Friday, April 10, 2009

Annals of Executive Dogs

Political trivia buffs will remember "my little dog Fala," a distinguished former first pet who made his mark on more than just the linoleum in the White House kitchen. Fala was the Scotch Terrier beloved of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Republicans charged that the President had accidentally left Fala behind in the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer to fetch him--at, of course, exorbitant cost.

Ever the master politician, Roosevelt turned the tables, enshrining Fala as a minor hero,. and turning the attackers into targets of his mockery. Fala died in 1952 but lives on in his own Wiki.

Roosevelt made his Fala speech in the dark days of World War II. You'd think that times and tempers might be a little easier these days. But now this.

Update: Hey, did you ever actually listen to the speech? It's fascinating. I stuck it out for the whole thing, something I don't think I've done for a speech by a living politician, ever (okay, I was folding laundry...)

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