William March has scoop on Bill Nelson & Debbie Wasserman-Schultz ally and lobbyist Allison Tant, who wants other Tampa Bay-area Dems to quit so she can qualify to run for Florida Democratic Party Chairmanship; This only proves wisdom of current Chair Rod Smith's recommendations all over again about how party leaderships battles should be done; Miami Herald is completely ignoring this issue -and Annette Taddeo-Goldstein. Tant pis pour elles!

I hadn't expected to find myself writing about internecine Democratic Party leadership battles in Florida for two posts in a row but here we are nonetheless.
Yesterday, I wrote about the battle for the Broward County Democratic Party chairmanship between challenger and part activist Cynthia M. Busch and incumbent and lobbyist Mitch Caesar.
This afternoon, the Tampa Tribune's William March was johnny-on-the-spot with more news about inter-party grudge matches coming to a head in the Sunshine State.
  

Tampa Tribune

Fresh squeezed Polics blog

Tant ready for a battle for state Dems chair

Posted Dec 5, 2012 by William March

Updated Dec 5, 2012 at 04:32 PM

Prominent Democratic fundraiser Allison Tant of Tallahassee said Wednesday she was recruited by Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to run for the state Democratic Party chairmanship, and that she’s prepared for a battle if necessary in seeking the office.

Read the rest of the post at: http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/news/story/tant-ready-for-a-battle-for-state-dems-chair/

So, what most accurately describes this situation above?
a.) Changing the rules in mid-stream (mid-game), or,

b.) special rules for special people

Or is it both as I think?

If Allison Tant and her allies have to either induce other Democrats who were already duly-elected by other Democrats to quit -despite her knowing the qualification rules months ago- or even has to engage in a degree of intimidation in order to get a specific result that rewards someone who, coyly-but-unconvincingly says that she never thought about running for the position until last Friday, do you think the bigger problem here might be the party's rules themselves, that DO NOT reward actual hard work by party members and activists on the ground, but DO reward party pooh-bahs with high self-regard?

And really, a state Democratic Party chair who is a longtime lobbyist?
Like Mitch Caesar times 67? (Sixty-seven being the number of counties in the state.)

Is that really the road that the state party wants to travel after so many Obamaphiles have decried the horrors of corporate lobbying and influence peddling to voters for a year straight?
I think not.

And where would the conflict of interest even begin to cover THAT situation?

Given this delicious bit of recon intelligence offered by William March this afternoon, I re-direct your attention again to my post of yesterday regarding Tampa Bay Times reporter/columnist Adam C. Smith's interview with current Florida Democratic party Chair Rod Smith, and how some of the comments seem to me to be an almost a perfect description of the situation in Broward County.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/hmm-m-florida-democratic-party-chair.html

Rod Smith's prescriptions for Fla Democrats

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/rod-smiths-prescriptions-fla-democrats

What is the number one recommended change cited by Rod Smith?

Change the way party chairs are elected, opening up eligibility to everyone rather than just to party activists who have been elected local state committeemen or state committeewoman and county chairs. The current system breeds "real subterfuge" where would-be chairs, himself included in 2010, at the last minute strike a deal to get elected to their local party leadership (as Annette Taddeo-Goldstein was elected Miami-Dade chairwoman Monday night).

Oops!

Where in the Miami Herald have you seen anything about Annette Taddeo-Goldstein did to get her position? 
Nowhere.

Here, by their own accounts, is the sum total of her name in-print in the Herald this year:

http://www.miamiherald.com/search_results?aff=1100&q=Annette+Taddeo-Goldstein

Nowhere in print in the past four weeks since the election and nowhere online prior to Monday late night.
By the way, since I don't want to miss this opportunity, most people would agree with me that simply printing a press release is NOT journalism
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2012/12/miami-dade-dems-choose-first-latina-chair-annette-taddeo-goldstein.html

So the Herald had nobody at or outside of the meeting Monday night and wrote absolutely NOTHING about what really happened Monday night?
That's also NOT real journalism.

But of course, being the Herald, they could rationalize it because at least they got to use the word "Latina" in their headline.
Only one of their favorite words!

Thus, even a well-informed Herald reader would NOT have even known that she was angling to be state party chair based on... well, what exactly?

Her failed congressional candidacy in 2008 and her failed Miami-Dade County Commission candidacy in 2010?
The video of her on YouTube that a grand total of 32 people, including me, have seen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18T2jYKAec8

Me, I think that after what has just happened with the election, I DON'T think the rest of the state is going to vote to reward a Hispanic woman from Miami with the title of State Chair, who just qualified to run on Monday night.
Especially a woman who, despite having run for Congress four years ago, is still largely an unknown quantity, and a woman who, per my many criticisms of the state of journalism in South Florida, was NEVER mentioned in the Herald this year regarding her political activities even once.

