The Political Whore

I received a notice from the Dept. of the Treasury the other day that I should be expecting my economic stimulus check in the mail any day now.

I can’t wait.

Hell yeah, $300 to help get me out of the hole that is swallowing me due to crazy gas prices and slowly rising beer prices and rising prices for groceries and every other cost than seems to be a perpetual drain on my income.

And now, since we have received word that our economy is now flying high like a jumbo jet, I no longer feel pressured to spend my check on something that I don’t need in order to keep America (and all the third-world countries that produce the products we enjoy) going strong. Yes, apparently our economy is doing great, growing at a steady pace, chugging right along. Better now than it has been for a long time, etc. It is no longer necessary for me to bounce my stimulus check back into the whirlwind of progress that is the economy.

But the strength of the economy must be felt more at the corporate level and by the upper income folks than by the common-folk at the bottom of the economic food chain because I don’t feel a thing. Not anything good, at least.

Regardless, I no longer feel compelled to add to the riches of a small division of a retail mega-conglomerate. My check is going straight into by bank account.

I call this speculative economics: If I spend my stimulus check at a store, it helps keep that company going strong so that it can afford to continue employing its workers who, in theory, will spend their money somewhere and keep the pool of cash swirling around and around and keep us all afloat. I speculate, however, that these workers will choose to save as much of their paychecks as possible, as well as their economic stimulus checks, due to the higher cost of living. The higher costs we are all feeling are eating into our disposable income and it isn’t going to get any better.

This is also what I call my every-man-woman-and-child-for-themselves economic policy. I’m holding onto as much of my money as possible to avoid being screwed in the future if gas prices hit $10 a gallon. When it comes to my money, it’s all about me; there is no let’s-do-what’s-best-for-the-country-by-spending-money-I-don’t-have-on-things-I-don’t-need.

Back in the day when I would get a mini-windfall, such as my tax refund check, for example, I would spend it on stuff I wanted, like a stereo for my car or a pair of shades. I was a true patriot. I could afford to be.

If I would have received my check earlier, before the economy was doing so great, I would have felt all fuzzy inside handing it over to a corporation in exchange for something that I don’t need, so that it can afford to pay its workers their pittance without having to lower CEO pay or raise prices.

Sorry, but I’m keeping as much of my money as I can. It’s simple economics. Actually, it’s the simplest of simple economics.

Inside Baseball Alert: Fascinating to see one of our nation’s most thoughtful journalists and commentators arguing the facts with a producer of Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel show, proving again that intellect and honesty wins over bluster and bullshit — except when it comes to ratings.

My fave is the question asked by an Uptake reporter to the producer, “Do you consider what you just did journalism?” Then again, you gotta give the O’Reilly producer points for having the balls to even enter the liberal-soaked grounds of the National Conference for Media Reform in an attempt to get the gotcha footage of Moyers.

As Big Media looks again to swallow the process of choosing a president in our nation, John McCain and Barack Obama are taking a unified stance against letting media companies sponsor or moderate their future joint appearances.

From NYT website:

Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign said, “Both campaigns have indicated that any additional appearances will be open to all networks for broadcast on TV or Internet like the presidential commission debates rather than sponsored by a single network or news organization.”

Both candidates had been invited to a town hall session being put together by ABC News and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg (a potential veep candidate in either party) that was to be moderated by the highly annoying Diane Sawyer.

I assiduously try to avoid reading the if-it-bleeds-it-leads brand of story so prevalent in daily newspapers today, but I could not avoid clicking on this line in the Times‘ website: “Woman run over, killed after hitting owl with her car.”

I’m still trying to figure out how you hit an owl with your car.

(photo by Adam Baker via Flickr) 

In case you missed it over the weekend …

Clinton endorses Obama.

• Wolfson reflects.
• The G.O.P. skittish about McCain? Shocking!
• Meanwhile, the candidates are pitching The John & Barack Show to multiple networks.
• Southbound I-75 at U.S. 301 in Ellenton is now open for business.
• Kill-joy scientists prepare to figure out how much brain cancer we’re giving ourselves with all that cell phone use.
• Come visit beautiful Garbage Island.
• Big Brown poops out out on Triple Crown run.
• 2-0 Boston.

They’re not the only Big Media company looking at this, but the Tampa Tribune is in the midst of outsourcing some advertising layout jobs to India, reports The Business Journal:

“We’re recreating jobs [in the production department], and everybody in the department already knows what’s happening,” said Denise Palmer, president and publisher of the Tribune. “This is not news for any of our employees, but we haven’t yet settled on a final number.”

Most of the cuts come as a result of the outsourcing that will take place in the Tribune’s downtown office, Palmer said, but some cuts also could take place at the paper’s Sebring office where its Highlands Today is published. The move to outsourcing should be completed by September.

