Like Richard Nixon (whose legendary Checkers speech -- in which he admitted that he had accepted a spaniel puppy as a gift after his nomination -- saved his political career), Franklin Delano Roosevelt once delivered a historic campaign speech about his dog. In 1944, Roosevelt shamed those Republicans who had accused him of sending an American destroyer to Alaska to pick up his Scottie, Fala. "I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself," he declared, "but I think I have a right to resent -- to object to -- libelous statements about my dog!"