By Chris Ingram
PoHo contributor

An Open Letter to Sen. Saxby Chambliss:

Dear Senator:

We have known each other for many years, and I have always admired your conservative values and principles.

However, due to your recent endorsement of Charlie Crist in the open Florida U.S. Senate seat, which is a contested race among more than one Republican (including Marco Rubio), I now doubt your sincerity for honest and fair elections, not to mention good leadership and responsible government.

While perhaps you may have been too preoccupied finding ways to get yourself re-elected and weren’t paying attention when Charlie Crist fully embraced President Obama’s reckless and fiscally unsound “stimulus” plan, Floridians were watching.

And while Obama and the Democrats’ plan stinks, I must admit you and your fellow Republicans in Congress did a terrible job controlling spending during eight years of Bush Junior. I have previously referred to Congress’ spending ways as the PIMP (Plan for Incumbent Member Protection), as most congressional spending bills are basically nothing more than pork bills designed so members of Congress (and governors like Chuckles who embrace them) can get re-elected. In any event Chuckie went down to Ft. Myers, Florida earlier this year and PIMPed with Obama where they hugged and kissed Obama and America’s children got screwed. For that reason alone, I question your judgment and commitment to conservative values for having recently endorsed such a fraud of a candidate in Charlie Crist.

Additionally, you may not be aware of the fact that Too-Tan Charlie has nearly single-handedly wrecked free-market economics with what he has done with the state of homeowners insurance in this state. Florida you see is a peninsula surrounded by warm waters and is frequently hit with hurricanes (which are basically large masses of rapidly spinning air that destroy most things in their paths). Most experts (those are people who know more than you or say, Charlie Crist) say if Florida experiences a strong storm that hits a major metropolitan area, the economic damages will bankrupt the state because of Charlie’s policies and reliance on underfunded “Citizens Property Insurance.”

Furthermore, our state’s economy and local governments are in shambles due in part because of Charlie’s support of a constitutional amendment called Amendment 1. This change to our state’s constitution (that’s the governing document of the state — the U.S. has one, too, and you should read it) has long-term negative economic consequences, which Charlie probably is too dumb (I’m told he failed the State Bar twice) to even be aware of. But his pal Jim Greer knows how to read a poll – and not just the kind of pole found in strip clubs, but that’s a different matter you wouldn’t be aware being from Georgia and all. So anyhow, I reckon ol’ Jimbo has been telling Charlie Boy he shouldn’t want to be governor much longer because he’s really screwed things up and probably doesn’t know how to deal with the consequences when they come to light.

In short, back-slappin’ Charlie has been a terrible governor and would make an even worse U.S. senator — although at least in the Senate he would only be one of 100 and arguably would do far greater damage than as governor. Trouble is, most of the rest of you in Congress don’t show much spine or leadership either, so collectively he would be a bad addition to an already pathetic body.

In closing, Senator, let me remind you that last year in your general election run-off I made a donation of $250 to your campaign (I also raised several thousand dollars on your behalf from friends in the Tampa Bay area). I regret it now. In fact, I hereby request you return my contribution. I will then forward the money to the Marco Rubio campaign, as I believe Mr. Rubio represents the type of leadership, backbone, and conviction our country and my state so desperately need in these challenging times.

My address is on file with your campaign. Send the check there.

Sincerely disappointed in you and 99 percent of the rest of the G.O.P. “leadership,”

Chris Ingram

P.S. If you’re having trouble reading between the lines, my message is this: Butt out! You and your ilk have created the mess we’re in and we don’t need you telling us we need more like you to solve the problems you got us in.

Chris Ingram is president and founder of 411 Communications a corporate and political communications firm, and publisher of Irreverent View. 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.

Rubio does have some interesting facets to his numbers. His campaign indicates he raised $144,000 through online donations, and contributors come from all 50 states. These numbers show a donor base that has clearly not reached its potential to give. Federal law limits campaign donations to $2,400 per person or political action committee for the primary and general elections. So most of Rubio’s supporters could give “again and again and again.”