Former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman, a Hillary Clinton supporter, is outraged at how she feels her candidate and women in general were portrayed in the Democratic presidential primary, and she’s fired off an open letter to Clinton on the subject:

Hillary,

You might remember me. I’m Sandy Freedman and was the mayor of Tampa. We’ve been together on many occasions since 1992 and I’ve been standing with you and for you all these years.

I’m one of the millions of women who are angry. Angry that you are not our nominee and angry that we as women haven’t made much progress since long before we first met. The blatant sexism and bias that we have seen is far more than any of us could have imagined. And, worst of all, was the silence by those who should have been most vocal about it—Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dean, Kennedy and all of the others who for years have professed that our party stood taller for women than the Republicans. You have been there for us. THEY HAVE FAILED US.

Much has been written and spoken during this campaign about a dialogue on race. Great oratory has been heard and columns have been read. But, nothing about a dialogue on gender—-a far more insidious and covert action taking place in the workplace, on the playground, in the boardrooms and yes, in our political life.
After you have your much deserved rest, you can lead that national dialogue on gender. Not just with speeches, but with forums and town hall meetings around this country. Really listening (which you do so well) and showcasing the problems of bias towards women. Like-minded colleagues (Barbara Mikulski, Dianne Feinstein, Jennifer Granholm, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and so many other) could join with you. Just leave Pelosi, Sebelius, McCaskill , et al. at home They don’t get it.

I believe this could be one of your greatest legacies. You have the spirit, tenacity and grit to capture the nation’s attention. Please consider this idea for Chelsea and for my daughter and granddaughters. And for my sons and grandsons. This is a cycle that just has to be broken.

My fondest good wishes to you and Bill. You both have my greatest respect and admiration.

Warmly,
Sandy Freedman

In a telephone conversation with me this afternoon, Freedman said women are or should be outraged at the kind of things that were directed at Clinton during the campaign — often without any media outrage or censure from Democratic leaders. A McCain supporter asked the Republican, for instance, “How do we beat the bitch?” without much uproar from the Democratic Party or even pundits. A TV commentator quipped that Clinton must be having PMS during one rough stretch of the campaign. The Hartford Courant wrote, “The insults were endless. They criticized her marriage, her daughter, her looks, her clothes, her voice, her laugh and her cry. The superdelegates were no better as they rushed to early endorsements, long before the last American voices were heard.”

“The misogyny is horrible,” Freedman said.

“I know I speak for an awful lot of women. In the last month, men and women have shared those views and there’s anger that she lost but there is an even greater anger at the way she was treated.

“When Howard Dean was here a couple of weeks ago, we had dinner with him, and I got in his face that I was astounded that throughout this whole campaign with all the sexism and all the nasty things that had been written and said at forums … the Democratic hierarchy remained mute, Dean, Pelosi (an Obama supporter), Kennedy who’s always been such a strong supporter of women. Howard Dean has begun speaking out about that now, but it’s a little too late now.

“If anybody had ever used the N-word, the whole world would have come down and rightly so,” Freedman said. “The political cartoons, Pat Oliphant and Luckovich have had a field day, and it’s been sexist attacks. I think that’s why there is so much anger out there, and I think it is going to be very tough to overcome. Obama has got to speak to it, and he hasn’t so far.”

Freedman was mayor in the late 1980s and early ’90s said the media and society’s treatment of women in politics hasn’t changed.

“Its not any different now than it was 30 years ago when I first campaigned,” Freedman said.

Bonus Cut: a good post on Women in the Media and News blog

Former Tampa U.S. Rep. Sam Gibbons, a Democrat known as a loner and principled lawmaker who once ran the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has crossed the aisle to endorse the son of his friend and former colleague, Mike Bilirakis. From the Gus Bilirakis website:

In an open letter to the constituents of the 9th Congressional District, Gibbons cited Bilirakis’s successful work during his first term in Congress as the reason for this endorsement.

“His good work and his demonstrated abilities make him as one who should be reelected,” said Gibbons. “I feel that my 34 years in Congress representing a good part of Congressman Bilirakis’ current district, qualifies me to make this endorsement. I am pleased to support the reelection of Congressman Bilirakis.”

“Sam served the Tampa Bay area for more than three decades with great honor and distinction,” said Bilirakis. “I accept his endorsement and look forward to working with him during the campaign in an effort to continue improving benefits for our service members and veterans, fighting against higher taxes and wasteful spending, and improving our nation’s economic security.”

I would chide “way to screw over the home team, Sam” but I have too much respect for the former WWII paratrooper. But you hardcore partisans out there, have at it.

There’s still time to attend the St. Petersburg City Council session on the Rays. Council members announced this morning that it would hear the matter starting at 1:15 p.m.

Oh, and anyone wondering just how far in the tank for the Rays the Times would be, look no further than today’s editorial page for a slap-down of  “upstart” Councilman Karl Nurse, who wants to put a competing referendum on the ballot with the Rays boondoggle. (Full disclosure: Before joining CL, I was a consultant to Nurse’s unsuccessful bid for mayor against Rick Baker.)

