By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor

Our debate on health care reform has been a disappointing state of affairs. Stories of town hall meetings turning violent and reports of organizations planting disruptors are hardly proud examples of a successful democratic process. It speaks volumes of how political a society we have come to be.

Click after the jump to watch what has been happening in Florida.

The purpose of the town hall meetings have been to discuss the future of our health care system – whether it needs to be reformed, what kinds of reform, etc. However, while our current health care system may be flawed, the discord and violence at these town hall meetings have exposed a more urgent concern – the politicization of the issue, the disregard for mutual understanding, the heightened emotions and lack of reason mark our inability to constructively exchange ideas for the discovery of a better way. Our ability and need to deliberate on the issues rationally and without agenda is somehow overpowered by the political animal in us that is all too quick to leap to action.

Rather than being used as a forum of public discourse, these town hall meetings have been used as a place of protest. Is this the new way of American democracy? Is the town hall meeting still a public square and a market place for ideas, or sadly, do we make up our minds at home and treat the town hall as a fighter’s ring only to gratify our political nature.

It is important to remember that basic tenets in democracy, the right to speech, the right to press, the right to assemble, are not merely ends in themselves, but are meant to promote an exchange in society. John Stuart Mill believed that such an exchange could lead to the discovery of truth

“The peculiar evil in silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth.” – On Liberty

For John Stuart Mill “we can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion.” However, these town hall meetings turn loud and violent, where the freedom of speech is abused and seen as an instrument to stifle others. The exchange of error for truth could never happen in this environment and we walk away from a missed opportunity to find a better way.

Democracy requires deliberation, which means that the ideal of free speech does not only grant us the right to speak but also obligates us to listen. More importantly, both sides have to enter discussions with a desire to learn the truth (in this case the truth would be the ideal American healthcare system), which would require us to abandon any preconceived notions of the truth (such as partisan views of healthcare held to be true without good reason).

It is not an easy lesson but America must learn that a healthy democracy is one where its participants calm their political animals and inspire in themselves a desire to listen and learn from each other.

By Chris Ingram
PoHo contributor

My prediction has now come true. Mel Martinez is resigning his senate seat. Give it a couple of days, and I expect you’ll be reading about our oh-so-tanned governor announcing he is appointing himself to Martinez’s seat because (sorry to John Morgan), he’s “for the people.”

Yes, this is legal.

For the record, our spineless governor has stated he won’t appoint himself. This is the same guy who said he wasn’t going to run for the senate, said he wasn’t interested in being McCain’s running mate, and said he was going to make our taxes “drop like a rock.” You get the picture? His word is no good.

While certainly a political backlash will occur if Mr. For the People appoints himself, it will be brief. A couple of weeks of criticism, slams from the editorial pages, and letters to the editor from people outraged at the selfish opportunism (not that anyone should be surprised at Chuckles’ political opportunism) and that will be it.

Voters have a short attention span, and an even shorter memory. Barring Marco Rubio winning the Power Ball lottery and self-financing his campaign with his new-found millions, he won’t be able to run enough TV ads before next September’s Primary Election to remind voters about Mel and Charlie’s end-around to get Chuckie to the U.S. Senate.

In short, there is very little downside to the Chuckster taking advantage of the opportunity his pal Mel has handed him. Politics 101 dictates being an incumbent rocks when it comes to getting reelected. I’ll bet a case of Starkist Tuna Charlie realizes this and appoints himself.

I expect Too-tan Charlie will argue that in these serious times we need someone who will be the “people’s senator.” He’ll point out that it is in Florida’s interest for him to be senator before the election because he will have a leg up on the seniority ladder compared to the other freshmen senators elected in November.  He’ll get others from the establishment wing of the GOP to help him make his case that “better committee assignments will improve the lives of the people of Florida,” and “Florida needs Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate.” Blah, blah, blah…

The voters may smell a rat, but the real question is will they bring rat poison to the ballot box? Call me a cynic, but I doubt it.

On a related note, someone ought to look into when “Smel” Martinez becomes eligible for the very generous federal retirement benefits graced upon our esteemed former members of Congress. I think we’ll find it is strikingly close to his resignation date.

But regardless of Mel’s pension benefits, it looks more and more likely Charlie Crist will fulfill his life-long dream of being a U.S. Senator. So we’ll be saying “Senator Crist” real soon — instead of “Sorry Charlie” if the people had gotten their chance to have a truly fair opportunity to make the choice themselves.

