Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!

Florida voters shake their heads in wonder as Tampa Bay Times continues flogging their stories re their poll of "political insiders" -favoring incumbents in 2012. Surprise!

Political insiders say Sen. Bill Nelson likely to win third term
By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor
In Print: Sunday, December 25, 2011

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/political-insiders-say-sen-bill-nelson-likely-to-win-third-term/1207786

It's like a poll of national sports writers in Miami in the days before Super Bowl III that overwhelmingly favored the Baltimore Colts over the New York Jets, the Georgetown Hoyas over the Villanova Wildcats in the 1985 NCAA basketball tourney.

And how did you like last season's World Series between the Red Sox and the Phillies, the pre-ordained classic that never was?

Who actually had the Packers over the Steelers in the Super Bowl before the 2010 season started?

(You'll recall that my prediction before the game was spot-on.)

Dear reader of the blog, whose attention and time at this first post of the year I appreciate, please tell me when since 9/11 has there ever been a poll of elites and insiders in this country or this state or this county where the unexpected was accurately predicted?

Even when there were plenty of signs that something unexpected could well happen?

Precisely.

The sports analogy is nationally-known print sports writers and TV reporters appearing on nationally-syndicated sports talk radio shows of the sort that I have been listening to since I was a kid in the 1970's -just like I did with Tony Kornheiser's Washington, D.C.  radio program for WTEM-AM in the '90's before he was at ESPN- listening to them opine on the NCAA basketball tourney selections in the days before the tourney starts.

They're clearly eager to hear guests offering insight into possible upcoming upsets for the benefit of their listeners or viewers, but almost invariably, the host or co-hosts then ignore everything that's been said, heard and seen -and history- by then picking nothing but 'chalk,' i.e. picking nothing but the top-seeded teams.

Yes, despite every one's always saying that they want something unexpected, look what happens when "experts" are asked and results have consequences?

That's a pretty common 'phenomena' in contemporary U.S. sports media that you rarely hear anyone discuss or criticize, and it's political counterpart is equally common at almost every national and Florida-based newspaper and media website worth perusing, even the good ones.

It's a real buzz-kill, and in my opinion is one of the main reasons that few big political movements happen down here as spontaneously as they do in other parts of the country -the news media here really isn't interested in change, and cover and report accordingly, rather than let the narrative and natural ebb-and flow of events tell the tale.

This explains, in part, why the national news media write as if they would like Newt Gingrich to be finished after the Iowa Caucus this coming week, despite all the larger states he leads in, like Florida, for instance, despite less resources than Mitt Romney.

In short, the news media really doesn't want change, they just want the pretense that change could happen, which is why the voters who DO want big change are so frustrated by the news media's bias.
It's not just a political bias on the part of some reporters, though it IS that, but also a bias towards what they already know, understand and can explain, which is why so much political reporting is derivative to a nauseating degree.

That's another reason I'm in favor of having an election system like Louisiana's, where all the candidates run together and the general election is between the top two finishers, regardless of party affiliation.

(I know there's a name for this system but I'm too tired to think of the name of it.)

Now THAT would be fun and reward the voters with an election worth watching and get more sensible people in office, and be a handy tool for dealing with gerrymandering.
Imagine what gerrymandered districts would be like in South Florida under a system like this -less extremism of the left or right.

Florida voters across the state that I've been in touch with since this most recent post on the insider's poll continue to shake their heads in wonder as the old St. Petersburg Times and their reporters and columnists continue flogging a series of stories with a never-ending story-line about their poll of "political insiders" favoring incumbents in 2012.

Really?

Imagine that?

Of course they do!
And so do the state's print and electronic media thru their mostly bad and superficial coverage, too!

Which, of course, is part of the problem, no? 

The very same elites, "insiders" and news media that thought they would have Tea Party favorite Marco Rubio to play with -like a cat's toy- for a few months, with Rubio playing the role of well-chewed rubber mouse?