I’m still waiting for the edit board’s take on the Times extensive marketing/sponsorship relationships with the Rays and how that impacts the newspaper’s objectivity and/or credibility.

I spent some PoHo ink in this week’s CL issue writing about the Congressional District 9 race, in which three Democrats are running for the right to face Republican first-termer Gus Bilirakis in November. I’m intrigued by the Democratic Party’s recent victories in Mississippi, Illinois and Louisiana in turning formerly Red stronghold seats into Blue. Some Tampa Bay Democrats think Congressional 9 can be in play because of Bilirakis’ low “power” rankings, as a freshman. I wrote:

Florida has a remarkably un-powerful congressional delegation. Because it is so packed with Republicans, and the Democrats are now in control of Congress, Florida’s influence in Washington lies — according to Congress.org’s power rankings — somewhere below that of Alabama and West Virginia. For now, however, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted just two Red-to-Blue districts in Florida for financial support: Christine Jennings’ rematch with Vern Buchanan in Sarasota and an effort to unseat Republican Tom Feeney in Orlando.

For now, that list doesn’t include District 9, where three Democrats are vying for the nomination. It is a wildly gerrymandered district that stretches from Plant City across northern Hillsborough, through Palm Harbor, Clearwater, Safety Harbor and East Lake in Pinellas (while excluding Dunedin), north through Tarpon Springs and into part of Pasco County along the Gulf coast. In addition to Dicks and Mitchell, Anita de Palma, a former Florida state director for the League of United Latin American Citizens from Clearwater, is also running in the Democratic primary. (Another Democratic candidate, Michael van Hoek, dropped out and endorsed Dicks.)

You can read the whole story here.

Bonus Cuts: As I have limited space in CL, I will start start putting all the news that’s fit to print but doesn’t fit the print here instead.

I didn’t get to get into one issue that some politicos point to as a vulnerability for Dicks: a 1996 article in the Tampa Tribune that detailed how a few people who took an investment seminar from him in the 1990s claimed they had been ripped off and lost money:

PLANT CITY – Joann Chandler was approaching retirement age in 1989 when she attended a financial seminar led by John Dicks in Tampa. She had sold her house and come into a modest inheritance and wanted to prepare for the future.

The seminar was sponsored by Delta First Financial, an investment firm tied closely to multimillionaire financial adviser Charles J. Givens’ Altamonte Springs-based educational organization. Givens’ company was known nationwide in the 1980s and early 1990s for its infomercials, seminars, books and, later, scandals.

Dicks, who is running for state Senate in eastern Hillsborough County, was “very convincing,” Chandler, now 64, recalls.

“I said to myself, “I’ve never trusted anybody; you’ve got to trust these guys.’ ” So she gave Dicks $ 70,000 to invest in a series of limited partnerships.

The partnerships failed. Chandler sued Givens and Delta to get the money back, but she could not comment about any settlement. She also filed a complaint against Dicks, who she says convinced her she could not lose.

“I blame him,” she says. “He’s made my life hell.”

Chandler and four others filed complaints about Dicks and some eventually filed lawsuits. The cases were settled in arbitration, according to the account, which is no longer available online except through paid archiving services.

Some Dicks supporters say they’ve been mailed anonymous packages containing the stories and allegations.

“I have seen parts of the court file,” Mitchell told me in an interview. “Some of the bloggers have raised that issue. To the effect, he is going to have a very tough time because the Republicans have that issue and [they can raise questions about whether voters] are going to put someone in Congress who has swindled seniors. That is something that Democratic voters need to take into account.”

Dicks has steadfastly denied “swindling” anyone, saying that only six investors out of hundreds became disgruntled during his time giving investment advice. He told the Trib in 1996 that “of those who lost money, there were never any guarantees made. That’s just one of the inherent factors of any investment. People can lose money, and I did, just like they did. And I didn’t have anybody to sue.”

Dicks told me when I asked him about the matter that all the cases were settled amicably. “While a lot of people were successful, there were six who lost money,” he told me last week. “I learned from that. It has actually helped me be a better public servant.”

In an interesting possible preview of things to come, Dicks was attacked by the National Republican Senatorial Campaignover the seminar controversy during his unsuccessful 1996 Florida Senate run. (Full disclosure: I represented his opponent, Tom Lee, during Lee’s Republican primary in that election. I was unaware of the national political attacks against him in the general election.) Dicks, a lawyer, sued for libel and settled the case. “They definitely paid out some money,” he said last week. “Mine all went to charity.”

