Can We Talk About Mitt Romney’s Dog, ‘Seamus,’ For A Minute?

I’ve been thinking a lot about Mitt Romney’s dog, Seamus, lately, and I’m not the only one. Then I watched the video above of Great Danes being adorably terrified at the slightest things and I’ve been thinking about Seamus ever since. (Also, is there a more Mitt Romeny dog name than “Seamus?” No, there is not.) For those of you who are familiar with the increasingly infamous story involving Romney’s dog and why it’s been on my mind, here’s the short version…

A few years ago a reporter for the Boston Globe was working on a feature on Romney, for which one of the candidate’s sons shared an anecdote about the time the family drove to Canada for in a station wagon (12 hours each way) with Seamus strapped to the hood of the Romney station wagon inside of a kennel. Incredulous, the reporter, Neil Swidney, asked other family members to confirm the story, which they all did.

To recap: Sometime during a 12-hour drive from Boston to Canada in 1983, Mitt’s oldest son, Tagg, noticed a brown liquid running down the rear window of the family station wagon. Realizing the liquid was being discharged by their dog, Mitt pulled off the highway and into a gas station, borrowed a hose to wash down Seamus and the car, and then returned the dog to his rooftop carrier for the duration of the trip.

So basically Seamus was so terrified that it sh*t diarrhea all over the place, only to be hosed down and returned to the roof of the car. Need I remind you that it’s often cold in Canada?

Here’s how the original Boston Globe story described the incident:

As the rest of the boys joined in the howls of disgust, Romney coolly pulled off the highway and into a service station. There he borrowed a hose, washed down Seamus and the car, then hopped back onto the highway. It was a tiny preview of a trait he would grow famous for in business: emotion-free crisis management.

So yeah, watching the video embedded above of a bunch of really large dogs being afraid of minor things made me think about Mitt Romney’s diarrheal dog. I think, as many others do, that there’s a lot to be learned from how a person treats people who serve him and how he or she treats animals. We already know how Romney feels about people who serve him (“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.”) and the Seamus story provides insight into how he treats animals.

“Emotion-free crisis management.”

Um, I suppose that’s one way to put it. Soulless as$hole might be another. Do I need to mention that cruelty to animals is often a trademark of a serial killer?

It should be noted that Romney’s opponents, namely Newt Gingrich, are starting to pounce on this stuff. The next few months are going to be hella entertaining.

But still…poor Seamus.

(Great Dane vid via Laughing Squid. Seamus pic via Globe)