After my Frank Chopp article hit, I received a few official phone calls from Democrats, including state chair Dwight Pelz, officially dressing me down.
I listened, but told them I was happy with the article.
However, there is one thing I regret about the story. I threw in a pretty weird line:
“Chopp, who looks a little like Dick Cheney, explained his philosophy to me this week….”
I typically try to add a descriptive dash when I’m quoting somebody a lot, to engage the reader a bit more. I think I once had Casey Corr looking like Ron Howard.
Anyway, the Cheney line was gratuitous and distracting. Chopp’ll never believe me, but I honestly wasn’t trying to cast him with GOP overtones. Particularly not a GOP monster like Cheney.
Unfortunately, I heard that of all the substantive criticisms in my story, it was the off-handed Cheney description that irked Chopp the most.
It evidently became a gag for a few Democratic caucus members (making light of the story a few days after it hit) to joke with Chopp that they looked way more like Cheney than he did.
Again, and honestly, there was no double meaning to the Cheney comparsion, but seriously?
So, did your dad have bountiful hair at that age, or are you just ageist, Josh?