After all, hadn't these same forces already publicly proclaimed Charlie Crist a political genius, month-after-month, for 'splitting the difference,' despite the lack of any empirical evidence that held up to serious scrutiny, that he had fundamentally changed the broken and much-loathed political culture of Tallahassee, south Georgia's anti-Mayberry?

Yes.

Evidence, who needs tangible evidence that anything was changing for the better in Tallahassee when the state's news media was in love the way the Florida news media was in

full-thrall to Charlie Crist and his affable white hair in 2009 and early 2010?

Yes, Florida, the Sunshine State, where the then-formerly popular governor Crist lost that Senate GOP primary that the Sunshine State's Mainstream Media and political elites had considered a mere formality, having already been writing newspaper stories/columns and filing TV stories for months that took the position that he was "inevitable."

So "inevitable," in fact, that the state's news media actually started filing stories on whether Crist might soon be a GOP VP candidate, a pseudo-fact that because it was printed in Florida newspapers so often, started appearing more frequently in DC-based media, blogs and websites as well, where they didn't know any better.
(The Beltway pundits assumed the reporters here in Florida must know what they were talking about, and had some sources who knew it was true.)

And all of this MONTHS before the formality of an actual election

After all, the MSM and political elites would know, wouldn't they, they're "experts"?

And besides, as they were always keen on reminding us, Florida is SO important.
Except when it's not.

But they were 100% wrong and Marco Rubio trounced Crist in the GOP primary.

And then, not willing to accept the mandate of the people, the elites of both parties and many columnists and editorial boards decided that Crist should be given yet another chance to win, not just one, so millions were given to him by the comfortable status quo-types who reminded us over-and-over that despite his loss to Rubio, Crist was still the best candidate.

Then in November, Rubio trounced Crist for yet a second time, and made hapless Democratic Party nominee Kendrick Meek a third-place finisher in a three-way race, and a very bad third place at that.

Yes, Florida, the same state where the only statewide-elected Democrat in the FL Cabinet,
a multi-millionaire, former banking executive and longtime Democratic insider who was married to a wealthy attorney and former Democratic gubernatorial nominee, lost the gubernatorial race to a wealthy businessman who had never run for elective office before.

Losing in some part because she never did the one thing that all good elected officials must do -explain who they are, what they've done, what they are in favor of and against and why.

That is a necessity.

But Alex Sink and her political advisers and the Democratic Party, esp. the most liberal wind of that shrinking party, took all that for granted, as did most of the state's news media.

But finally someone started noticing what I had seen from the beginning -that she really was running for office in the worst possible way.

By late August and early September, reports started appearing in newspapers -but not on Miami-area TV- that her campaign had been done such a poor job of laying the groundwork explaining who she was and her stand on issues, that, surprise, there were still many voters who did not know that Alex Sink was a woman.

When you are running for governor of the fourth largest state in the country and three months before the general election, a sizable number of likely voters don't know what sex you are, you are poised for a bruising losing effort.

And that was when Rick Scott's TV campaign started in earnest of defining the woman who had been so blase that she and her staff thought that could wait until after the summer.

And the same elites and reporters were reporting for months that in a re-match now...

Sink would win.
But we don't have do-overs  a few months after the election, we just have the election.

Scott, a very flawed candidate, beat Sink, a very apathetic and blase candidate who didn't do the minimum required.

I ignore those stories for some of the same reasons that I voted against Sink, knowing that no matter how close the election might be or how much the news media, esp. the liberal news media in South Florida, wanted to play tail gunner for Sink and get Scott in a game of "gotcha," Sink was a seriously flawed person and candidate who was incapable of moving the football in Tallahassee and get the state out of its backwardness in so many areas.

Knowing that both branches of the state legislature are held by the GOP, and veto-proof if sink won, what could Sink possibly accomplish as governor given how  self-evident her personality and management flaws were?

