Snake Handlers and Dog Walkers on the Hill

Eric Woolson, Iowa campaign director for Mike Huckabee with a bushmaster snake in Costa Rica. The bushmaster is the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere -- not just the name of the rifle used by the Beltway sniper. Woolson, who is a snake enthusiast, spent last week in Costa Rica with his son and assorted giant parrot snakes, false coral snakes, eyelash pit vipers and bushmasters. And yes, we like a candidate who would hire this man to run his Iowa Presidential campaign!

The Hill newspaper is carping about two terriers. Specifically, they are carping that Kentucky Congressman Ed Whitfield occasionally has his staff take his Scottie and Jack Russell terriers outside for a pee and a poop. What, they want them to crap and pee inside? Does The Hill know that at least one of these dogs is a hunting dog -- or will be if he spends at least one afternoon out in the field with me? Does The Hill know what excellent humanizing ambassadors dogs are up on the Hill? Do they know that Scottie's have been owned by at least two U.S. Presidents, one of which (the guy in the wheelchair) was competent? Besides, Congressman Whitfield was simply following Harry Truman's excellent advice: "You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog." Case closed.

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