Are we done with this yet? No? “Even if you have a child two years of age, you need to go to work. And people said, ‘Well that’s heartless,’ and I said ‘No, no, I’m willing to spend more giving daycare to allow those parents to go back to work. It’ll cost the state more providing that daycare, but I want the individuals to have the dignity of work.’” —Mitt Romney, January 4. [Boston Globe, via Political Wire]

Well, not really, but I’m starting to wonder what’s up with Mittens and his fellow dog abusers.

From Dogs Against Romney:

On Monday, Romney will be the beneficiary of a fundraiser that is being hosted for him by Fred Malek. Who is Malek? He is the former President of Marriott Hotels and Northwest Airlines; former assistant to U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and H.W. Bush; and former National Finance Committee Co-Chair for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Fred Malek is also part of a group of men who were arrested after killing and barbecuing a dog in a city park in Peoria, IL in 1959.

Stinquers who are old enough to remember Watergate may also know Malek as the Nixon advisor who vowed to drive all the Jews out of the Labor Department.

But really, barbecuing a dog? What kind of sick twisted fuck would do that? Sadly, it is true. WARNING: The following may shock and horrify anyone who has a conscience or a shred of humanity.

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“Those were the five boys. I hate to say it, but often I had more than five sons. I had six sons, and he would be as mischievous and as naughty as the other boys.” —Ann Romney, describing Mitt in a new campaign video. [Political Wire]

Our guest colloquists are the host of a Green Bay radio station and the daughter-in-law of a former Michigan governor recently called a “clown”.

WBAL: “One of the things, Ann Romney, that folks talk about with your husband, Mitt Romney, and I’ve seen him in casual conversation — he comes off very smooth and okay. But sometimes he comes off stiff. Do you have to fight back some criticism, like ‘My husband isn’t stiff, OK?’”

ANN ROMNEY: “Well, you know, I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out, because he is not!”

Ann Romney Says Campaign Will ‘Unzip’ the Real Mitt [ABC]

Our guest colloquists are Mitt Romney, George H.W. Bush, and Barbara Bush, performing at Mr. Bush’s ninth-floor office in Houston.

“Thank you, Mr. President. It’s an honor to be here in your office and in these, uhh, Cabinet-style chairs. Is that right?” Romney asked.

“Exactly,” Bush said.

Romney: “Is this the chair you sat in as President?”

Bush: “I think, well—”

Barbara Bush, to Romney: “You’re in the President’s chair.”

Bush: “They’re all, I sat in all of them. I had to buy them all, as a matter of fact.”

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“There’s a Senator from my state who wants to get elected President. I don’t know why he would want to do that, because he would have to move into a smaller house.” —Mitt Romney on John Kerry in 2004. [BuzzFeed, via Political Wire]

Our guest columnist is the second-luckiest reporter alive.

At the outset of the call, Romney said he has some connections to Wisconsin.

“One of most humorous I think relates to my father. You may remember my father, George Romney, was president of an automobile company called American Motors … They had a factory in Michigan, and they had a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and another one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” said Romney. “And as the president of the company he decided to close the factory in Michigan and move all the production to Wisconsin. Now later he decided to run for governor of Michigan and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign.”

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