Times Insider

Skeet Shooting With Lindsey Graham — ‘Katie Couric Is Coming!’

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Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican candidate for president, celebrating with Kent Lucken after skeet shooting last month at the Deer Valley Resort outside Park City, Utah. Credit Jim Urquhart/Reuters

Yes, I went skeet shooting with Senator Lindsey Graham. I actually stood directly to the South Carolina Republican’s left at one point, calling out “Pull” — the required command, apparently, to launch a clay pigeon into the air — and popping off a few (wildly off the mark) rounds.

But first, let me explain how the whole, somewhat unlikely excursion came to be.

The New York Times had sent me to Park City, Utah, to cover a retreat of Republican donors and operatives, convened by Mitt Romney. A half-dozen Republican 2016 hopefuls, including Mr. Graham, had also made the journey, to speak to the gathering and try to woo their party’s moneymen.

Part of the retreat included “enthusiast” sessions, where donors could choose to do various activities with the event’s headliners — like flag football with Senator Marco Rubio of Florida (he rather diplomatically played permanent offense, helping both teams) and sunrise hikes with the Romney clan. But these events, alas, were not open to the press.

Enter Mr. Graham. Throughout the whole weekend, Mr. Graham seemed to be enjoying himself more than most. He soaked in the sun, the high altitude and the attention, not just powwowing with Republican operatives and donors, but also wandering through the press area, gamely stopping for one-on-one and group interviews.

At one point, as I reported in my story on Mr. Graham’s back to basics campaign, he invited us (the press) to accompany him on his donor activity — predawn skeet shooting. Mr. Graham had grown up hunting with his father, and his favorite gun had been a gift from his dad on his 16th birthday, a Browning Sweet 16 shotgun.

“Are you guys coming?” Mr. Graham hollered. “Katie Couric is coming! I need to invite Sarah Palin. That’d be fun.”

And so that is how I found myself, as the sun poked up above the mountains, gathered with Mr. Graham, about two dozen donors, and a smattering of reporters, getting ready to shoot at clay pigeons that Mr. Graham urged us to view as “terrorists.”

My shooting turn did not last long. Suffice it to say I embodied just about every stereotype you’d expect from an urban-dwelling New York Times reporter. And I quickly realized I personally felt safer with a notepad — not a gun — in my hand.

But I was glad that I went. After all, in a world in which politicians are increasingly poll-tested and scripted, it was revealing — not to mention refreshing and fun — to spend a freewheeling morning with a man who hopes to become the next president of the United States.