The Blue State

FL-Sen: The laughable race continues

I have to break my pledge of never wasting another blog entry on the Harris Campaign -- but this one is too irresistible.  A former Harris Campaign official said this to the AP:

"This campaign will go down in history as one of the most disastrousever run in the United States," declares Jim Dornan, who helped launchHarris' bid as her campaign manager. He left three months later, unableto work with her.

"I don't think anybody can envision any campaign being conducted inas poor a fashion as this one's been conducted," said Darryl Paulson, aUniversity of South Florida political science professor.

Now we get to the best part: her tendency to flirt with her interviewers:

She kicked off her campaign in August last year with rallies inSarasota and Polk County, where an enthusiastic hometown crowd wavedsigns and cheered. Her speeches went off without a hitch. Then came alive national TV appearance on Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes."

That interview set the tone for the rest of the campaign.

Harris stood at an angle reminiscent of a beauty queen, with a smileto match. She repeatedly told hosts Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes thatshe was "excited" about the campaign, but she didn't have much ofsubstance to say. At times she appeared to be flirting with Hannity.

As her campaign manager at the time, Dornan said he was "mortified."

"She doesn't interview, she flirts. And it's offensive to professional women and it's embarrassing," he said.

If you are not laughing right now, then either you lack a sense of humor or you have yet to see her Hannity and Colmes interview.  Maybe this video will make you understand:

Just in case you actually care, the Florida Senate primary is today.  Katherine Harris is 16-points ahead of the two other Republicans.  As far as the general election is concerned, she is setting herself up to be destroyed by incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson, who leads her by more than 20-points.  Many consider her too close to the Washington establishment.  Recently, Harris responded to those critics:

"I'm not a Beltway boy, and I'll never go along to get along," Harris said after a July campaign stop in Volusia County.

On the bright side, she knows that she's a girl.  I was beginning to get worried.

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Other sites blogging about this issue: Huffington Post, Raw Story, Democratic Underground, The Daily Background, Brock Log, Leftwing Nutjob, The Daily Whim, Wonkette, Newsvine, Crooks and Liars.

8/29/06 Morning Clips with Breakfast

I want to make this a routine.  Once each day, I will post a roundup of the most buzz-worthy videos that sum up the latest water-cooler talk in politics.

First Up: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert raided the Emmy Awards.  Yes, I am one day late for showing this clip -- but there was so much news yesterday.  During their presentation of the award for Best Reality Competition Program, the two reminded us why they are the perfect antidote to the Fox News channel.

Second in Line: Democratic Party ignores a potential opportunity.  Over in California, Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is under fire for giving out money in exchange for campaign contributions.  The Democrats could challenge him and aggressively fund his opponent.  But as this UNC TV report explains, even though Lewis is now being investigated by the Justice Department, the Democats are too afraid of going after someone with such high status.

Third: Katherine Harris separates mind from sanity.  Jack Cafferty reads through some interesting e-mails that CNN has been getting about Katherine Harris.  If you recall, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Florida was the one who said that "God chooses our leaders," and that not electing Christian candidates means "you are going to legislate sin."

Fourth: Hannity the hurricane man.  During a weather report on Fox's Hannity and Colmes, Hannity seemed rather interested as to whether hurricane Ernesto will to hit Cuba.  Make of it what you want.

Fifth, But Not Least: Maher meet Kos.  This is from Friday.  Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos blog appeared on the HBO show Real Time with host Bill Maher.  The two discussed how the Democrats can possibly counter the Republican noise machine.

More clips tomorrow.

FL-Sen: Harris admits she was pandering

The Katherine Harris saga is getting more entertaining by the day.  If you take a steak out of the freezer, the chances are that by the time the steak has thawed some embarrassing story will pop up about the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Florida.

If you recall, last week she made a number of controversial statements:

• "If you're not electingChristians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."
• ..."we have to have the faithful ingovernment" because that is God's will. Separating religion andpolitics is "so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers."
• "And if we are the ones not actively involved inelecting those godly men and women," then "we're going to have a nationof secular laws. That's not what our Founding Fathers intended, andthat certainly isn't what God intended."

Late yesterday, the Harris Campaign tried to spray febreeze on their boss' mistakes.  They released this statement:

Harris' campaign released a statement Saturday saying she had been"speaking to a Christian audience, addressing a common misperceptionthat people of faith should not be actively involved in government."

The comments reflected "her deep grounding in Judeo-Christianvalues," the statement said, adding that Harris had previouslysupported pro-Israel legislation and legislation recognizing the Holocaust.