Of course, if Crist reports $3 million this quarter, Rubio has to spend time asking “again and again and again,” while Crist can work to expand his donor base and reach out to more people.

The real problem

A recent poll indicated that Rubio can compete very well with Crist, polling in a virtual tie with the governor among Republicans who know both of them. But only about 2/5ths of Republicans in Florida have even heard of Rubio. And it will take a lot of money to raise that number substantially.

Florida has ten media markets where Rubio will have to buy advertising, including three of the top 20 in the nation. We are among the most expensive states in the country, and Crist will have enough money at his disposal to swamp Rubio on television.

To further add to Rubio’s problem, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has endorsed Crist, adding most of the national political action committees to Crist’s side of the ledger. Crist, as sitting governor, can also soften Rubio’s very strong base of groups on Tallahassee.

Rubio’s campaign is doing its best to make this sow’s ear look like a silk purse. He needed a strong first quarter and didn’t get it. I don’t think he will quit the race anytime soon, but if he doesn’t reach the $1 million this next quarter, he could be in for a very long, very brutal campaign that may not be good for the Republican Party.

In closing, I want to add that I like Marco Rubio. I personally wish Governor Crist had decided to run for re-election. If Rubio’s fundraising doesn’t improve, I hope he considers switching to run for Attorney General — a race without a strong GOP candidate.

By Dan Sullivan
PoHo Contributor

I confess: I’ve been having an affair with Sarah Palin. That’s why she’s stepping down as governor of Alaska.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not the kind of affair that ends a political career. Unlike certain other political affairs of late (Read: Mark Sanford, John Ensign) this affair is not one of the scandalous variety. Quite the contrary. My affair with Alaska’s sweetheart could be just the thing that propels her into the White House in 2012.

See, it isn’t just me who’s having an affair with Sexy Sarah. She’s the darling of many conservative Americans. She stole our hearts from the moment she first stepped onto the national stage back in August as John McCain’s running mate. And now, she’s dissolving her marriage to Alaska to become better acquainted with us — her secret lover — the rest of America.

For me, the affair has lasted long after I met her backstage at a campaign rally shortly before the ‘08 election (see photo above). Of course, I’m not naïve enough to fail to recognize that much of Sarah Palin’s popularity has to do with the fact that she’s an 11 on the hotness scale. If she were an old, fat, white guy, I doubt anyone would care.

Naturally though, as an unabashed Palin fan, my initial reaction to her announcement that she was resigning as governor was one of enthusiasm.

“That’s our maverick! Always doing what’s unexpected and throwing conventional wisdom to the wind.”

After the initial effects of Sarahmania wore off on me, I recognized the possibility of this being perhaps a bonehead move. But you never know. Sarahmania is not unlike Beatlemania. And I think most people would agree that The Fab Four produced their most groundbreaking work after they decided to stop doing live concerts.

Of course, I’d be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there are many of my fellow Republicans who do, in fact, dislike Sarah Palin. Some of these are the staunch libertarian types who don’t care for her perceived religion-based social conservatism. Others are still highly skeptical of her viability as a presidential candidate due to memories of her embarrassing performance in interviews with Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. Valid points, certainly. But not enough to frighten me away from this hottie.

In Republican circles, only one other person receives as much, if not more praise than Sarah Palin in regard to a potential 2012 candidacy. And that is Mitt Romney.

Where other potential candidates like Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal seem to only appeal to distinct portions of the Republican party, Romney seems to be consistently viewed favorably by a broad range of Republicans, from social conservatives to fiscal conservatives to national security conservatives.

No other potential candidates can boast Romney’s expert knowledge of the economy. This is a major advantage considering the economy is likely to still be the main issue in the run up to 2012, pending a terrorist attack thrusting national security back to the forefront or some other unforeseen event.