She'd continually have been made a fool of as the legislature over-rode any vetoes she might made, even when I might have agreed with her reasoning.

To say the least, Alex Sink was not much of a gubernatorial candidate, and it's my guess that she would have been a terrible governor for the fourth-largest state in the country, even when she was right on the issue, because her personality and manner would NOT have worn well with residents.

In that election for governor between too very flawed candidates, we drew the well-meaning "Joker" who at least knew who he was, and we all have to live with that verdict for another three years.

Now, eleven months until the 2012 election, the same state "insiders" and experts I've described are alternately pre-ordaining Bill Nelson's re-election and/or the rise of some queer boomlet called the Connie Mack revolution.

To my way of thinking, where ideas -thoughtful and nuanced- really are important, Connie Mack is political 'fools gold' compared to Marco Rubio, who is Fort Knox in comparison, since as someone who supported Rubio from the beginning -even when state reporters were writing his premature obituary- I always knew that he was everything that Sink, Meek, Crist, Nelson and Mack are NOT.

In that comparison, to me, candidate Connie Mack is the small change you find in the shallow end of the hotel swimming pool while on summer vacation in North Carolina to escape the heat, humidity and boring existence of summertime South Florida.
(Asheville, North Carolina  1972 to be exact. A trip I've never forgotten: Mount Mitchell, Smokey Mountains, Stone Mountain, GA...)

Great for kids, like your two younger sisters, who race each other diving into the pool to get the quarters you throw, which amuses some of the other hotel guests around the pool otherwise zoning-out, but not really much to brag about for adults, or even teenagers paying close attention.

In short, there is no "there" there with Connie Mack IV.
Or any possibility of any upside that he would ever become the sort of thoughtful, savvy and sometimes counter-intuitive person that surprises you frequently with his principled stands representing the crazy-quilt of six different states cobbled into one that that is today's Florida, and able to cast important or even dire votes that will matter to this nation's future.


To me he's the personable but somewhat dis-connected high school homecoming king whose father is the mayor and largest developer in the area, and he's still milking the gravy train, occasionally doing the right thing, but not often enough to inspire either trust or respect.
To me, Connie Mack IV is NOT the answer to any reasonable question.


Like I've so often said on this blog about the city I live in, Hallandale Beach, and how it so thoroughly mis-managed to the detriment of the residents who want it to be MUCH BETTER now than it is, Mack's "An interpretive house of cards that falls apart at the slightest touch of rationality and evidence."

As for perpetually tone-deaf Alex Sink, the more things change...

Jetsetting Letter Misses Mark With Suffering Floridians

By Martin Merzer

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

http://www.floridavoices.com/columns/martin-merzer/jetsetting-letter-misses-mark-suffering-floridians

"It's not a sprint, it's a marathon." But sometimes, as with Jeff Greene vs. Kendrick Meek, elections really ARE sprints, and Meek is Wile E. Coyote

With less than two weeks to go until the August 24th Democratic primary, it seems pretty clear to me that, among other things, Jeff Greene's Senatorial campaign is deliberately planning on forcing Kendrick Meek & Co. to burn through all their cash and resources as quickly as possible, knowing that he can always dig deeper than Team Meek at a moment's notice, and leave them gasping and unable to respond to any last-minute Greene attacks or change-up pitches.
That's exactly how I'd play it, too if I had Greene's resources and the lead in the polls.

It's also clear to me that based on Team Greene's smart media buys and frequency thus far, as well as the variety of their very attractive and well-produced direct mail -which seems to come into my mailbox every other day- they've known for a while that Meek's creative team simply isn't capable of turning-on-a-dime and producing and placing the high-quality materials the way that Team Greene can.

