Hoppy to Vic: Lay off the sauce, dude!!

The Vic Sprouse thing has exploded. It was all over the media Monday. Both Charleston newspapers, Metronews Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval, and Hippie Killer over at Fifth Column all had coverage of it. Hippie Killer got in some particulary good shots.

However, the most hilarious episode was the "come to Jesus meeting" Hoppy had with Sprouse on Talkline. Sprouse, to his credit, went on there in a live interview and took the heat from Hoppy. I'll at least give him that. Many guys in his position would have run and hid from the media glare for a couple of days at least. He didn't. And because of that, we got some of the best entertainment that you can get for free. He did give a "no comment" to Hoppy's question of whether he's got a new girlfriend, so he did duck a little bit. Then Hoppy basically told him to straighten up and fly right, get some help, and most hilariously, suggested Sprouse maybe should lay off the booze. Hoppy alluded to his own personal situation (he's been married and divorced a couple of times). He said something to the effect, "I know in my personal situation, that part of my troubles occurred when I consumed large amounts of alcohol. After cutting back on my alcohol consumption about 95% (he says he still has a drink with dinner every now and then), many of those personal difficulties went away." And he suggested Sprouse give that a try. This was classic.

Of course, the Republican faithful came immediately to Sprouse's defense, including Monty Warner. Monty Warner has been MIA for months after getting his ass handed to him in the election. Allegations of him stiffing his campaign staff on payments are rampant, not to mention his shenanigans with using Bush's name on campaign signs (a big no-no, according to the White House), his brother Kris' shady PAC for this purpose, and the general fumbling of the ball by the party (headed by Kris) in getting more Republicans elected. In short, Monty has quite a lot to answer for right now, and he can't be troubled to address any of it, but he sure can show up on Talkline and tell Hoppy he was out of line, and that Sprouse's personal life was off limits. If I were Hoppy, I'd have asked him if he really stiffed his campaign staff. A subsequent caller also mentioned that Monty had tried to drag Manchin's personal life into the campaign questioning his medical records and his draft status, making Warner's shots at Hoppy quite hypocritical. Amen to that brother. Warner should get his own house in order before busting Hoppy's chops. If I were Hoppy, I'd not take any more of Monty's calls under the guise that Talkline doesn't take calls from people who get embarrassed as bad as Monty did in the election. I mean, the PRO LIFERS even backed Papa Joe over Monty.

There have been rumors of Sprouse having trouble keeping his pants on for years. Remember, he's now divorcing wife number 3. Sprouse also has a daughter who's 18. Sprouse is 36, so he was a dad at age 18, so, his libido has been chugging along nicely for at least that long. I've also been told by some sources beyond reproach, that there's never been a shortage of eye candy working in Sprouse's office at the Capitol. There were also rumors started by Peggy Workman, Sprouse's opponent in the last election, that Sprouse had been seeing a local TV news reporter or something. This rumor was from some affidavit from one of his previous divorces or something. If anyone out there knows more about this rumor (like who was the reporter?) feel free to shoot me an email with the details. We can never have enough salacious details here at the Sweatbox....