Focus on the Dish-ues: DNC's Brad Woodhouse worked-up over Paul Ryan's dish-scrubbing

Sarah D. | 8:27 PM on October 15, 2012

The hapless DNC communications director can’t salvage his bosses’ collapsing operation, so he’s decided to hop aboard the Dish-gate train and try to dig up dirt on Romney and Ryan instead. Priorities, baby!

Woodhouse linked to a post by the decidedly left-leaning blog Political Wire. According to that post, the head of the charity said that Romney and Ryan “ramrodded their way” into the kitchen strictly for a photo op. But according to The Washington Post, while the dishes Ryan washed may not have been all that dirty, a Romney staffer had gotten advanced permission for the campaign to stop at the soup kitchen:

The woman on site told the Romney staffer that some of the volunteers had already left, but that most were happy to remain until Ryan arrived, according to the aide. After Ryan left the soup kitchen, the woman approached a campaign staffer and expressed gratitude for Ryan’s visit, the aide said.

Chris Maloney, the campaign’s communications director for Ohio, said that the purpose of the visit was to bring attention to the charity and its volunteers:

“Our campaign and Congressman Ryan were pleased to bring attention to the meaningful charitable contributions the St. Vincent De Paul Society makes to people in need,” Maloney said.

The dust-up doesn’t appear to be the fault of the Romney campaign, who seems to have followed protocol.