The first time my mailbox had Kendrick Meek campaign lit in it, last Thursday, was the same day that the St. Petersburg Times political editor Adam C. Smith wrote this killing with kindness article that featured this in the fifth paragraph:"Meek, who has been campaigning harder and longer than any other statewide candidate this cycle, grasps the dire position he's in: Three weeks before the primary, he trails by double digits to a last-minute rival with a bottomless campaign account. "

Later, in the first sentence of the 21st paragraph, Smith begins:"Indeed, while Meek remains little known to most Floridians..."
Now can you see what I mean?

St. Petersburg Times
Trailing in polls, Kendrick Meek chases a U.S. Senate victory in a bus tour of Florida
By Adam Smith, Times Political Editor,
In Print: Thursday, August 5, 2010

DAYTONA BEACH — Kendrick Meek likens his U. S. Senate primary to David against Goliath, but the Democratic underdog wields a weapon that covers more ground than a slingshot: a four-wheel motor coach with his smiling face plastered across the side.

On Wednesday Meek kicked off an 11-day, statewide bus tour aimed at picking up grass-roots momentum against the candidacy of billionaire real estate mogul Jeff Greene.
"The old-school kind of politics — when Bob Graham had his work days and Lawton Chiles walked this state — I think it still means something in this state," a fiery Meek told about 100 people at a Daytona Beach teachers union building.

"Democrats in Florida will give this nation the first example of what hard work means and what it means to run a grass-roots campaign against billionaires who have a shrimp in one hand and a checkbook in the other saying, 'How much does it cost to become a United States senator or governor in this state?,'?'' he said.
Meek, who has been campaigning harder and longer than any other statewide candidate this cycle, grasps the dire position he's in: Three weeks before the primary, he trails by double digits to a last-minute rival with a bottomless campaign account.

But sounding both upbeat and energized, the 43-year-old Miami congressman argued that the momentum is starting to turn back toward him, and that his deep roots among the most loyal Democrats across the state will compensate for Greene's nearly $10-million in TV ad spending.

Greene couldn't pull off a bus tour like his, Meek said. "Who's going to show up? Because his whole campaign is about campaign ads and not about real people."

Meek's campaign received a gift this week after Greene had to keep answering questions — and revising his explanation — about him taking his 145-foot yacht to Cuba in 2007, after a former deck hand told the St. Petersburg Times about guests partying and getting sick on the trip to Cuba.

First Greene said he hadn't been to Cuba in five years, then he said it was a Jewish humanitarian trip, and then he said he went because the yacht needed repairs.

On Tuesday, the Greene campaign released a statement from the yacht's chief engineer, Andy Valero, saying Greene and his fiancee were on the way to a diving vacation in Honduras when hydraulic problems prompted them to veer off to Havana to make repairs.

"With the current rough sea state and winds, Marina Hemingway was the best bet. All the guests were very sick," Valero said in the statement.

Visiting or doing business with Cuba can be illegal and Meek scoffed at Greene's explanation.

"Whichever way Jeff Greene packages his visit to Cuba, it was illegal,'' Meek told reporters, as the "Real Dem Express" motor coach left a facility in Sanford that turns wastewater sludge into energy.

Meek gave a blistering assessment of Greene, saying he could never endorse him in the general election because he lacks the character to serve in the Senate and would be an embarrassment to the Democratic Party and the state.

"He's a very, very — in my opinion — bad person and he has stomped on people and shouted people down his entire life, and all of that is going to come home to roost," Meek said, noting among other things, Greene's close friendship with convicted rapist Mike Tyson and Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.

The Greene campaign responded in a statement: "Kendrick Meek is not only already an embarrassment to Florida but should apologize for lying to Floridians in his ad using Mr. Warren Buffett's image and purposely misusing a quote for personal political gain."

It was a reference to a Meek ad criticizing Greene for making hundreds of millions of dollars on complex financial instruments that financier Buffett had criticized. But Buffett was not referring to anything Greene did personally, only to the type of investment involved.