Still, even Romney has his share of flaws. My biggest beef with him has always been the fact that he comes from money. He can’t tell any heartwarming stories about having to struggle to work his way up and succeed in life. It seems to me that regular working people would have a hard time relating to a candidate born into a life of wealth and privilege. There’s also the Mormon factor, which is a big deal for some. Though, as I’m a Utah native — albeit a non-Mormon — Romney’s religion doesn’t bother me.

And of course, there’s the flip-flop on the abortion issue. But hey, do you really believe that Mitt Romney was once truly a pro-choice guy? Any pro-lifer would have to claim a pro-choice stance to have a prayer of getting elected in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, especially to the U.S. Senate as Romney tried to do in 1994. It was a move he had to take in a race against Ted Kennedy. A shrewd move, if you ask me. Perhaps as shrewd as Sarah Palin’s leaving the governor’s office.

Well … maybe. We shall see. I admit, her gamble is troubling. My love of Sarah aside, I think the most logical thing for someone like her to do is to forget about 2012. Consider that she won’t even be considered too old to run for president for another 20 or 30 years. That’s more than enough time for her to build herself up in a national role. Perhaps she could campaign for and win one of Alaska’s U.S. Senate seats. That way she can learn the national ropes and wean herself off the all-Alaska all-the-time mentality.

Don’t count on that happening, though. Sarah has but one office at one time in her sights. And that is the presidency in 2012. The route she takes in courting us, America’s voters — particularly America’s conservative voters — will be interesting to see. As a Republican, while I’m certainly not dead-set on a Palin candidacy, she does maintain a special place in my heart.

His candidacy has been called “quixotic” as he flies into the face of a Republican challenger who likely will be Charlie Crist, but Kendrick Meek is strongly confident in his ability to force Floridians to examine the real record of their favorite, white-haired governor.

Meek is a rising star in the Democratic Party, finding himself with a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee after just four terms in office. Helps to have a progressive voting record and agenda. It probably also doesn’t hurt when your mom served on the House Appropriations Committee with (now Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, as Congresswoman Carrie Meek did.

He’s largely untested (he won his seat in Congress unopposed after his mother retired so close to the qualifying deadline that nobody could mount a real challenge to her son) but he’s shown great energy and won a good deal of the hearts and minds in the Florida Democratic Party, so much so that a few major challengers have stepped aside rather than force an expensive primary race with him.

Meek was in Tampa today and stopped by the Creative Loafing offices. We talked about how to pay for health care reform, whether the stimulus is working, his role in forcing smaller class sizes in public schools and his famous 2000 showdown with then-Gov. Jeb Bush over the dismantling of affirmative action in the state, which resulted in a 26-hour sit-in at the lobby of the Governor’s Office after Bush refused to meet with him and another lawmaker.

He also had this to say when I asked him why he is so confident he can beat Crist:

Meek: Well, first of all, I am running for the people of the state of Florida, and the governor happens to be a candidate in the race. That’s the way I look at it. It’s hard for me to have you see what I see, throughout the state of Florida, I see a very strong will and the desire of the people of the state of Florida to better their community and their state. I offer myself as a member of the House of Representatives from a safe district where I can be a member of Congress for a very, very long time. My grandchildren could see me be a member of Congress, because I work hard on behalf of not only my district but also the state of Florida.

