"Hi, Steve, this is Dave Bell; I understand that you had quite a party at your house Sunday afternoon."
"Hi, Dave; how do you know about our party?" I asked, leaning forward in my office chair.
"It's all over the Internet!" Dave explained with a laugh. "Go to Raising Kaine dot com and read all about it!"
"Thanks, Dave; will do..." I replied, hanging up the phone, spinning around in my chair to my computer and typing in the Raising Kaine address in order to discover - much to my surprise - this diary entitled "Miller vs. Mudcat in Roanoke" posted there by Lowell Feld: http://raisingkaine.com/showDi...
That was the beginning...
For several years, my wife and I had been hosting a mid-March St. Patrick's fundraising party at our home to the benefit of the Roanoke County Democratic Committee, and in 2006 our guest speaker was Harris Miller, accompanied by his lovely daughter and some of his "Miller for U.S. Senate" Democratic primary campaign workers.
Also present at our home on that Sunday in March, 2006 was my old friend, Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, who was actively supporting Jim Webb and had introduced me to Webb in Roanoke a couple of months earlier. Webb had been invited to attend our St. Patrick's party as well, but was not able to make it. Mudcat was there for Webb and had promised me not to do anything to embarrass Miller, but Mud couldn't help himself as he lashed out at Harris and implored him to quit the race for U. S. Senate.
Harris Miller's angry response and the ensuing Mudcat/Miller argument in our kitchen and dining room afterwards were all documented on Raising Kaine, and I was startingly introduced to the whole notion of "blogging" on that fateful yet fortuitous Tuesday morning in mid-March, 2006.
Later, Lowell Feld called, introduced himself and asked me to respond to his original diary about our infamous party, and that's how I started blogging. Occasionally I'll wander over to a few other blogs, but I seldom post messages anywhere else since Raising Kaine has been one of my favorite websites - and a most comfortable and inviting blogging home to me - for the past two-and-a-half years.
On April 1, 2006 I became an active and avid Jim Webb supporter, publicly endorsed him and worked hard for the next six months to help get him elected (please see my November, 2006 "Three Musketeers" RK diary; http://raisingkaine.com/showDi... about that most rewarding experience) and, as they say, the rest is history...
Over the years since that initial introduction to RK, Lowell Feld has been a distant but consistent friend and confidant, a voice of reason and sanity in a sea of political confusion, controversy and turmoil, a person who has front-paged many of my diaries and made them so much better, a strong supporter when I was running for re-election last year, and I will dearly miss him and Raising Kaine.
Happy holidays, Mr. Feld and all the rest, best wishes in your future endeavors - especially in this impending, challenging new year - and one, final...
Thanks!
Steve
Check it out!