“Dogs Against Romney” keeps barking on Seamus
It’s an anti-Romney movement five years in the making, and now it’s a large and growing “Super Pack” that even plans to crash the legendary Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this week.
Dogs Against Romney is an ad-hoc group that likes dogs (and even, when pressed, some cats) but does not like Mitt Romney. It was brought together by the now well-known story of how Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, once drove from Boston to Canada with his dog in a carrier strapped to the roof of the speeding family car.
For those unfamiliar, the story –- unearthed by the Boston Globe in 2007 — goes something like this: In 1983 Romney, then a rising star in the private equity world, loaded up the family station wagon with sons and luggage for a long trek from Boston to Ontario, Canada. Seamus, the family’s Irish Setter, was put in his dog crate and strapped to the top of the car. Poor Seamus, whether terrified or over-excited or just not given a chance for a potty break, at some point soiled himself, as the Romney boys discovered when they saw brown liquid running down the window. Romney, the turnaround and efficiency specialist, quickly pulled into a nearby gas station to hose down the car, and the dog, and get back on the road.
Not long after the Seamus story became public, dog lover Scott Crider started the dogsagainstromney.com website and blog, in time for the former Massachusetts governor’s first, unsuccessful White House run. With Romney now arguably the Republican front-runner for 2012, the website and the movement have returned with fresh vigor.
Crider, 47, is a digital creative director and social media strategist based in Gulf Shores, Alabama, who works on the website in his spare time. He calls it “a work of satire with a serious message, and totally grass-roots.” The generic brown dog — nicknamed Rusty –- in the current stars-and-stripes emblazoned “In Dog We Trust/Dogs Against Romney” poster is “a composite of all the dogs I’ve owned in my life,” said Crider.
Dogs Against Romney has some simple principles: primarily among them, that dogs aren’t luggage. The website runs regular photos of member-dogs in cars, along with the slogan, “I ride inside.”
First draft: Wall Street CEOs, Geithner head to Hill for grilling
When Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made his long-awaited speech on Tuesday to unveil the administration’s bank rescue plan, the stock market tanked. Traders said the nearly five percent drop was caused by a lack of specifics in Geithner’s announcement that the government would spend up to $2 trillion to mop up bad bank assets and revive lending.
The main newspapers had banner headlines about the biggest one-day drop for Dow industrials since Dec. 1.
So what will happen today when Geithner heads to Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Budget Committee? The market will also be watching as top Wall Street CEOs appear in a hearing with the House Financial Services committe to defend their use of $176 billion in taxpayer funds.
President Barack Obama continues his push for the $800 stimulus bill outside of Washington, traveling today to nearby Springfield, Virginia to talk about how jobs will be created with the new plan.
Meanwhile, his emissaries push forward in their efforts to help lawmakers on Capitol Hill hammer out a compromise agreement between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill. Obama wants to have the final version on his desk by Feb. 16.
On a lighter note: morning talk shows are all raving about top dog Stump — a mellow, 10-year-old Sussex spaniel who made history as the oldest dog to win “Best in Show” at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Stump showed that age was no boundary — he came out of retirement and overcame a long illness to win the coveted award at the dog show.
how come the ceo,s of fanny may and freddie mack were not there lined up there as well?it might have been uncomfortable for some of the politicians, but this combination started problem.how are we expected to handle this hypocrisy.it always amazes me how thick skinned these politicians are.confidence in these people is so low.
if Rompney gets to the WH, there will be doggy-doo all over the steps.