When the election day rolls around, titles will not be on the ballot, only the name and the track record. This is a very historic campaign, because there hasn’t been a statewide elected official that has qualified by petition, that’s 112, 476 signatures. It’s important that we qualify that way so we can hear the stories of Florida. Just because I’ve been … in public service 15 years, that doesn’t necessarily mean I understand all of the issues and know what’s going on in the homes of every Floridian. But I can tell you in the 57 counties of the 67 counties that have turned in petitions to help place my name on the ballot, it is already made me a better candidate and eventually will make me a better senator. That experience will allow us to rise up from the primary experience into a general election, and as we start to look at the issues that are facing Florida, as we start to look at who will be in the majority and who will be in the minority in Washington, D.C., I think one of the bigger questions for this entire Senate race will be: Governor, you’re the most powerful elected official in the state of Florida, politically. You could sign a piece of paper and change the outlook for Floridians. You’re relinquishing that and that position in the majority in Tallahassee, [where] you have the House and the Senate supermajorities that are there, you could help us. But you have opted to run for the US Senate, going to a legislative mode from an executive mode to then serve in the minority in the US Senate, and you’re saying that you’re doing all of this for us. And in many minds of Floridians, I believe, that goes against good common sense and logic, if you’re doing it for the people. So there has to be something a little different there, and he’s going to have to explain that, more than I have to explain why I am running for the US Senate as a member of the House of Representatives. My intentions are pure.

My track record has been one of helping people, helping small business, and and being a fighter on behalf of the poeple that I represent. And I want to represent all of Florida, and that’s the reason that I got into this race first. That’s the reason I am qualifying by petition. And that’s the reason we will continue to build this grass-roots campaign throughout the state. And when I’m elected, God willing, I want to be one of the best senators Florida has ever seen as it relates to constituent service, as it relates to giving a strong voice for Florida and in the US Senate, and I’m very excited about the response that we’ve seen thus far.

We’re a year and a half before the election, and there’s a lot of ground to cover.

To listen to the entire podcast, Download here.

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By Manny Leto
PoHo contributor and editor, Cigar City Magazine

You may not have even known it was happening, but “Rapprochement With Cuba: Good For Tampa Bay, Good For Florida, Good For America,” a conference sponsored by the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation and held Saturday at the Italian Club in Ybor City, was, by its very existence, a milestone in repairing the tattered relationship between Tampa and Cuba.

About 150 guests, panelists, professors and local politicians filled the grand, neo-classical Italian Club, once the social, cultural and political epicenter of Tampa’s Italian community. Whether the speeches, panel discussions, and networking sessions will really accomplish much toward ending the 50-year-old U.S. embargo, no one is really sure. However, to get a sense of where the Cuba barometer is pointing, you could start with the venue itself.

In 1955, a young, verbose Fidel Castro arrived in Ybor City. This was no accident, no anomaly. In fact, it made perfect sense. Castro, in a bid to gain popular support for his uprising against CIA-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, he followed — literally — in the footsteps of an earlier young, charismatic Cuban revolutionary, Jose Marti.

Marti was the ideological voice of the first Cuban Revolution; the one American school children call the Spanish American War. In the 1890s, after an earlier 10-year conflict between Spain and native Cubans, Jose Marti rose to the fore of a new effort to oust Spain from the island of Cuba. Like Castro, Marti was an intellectual, a writer, poet. He traveled extensively throughout Florida between 1891 and 1895, raising money for Cuban independence. He visited Tampa some 20 times, giving speeches to Tampa’s cigar workers and strategizing with the exiled leadership headquartered in West Tampa and New York City. Marti’s revolution began in 1895. Teddy Roosevelt and the U.S. Army showed up a couple years later, in 1898.

So, 60 years later in 1955, Castro was on a PR tour of sorts that would take him to New York City and the cover of Time magazine but first, he spent some time in Ybor City. His choice for a speaking venue: The Italian Club. He met with then-club president Phil LoCicero at La Tropicana, where the two reportedly talked for hours. Castro’s request to rent the Italian hall was denied, as was his request to speak at the Cuban Club. Castro eventually rented the AFL-CIO Union Hall on 7th Avenue and 13th Street, which is today home of the Marti-Maceo Social Club.

On Saturday, 54 years after Fidel Castro was denied use of the club and 114 years after Marti rallied Tampa’s cigar workers to action, nearly 200 people, Republicans, Democrats, entrepreneurs, cattle ranchers, and exiled Cubans, gathered in Ybor City to talk, once more, about Cuba.

