So there's John P. Coale, the big-time-Democratic-fundraiser-turned-Mc Caniac, in the spin room after last week's presidential debate.
Signs announce the various campaign surrogates offering their opinions on who'd won. He spots one with a familiar name.
"I saw this sign, 'O'Malley,' and I think, 'Who has the same name as our governor who's on Obama's staff?' and I walked over, and it's Martin," Coale recalled yesterday.
Coale, a trial lawyer, gave Martin O'Malley a $500,000 loan in the waning days of his campaign for governor. Coale and the gov supported Hillary Clinton in the primary. But they haven't seen eye to eye on the race since September, when Coale "came out," as he puts it, for John McCain.
So these two were not about to talk politics. Better to take up some less awkward topic, like that unusual lapel pin Coale was sporting. It was blue, with eight stars, representing the Big Dipper and the North Star.
O'Malley and Colm O'Comartun, the governor's handler and fellow fan of all things Irish, were quick to spot it.
"Both of them saw it, and Colm, who of course knows Irish history back and forth, told me it was the flag of the Irish Socialists back 100 years ago," Coale said.
Well, no, Coale had to break it to them: It was the Alaska flag.
"Sarah Palin gave me this," he told them.
Coale has traveled with the McCain campaign and has spent time with Palin, whom he has found to be smart and fun to be around. But he got the pin from his wife, Fox newswoman Greta Van Susteren. She'd brought it back from a trip to Alaska and told her husband that Palin had given it to her to give to him. But Coale later found out the pin didn't come from Palin. Van Susteren was just teasing Coale, who admits to being "enamored" of Palin. He still tells people the pin is "a gift from my girlfriend," and he doesn't mean Van Susteren.
Is Greta OK with that?
"She knows it," he said.
One dude to another
If John Coale can have a crush on Sarah Palin, why shouldn't Bill Clinton be ga-ga for Todd Palin?
Coale had a chance to chat with Clinton about a month ago, having tagged along as his wife interviewed the former president in New York. Clinton couldn't say enough about Alaska's snowmobile-racing First Dude, Coale said.
"He couldn't stop talking about Todd Palin, finishing the race with a broken arm for like 500 miles. 'That guy's great. I've never met him, but I love him.' He must have said that about five times. Kept coming back to Todd. I mean, it was totally genuine."
