Fairfax, Va. - For the leader of what may be the most polarizing interest group in America, National Rifle Association chief David Keene is a genial hard-liner.
He loves guns. He loves politics. He loves talking - even with journalists, who are viewed in gun circles as overwhelmingly hostile to their cause.
The son of pro-labor Wisconsin Democrats, Keene grew into one of Washington, D.C.'s ultimate conservative insiders, a Goldwater-Nixon-Agnew-Reagan-Dole Republican, a lobbyist, strategist and lifelong political player.