The Republican War on Dogs
Harry Truman once famously said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Judging by the current crop of Republican presidential candidates, a GOP victory in 2008 won't be a very good deal for the dog.
As we found out this weekend, the son of Republican frontrunner Mike Huckabee joined Mitt Romney among the tormentors of man's best friend. As Newsweek details, then 17 year old David Huckabee was dismissed in 1998 from his job as a Boy Scout counselor at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, Arkansas for hanging a stray dog. As with his get-out-of-jail-free card for a political ally busted on a repeat DWI charge and his other faith-based pardons, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee then personally intervened to protect his son from legal jeopardy:
It also prompted the local prosecuting attorney - bombarded with complaints generated by a national animal-rights group - to write a letter to the Arkansas state police seeking help investigating whether David and another teenager had violated state animal-cruelty laws. The state police never granted the request, and no charges were ever filed. But John Bailey, then the director of Arkansas's state police, tells NEWSWEEK that Governor Huckabee's chief of staff and personal lawyer both leaned on him to write a letter officially denying the local prosecutor's request. Bailey, a career officer who had been appointed chief by Huckabee's Democratic predecessor, said he viewed the lawyer's intervention as improper and terminated the conversation. Seven months later, he was called into Huckabee's office and fired.
(For more background and explanations from the Huckabee camp, visit here.)
The Huckabee clan, of course, was not the only prominent Republican family to practice cruelty towards canine companions. Earlier this year, Time revealed that former Massachusetts Governor and Huckabee rival Mitt Romney practiced rooftop canine waterboarding. Mitt, as it turned out, routinely family vacations with his Irish Setter Seamus in a kennel tied to the roof of his car. (Even Chris Wallace of the reliably right-wing Fox News was horrified. During an interview with Romney, an incredulous Wallace said of his own Yellow Lab, "I would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car than I would one of my children.")
Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also can be found among the ranks of Republicans practicing animal cruelty for convenience, fun or (in his case) profit. As you'll recall, Frist was a frequent visitor to animal shelters where the future Doctor adopted stray cats only to dissect them later as part of his learn-at-home medical studies. Of course, given his predilection for dismembering felines over canines, Frist can hardly be accused of being on the frontlines in the Republican war on dogs.
Rudy Giuliani's mistress turned third wife, Judith Nathan, however, is another matter. As it turns out, the latest Mrs. Giuliani too has a sordid history of mistreating of dogs for fun and profit. As the New York Post reported in April:
Judith Giuliani once demonstrated surgical products for a controversial medical-supply company that used dogs - which were later killed - in operations whose only purpose was to sell equipment to doctors.
In her defense, it should be noted that Mayor Giuliani went to great lengths to ensure the safety of Nathan's own canines. As part of his clandestine taxpayer-funded romps with his then girlfriend, Giuliani used the NYPD cops to walk Nathan's dog.
That some of the leading lights of the Republican Party would mistreat dogs should come as no surprise. Dog might be man's best friend, but children, as they say, "are the future." And as President Bush's Christmas present to America's kids of a double-veto of the expansion of children's health care coverage (S-CHIP) shows, the GOP is content to see the safety and well-being of the next generation go to the dogs.
Earlier today, ThinkProgress detailed former Bush press secretary Tony Snow decrying a supposed liberal "war on God." He had it exactly backwards. Bush's successors, it seems, are committed to a GOP war on dogs.
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Dude, they just talked about this on Olbermann's show Countdown!
Posted by Jonesy on December 17, 2007 5:28 PM