The Dog Days of Mitt and Huck

Seems the campaigns of two top GOP presidential candidates are going to the dogs....

.... As, when it was learned that Mike Huckabee's son David was involved in the hanging of a stray dog when Huck was governor of Arkansas. David was dismissed as camp counselor and the local prosecuting attorney wrote a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether or not state animal-cruelty laws were broken.

The request was denied because according to John Bailey, Huck's then director of Arkansas state police, he was leaned on by the governor and his personal lawyer to deny the prosecutor's request. Seven months later Bailey was terminated by Huck who cited as one of the reasons, "I couldn't get you to help me with my son when I had that problem."

According to I.C. Smith, the former FBI chief in Little Rock, "Without question [Huckabee] was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son," and called Bailey a "courageous" and "very solid" professional.

As disturbing as the incident was.... the Animal Legal Defense Fund got an anonymous fax that summer that alleged that David and another youth had been involved in the hanging of a stray dog at the camp and the defense fund report reads, "Boys confessed & were fired".... as always, it's the cover up that is so telling about the ethics of the self-professed "Christian Leader" candidate Huckabee who turned the screws to hush things up.

Then there is Mitt Romney's treatment of man's best friend, his Irish setter Seamus.... Romney put poor Seamus into a dog carrier and strapped it to the roof of his station wagon in 1983 for a 12-hour trip from Boston to a cottage on Lake Huron, Ontario. When the terrified dog made bads all over the car, why old Mitt the problem-solver hosed down the dog and car and then continued on his merry way.

Empathy doesn't seem to be Romney's long suit. Although that wasn't one of the reasons stated in the unheard of anti-endorsement of Romney by the Concord Monitor last Saturday. They boldly stated that Romney is a "disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped."

It's the flip-flop thing on such issues as gay rights, abortion rights, stem-cell research and anti-tax pledges that led the Monitor to an unimpressed.... "you're left to wonder if there's anything at all at his core."

Or, maybe we should just ask..... "How would Seamus the Irish setter vote?"