This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
"Solving our fiscal crisis: What's wrong with Washington?" was the name of the Republican presidential primary forum the folks at Americans for Campaign Reform asked me to moderate on Oct. 13, 2011. The gathering at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., was noteworthy for a number of reasons, but one person stood out.
The New Hampshire director of the Koch Brothers-funded Americans for Prosperity was unlike anyone I'd seen on the political stage. The Granite State tea partyer was a belligerent presence with a burn-this-mother-down ethos that struck me as dangerous, especially after the debt-ceiling drama we went through earlier that year. His performance was so off-putting and out of place that I asked the organizers about him.
Fast forward four years to last October when I received an email that put a name back on a face in the news. "I wonder if you remember that there was one panelist who didn't quite fit in, In fact, I believe you asked me about his background after the event," an organizer of the event wrote in an email to me five months ago. "Ring a bell? He was Corey Lewandowski who was with Americans for Prosperity. Yup. The same Corey Lewandowski who is now running the Trump campaign. Thought you'd appreciate the reminder, if you had not yet connected the dots."
The passage of time scrubbed Lewandowski's name from my memory, but not his demeanor. And it's his demeanor that is front and center now.
A criminal complaint of "alleged battery" was filed against Lewandowski last week by Michelle Fields, the now-former reporter for Breitbart News who says the acerbic Donald Trump campaign manager assaulted her as she tried to ask the GOP front-runner a question in Florida. And a long Politico story on Lewandowski's "temperament and inappropriate comments" in his current and previous positions shows that the rage that proved memorable in 2011 continues to roil in 2016.
Lewandowski is firmly ensconced in the tough trust circle that is the world of Trump. Despite the legal and reputational cloud over his head, the candidate not only had the campaign manager stand behind him but also gave him a shout-out during his speech celebrating his primary victories Tuesday night. And as troubling as that is, what's terrifying is what this means about who could wash into government if Trump were to ever become president of the United States. Heaven help all of us if they are anything like Lewandowski and his principal.