"Of all the indignities involved in losing a presidential race, none is more stark than the sudden emptiness of your entourage. The Secret Service detail guarding Governor Romney since Feb 1. stood down quickly. He had ridden in a 15-car motorcade to the Intercontinental Hotel in Boston for his concession speech. He rode in a single-car motorcade back across the Charles River to Belmont. His son, Tagg, did the driving."—GQ.

  • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

    A bit surprised that a man of his means doesn’t have a private security detail.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000500177841 Rachel Banzhaf

      He didn’t need a private security detail for nine months and considering how surprised he was at losing, I’m not surprised he didn’t have a contingency plan for one.

    • acerplatanoides

      You don’t get it by spending it.

  • CastanhasDoPara

    Well it was fun while it lasted, now GTFO.

    Too bad we can’t send him a bill for all those person-hours, equipment and associated expenses of running all of that for 9 months.

    • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

      I am both amused and saddened that Americans paid men to take a bullet for Sarah Palin.

      And hold her shopping bags.

      • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

        Well, the notion wasn’t actually tested. The bodyguarded must constantly wonder when their protection may be considering quitting.

      • CastanhasDoPara

        Yeah, but on the other hand it’s sort of worth it just so some nut-job doesn’t go off and create a martyr for the cause. That shit could really set off a civil war. (Though to be perfectly honest I would expect that sort of behaviour from the t-baggers more so than the lefties but there is always that chance, so…)

        • TacoChuck

           I find it much more likely that a right winger would pretend to be a liberal and do something horrible to a republican candidate than an actual liberal doing anything like that.

    • mccrum

      9 months?  He’s been running for office for six years now.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      When Rick Perry was running for the nomination, he did the right thing and paid his $400,000 per month security bill out of his own pocket. With money from Texas taxpayers. But they didn’t mind, because he was their Governor. Who wasn’t actually doing his job while he was campaigning.

      • ChicagoD

        $400,000 was probably a good investment in keeping Perry otherwise occupied. 

        • Antinous / Moderator

          I sense a Kurt Vonnegut story here, in which we elect people and then pay them not to do their elected jobs because we’ve realized that they mostly just help their friends to rob the store.

          • Snig

            I think that’s what they do with the Monarchy in Britain.

  • http://twitter.com/dethbird dethbird

    Yea seriously Mr “Free market screw the government leave it to the private sector” get your own damn security.  

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

       Michael Moore likes to hire ex-SEALS

      • Antinous / Moderator

        You’d be surprised what you can rent former SEALS for.

  • captain_cthulhu

     oh they’re there – it’s just that if you see them, you’re already dead.

  • margaretpoa

    M’eh. If he gets lonely, Rmoney can afford to hire Xe, (Blackwater) security thugs and buy cars for them to ride around in.

  • winkybb

    His son is named “Tagg”? Seriously? “Mitt” and “Tagg”. Wow.

    See also “Bristol”, “Piper”, “Track”, “Willow” and “Trig”

    • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

      Nah. It has to be consonant-vowel-doubleconsonant. Biff, for example.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Those are just nicknames. Their legal names are Gorbag and Shagrat.

        • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13001904 Jeremy Sweeney

          Tagg, you’re it.

      • morcheeba

        Boss, Jess, or Lynn also work.

    • chgoliz

      That happens to be particularly funny in our family.  My kids have “good Christian names”.  And no, we ain’t Christians.  But at least no one makes fun of their names, or can’t figure out how to spell them.  Mission accomplished.

    • Jake0748

       I was just cruising to the end of the thread to say the same.  WHAT is up with this Mitt, Tagg, Trig, etc, etc.  If you want regular people to like and/or vote for you, have regular names already. Sheesh!  Sincerely, Steve.

  • Donald Petersen

    I always take an interest in the fly-on-the-wall moments.  Did Romney shake their hands?  Did they wish him well?  Did anyone buy anyone else a farewell beverage?

    Were any damp eyes wiped as they bid farewell to “Javelin”?  Or, in their hearts of hearts, do they think of him by another AMC moniker, like “Gremlin”?

    What do they do now that they’ve been returned to the pool?  Did any of them need to file a final report?

    How much does the gig pay, anyway?

  • doniphon

    If this deflates Mitt a bit, it makes my life brighter.  Now I know that every time I go to the  store, I’m driving in my own “single-car motorcade.” 

    • EH

      Gotta carry his own groceries like a schmoe.

      • chgoliz

        Pics or it didn’t happen.

      • http://www.aarongilliland.com/ Aaron Gilliland

        Gets to live the rest of his life like a schnook.

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    When Mitt got home, he kicked Tagg out and sat there alone, riding the car elevator and down all night.

  • bobcorrigan

    More puzzling are the grandchildrens’ names: Zapp, Krumm, Hoover, Zeppo, Wolfgang, Armin, Hammer, Zagnut, Crow, The Grim, Officer Wang, Dancer, Charmander, Ingrid, Aleut, Fandango, O-O (pronounced “Ohdashoh”), Glock and let’s not forget Fabb, the youngest and coolest.  All the others are named Bruce to keep things clear.

  • Snig

    Surprised this wasn’t here earlier:

  • knoxblox

    Don’t worry Mitt. Karl Rove has got your back. Oh, wait. No he doesn’t.

  • ChickieD

    I know a couple of Secret Service guys. Losing the detail is probably a huge relief.  The people being guarded do a lot of weird things, either to pretend they have privacy or to make the people guarding them feel awkward about being in their personal space. Because the agency is so hard on their people, the Secret Service are rigid about following rules and scared to screw up in any way; when they are on the job, they are not the people you’d want in your “entourage,” your “homies,” they can’t relax and hang out with you and bag your groceries. 

  • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

    I wonder if Trig can do math. Probably, but is it short for Trigger? Triglycerides? Could be Trignometry I guess.

    Just naming your kid “Triangle” seems… cruel somehow, though I can’t think of any particularly kid-like taunts for it.

  • Aeron Michaelangelo

    A single car does not a motercade make. :P