While Greene only announced his candidacy in late April, Meek has been traveling to at least 50 Florida counties since January, 2009, and spent months gathering signatures in every corner of the state to qualify for the ballot by petition. In an off-year primary likely to have low turnout, that grass-roots effort and his own track record in Florida will make a difference, he predicts.

"I don't think there are many Florida voters saying, 'I need to make sure I get to the polls to vote for Jeff Greene.'?"Meek said.

Indeed, while Meek remains little known to most Floridians, he found plenty of enthusiastic supporters Wednesday in Orlando, Sanford, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. They recounted him leading the fight to require smaller class sizes, sitting in Gov. Jeb Bush's office to protest sweeping changes to Florida' affirmative action admissions and purchasing policies, and supporting Democratic candidates up and down the ticket.

"If Kendrick Meek is beaten by Jeff Greene in the primary, I will definitely vote for Charlie Crist in the general election, no question," said Gary Morgensen, an Osceola County teacher holding an "I support the real Democrat" placard.
Last modified: Aug 05, 2010 03:00 PM]
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Personally, I'd be extremely surprised if Greene's media team doesn't already have a variety of pre-taped ads and already-produced campaign lit that's just the right combination of positive and reassuring, just waiting for the signal to drop it on Meek's exploding head, like poor ol' Wile E. Coyote.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz65AOjabtM



My sense of things is that compared to what he needed to have in place, Meek's media is very mediocre and seems designed not to persuade voters so much as to reassure people outside of South Florida.

The two-fold problem for Meek is that he's not a very articulate candidate who can stir voters
to turn out in droves for him if he's an underdog with just one powerful speech.He never had to persuade voters before to get elected, he just had to not shoot himself-in-the-foot.
That's part of why Greene's decision to run for Senate was so brilliant, even though as I've stated previously, I'd have preferred seeing him run for governor, where he and Rick Scott could've actually had some interesting debates about ideas instead of re-fighting the same old wars, as will happen with stultifying Alex Sink now, to everyone's dismay.

Greene and Co. knew going in that Meek as a brand was still un-tested outside of Miami-Dade County since he has NEVER had to come from behind to win a race, since he's always been not just the presumptive nominee, but the presumptive elected.

That's the rub for his always having been in a gerrymandered congressional district rather than a competitive one: he never had to exercise his campaign muscles.
And now it's showing.
Meek is heading for a big fall.

So what do you think Meek's next job will be after his term expires?
I've gotten a few emails from you readers, but to be honest, not nearly as many as I expected.
Send your predictions to hallandalebeachblog-at-gmail.com

New York Times
Florida Starts Primary Vote Marathon
By Damien Cave
August 9, 2010

MIAMI — Nasty television ads and e-mail, campaign workers on street corners, and candidates emerging from the polls declaring imminent victory — is the Florida primary already here?

Not quite, though one can hardly be blamed for making such a mistake. Early voting started Monday across Florida with all the get-out-the-vote stunts once reserved for Election Day itself. In a state famous for electoral skepticism (no, the wounds of 2000 have not healed here), early voting has gone from feared to embraced.

Indeed, the Aug. 24 primary will simply add a final sprint to what experts now describe as an established marathon. And for a nonpresidential year, the stakes are high. Early voting is likely to decide two major Florida races: which Republican runs for governor, and which Democrat takes on Gov. Charlie Crist, the former Republican, and Marco Rubio, the actual Republican, for a seat in the United States Senate.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/us/politics/10florida.html
See also: Adam C. Smith articles/columns/blog posts:
http://www.tampabay.com/writers/adam-c-smith

The St. Petersburg Times excellent politics blog. The Buzz
http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/

Steve Geller's antics; cowardly Miami Herald editorial board

Monday February 4, 2008
3:45 pm

Just wanted to call your attention to some interesting news I discovered via the Orlando Sentinel a few minutes ago, via email.

