Mitt Romney Is Southern California’s One-Man Narc Squad

Country club gossip bulletin the New York Times has finally done the important journalistic work of sending a reporter down to southern California to lurk around the driveway of Mitt Romney's beachfront La Jolla mansion and quiz the neighbors for dirt on all of his annoying domestic habits. It's mostly standard suburban neighbor drama queen fare -- he parks the family's fleet of Cadillacs directly in front of everyone's driveways and he won't let anyone's dogs poop on his lawn for free, probably. We skimmed it. That is, until we came across a very delightful anecdote about how Mitt Romney likes to spend his beachfront constitutionals combing for young local marijuana users in need of a sharp talking-to. Because some people seem unaware of the existence of laws prohibiting public cannabis consumption, ahem. 

You are commanded to picture Mitt Romney wearing pleated shorts with socks hiked up to his knees and a starched beanie cap on his head as you read this:  

The Romneys rarely entertain neighbors, but they have tried to weave themselves into the fabric of local life. Mr. Romney and his wife take regular walks around La Jolla, exchanging pleasantries with fellow strollers and occasionally enforcing the law. A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.

The issue appears to be a recurring nuisance for the Romneys. Mr. Quint, who lives on the waterfront near Mr. Romney, said that a police officer had asked him, on a weekend when the candidate was in town, to report any pot smoking on the beach. The officer explained to him that “your neighbors have complained,” Mr. Quint recalled. “He was pretty clear that it was the Romneys.”

Your Wonkette is now tempted to acquire some of this marijuana and go down to La Jolla to sit on the beach with a joint just to see if Mitt Romney will pop out from behind a rock to deliver a scold. What terrifying fun! [NYT]