If you think about it, this actually makes it worse.  The Harris Campaign is basically admitting that their candidate only said what she said because she was speaking to a certain demographic.  In other words, Katherine Harris will say or do anything, regardless of whether she means it, just as long as it scores her political points.  The magic word is "pandering".

Great job Katherine.  Now we know what kind of Senator you would be if elected.  Actually, on second thought, Floridians don't seem that interested in electing you anyway -- which is why this may turn out to be the last blog entry that I will write about this race.

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Other sites blogging about this issue: Harry's Place, The Moderate Voice, Cosmic Variance, Wayne Beseen, The Daily Whim, Crooks and Liars, Kantor, Donklephant, Pam's House Blend, Brad DeLong's Smi-Daily Journal, Knox Views, CenterBlue.org, Digital Street Journal, Devoter, Americablog, Jupisper, The Daily Background, Hernando County Concerned Citizens, The Constant American, Berkeley Bubble, Brock Log, Left Word, Common Sense Democracy.

FL-Sen: Katherine Harris: "God is the one who chooses our rulers"

By now, I think we can all agree that the Katherine Harris for Senate Campaign fell apart months ago.  But even still, the wagon missing a wheel hit another bump after the former Secretary of State that presided over the Florida recount mess said something clearly off the wall

The quote appeared in Saturday's Washington Post:

Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) said this week that God did notintend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws" and thatthe separation of church and state is a "lie we have been told" to keepreligious people out of politics.

"If you're not electingChristians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," Harristold interviewers from the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journalof the Florida Baptist State Convention. She cited abortion andsame-sex marriage as examples of that sin.

...Harris told the journalists "we have to have the faithful ingovernment" because that is God's will. Separating religion andpolitics is "so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers,"she said.

"And if we are the ones not actively involved inelecting those godly men and women," then "we're going to have a nationof secular laws. That's not what our Founding Fathers intended, andthat certainly isn't what God intended."

What Katherine Harris uttered brilliantly demonstrated why we need more constitutional scholars in the U.S. Senate.  Ignoramuses like her who turn their backs on our constitution for the sake of pandering to the far-right really belong on talk radio and not on the Senate floor.  I think Floridians know what they would get with her, and they don't like the thought of it.

Other Harris Campaign news:

• According to sources, the Harris Campaign is waiting for her to pump $10 million worth of her inheritance money into her Senate effort in a last ditch effort to narrow the gap in the polls with incumbent Bill Nelson.  At the moment, Nelson leads Harris by 30 points.
• More evidence has surfaced that links Katherine Harris to the bribery scandal plaguing some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
• During a campaign event last week, a number of her alleged major supporters were no shows.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, "None of the officials appeared at her campaign rally and one of them said Harris wrongly included him on her list of supporters."

FLA-Sen: Explaining the Harris staff rift

We finally know the real reason why a number of Katherine Harris' staff resigned last month.

The latest Quinnipiac poll puts Republican Senatorial candidate Katherine Harris 37-points behind Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.  Anyone that has followed this race knows that it has been a train wreck from the very beginning.  Last month four high-ranking Harris Campaign staff members quit after a number of Florida Republicans refused to endorse her, which many still have yet to do.

But it turns out that the real reason why her staff members quit was because Katherine Harris was served with a subpoena, which she deliberately hid from her campaign.  The subpoena was issued because Harris had contacts with a defense contractor that recently pled guilty to bribing a Congressman.

When asked by the AP about the subpoena, Katherine Harris used the most basic 21st century trick in the book:

Harris was reached on her cell phone Wednesday by The AssociatedPress, but said she had a bad connection and referred the call to hercampaign office.

Campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Marks on Wednesdayrepeated an earlier statement that said Harris is cooperating with theinvestigation but is "not a target," and declined to comment further.

Every month there seems to be a new twist in the train wreck known as the Harris Campaign.  Some progressives, remembering her role in the 2000 election cover-up, like to see her suffer.  But in my view, this is just too painful to watch.  What she needs to do is take the $10 million of her father's inheritance and invest it.  Retire in a nice beach front home and stay the heck away from politics because no one, not even her party, thinks she is genuine enough to be taken seriously.

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Other blogs writing about this race: Letter of Apology, The Truth About Political Stuff, The Washington Beltsider, Can't Keep Quiet!, Wonky Muse, All the News that Fits, ReBelle Nation, Davenetics: Newsmonger, Busting Balderdash, Minstrel Boy, Inside the Beltway.