Don't think I ever mentioned it here before, but I subscribe to the Orlando Sentinel's excellent political blog, Central Florida Political Pulse, which seems, thus far, to have the great advantage of being able to call 'em like they see 'em with much more freedom than is generally common with other political blogs affiliated with newspapers.
Say, unlike the Miami Herald's political blog, Naked Politics, to name but one.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/

That low-hanging target, which for the better part of its existence didn't have even a single link to other Herald blogs on their site, still doesn't link to any other newspaper political blog, even ones within the state. Now that's using technology!
(Sounds like a Kim Marcille directive to me.)

The Pulse had an item today that FSU's President, T. K. Wetherell, has suddenly realized the true nature of his job situation, after what only seems like Fourscore and seven ethical lapses and arrests among FSU athletes.
That is, that he was, in fact, within the FSU hierarchy, the wagging tail, not the lead dog.
Well, at least now he knows the score!

He's been chasing the tail all this time, getting damn frustrated.
Now, he's chagrined to discover that he's just like the dog on that hysterical Comedy Central show of a few years ago, TV Funhouse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Funhouse

I've always loved the term the NCAA uses in documents to describe situations less egregious than this one at FSU, albeit, usually at non-winning schools that can't sell merchandise and get big TV ratings all around the country like the Seminoles: lack of institutional control.
See SMU and death penalty, circa early 1980's.

Unfortunately for my tastes, the Miami Herald continues to walk a far-too-careful tip-toe around the very curious actions and puzzling behavior of Steve Geller, where there's never any telling from moment to moment which of his many 'hats for hire' he's wearing, a topic that both of my blogs will be addressing in the future.

One minute, Geller is the esteemed State Senator and top Senate Democrat of the fourth largest state in the country, a wheeler-dealer in a tiny govt. town who's in love with the sound of his own voice, and who proudly proclaimed his role at the time, complete with trademark smirk and sarcasm, in moving up the date of the presidential primary.

An hour later, Geller is the corporate lawyer/bully, trying to not only prevent Hallandale Beach residents living near the proposal -his constituents- at a City Commission meeting from opposing his client's bad plans to build an over sized bldg. near their homes, but even worse, actively trying to prevent them from even being able to speak during the public comments portion of the commission meeting.

(Months ago when it happened, I actually was so appalled by Geller's antics that I called a Herald reporter I respect on my cellphone, and then gave her a play-by-play of what happened,
as it happened.
That was really my only card to play because the Herald didn't think to assign someone to a public meeting that produced the largest building in Broward on U.S.-1 south of downtown Fort Lauderdale, the DOMUS project across from Gulfstream Park.)

Later, Geller wears the lobbyist hat he probably loves most, where he gets paid to alternately persuade/schmooze/ply city officials -also his constituents- to grant favors to or accept the plans of his myriad corporate clients who pay him handsomely.
Clients that doubtless make campaign contribution$, wouldn't you guess?
Yes, it's really quite a circle of love, isn't it?

Fortunately, the Sentinel and their blog runs accurate-but-negative things about the ethically-challenged State Senator Geller, who'll continue to mis-represent me and my neighbors up in Tallahassee for a few more months until he's term-limited out of his cozy confine$ in the lap of power.
(Geller has a big fundraiser in Tallahassee this week amongst his pals and clients for an election two years from now, when he'll try to take away Suzanne Gunzburger's seat on the Broward County Commission.
He's not even letting the fact that his Cooper City house isn't legally in the district prevent him from raising money.
He's Steve Geller -he does what he likes.)

The Sentinel blog carried the amusing item below about Wetherell, the former pol and FL House Speaker put in his cushy job by his pals to run a college whose reputation around the country, such as it is, rests almost entirely on its gridiron prowess, not its contributions to anything of real note or consequence, which may be a good thing in the end.