I’m ready to burn my voter ID card because if what I suspects will happen happens, the casting of a vote in this race will be nothing short of a sham.

At least now maybe Marco Rubio will see fit to drop his longshot candidacy against Chuckles and will take on Bill “Howdy Doody” McCollum for governor. He ought to consider it because the fat lady just walked on the stage.

Now if I’m wrong about all this and Charlie appoints someone else as a “care-taker” senator who might it be? Admiral LeRoy Collins who ran against Katherine Harris in the GOP U.S. Senate Primary in 2006 would be a great call. Collins is intelligent, thoughtful, capable, and competent. I worked on Collins’ longshot campaign and I can say he is one of the greatest public servants I have ever known. And Charlie knows this. Admiral Collins is the governor’s appointed director of the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs.

I’d be happy to eat some crow, and what they heck, I’d even eat a case of tuna if I’m wrong should Charlie do the right thing and appoint LeRoy Collins. But I don’t think it will happen and either way, Charlie will still remain sorry.

Chris Ingram is the president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of www.IrreverentView.com. Ingram is a frequent pundit on Fox News and CNN, and has written opinion columns for the Washington Times, UPI, Front Page Florida, and National Review online. E-mail him at: Chris@411Communications.net.

Cross-posted from the Daily Loaf blog.

Should a civic employee lose his/her job because they married an adult star?

That is the question behind the firing of Scott Janke, former town manager for Fort Myers Beach. The town council removed him from office with a vote of 5-0 after finding out that he is married to Jazella Moore.

Kiker acknowledged that Janke had violated no rules or laws and added that he had done a good job for the island town that had about 6,500 people, according to the 2000 Census. But the mayor was concerned whether Janke could remain effective and not distract the community from the business of the town along the state’s west coast.

Councilman Tom Babcock, responding to residents’ questions, said at a council meeting Wednesday that Janke was fired because his wife’s profession brought an inaccurate image to Fort Myers Beach, according to the News-Press of Fort Myers.

“When you become a public figure you are held to a different level of scrutiny and ethics,” Babcock said.

What baffles me is that Janke is said to have done a splendid job during his time with Fort Myers Beach, but was fired due to concerns of “whether Janke could remain effective and not distract the community from the business of the town along the state’s west coast.”

Janke has been married to his wife since October 2008. He has worked for Fort Myers Beach since March of 08. There is no timeframe given for when the Jankes met and began their courtship. During their time together, though, Mrs. Janke has kept a low profile about her career in the adult industry. Mr. Janke went about doing a good job as town manager. Life went on. Had Mrs. Janke been more “out” about her profession, I could understand the council’s concerns. Based on the mixed opinions being reported, I would go so far as to say that by firing Janke, the Fort Myers Beach council has done what they wanted to avoid: causing division and distracting people from the business of the town.

Another baffling aspect of this story comes from Mayor Larry Kiker who called the meeting that resulted in Janke’s dismissal. He compliments Janke’s performance, even goes so far as to call the couple “friends.” Yet, he still felt that Mrs. Janke’s job was a concern to Mr. Janke’s job performance. Talk about separation of business and personal!

“You’re fired. We still going surfing on Saturday?”

Agree? Disagree? Let’s hear your thoughts.

Associated Press: Fla. Town Fires Manager Married to Porn Star

Adult Industry News: Politician’s Porn Star Wife

Wink News: New details: Porn Star Gets Town Manager Husband Fired

I’m starting a new Saturday feature to wrap up news and blog posts you might have missed during your busy week. Here’s a look at the Week in Review:

New book blasts sportswriters for ‘hysteria’ regarding steroids – Mitch Perry. The WMNF anchor writes about a new book that lays the blame for steroid-mania at the foot of writers who aren’t aggressive. “The writers, the supposed experts, watched over the last 20-30 years as steroids became a very, very common substance. And they didn’t see it.”

Economic report calls Florida “a state in trouble.” The single most depressing (and real) assessment of Florida’s economic shortcomings we’ve ever seen. A must-read. (The graph above is from the report.)

POTUS and the Pope — Peter Schweitzer. Our contributors asks: if the US bishops are sideways with Barack Obama over his abortion stance, why is the pope so warmly receiving him?

Shadowy 527 group unloads YouTube attack ad against governor candidate Alex Sink (video). A Gainesville GOP leader is the face of the anti-Sink political group.

