Newscoma

In observing the mysteries of politicians, ‘coon suppers and one really swanky beer truck, I have to say that going to Jimmy Naifeh’s annual event was pretty nifty as I had never been.

Politicians of all persuasions shook hands with each other, I saw some of the locals shaking hands with politicians, I saw “handlers” of gubernatorial candidates pointing people to folks I assumed either had money or influence so there could be some hand shaking and there was raccoon dishes covered in some sort of sweet potato mixture.

This would be a raccoon dish.

The lawn of the country club was packed with a variety of people from politicians, lobbyists, former lobbyists, operatives and a buzz of what is coming down the pike. I did mention to a couple of people that the bills that the Assembly right now were pretty hare-brained and I got a few amens on that from some folks. Ultimately, you couldn’t help but watch the swell of people and as I was with a posse of bloggers and off-line folks I know, we just sort of soaked it in.

That’s what you do, you just soak it in.

Some general observations of the Jimmy Naifeh Coon Supper in Covington:

• I met Chip Forrester for the first time, who was there with his wife. He was very accommodating and he was talking to a lot of people weaving his way through the crowd. We saw him throughout the evening and I think I had the honor (snark) of telling him to go look up the urban dictionary term for teabagging which I got kind of embarrassed about later with my buddies. His wife was also on hand and she has a great laugh.
• Mark Brown, who is working for Ward Cammack, had a cool hat on. Cammack was laid back and made it a point to say that he wasn’t a “politician” which I think we will be hearing a lot from him
• Roy Herron was being the Herron I know and shook possibly 2,357 hands in about the first hour I was there. Yes, I made that number up.
• There was talk about a couple of more candidates getting into the race for governor.
• Kim McMillan was rather fun and I invited her to Hoots to meet the locals (she has two very good friends here and we chatted about them.) McMillan was very approachable and hung out for awhile.
• Andy Berke was also very approachable and talked about Twitter a little bit and some things he was working on.
• Twitter was discussed by more than one person throughout the evening as was the new TNDP ning site. By Joe, I think some of the politicians have realized they have a pretty cool social networking tool on their hands.
• I think what is said at a coon supper stays at a coon supper. This is also my motto for talk in a bar. Connection? Maybe.
• There were a lot of suits in the crowd.
• I went to the event with the puppy-formerly-known-as-Tootsie-Roll’s dad, Matt. He has worked on a lot of campaigns and knew a lot of people and we wandered around greeting folks we knew. I’m thinking that some of these people really think I live in a town called Hoots so there was some clarifying. I decided to just let it roll with one guy and said “You have never campaigned in Hoots? You don’t know where it is? Appalling?” Heh. Vibinc calls it Evening Shade But Interesting but we have talked about that before and his video was discussed quite a bit.
• I have eaten coon for the first time. This, of course, was also be the last time I will be eating coon. Before the drive to the supper, I met a buddy who from now on will be known on this blog as The Engineer (as he, for lack of a better synopsis, drives trains and the name applies) that when you skin a coon they leave one raccoon hand uncovered so the raccoon will not be confused with the carcass of a cat. Now that’s just appetizing, isn’t it? I, my friends, have some odd conversations in Hoots and that’s the way I like them.

Vibinc looks on amused as Newscoma shows her true feelings about the delicacy of the raccoon and makes her famous Ernest Borgnine face.

• I didn’t see Mike McWherter (there were a great deal of people there) but I did see his father, Ned, who sat on the patio greeting people. He smiled and shook hands. Ned’s back is not what it used to be, and he can’t stand for long lengths of time so these days when you see him, he is usually sitting in a chair and has a couple of folks helping him. I have known Ned my whole life, and I have to say something non-political and from a personal level, and that is I just wanted to hug him. He is frail and older, and I remember there was one moment I had with him that was significant to me about 20 years ago when my uncle died. We were at the graveside services and I broke down behind everyone else, keeping a distance from folks behind the pack so I could grieve privately for a moment. Ned, who was good friends with my uncle, saw me and turned around, walking back to me quietly. He was suddenly by me and he hugged me, telling me it was going to be all right and then he let me cry it out. His “handler” that day said to Ned that they had to go and Ned told him to go to the car and he would be there when he got there, basically dismissing him to comfort me. That, my friends, is the Ned I know and I wanted to return that hug as he sat greeting people last night.

As Matt and I said our goodbyes and were walking to the car listening to snippets of conversation about bills regarding women’s rights that was playing out on the patio as well as someone saying “That’s stupid,” Matt cracked me up as he wanted to just do random, drive-by statements to everyone we passed. I wish he would have because it would have topped off a groovy day.

As we headed back to Hoots, I commented that we might not be seeing this sort of thing in ten years as the world of politics is changing. He agreed.

I don’t know why I had that feeling, but I did.