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Mitt Romney is downplaying a damaging story that has resurfaced about how he drove with the family dog tied to the roof of his car during a family vacation in 1983.

Seamus, a brown Irish setter, allegedly spent the duration of a 12-hour drive from Boston to Grand Bend, Ontario locked in a crate — which Mitt himself described as "airtight" — atop the Romney family's white Chevy station wagon. Seamus soiled the crate somewhere along the trip, prompting Mitt to pull over at a gas station and hose the dog down. According to a Politicker tipster, the traumatized pup ran away upon reaching Canada.

The tale was first featured in a 2007 Boston Globe profile of the former Massachusetts governor and current Republican presidential candidate. With the 2012 GOP primary season in full swing, Romney's political foes are digging up "Crate Gate" again. Newt Gingrich used it as ammunition in a political attack video titled "For the Dogs," which includes a clip of Romney trying to defend himself from allegations he was cruel to his pooch. The Obama Administration is even getting in on the act, with presidential adviser David Axelrod tweeting a thinly veiled jab at the candidate.

Will Romney ever live the story down? Not likely. It has already been immortalized by Internet pranksters who have created joke websites, including one that defines "romney" as a verb meaning "to defecate in terror."