The Political Whore

The renaming of the Hillsborough County Moral Courage Award in honor of power broker Ralph Hughes claimed another victim today: 1996 winner Eileen Hart gave back her award in an emotional moment at the start of this morning’s county commission meeting.

This from the tbo.com coverage:

Eileen Hart wiped tears from her eyes minutes after she gave back her Moral Courage Award at today’s Hillsborough County Commission meeting.

Two weeks ago, the commission voted to rename the award, which is given to citizens who challenge government, for controversial political activist Ralph Hughes. When Hart, who won the award in 1996, learned Hughes was a conservative power broker who helped finance commissioners’ political campaigns, the award lost its meaning, she said.

“It’s pathetic that they would name an award for a person when it’s a nonpartisan award,” Hart said outside the commission chambers. “It should have nothing to do” with politics.

Now, that took moral courage!

Hart is now a contender for our own Moral Courage Award, which CL took over after the county sullied it beyond repair. Here are the details on how you can nominate someone for their moral courage.

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It may have been nearly two decades ago, but the face of Democratic consultant Mitch Kates is unmistakable in the photograph of wrestling legend Killer Kowalski, who died this weekend. The photo ran in the New York Times and Boston Herald, among others, showing Kowalski putting his trademark “claw” hold on the grimacing face of his “nephew,” Mitch, as the caption put it.

(from the New York Times/Jon Chase of the Associated Press)

Truth be told, like so much in wrestling, it isn’t quite the way it appears to be. Kates was not Kowalski’s real nephew. But in speaking with Kates about the wrestler today, his love and admiration for Killer was a strong and real as any blood relative.

“He trained me,” Kates recalled. “He was the guy that I went into the business with. A couple of people commented that we had a familial resemblance. So one of the gimmicks that I had was to wrestle as his nephew.”

(more…)

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This just in from USF:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. kicks off USF Lecture Series Sept. 4

TAMPA, Fla. (Aug. 26, 2008) – The University of South Florida’s University Lecture Series (ULS) commences with political speaker and activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and continues with a stellar line-up featuring an eclectic range of public figures.

Kennedy will speak on the topic “Our Environmental Destiny,” Sept. 4, 7 p.m. in the new Marshall Student Center Ballroom on the Tampa campus.

Author of the 2004 Crimes Against Nature, Kennedy is a highly sought-after speaker. He serves as chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and is president of the Waterkeeper Alliance . Both organizations seek to protect local waterways.

Other speakers during the coming academic year are:
• Dr. Drew Pinsky , Oct. 8 7 p.m. – “Loveline With Dr. Drew”
• Kelly & Becca , Oct. 21 7 p.m. – “Let’s Talk About it” (Free)
• Ben Stein , Nov. 5, 7 p.m. – “Ben Stein on Life”
• Austin Gutwein, Nov. 6, 4 p.m. – “Hoops of Hope ”
• Danny Glover & Felix Justice , Jan. 15, 2009, 7 p.m. - “An Evening with Martin and Langston”

All ULS events are free for students with a valid USF ID, alumni and faculty pay $5 with a valid ID and the general public is admitted for $10 (unless otherwise noted). Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tickets are now on sale at the Marshall Student Center Ticket Office located on the first floor of the new Marshall Center. The ticket office only accepts credit or debit, no cash or checks. For more information visit: http://uls.usf.edu/.

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Obama clarifies and defends his energy policy proposals in this contentious interview in Nevada with Jon Ralston.

• Bruce Ivins e-mail indicates he was maybe kind of a loon, so it’s certain he perpetrated a solo biological weapons attack on liberal members of our government and the media (though the e-mails never mention anything close to that). Case closed.
• Bush slams China’s human rights record — in the most gentle way possible, of course.
• “Sure I’ll plead guilty to murder, But I gotta have the Colonel and Papa John as witnesses.”
• Hillsborough to spend $50 million on park maintainence and a scaled down version of Jim Norman’s field of dreams.
• How to: stockpile cheap(er) gas.
• Headline of the week: “I’m a breastfeeding fiend.”
• Favre goes to the Jets. Get your Jeff Garcia jerseys here.
• Case closed in the death of Heath Ledger.

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As the debate over “The Surge” continues, here’s a look at Baghdad from a journalist who actually lives there.

• Obama flip-flops on offshore oil drilling.
• Inflation on the uptick.
• A new book claims the Bush administration faked evidence against Iraq in advance of the war.
• Republican voter numbers in decline. 
• Supermarket chains wheel and deal to stay competitive.
• Anybody seen about 120,000 gorillas?
• Morgan Freeman gets banged up in a serious car accident. Fortunately, doctors think he’ll be available for the next Batman movie.
• Jazz is for loners.

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Having written extensively, along with CL reporter Alex Pickett, about the longtime problems plaguing the St. Petersburg Police Department’s morale, staffing, funding, etc. So the story that CL Senior Editor Eric Snider tells over on Blurbex about his encounter with one not-so-helpful cop this weekend shouldn’t have surprised me — but it did anyway. Seems Snider’s ride ended up with a flat tire on the way home from the stadium and he limped along trying to find a safe, well-lighted place to change his tire when he got pulled over:

I pulled into a side street. Police are gonna lend a hand, I thought. One of the officers asked me for license and registration. Turns out it’s illegal to drive on a flat tire, and it’ll get you a $141 fine in St. Petersburg. That’s what the policeman told me.

