Nope, don't think I ever have but I need and want to now. Since I just saw the rat bastard on the news (CNN) yammering about the fortunes and misfortunes of Repubs in South Carolina, thank God this is not happening in my state of North Carolina, I remembered our encounter, which I srsly had forgotten, or more likely blocked from my memory, at Washington National Airport. See the gorgeous orange squiggly? Drop down for the story, it's a good one.
So, my hubby, Persiflage, and I, had flown to DC for the wedding of my college roomate's son. By the way, he is an officer in the Air Force, a graduate of the US AirForce Academy. After a spectacular landing in bad weather, where I swear the wing on the right side of the plane touched the tarmac, not that I'm complaining but it was really good to be on terra firma, we alit the plane. Nice weekend in DC, nice wedding and reception, a terrific reunion with my old roomie and her family, great to see the bride and groom off on their honeymoon. So, all is well, right? Yeah, it was. Then we went to Reagan International for our return flight home to Atlanta.
OK, so we're in the line, not like today, after 911, but there was a line at the desk at the gate. I looked to my right and saw this guy, in a suit, with a little girl beside him. What I noticed was that the guy had on makeup, sort of pancaky looking and the girl was very shy and lurking behind this man. As I looked at him for a minute or two I told duh hubby, "holy crap, that's Ralph Reed, and look, he still has on his makeup from whatever show he was just on". At that point whatever happened he became upset with the girl and yanked her a good one and told her to "behave". That was the last we saw of that until....
We boarded the plane, saw Mr. Ralph Reed in the first class section, but didn't see the daughter with him. I was worried, gotta tell you, like, where is the kid? Oh, there she is, a few aisles behind us, in COACH. I'm all over this with hubby, like is the rat bastard gonna fly in first while the poor kid is in coach?
Oh, no. Not Mr. Christian Coalition. Before the flight took off he, sniff, bravely got up, went back with his kid, stood her up, and asked if anyone would switch seats with him so that,sniff, he could sit with his kid for the flight? Whoever would do this would have his first class seat. The poor kid looked like she would like to die, right there. She is likely twenty or so now, but I will never forget that little girl, aged maybe seven or eight, all those years ago. Some nice lady, looking a little stunned, said she would do that so that "Dad" could fly with his daughter.
Now, Ralph Reed is back as the director of the Faith and Freedom Council, and weighing in again on the Rethug elections. They can have the rat bastard, what he did was what I needed to know and more than I wanted to, and that little girl is now a grown woman. Poor thing. Really. I know she doesn't know there were folks who were worried about her many years ago, but there were, we were. Now the rat is back, having survived the Abramoff scandal. But, he still has a daughter, out there somewhere. Flying coach?