Rain drove the only five protesters away, even though Al Fox, the event organizer, invited them to come in for coffee and doughnuts.

Fox, president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy, assembled an impressive lineup of experts including an adviser on Cuba policy for the Kennedy Administration, Dr. Wayne Smith; former head of the Democratic Party of Florida, Alfredo Duran; and, via conference call, U.S. Congressman Bill Delahunt, D-MA, who has sponsored a bill to lift restrictions on Americans traveling to Cuba. The bill has several co-sponsors including Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican; Rosa Delauro, Jo-Ann Emerson, a Missouri Republican; Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican; Ron Paul, a Texas Republican.

Locally, Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor, who was conspicuously absent on Saturday, has expressed her support for establishing direct flights between Tampa and Havana, to compete for business with Miami International Airport.

“Every time a flight leaves Miami for Havana, the airport collects roughly 50 dollars per passenger and other assorted baggage fees,” said local business owner Jason Busto, adding, “People who are opposed [to increased contact and trade with Cuba] are using a playbook from the 1980s.”

Business interests were in full force at Saturday’s meeting, eager to capitalize on reestablishing trade with the island.

“We’re exporting democracy and capitalism,” said Richard Waltzer, head of the Havana Group, a “facilitator” for companies looking to do business in Cuba, who says the two are linked. “We buy more products from China than any other nation. What’s the difference between China and Cuba?”

John Parke Wright, a cattleman who traces his Tampa roots back to Capt. James McKay and James Lykes, was also on hand. Donning a suit, cowboy boots and a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, Park Wright wants to see Tampa and Cuba’s cattle trade “back on the map.”

Indeed Tampa’s connections to Cuba extend beyond Castro’s 1955 visit, beyond cigars and Jose Marti. In the 1840s, Captain James McKay (He of McKay Bay) began shipping cattle to Cuba from Ballast Point in Tampa. The still-prominent Lykes family was, by 1906 firmly established in Havana, operating one of the largest cattle ranches on the island. They also operated the Lykes Steamship Company, which shipped cattle and other goods between Tampa, Havana, and New Orleans.

In the 1880s and 1890s, Henry Plant operated a steamship line, which traveled weekly between Tampa, Key West and Havana. Ironically, at the very center of Tampa’s city seal is the Olivette, a one of Plant’s steamships that traveled regularly to Cuba.

The connections are even deeper. When the Spanish sold Florida to the U.S. in 1824, they may have taken groups of Cuban fishermen with them back to Havana.

In the 1500s Spanish conquistadores “governed” and explored Tampa Bay via Havana.

Havana is our sister city, said City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena. “Economically, socially, culturally, we are kin.”

By Dan Sullivan
PoHo contributor

Just when you thought the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mel Martinez couldn’t get any more complicated, a man named Bob Smith threw another wrench into the system last week.

Upon hearing about Smith’s entrance into the race, my immediate reaction was, “Who the heck is this Bob Smith? And what does he think he’s doing poking his nose into one of the most pivotal political battles within the Republican Party for the 2010 election season?”

Of course, Smith isn’t just any candidate. He was a U.S. Senator from 1990-2003, representing the state of New Hampshire. He also ran in the Republican presidential primary in 2000 against the likes of Pat Buchanan and some guy named George W. Bush.

Still, I’d never heard of him.

A few Google searches later, I found I was more familiar with Bob Smith than I realized. Flash back to campaign ‘96. Bob Dole was the man. And Bill Clinton was still brewing a big surprise for the country behind the White House curtains with the help of a young intern.

At that time, I was just a young lad who knew much less about politics and had much less interest in such matters than I do today. I was living in what is affectionately known as the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, which is in close proximity to New Hampshire, where Smith was seeking re-election. Because of said closeness, the local airwaves were saturated with advertisements both attacking and promoting Smith as well as his Democratic challenger for the U.S. Senate – Congressman Dick Swett, a man with one of the most unfortunate names in all of politics. Why he didn’t go by “Richard” is beyond me. I vaguely recall the slogan – which was frequently repeated with much enthusiasm by my schoolmates at the time – “America doesn’t need any more Dick Swett.”

