Dogs Against Romney Has Establishment Ties

Mitt Romney will never live down the story of a family road trip in which he tied his dog—in a crate—to the roof of the car, Dogs Against Romney has made sure of it. The protest group, billed as grassroots, has recently received a significant boost from Americans United for Change, a group with close ties to the Democratic party—it's executive director was once the executive director of the Democratic National Committee and its deputy executive director is a former Nancy Pelosi aide. A Dogs Against Romney spokeswoman gave the impression that AUC intends to operate behind the scenes, while keeping the sympathetic grassroots band of dog lovers as the face of the group. A protest outside the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in New York last week was, for example, organized by AUC. "They basically wanted more grassroots people with dogs to talk about this issue, because it just made sense. It's always suspect when someone is a professional political operative getting in front of the camera trying to pull emotional content out of anyone," she said.