Mitt Romney arrested for disorderly conduct (in 1981)

By Richard K. Barry 

Let me start out by saying that this is a non-story. Apparently in 1981, according to BuzzFeed, Mitt Romney got into a thing with a local park officer about whether or not a license on a family boat was painted over. The officer told Romney that if he put the boat in the water he would face a $50 fine. Romney, probably figuring that he spent more than that on golf tees in a day, put the boat in the water anyway.

He says that he thought the license was visible but, if it came to that, would pay the fine.

The officer, upon seeing Romney put the boat in the water, got pissed off, decided to be a dink and arrested Romney for disorderly conduct. Don't you hate when that happens?

They took Mitt down to the station for booking, but it never went anywhere. Charges were dropped and that was that.

The only reason I waste any effort retelling this story is to point out that, had this happened to Barack Obama, the right-wing media would have been all over it. Breitbart.com or the Daily Caller or even Fox News wouldn't have been able to help themselves.  I don't know how they would have spun it, but they would have found a way, and it would have been ugly.

I could even imagine Karl Rove finding some way to make a slimy political ad with it with one of his characteristic half-truth hatchet jobs.

Like I said, there's nothing to see here but that wouldn't stop right-wing media hacks from doing their worst if the shoe was on the other foot.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)