Mulhern clarifies
August 20, 2007 at 4:05 pm by Wayne GarciaTampa City Council member Mary Mulhern sent along a copy of an e-mail she sent to a Republican friend of hers who took offense to comments she made and that I reported here.
The message goes:
Please note that Wayne Garcia implied that I was referring to Republicans as dementors. I did not talk about Republicans at all. I was referring to the moral challenges of the decisions and positions we take as elected officials and how truly bad they can be. I did not mention parties, names or even issues. Frankly I am as frustrated with some local Democrats as I am with Republicans. Political writers tend to reduce everything to partisan factions, but I did not talk about parties at all, other than to say that I read much after the last Presidential election (not Harry Potter) and learned from the Republican local organization of the past 30 years and want to see Democrats emulate them. I tend to speak off the cuff but I really don’t think I said anything directly against Republicans or that was incivil toward anyone. If I did, I did not mean to.
I am a Democrat, but I have much respect for and many friendships with Republicans. I am even becoming friends with my former opponent Rose Ferlita and have been very impressed with her independence on the County Commission.