Bankruptcy judge sets auction date for Creative Loafing alt-newspaper chain. It is likely that two groups will bid in late August for ownership of Creative Loafing, pitting the company’s current management against lender Atalaya.

Political Whore Podcast #13: St. Petersburg mayoral candidate John Warren. The longshot, last-minute “community investor” and preservationist talks about lessons from history and how he would let downtown business owners handle panhandlers.

Crappy stadiums keep All Star Game from being played in Florida — Jim Johnson. Only two MLB cities have not hosted the mid-summer classic, Tampa Bay and Miami.

Pot, meet kettle: Sen. Jeff Sessions (once accused of being a racist) questions Sonia Sotomayor about being prejudiced. In 1986, Sessions was dinged by the Senate Judiciary Committee that he now sits on for a federal judgeship. The reason: He was tied to making racial comments.

Former Tampa Tribune columnist Dan Ruth has a new blog.

Hillsborough’s Moral Courage Award regains respect by ditching Ralph Hughes’ name — George Niemann. By our contributor who attended and spoke at the meeting where the mega-right winger’s association with the moral courage was discussed.

The Audacity of Pork — Kelly Cornelius.

Why do I do this to myself? I get a call from perfectly nice people at the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club asking me to speak at one of their meetings (tonight at 6:30, to be precise) and I agree and then I am asked what topic, and I choose to speak on “Fixing Tampa Bay Politics.”

I should have opted for “Getting the Palestinians and Jews Together for Middle East Peace” instead. Tampa Bay politics are hopelessly damaged, so where do I even start?

You’ll have to attend to hear. And no, one of my suggestions will NOT be a plea for kumbaya-like bipartisanship or the like.

The social hour starts at 6 pm (let’s hope for the Club’s sake and listeners’ sakes that they’ve stocked a lot of vodka for me) and the meeting lasts until about 8 pm. It is at Banquet Masters in Pinellas Park, 8100 Park Boulevard. For reservations, call 727-360-3971.

A curious piece of political literature has been hitting South Tampa homes over the past few days as a handful of County Commissioner Ken Hagan’s supporters do what is called a “lit drop” of campaign literature.

Only it is not really campaign literature, or at least, it doesn’t carry the necessary campaign disclosures that a campaign advertisement would carry. Nor is it a county government piece, as it points out that it was “Not produced at taxpayer’s expense.”

That left some Democrats e-mailing me furiously about how this was akin to the stealth campaign that Buddy Johnson ran with federal dollars in 2008, the one being probed by the Feds and the St. Pete TImes’ Jeff Testerman. And it caught the attention of at least one Democrat who has been thinking about running against the Republican Hagan in 2010.

“It was on my doorknob,” said Mary Mulhern, a Tampa City Council member who is considering the Hagan race, or the mayor’s race in 2011, or re-election to her own seat on the Council.

And getting Mulhern’s attention — or at least the attention of South Tampa Democrats who have been talking up a challenge to the north Tampa commissioner — may have been Hagan’s ulterior motive.

“Oh, I never thought of that, i just thought it was a non-campaign campaign piece,” said Mulhern. “I was curious that the north hillsborough county commissioner was actually checking in with constituents who are not his constituents in South Tampa. I don’t think it’s intimidation; he’s got to get some name recognition down here.”

I couldn’t reach Hagan late Friday after getting the non-campaign piece. But it is an old campaign trick and an advantage of incumbency; under the cover of a “constituent survey” you get your name out in neighborhoods that frankly may not know you exist. Hagan’s current district covers New Tampa and other northern parts of Hillsborough County, nowhere near South Tampa. In 2010, however, he wants to jump to a countywide seat to beat term limits in his existing seat.

Since Hagan apparently used personal funds, nobody is saying what he is doing is illegal.

“I doubt that he would have done it if it isn’t legal,” Mulhern said. “If it is a campaign piece you have to say who paid for it. I think it is iffy, but I haven’t looked into whether it would be legal or not. It certainly does have that look of what Buddy Johnson was doing. I think he’s got some vulnerability if he thinks he’s got to start sending out campaign literature so soon.”

By Peter Schweitzer
PoHo contributor

You can’t mix oil and water, and you sure can’t mix politics and religion. It’s not because one is more noble than the other. It’s because their goals are at odds with each other.

