(cross-posted to The Agonist)
Romney’s Cruel Canine Vacation
The reporter intended the anecdote that opened part four of the Boston Globe’s profile of Mitt Romney to illustrate, as the story said, “emotion-free crisis management”: Father deals with minor ‚Äî but gross ‚Äî incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day. But the details of the event are more than unseemly ‚Äî they may, in fact, be illegal. The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier ‚Äî with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it ‚Äî to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus’s rather visceral protest.
In a Presidential election season sorely lacking in ANYTHING resembling entertainment value, leave it to Mitt Romney to be the first to have his past come back and poop on him. OK, I recognize that this incident took place 24 years ago- not that time mitigates the crime of animal cruelty, of course- but I’d like to think that Romney has grown and matured over the past 24 years. Man, if some of the things I did in 1983 came back on me, I’d have a helluva lot to answer for.
This incident, while certainly regrettable and horribly abusive, happened long ago. What I’m more interested in is how Romney and his merry band of apologists handle damage control. Cue the photo op at your local ASPCA shelter, eh?
I can hardly wait to see what jumps out of Tom Tancredo’s closet….
It's consistent with what I've long thought was Romney's unique (actually, I'd call it fucked up) view of reality. His inability to recognize animal abuse fits the rest of his personality. He clearly is a man of no conscience - which would explain his ability to say anything necessary in order to pander to whatever group he is speaking to.
Barney Frank said Mitt Romney was the most unprincipled man he had ever met. Hard to disagree.
What's amazingly is that the Romney campaign offered this anecdote to the reporter as good example of his “emotion-free crisis management”.
Talk about tone-deaf. This may actually kill his campaign now that the AP has picked up the story and is distributing it nationwide. These are the sorts of impressions that can brand a candidate and disregard for an animal's suffering is not a brand you'd want.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-On-the-2008-Trail.html