FDR DEFENDS HIS SCOTTISH TERRIER
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 23, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a meeting of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters here in the Nation's Capital.
The speech is remembered for the President's response to criticism he was getting from his Republican "friends."*
FDR said...
"(They) have not been content with attacks on me...they now include my little dog Fala**.
I don't resent attacks...but Fala does..."
The President went on to argue that the opposition party leaders were attempting to distract voters from "real issues" in an election year.
*Republicans circulated a false story that FDR had sent a Navy destroyer back to the Aleutian Islands to retrieve his little dog at taxpayer's expense.
**Fala, "Murray the Outlaw of Falahill", (1940-1952) one of the most famous of presidential pets, a Scottish Terrier. Fala outlived FDR by 7 years & is buried near him at Hyde Park.
