I do not own a dog...

[hfojvt]

23. the source seems to be Gail Collins of the NYT

http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2012/03/walter-and-david-and-rush-and-gail_16.html

Actually Somerby provides a lot of details about this, although he thinks it is as stupid as the whole "earth tones" media fixation. Why attack Romney over Seamus instead of talking about his ridiculous tax proposals?

The story hit the media from the Boston Globe's Neil Swidy who wrote a story in 2007 that included the story of Seamus. Swidey recently wrote this about the tale

"For the record, neither Tagg nor any other Romney was my original source for the anecdote. Collins and others have pushed this silly line to suggest how tone-deaf the Romney brood must be. In fact, I went to the then 37-year-old Tagg only after having heard the Seamus story at the very end of a long interview with a close friend of the Romney family. Seeking to penetrate the stock image of the air-brushed family, I had asked that friend what stories the Romneys reminisced about in the privacy of their own home."

The source, according to the reporter who broke the story, is a "close friend of the Romney family".