The mere mention of the name Saul Alinsky has become an epithet on the 2012 GOP presidential campaign trail. Newt Gingrich invokes the name of the Chicago-born social-movement organizer repeatedly in an effort to paint President Barack Obama as a radical Alinsky follower.

Well, one follower of sorts, it turns out, was none other than George Romney, the father of Mitt Romney, who met with Mr. Alinksy in 1967 as governor of Michigan. The online website Buzzfeed unearthed some classic photos of the two men shaking hands in the wake of the 1967 race riots in Detroit, plus a quote from a 1968 biography of the governor in which he tells his political allies: “I think we ought to listen to Alinsky.”

Mitt Romney has steered clear of the Alinsky smear.