Back in 1988, I had the privilege of being New Hampshire cochairman for Representative Jack Kemp’s campaign for the Republican nomination for president. As a volunteer, I spent about 70 days on the road with Kemp and enjoyed every minute of it. He was an idea man with boundless optimism and enthusiasm for the future growth of America.
One day in Keene, however, Kemp lost it.
We were at WKNE radio so he could participate in a morning talk show, and one caller, an older Democratic activist, was baiting Kemp over some issue related to Social Security or Medicare.
They got into it in a very argumentative way, and I was afraid Kemp would go too far. I stood outside the window of the sound booth making a cutting motion across my neck and then making the “T for time” motion, but I could see it was only irritating Kemp.
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When he came out after the hour of call-ins, he was not happy.
“Chuck, don’t you ever do that again,” he said. “You are part of my staff, and you will not tell me when to stop talking.”
I told him that I was not part of his staff. I was, in fact, an unpaid volunteer. I did not work for him, I said, and I had every intention of telling him when I thought he was getting counterproductive because that was part of my job as cochairman of his campaign.
His face lit up, and he laughed.
“You’re right. I kind of forgot that, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did, Jack.”
Chuck Douglas, a former member of Congress and a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice, is an attorney in Concord, N.H.