Another aspect of the race that didn’t fit in print was a quick overview of where Dicks stands on some of the issues. Dicks:

• Wouldn’t support opening new oil drilling leases off Florida’s Gulf coast — at least yet. He calls them “our ultimate strategic reserve” but touts new technologies to extract oil in other parts of the nation first. He feels likewise about drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge but would support that before allowing more Florida Gulf coast drilling. “I want to protect the environment,” he said of the ANWR, “but that is a remote and desolate place.” (His opponent Mitchell, a former Federal Trade Commission attorney who worked on litigation against Big Oil, questions Dicks position and said he opposes more drilling in the Gulf and ANWR as producing too little oil to be worth the environmental risk.)
• Parses his answers to fall on both sides of divisive social issues. On gay marriage and pending constitutional amendments: “I concur with Jeb Bush that it’s not necessary [to amend the constitution], and I’m against gay marriage.” On abortion: “I’m very definitely against abortion, but I’m respectful of Roe v. Wade. It’s settled law.”

In case you always wondered what a boulder made of legos would look like rolling down a hill …

It’s a boulder made of legos rolling down a hill.

• Ok, she’s really out. I think.
• The V.P. hunt begins.
• Obama vs. Lieberman.
• Oprah does the “happy dance” over Barack’s victory.
• You might want to avoid the Ellenton outlet mall for a few days. (Sorry Ham Gravy.)
• Go fuck your cousin! No, really, it’s OK.
• Heeeerrrrreeeeeessssssss foreclosure!
• The Red Wings win the cup.

How did the presidential candidates do at AIPAC today?

… is not the run-of-the-mill redneck you might suspect. He’s Marion Lambert, a college-educated beekeeper who sells honey from his home in Ballast Point. He lives pretty much off the grid on his urban farm.

Our former staff writer Max Linsky profiled Lambert in 2005, writing:

Lambert is skinny and leather-skinned, his voice gruff through a wad of Levi Garrett chewing tobacco. He moves fluidly around the farm, stepping around his old welding equipment as he leads a pony to his stall. The agrarian life, he says, is in his blood.

Lambert grew up in Pensacola, and kept chickens from the age of 10, selling eggs to his neighbors. From there he went to the University of West Florida, and was a step away from getting his masters is psychology when he abruptly quit. “I realized it wasn’t worth it,” he says.

He and his wife found the farm, which was then just a house with a big backyard, during a search for her runaway albino skunk, Berkley (they didn’t find him). Lambert contacted the land’s owner, and brokered a deal. He would farm the land, keeping it “greenbelted” and exempted from normal property taxes. And that’s how it’s stayed for 30 years.

Lambert makes his money off the honey, grows his own greens and has chickens to lay fresh eggs. He heats the water in his house by wood fire and does his business through trade when he can.

He doesn’t go to movies. Doesn’t own a TV. He avoids restaurants – “I’d rather eat out here by the campfire,” he says.

He even barters at 7-Eleven, where he brews the morning pot of coffee in exchange for a free cup.

It’s a different life, in a different world.

Lambert is a proud Southerner; the confederate flag is incorporated into his honey website’s beehive logo. And he digs a rural lifestyle despite having a place well within the urbanized confines of the city of Tampa. As Linsky pointed out three years ago:

Block out the old pickups strewn around the farm and the Air Force jets flying overhead (Lambert’s place is next door to MacDill AFB) and it could be 1865. Lambert, who is the Commander of the local Sons of Confederate Veterans’ chapter, likes it that way. Chickens run around the yard, a cow grazes in a pasture, and seven goats roam the back of the property, chomping away on a Brazillian Pepper tree.

Oh, and he sells his honey on the honor system:

Lambert says he eats what produce and meat he needs, and gives away the rest. His honey, which comes in bakery grade (darker color, more moisture) and table grade (lighter color, more expensive), is the cash crop. If the market’s right, he can make up to $45,000 a year selling barrels to health food stores and factories.

And there’s the stand at Second Street’s dead end.

Lambert leaves out the jugs and expects customers to slide their money through a slot, on the honor system. Pay what you got; take what you need. He’s been ripped of a few times, but that’s to be expected, he says.

Lambert was before the Hillsborough County Commission today, where he heard a report from county attorneys that he was within his legal rights to fly the battle flag at the intersection of I-4 and I-75 showed today. But Lambert slipped in speaking with a reporter, letting us know that it is not, as previously stated, all about historical pride; it’s about revenge at being ignored. This from the Times account:

He said he has been seeking since 2006 to have commissioners sign a simple proclamation to honor confederate history. Commissioners refused and so he has resorted to this.

“We’ve been marginalized, put off the table,” [Marion] Lambert said. “Now they want to talk to us? Hey, your wife’s done left you.”

Oh no they didn’t.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans have displayed their southern pride, or maybe demonstrated their racist ignorance (depending on whom you ask), by flying a massive Confederate flag near the I-75 and I-4 intersection.

God bless America. These rednecks have the right to fly their flag, at least temporarily.

While I totally disagree with their ideology and am suspicious of their motives, unpopular ideas should not be censored. The flag merely represents their ideas and is akin to a demonstration, which is constitutionally protected. To prohibit this group from flying the flag because of what it stands for would amount to a content-based restriction of free speech, which is a road we do not want to start down.