You can say that again.

It still astounds me that a man with a name as memorable as Dick Swett could end up losing an election to a guy with a name as forgettable and anonymous-sounding as Bob Smith. But it did happen, albeit by a slim margin.

I wondered, could something similar happen in Florida? What was Smith doing in Florida in the first place?

In order to get some answers to these and other questions, I decided to give Smith a call at his home in Sarasota.

I started with the obvious: why are you running for U.S. Senate? His wordy answer boiled down to his lengthy prior experience – a qualification that he says puts him above his two main Republican contenders, Gov. Charlie Crist and former State House Speaker Marco Rubio.

“I think without a doubt, I’m the best qualified,” he told me. “The governor has not had that kind of experience. Nor has the former speaker of the House. I think I bring the best qualifications and I have a record on the issues for 18 years. I’m just asking the voters to take a look at that record and see if they would consider me to serve here as well.”

He noted Crist’s shift to the middle as a major source of frustration for him, making comparisons to Arlen Specter’s recent team-change and especially chiding Crist for his support of President Obama’s stimulus plan. He repeated a lot of the same rhetoric that many of my conservative friends have been saying since the ‘08 election – that the party needs to return to its conservative principles.

“There’s nothing wrong with the platform of the party,” he said. “It’s the people that are leading it left, like Charlie Crist and others, that are going to cause the collapse of the party.”

Sounds pretty good to this Republican. My biggest beef with Smith, however, came about as our discussion turned to his personal political history.

When Smith ran for president in 2000, he first entered the Republican primary, before dropping out to run as an independent. However, realizing the difficulty this would pose if he wanted to continue his work with Senate Republicans, he withdrew from the presidential race altogether, announced his return to the Republican Party and endorsed Bush for president.

“I knew I was going to risk my political career, but I (left the party) because I was trying to make the point that you’ve got to listen to conservatives,” he said. “I wanted to try to shake up the party people. Not the party itself. The Republican Party platform is what it is. It’s a set of principles and guidelines, which I strongly support. But leadership, some of those party officials, the party bureaucrat types, as well as some of the elected officials, I felt were walking away from those conservative values. And I knew that if they did and they continued to do it, that eventually they were going to take a drubbing in the polls. And eventually they did, as we saw in 2006 and 2008.”

You can’t say he’s not a man without principles. But still, a red flag went up when I learned that Smith had endorsed John Kerry in 2004. When I asked him about it, he dubbed it a “political mistake” that he made out of anger for Bush’s refusal to support him in his 2002 reelection campaign against former Bush Chief of Staff John Sununu, who later defeated Smith.

Smith’s re-election loss ultimately was what led him to retire to Florida, a place where he had vacationed in the past. Now a seven-year resident of Sarasota, he says he doesn’t want to stand by watching what he says is the country’s slow drift toward socialism. If elected, he says he would be the first Senator, in modern history at least, to have been elected from two different states.

But he’s got a long way to go if he plans to distinguish himself from the young and dynamic Marco Rubio, whose articulation of the same conservative message seems to resonate with more Republicans from a wider array of demographics. Not to mention, he would have to overcome the inexplicable monstrosity that is Charlie Crist’s popularity.

But still, stranger things have happened in politics. Just ask Dick Swett.

By Dan Sullivan
PoHo contributor

Dear Attorney General Bill McCollum,

There’s no easy way to tell you this, so I think I’ll just go ahead and say it: I think we should see other people. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a great guy and all, but I’m just not so sure I can handle a serious relationship with you for governor. It’s not you, it’s me. Well, actually, it’s just you.