I explained that I was looking for a safer, better-lit spot to pull over, that I’d never changed the tire on the Prius and didn’t even know where the spare was, that I didn’t know it was illegal to drive on a flat but now that I thought about it, it made sense, that my wife was out of town and I didn’t have a AAA card.  This was all 100-percent true, but the cop at first seemed incredulous. I shrugged, as if to say, ‘What can I tell ya? I guess he decided to believe me.

“You gonna drive that car home?” he asked. Odd question, I thought; I told him no. He gave me a pass. I thanked him. Then I made a mistake. I should’ve asked him if he was heading toward Placido Bayou – protect and serve and all that. I didn’t think of it until several miles of walking later.

Yes, there was a time in America when a cop would stop and help you out, lend a hand or find a way to assist you, rather than roll up on you all bowed up and shit, spouting about how you are breaking the law by limping along in a Prius with a flat tire. Yes, it’s official: we have solved all the other crime problems in the city, we don’t need those neighborhood policing officers or such, and we are down to enforcing such laws as driving with a flat tire, spitting on the sidewalk and looking funny at a cop.

This is fucking outrageous, and if you live in the ‘Burg, you should be outraged, too. That is, if you are not already so used to it that you are numb.

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Pinellas County Commission candidate Darden Rice has hired former Howard Dean and Alex Sink Internet guru Larry Biddle to help with social networking for the primary, the St. Petersburg Times is reporting. Here’s my 2007 story on Biddle’s accomplishments and experiences in helping transform politics via online networking.

Biddle, owner of PlanningWorks in St. Petersburg, was a pioneer in online fundraising in the Dean presidential campaign in 2004. (Full disclosure: He is the domestic partner of CL Editor David Warner.)

Rice faces a Democratic Primary against former St. Pete Councilwoman Rene Flowers. The winner will face social conservative School Board Member Nancy Bostock, a Republican.

(h/t to Pushing Rope)

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Getting ready to be hitched has done very little to endear Charlie Crist to conservatives. Today’s thumping comes courtesy of the Washington Times. In an op-ed, Burnie Thompson writes of Crist:

Mr. McCain would be hard pressed to make a worse choice.

True, Mr. McCain won Florida’s primary on the wave of Mr. Crist’s late endorsement, which Mr. McCain rode to shore as the Republican presidential candidate. The Florida governor is especially popular in the state’s liberal precincts, and he likely would deliver the Sunshine State in November.

But this would spell victory for big-government Republicanism, and a definitive departure from the virtues of small government and personal responsibility. Mr. Crist and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are the bookend faces of the new Republican Party. Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater’s pictures on the grand old mantle have been turned to the wall.

Mr. Crist is the RINO poster boy. He’s a Republican in name only. He’s as politically calculating as the Clintons, and equally enamored of power. That explains why he’s been flying around the country on the Arizona senator’s left wing, vying for the vice presidency as his state’s economy sinks.

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Since I last wrote about the effort to unseat Gus Bilirakis in a June profile of Democrat John Dicks, two more events have given him a bit more of a shot at this unlikely pickup.

First, late in June, the DCCC designated Dicks’ race as one of 20 Emerging Races in the nation on its watch list.

Now comes news that a nonpartisan, independent analysis has moved the race a bit away from the “sure thing for Republicans” column. The Cook Report changed its rating on Congressional 9 from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican.” It was one of four in the state to get the same treatment. No doubt that Obama’s strategy of turning out black votes and other top-of-the-ticket benefits are driving this, but of course, getting exposure in PoHo is golden, too.

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From the newly reorganized caucus (note that the group comprised just 10 people) comes this news release:

July 1st, 2008 (Tampa, Florida)–On June 28, 2008, ten Hispanic Democrats came together on a Saturday morning to reorganize the Hillsborough Chapter of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida (HCDHCF). Elections were held and the following officers were elected:

President: Gilberto “Gil” Sanchez
Vice President: Daniel Suarez
Secretary: James Lascano
Treasurer: Paul Palacios

Gilberto “Gil” Sanchez, business attorney and business broker, was elected to lead the organization. Daniel Suarez, who also ran for State House against Florida House Representative Ambler, is the organizations Vice President. James Lascano, Secretary, and Paul Palacios, Treasurer, are active community leaders serving on various Non Profit Boards.

Attorney Sanchez has a vision of utilizing HCDHCF to bridge the needs of the Hispanic community on a grassroots level with local, state and national government. “The single biggest need within the Hispanic community is the lack of access to information that could otherwise assist them in providing solutions to their needs” says Attorney Sanchez. Specifically, HCDHCF will be organizing bilingual conferences and informational sessions that feature public officials, public administrators and professionals in the areas of law, banking, insurance, health and housing that will be free to the public. Attorney Sanchez is confident that by bridging this gap, the Hispanic community will see the Democratic Party as the party that aggressively seeks and supports the Hispanic community.

As the November election approaches, HCDHCF will also concentrate its efforts on registering Hispanic voters, promoting the use of absentee ballots and campaigning for local, state and national Democratic candidates. Transnational Relations, LLC will be serving as the pro bono public relations firm for HCDHCF.

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