Joe Wilson

Courtesy: Columbia Free Times

Photo by Sean Rayford.

Just recently, the Wilson campaign had to cover up a low wall surrounding the place along which someone had scrawled the words “You lie” in black spray paint.

Wearing a blue apron and standing behind one of the grills, Wilson flips a burger with one hand while digging into a patty and popping fingerfuls of beef into his mouth with the other.

It’s the first of 11 cookouts Wilson is holding across the 2nd Congressional District, which stretches from the Midlands down to the Georgia border and along the southern coast.

Wilson is in a competitive race against his Democratic rival, Marine Corps veteran Rob Miller, and he wants to create a conversation about government spending that he’s calling the Cut the Fat tour.  He’ll do five more events over the weekend.

Wilson loads burgers onto paper plates and shakes hands. He wipes some sweat from his nose. When everyone has gotten a plate, he puts down the spatula, wipes his hands and takes a microphone.

He thanks his friends and family. He makes jokes. He extends his right hand out in front of him with his palm open when he talks, not pointed crookedly like the most famous pictures of him online and on TV.

A woman jokingly yells “You lie!” but Wilson doesn’t engage.

“I want you to know how providential this is,” he says, looking at the sky around him.

“There are thunderstorms to the right of us and thunderstorms to the left of us and thunderstorms to the south and thunderstorms to the north, but I think it’s very good … that you would be out here tonight.”

Wilson doesn’t mention Miller by name but says he looks forward to a positive campaign. The campaign isn’t taking anything for granted. Wilson says he wants to build a strong national defense and a strong economy, address unemployment by creating jobs.

When the time comes for Wilson to answer queries from a basket that his staffers had earlier passed around, the questions range from his stance on the U.S. ban on whaling (he’ll look into it) to taxing firearms (he’ll block it).

When it comes to dealing with debt, Wilson says he’d eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. He calls himself a strict constructionist when asked his thoughts on judicial activism. He wants more nuclear energy in the state.

When a baby starts wailing, Wilson addresses the child by name and says the reason she’s crying is because Congress is ending the Bush-era tax cuts.

About 50 volunteers cater to a crowd of around 150.

One of those working the crowd is Wilson’s new communications director, former WIS-TV news anchor Brian DeRoy.

“You can’t say this guy is a lazy incumbent,” DeRoy says, watching from a picnic table as his boss slings burgers. DeRoy wonders if their challenger will be as accessible during the campaign, noting the last public event listed on Miller’s campaign website is from late June [online copy corrected].

Miller, running as a fiscally conservative Democrat, characterizes Wilson as an entrenched inside-the-Beltway politician who has sold out his home state’s interests to Wall Street and other corporate interests. He says Wilson’s deciding vote on the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) shows he’s more concerned with creating jobs in El Salvador than he is about doing so in South Carolina.

But a northern transplant and self-described liberal Democrat at the Wilson event says
she’s backing Wilson because of his support for cancer issues that she’s personally spoken with him about.

Wilson’s September “You lie!” outburst during a joint session of Congress and the amount of money those two words have meant for both candidates is likely to give the race increased national attention as it heats up.

Wilson adviser Dustin Olson moved to Columbia from Colorado last fall to manage the campaign.

“I wouldn’t be on this race if I didn’t think it was going to be exciting,” Olson says.

Courtesy: Columbia Free Times