Well, okay, save for some NOAA hurricane/weather forecasters and some very cute FSU coeds, famous for smiling while wearing skimpy outfits at football games.
See http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2680844980098792027WIsYXc and http://www.cybersportsblog.com/2005_archives/dec_daily_news/956-FSU-hotties.html

And, quite naturally, trying desperately to hang onto that 15 Minutes, witness Jenn Sterger, whose fame first came at the FSU at U-M game a few years ago. http://www.jennsterger.com/ Jenn at Wrigley Field: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jenn_sterger/07/26/mailbag/index.html

One last thing, and it's troubling to me in so many ways that I can't even begin to get into here, but here's the gist of it, with more posts about the subject in the near future, when I post some reviews about aspects of the Herald that I've been sitting on for months.

In reading the article in the Herald last Saturday about the passing of former Herald editorial page editor Jim Hampton, Former Miami Herald editorial page editor dies
http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/403335.html , I came across a rather curious comment from a Herald insider, one which caused me to roll my eyes, since I know only too well how drastically the newspaper needs to be turned around to make it relevant and better in a changing environment.

After I read this comment, I wondered how many other people in South Florida who care about public policy the way I do had a similar reaction:

Hampton's imprint is still apparent on the Editorial Board he helped shape. ''Who we are and how we function is Jim's handiwork,'' [current Herald editorial page editor] Oglesby said.

Hmmm...
By that, does Oglesby mean the way the powers-that-be at the Herald played chicken recently with their readers, when their Editorial Board didn't make an endorsement in either party for the Florida presidential primary?

That abdication of basic civic responsibility caused even-tempered Channel 10/WPLG political editor Michael Putney so much indignation, that he felt compelled to mention it to his politically savvy audience last Sunday morning, on his popular TV show, This Week in South Florida.
You know, just in case his viewers hadn't noticed its absence in their Sunday Herald while they were munching on their breakfast.

Given the current state of the Herald, I don't know if Mr. Oglesby's comments were something I'd be bragging about if I were related to Mr. Hampton.
But maybe that's just me.

FYI: Last Thursday, I spent the hour in between the two episodes of SouthBeachHoosier TV favorite Chuck on NBC, reading the wit and wisdom of "DUMP STEVE GELLER," an opinionated person in D.C. -so they say- on various forums on a variety of topics, including tax reform, education and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's bias.

I don't know anything about who this person might be, but it's interesting that someone who lives in D.C., if that's true, would have such contempt and antipathy towards him.
Mine comes much more natural -geographical proximity.

For more information on the antics of Steve Geller, please see this dead-on Sept. 7th story from five months ago.
http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB25AM2A6F.html
Line In Sand Has Democrats Hopping by William March of the Tampa Tribune

Well, what do you know, National Dems are as unimpressed by the blustery comments of Geller as his constituents, and the media who collectively hope he'll get his comeuppance somehow.

"State Senate Democratic leader Steve Geller of Hallandale Beach, responding to the candidates' threat to boycott the Florida primary campaign over the Jan. 29 date, angrily urged Floridians to withdraw their endorsements for the candidates - and maybe their money.
"If the DNC chairman and the Democratic candidates choose to ignore our voters, then we can choose to ignore their campaigns," Geller said. "And where we go, so goes our wallets."

Of course, months earlier, Geller's penchant for bombast and delusions of importance cost the state of Florida, as this insightful May 17th post by Jason Garcia on the Pulse blog makes all too clear, http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2007/05/geller_to_dean_.html

The August 28th response to the post, which references Adam Smith of the St. Pete Times' comments, is one that the Herald and the rest of South Florida would've been smart to share with local residents, but never did.
Why do you suppose that is?

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/02/wetherell-criti.html
Wetherell criticizes FSU athletic department posted by Aaron Deslatte on Feb 4, 2008
_________________________________________
The whole story of Wetherell's self-discovery

www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/college/seminoles/orl-newfsu0408feb04,0,3525431.story
SENTINEL EXCLUSIVE
FSU president knocks Seminoles athletic department
Didn't trust athletic department to conduct cheating probe
Andrew Carter, Sentinel Staff Writer