If you really want to know the truth, my heart has been stolen by another. Her name is Paula Dockery. She’s a delightful girl who lives in Lakeland. I only just recently became friends with her on Facebook, but the more I hear about her, the more I really want to see her make a run for governor in 2010.

I don’t doubt that Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer had good intentions when he fixed me up with you. And you really are a great guy. But as my buddy Marco Rubio has been repeating in his speeches lately as he travels the state, Floridians (i.e., me) deserve a choice in this election season.

I’m not saying I don’t want anything to do with you. You’ve done an admirable job in your many laps around the political racetrack. Heck, we all know you were a better man for the U.S. Senate in 2004 than Mel Martinez. You were robbed, there, Bill. But we gave you the AG spot as a consolation prize in ‘06. That ought to be good enough — a nice way to cap off a long and eventful career in politics. After all, did you really want the Clinton impeachment hearings to be the main highlight of your career?

Don’t take this too hard, Bill. You should be proud of all you’ve done. As AG, you’ve done great work in getting tough on cyber-criminals. Of course, I must admit all this talk about you paying millions to a former campaign consultant to produce anti-cyber crime ads right before you start your campaign does rub me the wrong way. The whole thing gave me a weird Buddy Johnson vibe when I heard about it.

At this point, Bill, I think we should just be friends. You’ve paid your dues and done your time. Now you and the wife can have a nice quiet retirement back in Brooksville.

When it comes to the governor’s race, my fellow voters and I simply prefer someone younger and more eloquent. Someone more of us can relate to on a personal level. Paula is all of those things.

Her most recent claim to fame of course was her single-handed blockage of the SunRail-CSX deal – which would have been a shameless waste of taxpayer dollars had it been allowed to pass. In the face of extreme pressure from fellow state Senate Republicans to back down on her opposition to SunRail, Paula stood her ground. She told the whole story at the most recent Polk County Republican Executive Committee meeting.

Paula is the kind of politician who can get the state out of the economic mess that too-tan Charlie is leaving behind. She also has all of the most important bases covered – pro-life, anti-tax, pro-family. Granted, I was a little concerned when some of my Ron Paul-worshipping friends took a liking to her. But from what I can tell, Paula is no libertarian nutball. She’s a sensible conservative who knows that the taxpayers are the boss, not big corporations or lobbyists or political bigwigs.

Simply put, Bill, we can’t have just another old white guy whose been in politics for nearly 30 years going up against Alex Sink. We need someone principled and down-to-earth. If given the choice, I choose Paula.

Don’t take this too hard, Bill. You really are a great guy.

All the best,
Dan

Florida’s right-wing attorney general, Bill McCollum, is set to confirm his gubernatorial bid this morning, a genuinely scary thought since he could be a fluke election away from being our next governor.

Here’s my column from the upcoming print Creative Loafing issue about how McCollum should be freaking you out by now:

You can say what you want about Charlie Crist’s short (and ultimately unremarkable) tenure as Florida governor, but you have to agree that he largely did no harm — for a Republican.

After all, Crist was never interested in being Florida best governor, just Florida’s best-liked governor. His strong populist streak kept him away from many of the bad ideas his party is behind (although he did jump on the awful tax reform bandwagon that has crippled local governments and school boards). The white-haired wonder boy even had some great ideas (clean energy initatives being at the top of that list), even if the nudniks in the Legislature all but ignored his initiatives.

But the man lining up in the Republican party primary to be Crist’s replacement would be an unmitigated disaster. I’m talking about that scary weaselfuck, Attorney General Bill McCollum. Where Crist is a moderate, McCollum is drunk on the GOP right-wing Kool Aid. Always has been.

Now, I’ll disclose right up front here that I once ran a race against McCollum, in the 2004 U.S. Senate Republican primary. My candidate was Johnnie Byrd. (Go ahead, I will wait for the snickers to die down.) It was the same campaign that saw former GOP House leader Dick Armey campaign for McCollum. That saw McCollum lose by 14 points to Martinez after being the frontrunner most of the way.