In addition, there doesn’t seem to be anything, at least so far, that the county commission can legally do to get the flag taken down.

And they should, because leaving the flag up permanently would be an eyesore and wouldn’t be beneficial to the overall community any more than any other hideous eyesore would be. In the same way that we wouldn’t let any other group assemble permanently in a public place, we shouldn’t let this abominable symbol be on permanent public display. It needs to come down eventually.

In the meantime, however, it should be treated as a free speech or a right to assemble issue.

(photo credit: juxtapose^esopatxuj via flickr)

Aaron Sharockman at the Times gets an exclusive interview with MLB Commish Bud Selig, who lays down the heavy threat to St. Pete: get us a new ballpark or suffer in anonymity for the rest of your stinkin’ existence:

Selig, who spoke exclusively to the St. Petersburg Times, said the small-market Rays cannot compete with larger ball clubs without the guaranteed revenue that comes with a new stadium.

He called the proposed Al Lang location outstanding, and promised St. Petersburg an All-Star Game if a waterfront stadium were built.

“There’s no question that the Rays need a new stadium. There’s just no question,” Selig said by phone from his offices in Milwaukee.

Selig then demonstrated that he has indeed watch the Alec Baldwin speech from Glengarry Glen Ross on numerous occasions by pushing to close the sale. In his estimation, new ballparks are a can’t-miss:

“I could take you from city to city to all of our projects,” said Selig before rattling off a list of cities initially wary of investing in a new ballpark. “Once a stadium’s up, there isn’t a city anywhere that’s disappointed.”

Oh yeah?

Not if you listen to the opponents of the project. Or even a nationally respected newspaper such as the New York Times. POWW members circulated quotes from a Times op-ed piece in 2003 about how Selig’s own team disappointed Milwaukee:

Tommy G. Thompson played a key role in the building of Miller Park in Milwaukee with public money while he was governor of Wisconsin. Like many other residents of the state, he feels a bit jilted.

”The Brewers made it clear that if we built a modern, state-of-the-art stadium, it would provide them with the resources to field a winning baseball team,” Thompson, now the secretary of health and human services, said. ”The Brewers need to put an end to the games. They need to invest in a winning team.”

Other politicians are more outspoken. Referring to the family that owns the Brewers, State Senator Mike Ellis said, ”The Seligs just scammed the living dickens out of the people of this state.”

I’m on Your Turn with Kathy Fountain on Fox 13 at 12:30 today. Drop whatever you are doing and watch me pontificate. The subject is scheduled to be, you guessed it, the Democratic presidential primaries.

Tampa Bay is down to one major daily newspaper classical music critic as the Tampa Tribune’s Kurt Loft has given notice that he is leaving for a job at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Loft told me yesterday evening that he was sad to leave the paper but excited about the opportunity he will be given at PwC, where he will carry the title Lead Editor.

Loft worked at the Tribune for 27 years and covered science, classical music and restaurants. He did not take the buyout offer that the newspaper gave to more than 630 employees.

“I’m going to miss the beats,” he said of the unusual mix of subjects that he had worked into his newsroom responsibility. “It’s been a great mix.”

Loft also said he told the newspaper in his resignation letter that “I will always be a goodwill ambassador for the Trib. In its prime, it was the heart and soul of the city.”

Loft also bemoaned the impact on the local arts if the Trib, as expected, doesn’t replace him. Many state grants are sought on the basis of news coverage, and without classical music previews and reviews, the Florida Orchestra could suffer. “I think it’s tragic,” Loft said. “I feel very bad for the Orchestra. For all the arts, you’ve got to have an experienced reporter to have a dialogue between the organization and the community.”

In full disclosure, I must comment that I am close friends with Kurt, have been for 20 years, and will sorely miss his writing in the Tampa daily.

He joins several other past Trib scribes at PriceWaterhouse who left the daily over the past few years, including pop music critic Philip Booth and computer-assisted reporting guru Doug Stanley. In February, Trib business reporter Dave Simanoff also quit to join PwC. Loft said three or four other Trib reporters gave notice last Friday along with him to take jobs at PwC but their names could not yet be confirmed.

And so we reach the end of what will surely be the wildest primary contest of my lifetime.

Thank God Wolf Blitzer is there to make sense of it all.

• Obama “claims” the nomination.
• Hillary makes no decisions.
• McCain rips off Obama’s slogan but can’t match Barack’s stage presence.
• And what was up with that ugly green backdrop anyway?
• Who wants to live forever? (How about just past 90?)
• The Lightning show coach John Tortorella the door.
• Game one in Boston seems like old times for the Rays.
• Advantage: Lakers.

The AP just called the democratic primary for Barack Obama.

After over a year of the daily campaign, I have to admit that I have a hard time believing it’s really done. Or, to put it another way, I still expect that at any moment Hillary’s decomposing hand will burst forth from below the ground of her shallow grave, grab a startled Obama and drag him down into the abyss.

