Toby Keith photo courtesy of Show Dog Nashville.
April 22, 2009 — Perhaps still feeling the sting from a controversial story in Rolling Stone, Toby Keith strolled into the National Press Club Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and threw down the gauntlet to the reporters in the room.
"I’ll take you all on," Toby said, according to The Tulsa World. "I don’t care. Bring it, baby."
D.C. is a political town, and Toby was there to accept a Distinguished Service award from the Military Officers Association of America before heading off on another USO trip to the Middle East. So he showed up in camouflage and repeatedly addressed questions about war and his political viewpoints.
"It really freaks people out when they find out I’m a Democrat,’’ Toby said. "They’ve read so much lies and stuff in the press that they just assume that I am a right-wing loco.’’
Toby is, he suggested, more centrist on the issues.
"My lefty friends think I’m a Nazi,’’ he explained. "My righty friends think I’m a hippie.’’
While he’s not afraid to talk about politics, Toby apparently has no ambitions toward public office. He absolutely shot down any notion that he might run for governor of Oklahoma in the future.
"Being a politician," he said, "would mean [having] to get along with too many people.''
It would mean a big drop in income, too.
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