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7-8-05
Tom Evans and the Canine Legislation Meeting in Middleburg
On 6/29/05, Lillian, Cindy Ingram, Kim Kincheloe, Virginia Kincheloe, Betty and Pat Weakland, and I went to hear Mr. Tom Evans talk on canine legislation, as his talk to kennel club members was billed by his hosts, three local kennel clubs.
I went to learn what flaws our bills had in kennel club members’ eyes since Marge McClung never did give any reason for her sudden withdrawal of support after at first being quite suppor-tive.
I learned nothing about our bills.
Instead, we heard a 55 minute talk, the first 20 on the virtues of professional lobbyists and what non-lobbyists might do, including Mr. Evans’s admonition to smile at each legislator you’re courting for support as if that legislator was the parent of your first love. And be respectful, but don’t hope to do anything because everything is decided by professionals long before the com-mittee meetings when public testimony is heard.
Think Polonius’s speech without the part about to thine own self be true.
Whatever you may think of this, and my view is like Jesus’s take on the moneychangers in the temple, it’s what we got. However, those who serve are far less cynical than those who work them for pay.
In any case, Mr. Evans then launched a 25 minute diatribe of life last session fighting the anony-mous wicked person he called “OPPONENT” - me. Plainly, my smiling at Mr. Evans as if he were a parent of my first love led nowhere.
Here, according to Mr. Evans, is what happened last session.
1.) Marge McClung is such a nice lady she couldn’t bear to tell us to piss off so led us to think she supported our efforts until she finally decided to tell us to piss off. That version of his-tory is subject to change since it doesn’t account for our collaboration with Dr. Steve Escobar (and a few other flaws), but Mr. Evans is resourceful and a new version will address this I am sure. (Actually, Mr. Evans didn’t say Mrs. McClung told us to “piss off”. He said Mrs. McClung told us not to contact her again. No such message ever came from Mrs. McClung, nor indeed any further contact at all after several calls with her after our lunch at the Jefferson.)
2.) We had a VVAW plant in Terry Kilgore’s Gate City, VA, office that got Terry to patron a bill he didn’t know was a VVAW bill until Mr. Evans enlightened him before session began, whereupon Terry pulled the bill. Odd that the content of the bill was ok, not its VVAW origins. In fact, Gwen Dean got Eileen McAfee and me a meeting with Terry in Richmond at which he agreed to patron the Releasing Agencies bill, and his secretary had to walk the bill at the last minute to legislative services to meet the filing deadline. Maybe Mr. Evans is thinking of an-other bill, or a different year, or a dream he had.
There were a few other similar anecdotes but nothing about why our bills were disfavored. Odd that Mr. Evans wouldn’t say, or didn’t know and therefore couldn’t say, or just did his job blindly, as he was doing this night.
In any case, Mr. Evans’s clients were riled, pleased he performed so well, and exhort him to be diligent again. Mr. Evans admits he takes the King’s shilling and does the King’s bidding whether his heart is in it or not, but maybe he also enjoys pumping us up. Nah. They were riled.
It also appears Mr. Evans either gets or retrieves all my e-mails. That is gratifying since we broadcast widely and post everything in the interest of full disclosure and as the only antidote to the flat earth society describing us as “animal rightists”, vegetarians and Martians.
So, Mr. Evans, as my Dodgers used to say, wait till next year. And let me hasten to add that Mr. Evans reminded me I was mistaken by saying he lobbied for the NRA. Actually, the groups he lobbies for are:
Virginia Firearm Dealers Association
Virginia Shooting Sports Association
Virginia Deer Hunters Association
Virginia Houndsmen and Sporting Dog Association
Virginia Foxhound Club
Virginia Federation of Dog Clubs and Breeders
Virginia Animal Alliance
Optima Adventures International Corp.
C&E Gun Shows, Inc.
Virginia State Fox Hunters Association
but not the NRA.
Don Marro