Pain in the governor
Kempthorne’s not known for crankiness, but reportedly was in so much pain the week before the surgery that at one point, he couldn’t even get out of bed. He told doctors his pain, on a scale of 1 to 10, was at 10. After the surgery, which fixed an injury from a mountain biking accident, it was down to zero.
“He was a trooper about it, he didn’t complain about it, you just could tell that the guy was in pain,” said a staffer.