4-23-02, Voice in the Crowd
A Lot Can Happen in
Eight Years
By Pete Chaney
IPS Features
How long is a year? As a measure of time, it’s 365 days. To a young man, it’s endless hours waiting for his life to unfold. To an old man, each minute is precious because that measure is a larger percentage of what he has left.
At the Lincoln Day Dinner held at the Trade Center in
Chattanooga, I was taking pictures of the crowd and speakers.
A young man sat near the stage with a watch to keep time on the speakers.
He was handsome and clean cut. He
grinned. It was the same grin I had
seen on a small boy what seemed like yesterday, but he it had been much longer.
Weston Wamp was growing up—fast.
His father, Rep. Zach Wamp, had kept him close in his political rise from
underdog to a champion of the Republican Party.
Zach was speaking and Robin Derryberry sat close to the podium.
“A lot has happened in the last eight years, hasn’t
it?” I whispered.
“It sure has.”
Robin is still the lovely red haired lady she was in
1994 when she worked with Zach in his bid for the House of Representatives.
He had lost to Marilyn Lloyd two years earlier.
But Marilyn had retired and the field was wide open.
Edith Adkins called our veterans group and asked if we
would support Zach. She arranged
for him to meet with us at Post 4848 which most of us belonged to.
He was an intense, intelligent man and we signed on with his candidacy.
First step was to plan a barbecue for him.
A dark haired beauty from Ecuador, Paulina came out to look over the
setup.
“You will close the bar while Zach is here, won’t
you?” she asked.
“Paulina, this is a veterans post home and has a
lounge that will be open for members and guests,” we told her.
The cooks for the barbecue apparently went to the bar
too often while cooking. Outside of
the Boston butts were charred and the inside raw.
Ted Bedoit, George Hancock, Terry Parker and I burned our fingers peeling
off the burnt meat and tearing the raw inner meat into small pieces.
These went back to the smoker to finish cooking.
We did the full ceremony with posting of colors by Ralph
Wilson and the Color Guard and singing of the National Anthem by our favorite
singer LaFonde McGee. I always tell
her she should sing opera. Bill
Carman has always been our favorite MC with that deep baritone voice of his.
Shawn Tilley was part of the program and his young daughter Faithe led in
the Pledge of Allegiance. She was
at the recent Lincoln Day Dinner, with her date.
Zach built a strong crew of supporters, people like Rick
Tucker and Wayne Cropp. But his
greatest asset was his wife Kim. A
beautiful young lady of innocent charm, she was right there when he needed her.
At the end of the barbecue, she grabbed a rag and pitched in to clean the
tables. I still have a picture of
her doing that.
We had other receptions for Zach, including a wiener
cookout at Patrick’s in Tiftonia.
Zach was a tireless campaigner, jumping out of a car
before it stopped moving to shake someone’s hand. “I’m going to Washington,” he told everyone.
And he did.
Zach was part of Newt Gingrich’s much publicized
Contract with America. He was often
on national TV, sometimes seated in Congress with Weston beside him.
Last year Weston met President George W. Bush.
Zach outlasted Newt and a lot of the other politicians.
The first two elections Zach had tough fights from
Democratic contenders—Button and Jolley.
Since then, his place has been firm.
Will Galloway was a sacrificial offering by the Democratic Party to
challenge him two years ago.
Zach’s political star is still rising.
Projections are for him to run for the Senate in four years when Bill
Frist is expected to retire. Who
knows what the future holds for Zach—and for Weston?
A lot has happened in the last eight years.
A lot will happen in the next eight years.
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