Cigars can bring people together almost anywhere at anytime for a number of different things. For example, you’re sitting outdoors in a public area smoking a fine cigar and someone comes up and asks “what are you smoking?” That right there’s the beginning of a conversation. To think that something so small can cross different social areas and bounds. It almost becomes as if everyone’s equal and every cigar’s a conversation.
Last month, the House and Senate voted on a continuing resolution that’s currently kept the government operational. Even though the bill was far from popular, the fact is, it was written in a room that was filled with cigar smoke. This information was released via open meeting of the House Rules Committee. Said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK):
“John Kline [a Minnesota Republican who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee] is my best friend in the United States Congress, and George Miller [a California Democrat who’s the ranking member of that committee] is certainly one of my best friends on the other side of the aisle. I’ve had the opportunity to talk about this particular pension problem over a cigar at the end of the day on more than one occasion.”
Though there were disagreements from political standpoints, it would seem as though that cigars were able to keep them together. Said Miller:
“A lot of people over the past couple years have asked about Mr. Kline’s and my relationship, and since you alluded to it, I guess we can let the secret out of the box that a number of years ago, when I was new to the minority and Mr. Kline was new to the majority, we didn’t know one another. You invited us to come and have a cigar with you one evening. But the fact of the matter is it allowed us to have a whole range of discussions over these several years, without animosity, agree or disagree, that’s all possible and that has worked.”
It’s incredible what a cigar can do. It’s also worth mentioning that both Kline and Cole are co-sponsors of the Premium Cigar bill. This is important to know because it would keep the FDA out of our humidors. Rep. Miller has yet to sign, but maybe in the next session when the legislation is introduced again he’ll do so.