But I guess that’s not going to happen. It really is over.

Knowing this, I’ll still tune in to the cable news nets tonight, if only because I’m an idiot and because I like to watch Olbermann and Matthews share uncomfortable silences. Plus, if I don’t watch, I’ll miss Terry Mcauliffe somehow pull off congratulating Obama while still calling his mother a whore.

How about you? Sticking around for the victory speeches or shall I just call you when the general election heats up?

(Photo Credit: Allison Harger)

With a crucial St. Pete City Council vote coming up Thursday, the Rays have responded to a litany of city administration concerns with a lengthy memo (available as a download on the Times‘ new ballpark blog) it hopes will clear things up.

Like mud.

In a nutshell:

• The Rays acknowledged they were unaware of a deed restriction that affects part of the Al Lang site where they want to relocate. The team said it doesn’t believe that it has to change its site plan, which is wedged into the smallish Al Lang site, but it did so anyway just to make the city happy.
• The team will move its planned offices out of a Mahaffey parking lot, trying to address concerns that the new ballpark would kill attendance at the theater and the new Dali Museum, which will share the waterfront next to the Mahaffey.
• Speaking of problems with those arts organization, the team produced data to support their assertion that ball fans are actually arts fans, too, and therefore the ballpark and the arts scene can co-exist downtown.
• The roads around the planned ballpark would be altered to accommodate the Grand Prix racing held annually.
• The Rays are re-committed to fan comfort. Here is the team’s answer to questions about whether fans will really attend games in the blast furnace that is July and August in Tampa Bay: “Fan comfort is a major business issue for the Rays, as it will directly impact our ability to be successful in a new ballpark. We will be happy to share our plans to ensure the best possible fan environment for our fans with the City as the design advances.”

So, does that satisfy your questions and concerns?
Bonus cuts: The Rays ask local businesses to be their ambassadors to make this thing happen (TBBJ); NAACP, Urban League back stadium plan (TBBJ); Polling doesn’t go Rays way (Drays blog); DEP: Not so fast on redeveloping the Trop … (Troxler on sptimes.com)

The latest Quinnipiac University poll out today (and downloadable as a Word doc) is not great news for opponents of the Florida Constitutional ban on gay marriage, aka Amendment 2 — 58 percent of Floridians would vote to approve the prohibition against same-sex nuptials, despite the fact that such a ban is already state law:

Florida voters support 58 – 37 percent a constitutional amendment that specifically defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman, making same-sex marriage illegal in Florida. Republicans back the measure 77 – 19 percent, as independent voters support it 52 – 44 percent, while Democrats oppose it 52 – 44 percent. Voters with no college degree back the amendment 64 – 32 percent, while college-educated voters oppose it 50 – 46 percent.

Note the split between college-educated and non-college-educated respondents. Ever wonder why the Republican-led Legislature is so hell-bent on crippling the state’s university system? Pound the university system into submission and maybe you can lower that opposition to stupid right-wing amendments, they gotta figure.

In related news, Gov. Charlie Crist’s approval rating continues to be strong at 61-23, although below his initial months after inauguration in 2007. Here is what the Q poll found:

“Any politician would die to have Gov. Charlie Crist’s approval rating. The economy is down; state programs are being cut and 60 percent of voters say they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the way things are going in Florida today, yet his numbers remain very, very good,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Crist’s support remains solid across the board with 67 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of independents giving him a thumbs up. In addition, 55 per cent of voters say Crist has kept his campaign promises.

Kept his campaign promises? I don’t recall him promising on the campaign trail to sit by impotently while the Legislature ignored his proposed budget and failed to tap reserves rather than make disastrous cuts to schools, or his promise to fail to bring about real property tax reform.

Finally, here are the approval ratings for other cabinet officials:

• U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, 51 – 26 percent;
• U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, 40 – 35 percent;
• State Attorney General Bill McCollum, 52 – 20 percent;
• Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, 33 – 25 percent.

Melquiades’ numbers suck, while McCollum’s seem off the charts, given that he lost the 2004 race to Martinez but has been rumored to be prepping another shot at it because of Melquiades’ poor showing in Congress. The high McCollum numbers (I just can’t imagine anyone really liking him) make me suspicious that this was a very Republican sample for this poll.

#4 is the best.

• “McCain’s Top Strategist Lobbied For Iran-Linked Firm”
• “America’s house prices are falling even faster than during the Great Depression”
• “Hillary Clinton in negotiations for Barack Obama to help pay off her debts”
• “Dick Cheney’s Incest Joke Irks Virginian Lawmakers”
• “Huge Confederate Flag to Fly Over Tampa”
• “Designer of Pringles can is buried in his invention”
• “Rocker-Lawyer Pesters R. Kelly, Gets Boot from Courtroom”
• “It’s not the biggest house that ever sold in the Tampa Bay area, but it’s the priciest”

Hotline reports that Janee Murphy, a Democratic superdelegate and state party secretary, threw her lot in with Barack Obama today.

