SALT LAKE CITY Thirteen years ago, as details of an international bribery scandal came to light, federal investigators and news reporters swarmed to the downtown offices of this city's 2002 Winter Games organizing committee. Top management officials resigned. Potential sponsors bolted. Morale sank.
Robert Garff, chairman of the Salt Lake City Olympic committee, sought a white knight to lead the organization out of the humiliating mess. He homed in on Mitt Romney, a wealthy venture capitalist in Massachusetts who had lost a Senate race several years before.