Let slip the dogs of politics

Our family dog, Clover, turns 18 next year. So I had to break it to her. She won't be able to vote this fall.

Too bad. There couldn't be a better time for a dog to get involved in politics.

Just look at the race for the White House. Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney is still nagged by that fateful decision many years ago to put his family's dog, Seamus, on the roof of their car during a road trip. There's even a group, Dogs Against Romney. Clover isn't a member. Not a big joiner.

President Barack Obama has Bo. But a George Washington University “study” found that although presidential dogs are a nice diversion during war or scandal, they're less help in a lousy economy. Bo might even be a liability if we see the president playing fetch when he should be chasing jobs. Clover would like to see the methodology.

But the race that has her tail wagging is in Iowa's 4th Congressional District.

I told her we don't live in the district. She counters that my dad does, and as many times as we've dumped her at his place during vacations, she feels like that's her real home. Clover enjoys a thinly veiled dig.

Last month, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King, who is running to represent the district, said we should approach immigration like picking dogs from a litter. “You get the pick of the litter and you got yourself a pretty good bird dog. Well, we've got the pick of every donor civilization on the planet,” said King, arguing that you want the “friskiest” dog, “not the one over there sleeping in the corner.”

King has made a career out of stoking our darkest fears about illegal immigration. Previously, he's compared illegal immigrants to stray cats on the porch and livestock behind electric fences.

“If someone is insulted by that, I don't know that they belong in this country,” King said last week, defending his dog-whistle metaphors.

But that pick of the litter thing is really sticking in Clover's craw.

Clover was a castoff pup from the pound. And even though she's of questionable origin, and has done her share of sleeping in the corner, she's worked hard to be a productive member of the family, guarding the house, chasing squirrels, etc. The notion that she needs pedigree papers to prove her value seems un-American in a country built and made great by hardworking underdog mutts of questionable origin. A nation of laws, tempered by respect and compassion. Not the Westminster Kennel Club.

And, actually, the breed we really don't need is one that barks and howls loudly at everything and everyone, not because he's tough or smart or exceptional, but because he's small and scared, and wants everyone else to be scared, too.