Post by GoreSupporterNJ on Dec 17, 2003 13:27:26 GMT -5
Couldn't happen to a nicer **tch. ;D
Jan
Harris plunges from belle of inaugural ball
By Frank Cerabino, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Sunday, December 14, 2003
There has been a political hit on our good friend Katherine Harris.
You might have figured she had it coming. That the Democrats would get her sooner or later, that there would have to be some kind of political revenge against Harris, the Florida secretary of state who carried the torch for George W. Bush in delivering Florida during the last presidential election.
After all, Harris was a mighty partisan combatant -- a woman who wore her war paint proudly, serving as both Bush's Florida campaign co-chair and the state's senior election official.
From the sloppy voter purge before the election to the recount gyrations after it (she never did accept Palm Beach County's recount tallies), Harris deserved the standing ovation she got at Bush's inaugural ball, where she was compared with Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and Joan of Arc.
A hero to her party, for sure. She parlayed that into a book contract and a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But now it's payback time.
With friends like these...
The funny part is, though, that the Democrats didn't do the Harris hit. She is being done in by her own people, and in particular by the guy she helped put in the White House.
Et tu, Bush?
This past week, Mel Martinez quit his job as President Bush's housing secretary to return to Florida. Martinez said he's going back to coach Little League. But he's really going to back to do a number on Katherine Harris' political aspirations.
Martinez was supposed to be Jeb Bush's successor in 2006, but that was before he got new marching orders from party strategists during the past few weeks. Now Martinez is expected to announce himself as a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bob Graham.
That Florida seat had already drawn a declared field of challengers from the Republican Party, including U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and state Sen. Daniel Webster.
And when Graham announced last month that he would not run again for his senate seat, Harris let it be known that she was interested, saying she had been flooded with calls to run.
"It's an honor that people are encouraging me to seriously consider it," she said.
Combustive effect
And the polls showed that, even though she wasn't a declared candidate, she was already the front-runner for the Republican primary.
That's when the White House stepped in, drafting Martinez as the anointed candidate for the seat.
The problem is that George W. Bush can't risk sharing a ballot with Harris, his Joan of Arc. It could cost him Florida.
Just the proximity of those two names on the ballot -- George W. Bush and Katherine Harris -- would create a kind of combustive effect that could bring Democrats out in droves in a state where every vote counts and where, this time, every vote has a better chance of being counted.
So the job had to be done. Somebody had to take Harris down. No use letting voters do it in November.
Poor Harris. She'll have to return to her Elba in the U.S. House and lick her wounds as she continues her transformation from presidential hero to presidential liability.
She can't help Bush anymore. She'd screw up the election again, but this time for her own party.
It's got to be tough for her to be on the outs for what used to be her greatest political contribution:
Katherine Harris doesn't count.
www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/local_news_f3bd0e202013f00800a9.html
Jan
Harris plunges from belle of inaugural ball
By Frank Cerabino, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Sunday, December 14, 2003
There has been a political hit on our good friend Katherine Harris.
You might have figured she had it coming. That the Democrats would get her sooner or later, that there would have to be some kind of political revenge against Harris, the Florida secretary of state who carried the torch for George W. Bush in delivering Florida during the last presidential election.
After all, Harris was a mighty partisan combatant -- a woman who wore her war paint proudly, serving as both Bush's Florida campaign co-chair and the state's senior election official.
From the sloppy voter purge before the election to the recount gyrations after it (she never did accept Palm Beach County's recount tallies), Harris deserved the standing ovation she got at Bush's inaugural ball, where she was compared with Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and Joan of Arc.
A hero to her party, for sure. She parlayed that into a book contract and a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
But now it's payback time.
With friends like these...
The funny part is, though, that the Democrats didn't do the Harris hit. She is being done in by her own people, and in particular by the guy she helped put in the White House.
Et tu, Bush?
This past week, Mel Martinez quit his job as President Bush's housing secretary to return to Florida. Martinez said he's going back to coach Little League. But he's really going to back to do a number on Katherine Harris' political aspirations.
Martinez was supposed to be Jeb Bush's successor in 2006, but that was before he got new marching orders from party strategists during the past few weeks. Now Martinez is expected to announce himself as a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bob Graham.
That Florida seat had already drawn a declared field of challengers from the Republican Party, including U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd and state Sen. Daniel Webster.
And when Graham announced last month that he would not run again for his senate seat, Harris let it be known that she was interested, saying she had been flooded with calls to run.
"It's an honor that people are encouraging me to seriously consider it," she said.
Combustive effect
And the polls showed that, even though she wasn't a declared candidate, she was already the front-runner for the Republican primary.
That's when the White House stepped in, drafting Martinez as the anointed candidate for the seat.
The problem is that George W. Bush can't risk sharing a ballot with Harris, his Joan of Arc. It could cost him Florida.
Just the proximity of those two names on the ballot -- George W. Bush and Katherine Harris -- would create a kind of combustive effect that could bring Democrats out in droves in a state where every vote counts and where, this time, every vote has a better chance of being counted.
So the job had to be done. Somebody had to take Harris down. No use letting voters do it in November.
Poor Harris. She'll have to return to her Elba in the U.S. House and lick her wounds as she continues her transformation from presidential hero to presidential liability.
She can't help Bush anymore. She'd screw up the election again, but this time for her own party.
It's got to be tough for her to be on the outs for what used to be her greatest political contribution:
Katherine Harris doesn't count.
www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/local_news_f3bd0e202013f00800a9.html