Religion is based on a belief in what is true about the world and the hereafter. It necessarily presupposes an adherence to credal formulas that express a certain world view. Religion has to do with truth, albeit one’s perception of it. It has to do with how things ought to be. Religion concerns itself with how a follower believes, acts, and interacts with others. Those who practice a particular religion adhere to a certain belief system (orthodoxy) and a corresponding way of behavior (orthopraxy).

Politics is just the opposite. It’s based on the art of compromise.  It’s the practice of what can be, not necessarily what should be. This is by no means a criticism. Politics concerns itself with the possible and the practical, not the ideal.

In a pluralistic society with a diversity of religious beliefs, politics necessarily and correctly absents itself from the religious realm. Politics has to determine what is just and fair for everyone regardless of their particular religious belief system.

When politicians pander to religious groups by calling our nation a “Christian nation,” they’re doing a huge disservice to the body politic and its citizens. It’s simply not true that we’re a Christian nation. Such statements make governing a nightmare. An elected official must represent all the people regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof.

Thus far, President Barack Obama has been able to nimbly deal with this “third rail.”  Unlike his predecessor, his world view is broad enough to encompass everyone, not a particular religious constituency.

Anyway, doesn’t belief in a divinity presuppose that he/she is big enough to deal with us all?

It was THE place to be and be seen in Tampa politics, for fundraisers and just to see who is chatting up who at lunch. Now, the Valencia Garden tradition of political intrigue is over. (And I need a new spot for a lunch date I had set for there next Tuesday.)

From the Tampa Tribune:

A padlock at the entrance to the Valencia Garden restaurant on Kennedy Boulevard today had patrons and others wondering: What is happening at the iconic local business?

Owner David Agliano confirmed late Wednesday afternoon the business is closing. He is informing his employees.

I wrote about David and how he sets (or doesn’t set) part of the city’s political agenda. The story started like this:

In Tampa politics, there is only one “Decider,” and it is not the president of the United States. It is David Agliano, the 52-year-old manager of Valencia Gardens restaurant on Kennedy Boulevard, just west of downtown.

For the 300 or so people who show up at the front doors of the Tampa landmark for lunch each day, it is Agliano who decides where they sit. And on any given day, a dozen or so of those folks are politicians. Recently, the main dining room hosted current Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio and her predecessor, Dick Greco, seated at different tables.

It is Agliano who decides who sits where — in the bar area, in the original dining room in the back of the restaurant or, if you arrive at the right time, the main dining room. It is the main dining room, just to the right of the lobby, that seems to be the most popular political haunt. Politicians often can be seen going from table to table, greeting other elected officials or glad-handing fundraisers or business leaders. New candidates looking to launch their campaigns need only one lunch at Valencia Gardens with a well-known politician or consultant to set tongues wagging, and nobody’s tongue wags more than Agliano’s.

“I’m probably the worst rumormonger out here,” he says with a laugh one recent morning.

Read more about David Agliano and Valencia Garden.

By Lorna Bracewell
PoHo contributor

In a presidential proclamation issued on Monday, President Barack Obama officially recognized the month of June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The president’s call for equality and his acknowledgment of the many contributions LGBT people have made to America’s culture, society and politics despite being culturally, socially and politically marginalized are truly moving. However, I can’t help feeling slightly ambivalent about the whole thing. Here’s why:

Unlike many in the big gay blogosphere, the root of my ambivalence is not the excruciatingly slow pace at which the president has pursued formal equality for LGBT people. Rather, it’s the order in which things seem to be happening. It seems wrong to me that LGBT people have been given a month before we’ve been given civil rights.

That’s not the way things happened for African Americans. They officially got their duly deserved month in 1986 when Congress passed Public Law 99-244. This law required the president to issue a proclamation recognizing Black History Month, which had been privately observed since 1915. Then President Ronald Reagan obliged with a document that reads quite similarly to Obama’s LGBT Pride Month proclamation.

All of this happened some 116 years after the passages of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, the amendments to the federal Constitution that abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection of the laws, and enfranchised all males regardless of race, and 22 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, a federal law that went a long way toward making the abstract legal rights guaranteed by those amendments substantively meaningful for African Americans.

In short, African Americans got their rights first and their month second. It is almost Orwellian that the many achievements of the LGBT civil rights movement are being extolled while LGBT people are still being denied the most basic civil right of marriage and are still prevented from serving openly in the military.  Let’s hope history-turned-on-its-head doesn’t repeat itself and force us to wait 116 years for formal equality.