Not once!
And this is the person who should be in charge of the state party?

A woman whom everyone says is personally very nice but who, to be honest, has actually done MUCH LESS than MANY other Dems running for county chairs throughout the state?
Like Cynthia M. Busch for instance?

How exactly would that square with any semblance or notions of merit?

Also, what exactly did Annette Taddeo earn from The Tuck School at Dartmouth?

-----
http://www.annettetaddeo.com/

So THAT'S why newspapers are dying? BORING!; Jon Gruden must go!

While waiting for the Ohio State-Texas ballgame last night, as I have a lot since the end of the NFL season, I went over to The Tampa Tribune's website to see if there were any more stories about whether Tampa Bay Bucs head coach Jon Gruden should've been fired already.There were, because he should. Hot Seat Available For Gruden Again

Then I went to the main website, http://www2.tbo.com/news/

You'll never guess what The Tribune's lead story was.

Panetta to lead CIA?

Upcoming Ohio State-Texas ballgame that same night?

Special Legislative session starting in Tallahassee?

The Gators' upcoming BCS title game here in Miami?

Nope, their lead story is about some 21-year old utilities worker being suspended from work.

Really?

You click the large box marked TOP STORY and are sent to... well, nowhere really:

http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2009/jan/05/utilities-worker-suspended-without-pay/

Utilities Worker Suspended Without Pay

Utilities worker Jason Booker on Monday was suspended without pay for five days for repeated absenteeism.

•  Be the first to comment!

That would explain a LOT!

I don't even think that's the TOP STORY tonight on that guy's particular

block.  In fact, I'm positive it isn't. 

______________________________

There's a photo run on the Tribune's Bucs homepage that spells out exactly the nature of the problem with the Bucs and their perennial December swoon, akin to the one of the Mets the last two years in October.

Since winning the Super Bowl against the Raiders after the 2002 season, with ex-Seminole/

Redskin/Viking Brad Johnson as QB, the Bucs are 45-41 in regular season games.

In six years they are only plus four games.

In my opinion, the best piece written on Jon Gruden's tenuous status in Tampa Bay is this one by Tom McEwan from Monday.

________________________________

Tampa Tribune

Breakfast Bonus with Tom McEwan

http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/sports/comments/help-wanted-signs-posted-at-one-buc/

Help Wanted Signs Posted At One Buc

Posted By Tom McEwen

Jan 03, 2009 at 05:38 PM 

Hard for us to understand, isn’t it?

I am talking about this Tampa Bay Buccaneer season that just recently that went south, that went from 9-3 to 9-7 like a bank robbers heading for Mexico.

Buccaneer fans, especially those weary enough to remember the 0-26 start, have unchallenged memories for memories of losing, so this lousy finish with four straight defeats fits well into our mental file of Bucko losses, particularly those final two (losers to San Diego and Oakland) at that great Raymond James Stadium we built for these players, and those before them.

Lousy deal, wasn’t it? Just lousy. This shabby finish at the site of the next Super Bowl, in maybe the best stadium in the NFL, on the best playing surface in the NFL, next to the best training palace in the NFL, built by team owners who certainly haven’t told Coach Jon Gruden and his players to shape up or they’ll ship them to Green Bay, who surely deserve more than their staff and “athletes” have returned, in wonderful weather and circumstances, before the most decent fans anywhere, fans who now are likely to face a ticket price raise.

Injuries, oh, we know about them. The coaches know about that risk. Yes, the loss of running back Ernest Graham was plenty serious. May well have made the difference. Got to figure on that, and to enjoy and reap the benefits of the arrivals of wideout Antonio Bryant and return star Clifton Smith.

We should not have lost those last three games—13-10 at Atlanta, 41-24 to San Diego and 31-24 to Oakland. San Diego and Oakland, remember, flew across country to lose here, and neither was a quality team. The Bucs had everything to win, were at home and quarterback Jeff Garcia had been playing pretty doggone well, recently. But, we’ve said all this before because it has happened so often before. 

Oh, the coach has taken the blame, and should have, but the losses are still losses and these Bucs so beautifully accepted them.

These Buckos are not in the playoffs of a Super Bowl lottery for the SB-41 that is booked in their backyards.

What’s to be done? Well, send in some more dough for season tickets next year, when money request arrives soon.  And assume Coach Gruden—no one has said he will not be back—is already checking his fishbucket of a roster for keepers and throw-backs. His assistants are already going and new ones will be coming.

