The Political Whore

By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor
Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.

When Alexandra Zayas from the St. Petersburg Times called to talk about the Channel 8 protests, I couldn’t have been happier. Intelligent, friendly, compassionate — Zayas understood the topic and had done the research. She was covering the protest and surrounding story, gathering opposing points of view from friend and foe alike.

Hers would be a well-rounded story. I could just tell. So I was happy to contribute a verse.

But then the editors at the Times dropped the ball. They reassigned Alex and gave her story to Ileana Morales, whose account of the protest is half-assed.

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Ellen and Portia can stay married, says the court. The rest of you gays? Maybe not.

Today’s decision by the California Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8, the ballot measure that amended the state constitution to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. But the court let stand the marriages that took place between May 4, 2008, when the same judicial body said it could see no constitutional excuse for banning gay marriage, and Nov. 4, 2008, when 52 percent of voters replied, “OK, we’ll give you a constitutional reason, you activist judges you!”

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Initial reports are just coming in, but it looks like the crowd size at the downtown Tampa Tea Party is significantly lower than the recent protest in Orlando (4,000) or the numbers that one of my political sources was told when the event was in its planning stages (5,000-10,000).

Via Twitter, 10 Connects reporter Preston Rudie puts the afternoon crowd at far fewer:

I would estimate the crowd at the noon Tea Party in Tampa to be over 500. Organizers expect about 2,000 for the protest/rally at 5pm.

That is in opposition to MB12345 (M. Barabin) who reports a “huge crowd.”

Here’s a TwitPic from the event, taken by Richlionheart:

FreedomWorks Foundation is putting together a Tea Party of Tampa’s own, for April 15, after a similar protest of the bailout and government spending drew 4,000 in Orlando. I’ve talked with one politico who plans on being there and he said he was told to expect 5,000-10,000 people at the twin rallies at noon and 5 p.m. in downtown Tampa’s Gaslight Park.

Here’s the details from FreedomWorks, plus a Tea Party video after the jump:

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