Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Some people might call Huckabee’s endorsements by Chuck Norris and then Ric Flair a little out there. Those people probably haven’t met his Iowa state director, Eric Woolson (pictured).
Woolson likes to snake watch, which is sort of like bird watching, only you pick up the snakes. And he doesn’t mess around with no garter snakes, people, he goes to jungles with his son, Brooks (who helpfully provided the picture) to find the biggest snakes possible. The snake he’s holding here is a bushmaster from Costa Rica, and it’s venomous.
It's the home of the bushmaster, the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere," Eric Woolson told us yesterday, a day after returning to Des Moines headquarters. "If you're going to go, you might as well go big."
Eric Woolson, Iowa campaign director for Mike Huckabee, makes nice with a bushmaster in Costa Rica.
he's always been fascinated by snakes, even taking his son (then age 10), on an anaconda-hunting trip to Venezuela a few years ago.
Does this involve . . . killing them? No, it's more like birdwatching. "But with this kind of animal you have to pick it up to get a good look at it." Last week, Woolson and son Brooks joined an adventure-travel team that slogged through the Costa Rican rain forest -- enduring bites from inch-long bala ants -- to get up close and personal with giant parrot snakes, false coral snakes, eyelash pit vipers and, of course, the famed bushmaster.
"You gotta move kind of fast," said Woolson, who scheduled the trip back when everyone was counting on a later caucus date. "These animals are in the brush or over the trees on top of you. It requires a lot of focus. They're either trying to get away from you or they're standing their ground. You don't spend any time thinking about the campaign when you're out there. If you do, bad things can happen."
Some people might call Huckabee’s endorsements by Chuck Norris and then Ric Flair a little out there. Those people probably haven’t met his Iowa state director, Eric Woolson (pictured).
Woolson likes to snake watch, which is sort of like bird watching, only you pick up the snakes. And he doesn’t mess around with no garter snakes, people, he goes to jungles with his son, Brooks (who helpfully provided the picture) to find the biggest snakes possible. The snake he’s holding here is a bushmaster from Costa Rica, and it’s venomous.
It's the home of the bushmaster, the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere," Eric Woolson told us yesterday, a day after returning to Des Moines headquarters. "If you're going to go, you might as well go big."
Eric Woolson, Iowa campaign director for Mike Huckabee, makes nice with a bushmaster in Costa Rica.
he's always been fascinated by snakes, even taking his son (then age 10), on an anaconda-hunting trip to Venezuela a few years ago.
Does this involve . . . killing them? No, it's more like birdwatching. "But with this kind of animal you have to pick it up to get a good look at it." Last week, Woolson and son Brooks joined an adventure-travel team that slogged through the Costa Rican rain forest -- enduring bites from inch-long bala ants -- to get up close and personal with giant parrot snakes, false coral snakes, eyelash pit vipers and, of course, the famed bushmaster.
"You gotta move kind of fast," said Woolson, who scheduled the trip back when everyone was counting on a later caucus date. "These animals are in the brush or over the trees on top of you. It requires a lot of focus. They're either trying to get away from you or they're standing their ground. You don't spend any time thinking about the campaign when you're out there. If you do, bad things can happen."