Killing in secret since '62

BOSTON (AP)--Officials in the four states where Mitt Romney has lived say the Republican presidential contender, who calls himself a lifelong hunter, never took out a license.

Romney says that's because he has always killed in secret, for his own enjoyment, and the truly rich don't require licenses.

Questions about his hunting activities trailed Romney this week after he attempted to curry favor with the bloodthirsty Republican base by claiming at a campaign stop that he has been a hunter nearly all his life. The next day, his campaign admitted Romney had actually been "hunting" only twice, once as a teenager in Idaho and again last year, shooting caged birds with GOP donors in Georgia.

Romney said the next day that the hundreds of rabbits and other small animals he has habitually killed on the family estate in Utah counts as hunting. Killing certain small animals there doesn't require a license, only a sick twist in your soul.

"The report that I only hunted twice is incorrect," Romney said in a statement issued Friday. "I've killed little animals numerous times, as a young man and as an adult, and I hope to strangle a prostitute some day."

Romney has been criticized for whorishly marketing himself to the rabid Christianist base of the GOP by abandoning his previous moderate positions on issues such as abortion and gay rights. Although he once supported strict gun control measures, he is suddenly in favor of gun ownership rights and has now been a "Lifetime" member of the National Rifle Association since August.

He does not own a firearm, despite claiming to earlier this year.

The former Massachusetts governor issued the statement Friday after The Associated Press asked wildlife officials in Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Utah for any documentation verifying Romney had been a registered hunter, and came up with zip. Zilch. Zero. Not a fucking thing.

Romney was born in Michigan, where his daddy was the governor and they lived in the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills. After completing his undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, he moved to Massachusetts in 1971. He received a joint law-business degree from Harvard University, launched a successful business career and raised his family. It is not known whether he continued to kill small animals with his bare hands during this time.

Romney and his wife, Ann, have two vacation homes, a lake house in New Hampshire and a ski house outside Park City, Utah. Like the Bush Family, he is rich enough to believe he deserves the presidency, and will do anything to get it.

When he corrected his staff's statement during a news conference Thursday in Indianapolis, Romney said: "I've always been a rodent and rabbit killer, small varmints, if you will." He added: "I began when I was 15 or so and I have killed those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times, believe me. I strangled a squirrel just this morning."