ATLANTA -- Dan McLagan keeps a sword and a hand grenade on the mantle of the Capitol office where he labors to polish and protect Gov. Sonny Perdue's image. It's appropriate imagery for a man whose tasks include rhetorically silencing the opposition.
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Sometimes the job requires only the precise work of a sword cut but ''sometimes you have more than one assailant and a verbal grenade is the appropriate response," he laughs.
The sword is a replica of an old Scottish sword, reflecting McLagan's heritage. The grenade is real enough, but nonfunctioning because it's been drilled out.
At this point in his life, McLagan, 36, expected to be comfortably ensconced in the corporate world after helping Perdue fashion a winning campaign last year. It was his eighth political campaign but only his second with a winner.
''I figured that the Perdue campaign was a great victory to end my political campaign career on, and I hung up the silver tongue and went to work in the corporate sector, switched from khakis to suits and slept in every morning by my standards," he said.
But by mid-June, after a rocky first legislative session, Perdue figured he needed McLagan in his administration, and McLagan was ready to take the job.
''This is kind of how I knew my heart wasn't in the corporate sector: The first thing I did when I'd get to work was pull up my clips from Georgia. ... I was watching the sort of duplicitousness of the Democrats and the commentary that was going on and I was practically yelling at the computer screen. I wanted to get back. I wanted to be in the game."
And so the man who helped Perdue use a cartoon rat to knock off a seemingly invincible incumbent is back in the game and fully engaged, using many of the same rhetorical flourishes of a campaign.
Last week, for instance, in response to an attack by Democratic operatives, he dismissed them as ''attack Chihuahuas" and ''pipsqueaks."
''A cute one-liner that's good in the campaign doesn't necessarily work in the context of government," says Bobby Kahn, who was chief of staff for Gov. Roy Barnes, the man Perdue beat. ''His role in the campaign was to get attention and slash and burn. He did a pretty good job of that. But at some point, you've got to offer something and be for something."
McLagan replied: ''About 90 percent of the job is sharing the governor's vision with the people of Georgia. It's usually when Bobby and his band of attack flaks come around that I have to dust off the rhetorical broadsword."
Kahn says McLagan was brought back to stave off disaster. ''Clearly they've been having problems. There was one misfire after another during the session, whether it was on how they presented their tax increases or were stacking the ethics commission."
McLagan counters: ''This team was shot out of a cannon into that session. There was no time to set up and organize and put together a game plan. They just had to go, go, go. And I think they did really an amazingly good job."
McLagan was born in Minneapolis of Scottish-Irish-German descent and attended American University in Washington. During college he interned on public television's MacNeill-Lehrer News Hour and subsequently got an internship, which turned into a junior paid position, with then-Vice President George Bush's presidential campaign.
Although McLagan rarely interacted with the candidate, there was one particularly memorable moment in the campaign.
''The first dog did come up and sniff me inappropriately at a press conference once. I was hooking up a mult box for a media avail and Millie came up and I was hunched over and she was showing great interest in my hind quarters. ... Barbara Bush came over, terribly embarrassed, and got the dog away from me. I turned about six shades of red. So did she."
Later in his career, as press secretary for Republican Rick Lazio in his battle with Hillary Clinton for a New York Senate seat, McLagan's harsh rhetoric - ''Under previous administrations, the Lincoln Bedroom wasn't treated like Motel 6" - earned him no friends among the Clinton faction.
''Hillary literally hates me. She went to shake my hand - somebody introduced us at a debate. And when they said my name, her hand was extended and she just pulled it away and walked right past me without looking at me. Her spokesperson later told me that neither her nor the President were very big fans of mine."
If the Clintons don't like McLagan, he's got a big fan in Perdue.
''It's good chemistry," the governor said, adding that he values McLagan not only as a communicator but as someone who can help him see how administration actions will be perceived by the media and the public.
''I have what I consider to be a naive streak in wanting to do what I think is in the best interests of the state and Dan makes sure I understand the perception," he said.
''I think the one thing that impressed me about McLagan during the campaign was that while he acknowledged that he made every effort to spin you guys, he was always truthful and valued his reputation for veracity with the media, understanding he's only got one chance to lie to you. That's the kind of guy I want working for me."
A glance at Dan McLagan
Some facts about Dan McLagan, Gov. Sonny Perdue's communications director:
Full name: Daniel Bruce McLagan
Age: 36 (born February 13, 1967)
Hometown: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Education: Attended American University, studying international relations.
Marital status: Not married. Has a St. Bernard named ''Ollie."
Political Campaigns: 1988 Bush presidential campaign (press assistant); 1990 Bob Taft gubernatorial campaign in Ohio (deputy press secretary); 1992 Bush campaign (deputy director of state press operations); 1994 Ollie North Senate campaign in Virginia(communications director); 1996 Lamar Alexander presidential campaign (press secretary); 2000 John McCain presidential campaign (deputy communications director); 2000 Rick Lazio Senate campaign in New York; 2002 Sonny Perdue gubernatorial campaign in Georgia (communications director).
