Bernie Reeves is running for Congress. This should be fun.

If you already know Reeves, publisher and editor of Raleigh’s Metro Magazine, then I don’t have to explain the entertainment value of his ambition. If you don’t know Reeves, let me take a stab at it. We’re not pals, but I’ve had three face-to-face encounters with Reeves over the years: We chatted for a while at a social event hosted by the late (and great) cartoonist Doug Marlette. I once interviewed Reeves for a News & Observer column (which I’d link to here, except that the N&O’s online archive seems to have largely disappeared in the wake of the recent Web site overhaul; the paper is thinner and now the online site has evaporated — yeah, there’s a business plan for you). And when I contemplated leaving the newspaper business three years ago, I spent a half-hour picking Reeves’ brain about the specialty writing practice I intended to form. (Mission accomplished. You’re enjoying one of the fruits of that endeavor right now.)

Those three meetings help me understand that there could not be a more polar opposite to Brad Miller, the current occupant of NC’s 13th District seat, than Reeves. Where Miller is liberal, low profile, and low key almost to the point of diffidence, Reeves is conservative, high profile, and brash almost to the point of inflammation. Furthermore, Reeves is the personification of that bit of folk wisdom regarding confident people: “He knows what he knows and if he don’t know it, it ain’t worth knowing.”

It is to Reeves’ credit that there is no ambivalence about him. His column for Metro, called “My Usual Charming Self,” is not a place where the phrase “but on the other hand” is ever to be found. Like him or loathe him — and I know there are many who fall into that second category — Reeves has an oversized personality to match his physical bulk. Politics might become entertaining again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.