Longtime CL readers will remember Murphy as the former head of the Hillsborough Democratic Executive Committee who drew strong, emotional responses from some in the progressive wing of the local party, prompting lots of dissension, crazy DEC meetings and her eventual resignation from the office.

Her move, as local news stories pointed out, came as no surprise, given her open support of Obama. The Palm Beach Post wrote this:

The Tampa-area organizer donated $2,300 to Obama’s campaign earlier this year, but kept her superdelegate vote uncommitted as long as the DNC refused to acknowledge the state’s Jan. 29 primary.

“Looking at where we’re at, Obama in my feeling is going to be the nominee,” Murphy said. “Now it’s about the general election and keeping McCain out of the White House.”

Just blowing my own horn. Finalist lists here.

A Tampa woman who sued the city over an unpaid debt dating back to the Civil War era has dropped her case after lawyers for the city played the U.S. Constitution card.

Joan Kennedy Biddle sued in March for repayment of a promissory note given by Tampa to Biddle’s great-grandfather for military supplies needed to defend against Union troops in 1861. The original note, now a family heirloom, was for $299.58. Biddle just wanted what was fair: the amount of the original debt plus 8 percent. Compounded annually. For a total of $22.7 million.

I mean come on, her family had been carrying that debt for a long time. Fair’s fair, right?

After the suit was announced, the city quickly poked big holes in her case, including citing the 14th Amendment’s prohibition against repaying debts incurred while in rebellion against the United States (see Section 4). Tampa’s chief assistant city attorney Jerry Gewirtz delivered hundreds of documents to Biddle’s attorney Jim Purdy, who quickly called uncle.

Even though she dropped her suit, however, she is surely still seeing dollar signs dancing in her head, although not exactly like she had envisioned when she (or a really bad influence) came up with this scheme. Not only is she not going to be rich like Rick James, but she has reportedly agreed to pay the city $4,000 in legal fees, and she’s surrendering the original promissory note to the city.

Talk about an about-face! Even though Biddle’s case was shaky from the start, they must have some good lawyers over in city hall. Makes you wonder what else was in those documents.

Biddle should consider herself lucky. The feds could have gotten in on this and pulled some serious Patriot-Act-aiding-and-abetting-the-enemy stuff. She could have ended up at Gitmo.

Four thousand dollars and a family heirloom seems like a small price to pay for freedom. Then again, couldn’t the city at least have offered to give her family back the $300 it borrowed those many years ago, even if it couldn’t afford the interest?

(Oh, in another victory for the Confederacy, the self-proclaimed world’s largest Confederate flag is headed to Hillsborough County! More to come on that, we’re sure.)

photo credit: Mike Murrow

Here is the Angry Hillary Supporter getting thrown out of the DNC RBC on Saturday. Watch it at the :51-second mark to see AHS question the St. Petersburg Times political reporter about whether he is an undercover agent:

On a related note, we’re taking bets in the office on where in Manhattan Harriet Christian (AHS) is from. Upper East side is just edging out Upper West Side, with one native Long Islander here offering this: “She’s from Queens.” “But she said in the video she was from Manhattan?” “That’s what everybody from Queens says.”  I will look up AHS’ residency online later and announce a winner.

Former Tampa Trib newsman Tim Collie has a good piece about Gov. Charlie Crist’s girlfriend, Carole Rome, in this weekend’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

She’s been a fixture on the Manhattan charity circuit and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Red Cross, the March of Dimes, and other charities that help troubled children and the homeless.

She routinely rubs shoulders with celebrities ranging from Tommy Hilfiger, the Hilton family (her former neighbors in the Hamptons), and John McEnroe, whose wife, former rock star Patty Smyth, is a close friend.

It was during a fundraising meeting in New York in September that she and Crist became close. Rome, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her husband, Todd Rome, CEO of Bluestar Jets, an international airplane brokerage.

“It was a meeting about fundraising and she’s very interested in fundraising, like I am,” said Crist, who was in the Keys on Friday evening. “She’s a Republican, her father was a Republican. We have a lot in common — sports, politics, fishing. I care about her a great deal. What can I say? It’s a serious, close relationship.”

The best thing about clicking over to the story, however, will be to check out the photo of the Gov and Mrs. Rome with H. Wayne Huizenga, multimillionaire, who definitely hasn’t traded in for a trophy wife

The nasty, prolonged fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama really wasn’t hurting the Democrats’ chances to retake the White House. Until this weekend.

The much-hyped DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting on Saturday was a disaster not only for the party’s chances against John McCain but also showed the complete hypocrisy of a party that has pretended to stand for the big tent and tolerance in the face of openly intolerant Republican leadership.

