For reasons that are pretty obvious to anyone who's got half-a-brain and who's been paying close attention, the slippery-slope part of Kendrick Meek's political career begins in earnest three weeks from tonight, when I expect him to lose the first competitive election he's ever been in, losing to Jeff Greene in the Florida Democratic U.S. Senate primary.
That will be to the great consternation of condescending liberal Dems all over the state, who were ready to serve the nomination up to him on a silver platter despite his clear lack of accomplishment, almost as an offering of penance.
Sure, because having two people with such low name recognition and actual accomplishment as Alex Sink and Kendrick Meek at the top of the ticket is such a compelling narrative. LOL!
While it's still indeed possible for people of little-to-no consequence but lots of ambition and a ton of family connections to get elected to the U.S. Senate, especially if you are from a state with a small population -and I met many such people in my 15 years in Washington- Kendrick Meek has finally had his Close Encounter of the Third Kind -Contact- with the new dynamics of Florida being the fourth-largest state in the nation.
That's a lesson that many pols in this state learned the hard way a few years ago, when it was clear that the old ways of creating a working coalition that wins had changed forever, especially when you threw the Internet and Social Media into the mix.
Apparently, Kendrick Meek didn't get the memo.
Perhaps that memo was sent to him in Washington while he was in Haiti immediately after the earthquake in January, playing the role of melodramatic pol for all the assembled network TV cameras, behavior which left a very bad taste in many Florida voters' mouth.
And yes, before you ask, I did, in fact, catch Meek on Fox News in those first few hours after the quake struck, when he was LIVE with Geraldo Rivera and just happened to have a video-camera with him.
(I actually snapped a screenshot or two of that interview with my camera after I got over my initial shock of seeing Meek there, but I wasn't able to pull up the photo from the computer archives before posting this now.)
Meek's knee-jerk orthodoxy in casting congressional votes with seemingly little thought, his inability over several terms to develop a reputation for being either an expert in some field, a respected deep-thinker, or a person with the personal skills to persuade more independent-minded centrist Members on an important vote, and his general lack of accomplishment has left a wide opening for someone who would exploit those self-evident weaknesses with vigor.
In Jeff Greene, he's met someone who enjoys tweaking him over his mediocre track record and who can call him out on all these things, not just one, and actually put his money where his mouth is.
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So what do you think Kendrick Meek's next job will be after his term is up in January?
Send me your best prognostications, either practical or sarcastic or both, and after a time, but before the August 24th primary, I will run some of them here for the amusement and edification of other Hallandale Beach Blog readers around the world, where of late, our friends in Sweden have come on strong to pass Italy for 8th place. Just chalk it up to the appeal of Timoteij and Molly Sandén.
FYI: The photo of Kendrick Meek at the top of this post is from a piece of Jeff Greene direct mail that I received Tuesday afternoon.
As much as people talk about Greene's vast financial resources, the thing that's most noticeable to me as a former political operative and political junkie, as well as a South Florida voter who has kept all the campaign lit that's been sent this year, regardless of the particular office, is that his direct mail is simply more interesting, attractive and well-designed than anyone else's.
That still counts for something.
