Just One Word


Plastic:

Given the choice between cuddling up with a Washington lobbyist and a potted plant, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney chose fake foliage over a real Beltway insider...

Chairman of the Washington lobbying firm Dutko Worldwide, [Ron] Kaufman and his role in the campaign were thrown into the spotlight on Jan. 17 when the AP reporter challenged Romney's assertion during a news conference in a Columbia, S.C., Staples office supply store that "I don't have lobbyists running my campaign."

The reporter asked whether that meant Kaufman, his regular travel companion, was merely "a potted plant."

After 10 days off the charter, Kaufman returned to the plane this week. The plant, he said, was a fake he took from his hotel on Friday morning.

Plastic.