ohmidog!

Dogs Against Romney has sniffed out another connection between Mitt Romney and animal cruelty: An upcoming fundraiser for the apparent Republican nominee for president is being hosted by a man once arrested in connection with the barbecuing of a dog.

It was more than 50 years ago, and the charges were dropped, but Fred Malek, who’d go on to become the president of Marriott Hotels and former finance committee co-chair of John McCain’s presidential bid, was in the crowd when five men were arrested after authorities found a dead dog, skinned, gutted and barbecued on a spit in a park in Peoria, Ill.

Charges of cruelty to animals were later dismissed against Malek and three other men after Andrew P. O’Meara testified that he alone had struck and killed the dog with a 2-by-4, skinned the animal and tried to cook it. O’Meara said he was trying to show Malek and the others how to live off the land.

In a 2006 Washington Post story, Malek explained that he and O’Meara , recently having graduated from West Point, went to Peoria in the summer of 1959 to visit friends at Bradley University. The whole group got drunk and O’Meara had killed the dog. Malek said he was not a participant in the killing or the cooking.

Malek , on Monday, will be hosting a lavish fundraiser for Romney, who more than 25 years ago strapped a crate containing the family Irish setter, Seamus, to the roof of his station wagon for a 12 hour ride.

Dogs Against Romney founder Scott Crider is making much of the connection, as is Brad Bannon, spokesman of the Super PAC Mitt is Mean.

“I am surprised Gov. Romney is going to go to this fundraiser and get money from a guy who barbecued a dog, especially with Mitt Romney’s history with dogs,” Bannon said. “It illustrates Romney’s general indifference to people and to animals. He doesn’t care about poor people, he doesn’t care about his dog, he doesn’t care about what Fred Malek does to dogs, he is the classic cold blooded corporate raider. He just doesn’t care.”

Malek worked with the administrations of both Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush.  While in the Nixon administration, he compiled, at the president’s request, a list of Jews in the federal government. In 1988,  Malek resigned from the Republican National Committee over questions about his earlier role in President Nixon’s push to oust Jews from government positions.

Malek apologized and, as with the case of the cooked dog, denied playing a substantial role in the scheme.