Consider this amazingly racist quote from a Hillary supporter, reported in an excellent analysis by Adam C. Smith this morning:

“The Democrats are throwing the election away for what? An inadequate black male who would not have been running had it not been a white woman that was running for president!” New Yorker Harriet Christian screamed after being ejected from the meeting room. “They think we won’t turn and vote for McCain? Well, I got news for all of you — McCain will be the next president of the United States!”

The zoo in Washington that Team Hillary whipped up was devastatingly childish and destructive to the party and to her cause. This account from the Miami Herald:

Clinton supporters chanted ”Denver! Denver! Denver!” suggesting some activists are itching for a fight on the convention floor, though most Democratic leaders say such a battle would devastate the party’s chances in November.

Even with the additional delegates from Florida and Michigan, the odds of Clinton overtaking Obama’s lead are long and her supporters in the audience erupted into a chorus of boos and jeers when a motion to fully restore Florida’s votes failed.

”This isn’t unity,” one man shouted from the floor. ”You just took away votes,” one woman yelled.

”Please don’t do what people expect us to do,” committee member Alice Huffman said as protesters shouted and hissed, sometimes drowning out the committee members. “We will leave here more united than when we came. . . .”

”Lipstick on a pig,” came a catcall.

With Hillary’s I’m-not-getting-out-despite-the-math approach and President Bill’s increasingly off-the-reservation remarks, the Clintons have lost both her shot at the presidency and his reputation as president. Quite the two-fer.

On top of that, Bill Clinton’s fast-lane lifestyle is starting to raise the bubba issue again. Here’s how former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers’ hubby, who should be a Bill lover, portrayed the former pres in Vanity Fair. Here’s the tease:

Old friends and longtime aides are wringing their hands over Bill Clinton’s post–White House escapades, from the dubious (and secretive) business associations to the media blowups that have bruised his wife’s campaign, to the private-jetting around with a skirt-chasing, scandal-tinged posse. Some point to Clinton’s medical traumas; others blame sheer selfishness, and the absence of anyone who can say “no.” Exploring Clintonworld, the author asks if the former president will be consumed by his own worst self.

And this excerpt about his new, swinging entourage:

Also in attendance was Ron Burkle, the California supermarket billionaire and investor who is Clinton’s bachelor buddy, fund-raiser, and business partner. Burkle had come with an attractive blonde, described by a fellow guest as “not much older than 19, if she was that.”

Burkle’s usual means of transport is the custom-converted Boeing 757 that Clinton calls “Ron Air” and that Burkle’s own circle of young aides privately refer to as “Air Fuck One.” Clinton himself had arrived on the private plane of another California friend, the real-estate heir, Democratic donor, liberal activist, and sometime movie and music producer Steve Bing, whose colorful private life includes fathering a child out of wedlock with the actress Elizabeth Hurley and suing the billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian for invasion of privacy, alleging that private investigators for Kerkorian swiped Bing’s dental floss out of his trash in a successful effort to prove that Bing’s DNA matched that of a child delivered by Kerkorian’s ex-wife, the former tennis pro Lisa Bonder. (The suit was later settled out of court.)

In fairness, it should be said that Clinton’s entourage that weekend also included his daughter, Chelsea, and her boyfriend, Marc Mezvinsky, and no one who was there has adduced the slightest evidence that Clinton’s behavior was anything other than proper. Nor, indeed, is there any proof of post-presidential sexual indiscretions on Clinton’s part, despite a steady stream of tabloid speculation and Internet intimations that the Big Dog might be up to his old tricks. On any given visit to London, for example, Clinton is as apt to dine with Tony Blair or Kevin Spacey as with anyone who might raise an eyebrow.

But among the not-so-small cadre of Clinton friends and former aides, concern about the company the boss keeps is persistent, palpable, and pained. No former president of the United States has ever traveled with such a fast crowd, and most 61-year-old American men of Clinton’s generation don’t, either. “I just think those guys are radioactive,” one former aide to Clinton who is still in occasional affectionate touch with him told me recently, referring to Burkle and (to a lesser extent) Bing. “I stay far away from them.”

Gabe up at the front desk points out that the compromise this weekend to count each Florida and Michigan delegate as a half delegate values those folks less than the Founding Fathers valued slaves, which were counted as 3/5 of a person in the U.S. Constitution.

Doing the math, that means that slaves are worth one-tenth more than a Florida or Michigan delegate.

Universal Studios Hollywood caught fire over the weekend, destroying priceless artifacts of film history …

There goes my dream of owning the sets from Back to the Future.

• Congrats Floridians & Michigonians: You count again.
• Clinton wins Puerto Rico.
• McCain, Phil Gramm and the “Death Bond.”
• Is the U.S. operating “prison ships”? Humm, that does sound like us …
• The Rays continue winning in dramatic fashion.
• Sex sells at the box office.
• Forecasters advise that you disregard forecasters.
• R.I.P. Yves Saint Laurent.