Zach Wamp
Congressman Chuck FleischmannWASHINGTON – By his own admission, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann is a stay-at-home guy. Unlike some lawmakers, the Ooltewah Republican refuses late nights on Capitol Hill, steering clear of bourbon and trouble after hours.
“My wife likes it that way,” he joked Thursday.
But early into his first term, he found that lifestyle to be lacking in a Type A city where people socialize and bartenders pour long past happy hour.
“I wasn’t making any enemies,” he recalled, “but I wasn’t making a lot of friends either.”
He discovered a different way to bond in 2011, when he went out for the congressional Republican baseball team and found camaraderie. On Thursday at Nationals Park, Fleischmann was the only Tennessean on either team in the annual Dems-versus-GOP showdown — a distinction he’s held for three consecutive years.