First there was Miles Park Romney. He led his family out of the wilds of Utah to, according to his great grandson, escape persecution because of their religious beliefs. Apparently one of those beliefs was polygamy which the Mormons had to dump in order to get Utah into the union. Another, one would presume, was that all black people were black because they were cursed by God. That one stuck around until just a few decades ago when people finally began to ask why there weren't any black athletes playing for BYU.
Be that as it may, then came George, who was born in Colonia Dublan in Chihuahua, Mexico. His part of the family moved back to the United States when he was five because a revolution made things a bit dicey south of the boarder.
George was a self made man. He ended up being the head honcho at American Motors and governor of Michigan despite never having graduated from college. He was in fact one of the last members of that extinct species known as liberal republicans. He sought the republican nomination in 1968. Our old pal Dick Nixon blew him out of the water and didn't even need birther conspiracy theories to do so. President Nixon later named him head of Housing and Urban Development. George increased federally subsidized housing, but finally was violently reigned in by his own administration when he tried to expand that housing to the suburbs. He was not invited back for Nixon's aborted second term.
His son, Mitt is now the odds on favorite to be the republican nominee for president of the United States. He will not, as his father did, have the whole hearted support of organized labor. In fact, despite still having family in Mexico, he probably won't even get a large chunk of the Hispanic vote thanks to his views on immigration.
Mitt doesn't talk or write much about the Mexican connection, or his relatives that still reside in places like Colonia Dublan. Apparently he's never even paid his cousins a visit.
I suppose now that might be a security issue for everyone concerned, although his second cousin Leighton Romney is about to go on national TV and talk all about it. Leighton and about forty others are still in Mexico and appear to be doing quite well. However once all this becomes very public knowledge I would think every last one of the Chihuahuan Romneys are going to be on a bunch of kidnapper's A lists.
Something like that could pose quite the problem for Mitt Romney. What do you do if a relative of the president of the United States, or even a candidate for that office is nabbed and held for ransom? Do you pay it? Do you ignore it and sacrifice the life of a cousin, even though he or she is one you've never met? Do you send in the SEALS?
None of those options are very appealing, however it might be something Mitt Romney has to consider in the very near future.
See there, we all thought those West Wing episodes were really out there. Now they maybe right around the corner.
Who says living in the twenty-first century isn't great?
1-6-12
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