I remember clearly in that campaign seeing polling that showed the public was absolutely freaked out about the issue because of sensational coverage of a few cases of Internet preying, combined with older voters’ general fear about the new technology and how it is changing our society for the worse.

McCollum was right there to exploit those fears. And that exploitation continues today, except for one big change. Where in 2004 he used campaign contributors’ money to spread his message, today he is using public dollars to fund his political statements. You must have seen these :30-second ads, as they’ve run during local news shows all over the state incessantly for a few weeks now. A hyper-grinning McCollum is on screen for nearly the entire spots. ‘’77 million children go online every day. One out of seven will be solicited for sex,” the attorney general tells us, the sleeves of his crisp blue shirt rolled up, ready to kick some predator ass. “Our cybercrime unit is doing everything possible to catch these predators, but we need the help of parents and grandparents — your help.”

Not to mention your vote, grandma.

Here’s the commercial, in case your TV has been broken for a month:

Nothing unusual or wrong with a politician flogging an issue they think helps them with voters. But what is wrong is using your campaign media consultant to produce the ad and buy the media time. The Miami Herald found that McCollum gave two no-bid contracts worth $1.4 million to a Philadelphia-based consultant, Chris Mottola, who worked on McCollum’s 2004 Senate and 2006 attorney general campaigns.

Most of that money went for a  statewide advertising buy; Mottola earned, according to the Herald, $38,000 for producing the spot and another $100,000 as 10 percent commission on the media buy. That’s more money than Mottola earned in McCollum’s 2006 campaign.

McCollum’s flack denies any wrongdoing and says fighting cybercrime is a longtime passion of the attorney general’s. His office points out that tax dollars weren’t used; the funding came from a lawsuit settlement with cell phone companies in a dispute over ring tone fees and other service costs.

Still, it stinks to high heaven to see these ads, prominently featuring McCollum, airing just as it became clear he was going to get a shot at the governor’s mansion, owing to Crist’s departure to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. McCollum is one of those “law-and-order” politicians. He was one of the House prosecutors in the Bill Clinton impeachment, and the Washington Post described McCollum at the time as steering “the GOP’s tough-on-criminals initiatives. He sponsored several anti-drug bills and a successful measure to ensure that crime victims and their families are not locked out of federal criminal trials.”

During his time as our attorney general, he has also tried to shut down blackjack games at Seminole Indian casinos in Hollywood and Tampa after the courts invalidated a gaming compact between Crist and the tribe.

And during the 2004 campaign, McCollum had the brilliant idea of infiltrating Castro’s Cuba with agents to strengthen the embargo and hasten the end of that regime. “With agents under cover as foreign tourists, liaisons can be developed inside Cuba that can provide valuable information, prepare for a post-Castro Cuba and help undermine the Castro regime,” he said at the time.

Wing. Nut. And, possibly, our next governor.

This time it is a Senate bill (SB 956) that is the target of just about every voting rights and civil rights group in the state. The bill would make it harder for older voters to cast ballots (by outlawing two alternate forms of ID they often use to register and vote), make it harder to gather petition signatures for candidates and referenda, force people who move within 29 days of Election Day to cast provisional ballots and install other vote-blocking reforms in the name of voting security.

From the Times:

Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday strongly hinted that he would veto a proposed rewrite of Florida’s election laws as a broad array of grass-roots groups launched an all-out assault on the legislation.

“What is it we’re trying to cure?” Crist asked in a Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau interview. “The more opportunity you give people to vote, the better it is for democracy. So that aspect of it concerns me.”

“It always seems to me that when there may be legislation that attempts to sort of make it harder for people to do something — the people we work for — generally that’s not good,” Crist said. “I don’t look on that in a favorable light and that is true of this particular part of this legislation.” Asked if he would veto it, Crist said: “I don’t like to use the V word … but I’m not fond of that provision. It concerns me.”