Right now he’s surely looking at the free agent list and college draft. Since he all but dismissed Brian Griese this season, he certainly is in the young quarterback business. He’ll get a couple to go with his project Josh Johnson. They’ll need to get some defensive help. Stars Ronde Barber and Derrick Brooks may be back but will need help to work with coming linebacker headliner Barrett and his sidekicks. I mean, even defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin has gone to the Tennessee Volunteers to join son Lane, while other of Kiffin’s aides have move to promotions. The solid Buc defense of Kiffin of so many years—though not this last one when it slowed and leaked—must be rebuilt.

Malcolm Glazer, head of the owning family, is not well, and this last season could not have helped him, except in resolve. So far as anyone knows, there is no “for sale” sign out, nor is there a “situation wanted’’ sign on the Joel/Bryan Glazer door at One Buc.

But, believe me, there will be plenty of business for the name plate makers for the Buc locker-room. Losing in December has become unacceptable for the Buccaneers in the future.

Better be, some season ticket damage has already been done and higher prices could cause more in these rotten economic times.

________________________________

Since the U-M wasn't smart enough to make him the Hurricanes head coach when Larry Coker was let go, I'd love to see someone like Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach at Tampa Bay, and give the fans there the sort of team they desperately want but will never have with Gruden around.

Exciting and winning, instead of a team whose number one goal every week seems to be to prevent the other team from scoring more than 20 points, since once that number is hit, the Bucs seem to lose more often than not.

Watching the Bucs try to come from behind in December and the first playoff game every year is like the film Groundhog Day.  

If we've seen it once we've seen it a thousand times already.

Mediocre wide receivers without the ability to separate or come back for the ball when the QB has to scramble -just like U-M's.

Steve Geller cries 'revisionism" re FL Dem primary date change

I posted this on parent South Beach Hoosier blog Saturday.
_____________________________________________
So, based on today's March on Politics blog posting, by William March of the Tampa Tribune, comes word that after-the-fact, State Senator Steve Geller is now arguing publicly that he was not really serious about what he voted on months ago when he voted for the January 29th primary date...

So does that mean that Steve Geller, a man who truly considers himself a master tactician and political operator, was hoodwinked months ago?
Well, it really can't be both can it?
That he wasn't serious but he also wasn't hoodwinked?
How do you prove a double-negative?

It reminds South Beach Hoosier of something a longtime favorite of his used to say, but with laughter.
Richard Lewis used to regularly say at some point in his absolutely hilarious appearances in the mid-'80's on Chicago's Steve & Garry Show (Steve Dahl and Garry Meier), on WLUP-FM, about his many bad dating experiences: "Two wrongs don't make a right."
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507659/

(See http://www.dahl.com/ for latest info on broadcaster Steve Dahl.
Steve was responsible for some of the very best radio programming SBH has ever heard, and on some afternoons, especially in the summertime, they seemed to be playing in the background of every other store in downtown Evanston, when S&G were at their most popular and nobody wanted to miss their comments. They were just amazing!)

If Geller is telling the truth -now- and South Beach Hoosier doesn't think that he is, why did so many people who were actually in the Capitol and who have no reason to lie about it, contemporaneously characterize his demeanor the way they did, suggesting that he was wearing his trademark smirk in the moments before his vote?

As usual, with almost everything Geller touches, his answer rings both hollow and self-serving.

Does he really think that nobody is paying attention when he does these things?

Maybe he thinks he's like so many members of the Hallandale Beach City Commission, to name but one locally elected panel of whom I've personally observed this particular behavior in, who so often appear unsure of the material that's in front of them and ask meandering or self-serving questions, but then, afterwards, want the public who observed their nonsensical actions and unusual behavior to disregard it.
Like they were all just actors playing a role.

Like Geller is really just a Romulan spy in a cloaked ship, which allows him to act upon his whims and flights of fancy un-noticed by the rest of us -until he has to de-cloak before firing a weapon.

My own experience in local, state and national politics is that regardless of the locale, in a circular firing squad, the person who loaded the gun is just as responsible as the person who fired it.

Just dust it for fingerprints!

A good C.S.I. team will find Geller's are all over the gun. _______________________________________
Tampa Tribune
March on Politics
Geller Tries To Set Record Straight On Florida Primary, Says Dems May Suffer In November
Posted Feb 22, 2008 by William March
http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/news/story/geller-tries-to-set-record-straight-on-florida-primary-says-dems-may-suffer/

In case you missed it last July, Herald reporter Gary Fineout had some info about Geller's new political group, a new committee of continuous existence (CCE) called "Floridians for a Stronger Tomorrow."
Now that's comedy!!!
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2007/07/geller-raising-.html

Previous South Beach Hoosier posts on Steve Geller, most recent first:
http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2008/02/bte-noire-steve-geller-to-be-roasted.html

http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/2008/02/steve-gellers-antics-cowardly-miami.html