Here’s a political attack that never occurred to me:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown this week accused Democrats of spreading a false rumor that he is a vegetarian in this meat-loving state.
“I am not and have never been a vegetarian,” Brown said.
“I am disgusted by the baseless allegation that I am a vegetarian and that my personal eating habits should somehow be construed as opposed to the economic interests of Montana’s livestock industry.”
Really? I mean, I’m no stranger to people’s reactions to vegetarians. Hell, I might even be able to claim some special familiarity with the Montana political reaction to vegetarians – a couple of years ago, I was at a dinner table next to Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT). Some sort of apparently wonderful sirloin steak was the menu for the evening, and when the server brought my plate, I declined and asked for something veg. It brought comment from the rest of the table (who were mostly the sort of folks one might imagine would want to have dinner with Conrad Burns), but he just briefly looked at me sideways, shrugged his shoulders, and kept on eating. He’s not exactly the most tolerant fellow in the world, so I figure if it wasn’t a big deal to him, I can’t imagine it’s a big deal to other Montanans.