’s one of those guys who left the press and fucking hates reporters.” In 1994, Romney had at least been accessible to, if not necessarily chummy with, reporters. In 2002, that ended. The chatty phone conversations stopped. When reporters tried to buttonhole Romney on the campaign trail, they were rebuffed—sometimes physically by Fehrnstrom, who had no qualms about shoving pesky journalists out of the way. “He wasn’t so much Romney’s press secretary as his bodyguard,” says this same old friend.