Fake the Police

I, for one, am all in favor of disregarding the college indiscretions of adults, since I think they are usually entirely irrelevant to the conduct of an individual in their present life. So I usually abhor the media circus that surrounds any question of whether a politician has done drugs or dodged military service or whatever.

The argument usually goes that the politician’s willingness to have fun demonstrates that person’s respect for the law or something convoluted like that. And even though I don’t subscribe to that syllogism, there is a substantial portion of the electorate (or at least a sensationalism-biased media), fueled by opposition researchers, that loves to pore over background gossip as though it was a legitimate disqualification to office. It makes sense that “values voters” (who tend to vote Republican), prefer the most fastidious and law-respecting candidate on the grounds that a President is a powerful role model, and it hurts when they lack the moral credibility to lead the nation in that direction. I usually just disagree with what they usually consider “immoral.”

So, it comes as some surprise to me that nobody has yet jumped on to the fact that Romney used to dress up like a police officer and pull people over for fun.

Said Madden in a recent interview, “He told us that he had gotten the uniform from his father,” George Romney, then the Governor of Michigan, whose security detail was staffed by uniformed troopers. “He told us that he was using it to pull over drivers on the road. He also had a red flashing light that he would attach to the top of his white Rambler.”

How much more could a “youthful indiscretion” implicate one’s respect for the law? And, even beyond the fact that what Romney did was almost certainly illegal–impersonating a police officer is illegal–this wasn’t one of the typical victimless crimes that are usually trotted out to embarrass the candidate. These crimes had real victims:

Romney had “put a siren on top of his car and chased two of his friends who were driving around with their dates.” The two friends were in on the scheme, but the girls were not. There was beer in the car trunk, according to a prearranged plan. Mitt told his two counterparts to get out of their vehicle and into his car. Then they drove off, leaving the girls behind.

So, will voters who really care about personal integrity and values start to ditch Romney? Or are they sufficiently obsessed with being on the right to care if they’re wrong?