Thursday, February 02, 2012
A canine named Seamus and a showman named K'Naan are causing Mitt Romney woes on the campaign trail this week. |
WASHINGTON - A canine named Seamus and a showman named K'Naan are causing Mitt Romney woes on the campaign trail this week.
The Republican presidential front-runner may be steamrolling to Nevada after decisively winning the Florida state primary earlier this week, but he's in hot water for remarks he made about the poor while two stories with a Canadian component are also causing him headaches.
Toronto rapper K'Naan threatened to sue Romney for using his hit song "Wavin' Flag" during the politician's victory speech in Florida.
The Romney campaign agreed to stop playing the song after the Somali-born artist accused them of failing to get his permission, but added he wouldn't have granted it to them anyway.
To add insult to injury, K'Naan said he would, however, gladly allow U.S. President Barack Obama to use the song for his re-election campaign.
But it's the tale of poor Seamus, the Irish setter who infamously spent 12 hours in the 1980s strapped to the
roof of the Romney family station wagon on a road trip from Massachusetts to Grand Bend, Ont., that truly will not die.
A new report suggests Seamus, who soiled himself during his stint in the rooftop crate, ran for the hills when the Romneys finally arrived at the family's Lake Huron cottage. Some wags have suggested it was an attempt to seek asylum in Canada and avoid the hellish return trip back to Boston.
Politicker, the political blog for the New York Observer newspaper, reports that two of Romney's sons have told reporters off the record that the dog ran away when they reached their destination in the summer of 1983.
It was unclear if he ever returned, and there has been no response from the Romney campaign to repeated requests for comment on the story. Jane Romney, Mitt Romney's sister, has long insisted Seamus ended up living to a "ripe old age" on her farm in California, where he once served as a loving caregiver to a litter of kittens.
Yet he has not gone gently into that good night. Seamus's ordeal on the roof of the station wagon almost 30 years ago continues to — ahem — dog the Romney campaign.
New York Times columnist Gail Collins rarely writes about Romney without mentioning Seamus. Newt Gingrich included Seamus in an attack ad against his rival in South Carolina.
Obama chief strategist David Axelrod tweeted a photo this week of Obama's dog, Bo, in the back of the presidential limo with the commander-in-chief, with the caption: "How loving owners transport their dogs." The tweet likely means the Obama campaign has no intention of letting Seamus rest in peace if Romney is the eventual Republican nominee.
There's a blog and a Facebook page entitled Dogs Against Romney that are gaining supporters daily. A photo posted to the blog on Thursday features a doctored Romney quote: "I'm not really concerned about the poor, or the furry" and urges reader to "Join My Super Pack."
The site sells merchandise, including T-shirts and bumper stickers, showing dogs sitting inside vehicles with the slogan: "I ride inside." Others read simply: "Remember Seamus."
A comment posted Thursday on the group's Facebook wall neatly sums up the general tenor of the dog-lovers' sentiments: "I don't like this guy, Mitt Romney."
The online slang resource Urban Dictionary has climbed on the Seamus bandwagon with a definition for the new verb "to Romney" — it means "to defecate in terror." Web pranksters are clearly hoping their efforts will enjoy the same success as gay columnist Dan Savage's, who has linked Republican candidate Rick Santorum's surname to a graphic anal sex definition.
But perhaps the most ominous development is still looming on the Seamus front: late-night talk show icon David Letterman is apparently taking on Seamus's cause.
The show has a new segment entitled "What's Mitt Romney's Dog Tied To Today?" The first answer: The St. Louis Arch, a famous, 192-metre-tall monument in the Missouri city.
Romney has barely discussed Seamus during his second run for president. In 2008, he scoffed at suggestions he'd been cruel to the dog, saying Seamus loved climbing into his rooftop perch for family road trips.
The Wall Street Journal pressed him anew on the Seamus story in late December.
"Oh please," Romney said before his handlers put an end to the interview. "I've had a lot of dogs and love and care for them very deeply."
Source: Canadian Press