Now I've seen some bad Lincoln lookalikes in my time, but this guy really wins the prize. In his defense, the gentleman in question, one Dave Van Hattum, is a lobbyist in Minnesota and does not claim to be a Lincoln impersonator. He was testifying at the time in the state house there about the tragic bridge collapse of last summer. Why he chose to dress up like Abe on Lincoln's birthday for something so serious is a little beyond me. I could find nothing about why he did so.
Honestly, he looks like a cross between The Cat In The Hat, the hillbilly moonshiners from a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, with a tie more appropriate to The Men In Black.
"Katie" added a comment recently to this post stating that Mr. Van Hattum was testifying in support of improvement of the state's infrastructure. He was appearing as Lincoln to remind legislators how Lincoln supported improvements in that area as well, especially the transcontinental railroad. Katie claims the lobbyist was not meaning to be disrespectful, which is why I've updated this posting.
The first day of the Minnesota legislative session happened to coincide with Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
ReplyDeleteAs Lincoln once said, "We cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today." Lincoln was a strong supporter of the transcontinental railroad and investing in our nation's infrastructure. Dave Van Hattum and a dedicated group of community advocates invoked Lincoln's memory to support investing in our state's transportation infrastructure.
In short, Dave was at the Minnesota state capitol testifying in support of additional funding for transportation in Minnesota, not about the bridge collapse.
Check out these pictures of other Abes at the Capitol that day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tlcminnesota
In any case, no disrespect intended!
Katie, I stand corrected then. Thanks for pointing out what he was testifying about.
ReplyDeleteThe original news source I took the photo and story from was obviously incorrect, because it stated he was there talking about the bridge collapse. I wouldn't have made such a claim on my own.
Thanks for reading the post and I'm going to remove the comment about the "disrespect" in the posting itself.
Geoff