South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz operates on a national stage -- as chair of the Democratic National Committee, she's the face of the president's party and frequently takes on national issues. Late last night, she took to Twitter to attack Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The issue she chose? A dog that had diarrhea in 1983.
"If you agree that dogs should not be treated like luggage, tweet @MittRomney a picture of your dog," she tweeted, along with photos of three of her dogs.
The dog luggage story was originally dredged up by the Boston Globe during the 2008 presidential election: In order to take his dog on a 12-hour family car ride to Canada, Romney strapped a dog crate to the roof of the family car. When the dog's feces began running down the back of the car, Romney calmly pulled over, hosed off the car and the dog, and put the dog back on the roof for the rest of the ride.
The anecdote has gotten some play in this election, and a protest at the Westminster Dog Show yesterday will grab a few headlines today. But the question remains: Who cares?
It's not that dogs aren't wonderful and loving and deserving of proper treatment. But when someone with as complex a history as Romney's is running for the highest elected office in the country, does it seriously do any good to harp on an old story about a time he was mean to his dog? In a showdown between Romney, Newt "Ethically Challenged" Gingrich, and Rick "Women and Gays Are Awful" Santorum, to put out "a dog shitting on a car" as a legitimate political point seems a bit stupid.
Ask Romney about his waffling on contraception or his previous requests for tens of millions of dollars in the earmarks he now speaks out against or how he plans to balance the federal budget using a regressive tax plan that doesn't add up right. But can we please forget about the dog?