Either dodge or close your eyes

Sorry, I had to put this one up.  It was too irresistible.  Here is Katherine Harris on the campaign trail, looking for more votes.  Speaking of "trail", she trails incumbent Florida Senator Bill Nelson 59% to 26% in the latest Quinnipiac Poll.  She needs votes no matter how she can get them:

(Photo from Wonkette)
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Other blogs writing about this Senate Race: Wot is it Good 4, Can't Keep Quiet, Psychobilly Democrat, Federal Review,  Newsie 8200's Penndit, Talking Points Memo, The Town Crier, Hominid Weirdness, The Ragged Claw, Cold Flute, Majikthise, News Coma, News you Can Abuse, Crooks and Liars.

The Florida Senate race is pretty much finished

Just about any passionate Democrat out there that wants their party to take back both chambers of Congress knows that those hopes rest on whether the Democrats can successfully nationalize the election.  For obvious reasons, the Republicans are trying to do the exact opposite.  And so far, it looks like the Democrats are getting the best of it -- not because Democrats are masters of strategy, but because concerned Americans all across the country are willing it to happen.

With that said, one has to ask what on earth the Republicans are doing down in Florida?  Katherine Harris is the perfect poster-woman for the Bush Administration.  Why would they run someone like that?  After all, back in 2000, Katherine and Jeb aided the vote-halting effort in a number of counties even before the Supreme Court weighed in.  In a nutshell, if it had not been for her, Bush might have been trailing when the Supreme Court took the case, which would have made it harder for the high court to rule the way they did.

Getting right to the point, the Harris Campaign is falling apart.  She trails Bill Nelson in the latest Quinnipiac poll by a 59% to 26% margin.  If that is not evidence of resentment towards the GOP establishment, then I don't know what is.

To make things worse for her, this week five more staffers quit her campaign.  And on Monday she heads into the hospital for surgery to remove an ovarian mass.  Yet, she still plans on spending $10 million of the inheritance that her dad gave her on this race.

We can now say, unless something weird happens and Katherine Harris somehow wins the Nobel Peace Prize, the race in Florida is over.

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Other blogs writing about this issue: Hoffmania, Katherine Harris for Senate, A Grand Illusion, Syberghost, Rain Crow Calling, The Carpetbagger Report, Florida Politics, Wonkette, Down with Tyranny, Facing South, Liberal Patriots, Talking Points Memo, From the Roots, Knox Views.

Katherine Harris falling apart in Florida

For the lady that helped rig the 2000 election down in Florida, it is the best of times and the worst of times.  It is the best of times for Katherine Harris because she gets to spend $10 million of her father's money on her Senate campaign.  It is the worst of times because she trails Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson in the polls by a 2-to-1 margin.

In a New York Times article this morning, Mark Leibovich says "Ms. Harris has become something of a pariah among many of the peoplewhose power she indirectly helped ensure five and a half years ago."  Here is more:

Her campaign has been marked by aides leaving en masse, disclosuresof her ties to a contractor caught up in a lobbying scandal and thefund-raising handicaps inherent to any enterprise perceived as a lostcause or, worse, a joke.

Ed Rollins, one of Ms. Harris's manyformer campaign consultants, claimed she had told him that God wantedher to stay in the race. (Ms. Harris denies making the statement.)

This is just about the best thing that could have happened to the Democratic Party in the state of Florida.  Party strategists on both sides said as early as last year that Bill Nelson's Senate seat was up for grabs.  But now that Katherine Harris is taking him on, the GOP has between little and no hope to capture it.

(Related News)

Katherine Harris falling fast in the polls

It would take a miracle (more like a depressing miracle) for Katherine Harris, Republican U.S. candidate candidate from Florida, to come back from this deficit:

Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, who became a household name amidthe 2000 presidential election dispute, remains far behind in her bidto oust Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a new poll released Thursday shows.

Nelsonwas favored by 56 percent of those surveyed, compared to 27 percent whopreferred Harris in the poll by the Quinnipiac University PollingInstitute.

A similar poll two months ago had Nelson ahead 53 percent to 31 percent.

Just last month Harris said that she will invest all of the $10 million she inherited from her dad in this race.  The way the polls are looking, it might be smart for her to get a back-up job lined up.

I'd sure dislike working for the Harris Campaign

Sources both close to an inside the Harris Campaign tell the Associated Press that the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate from the state of Florida is being somewhat abusive to her staff, and many are quitting as a result:

The woman (Katherine Harris) who was both celebrated and vilified for overseeing the2000 Florida recount is smart, charming and energetic and works hard.She is also a micromanager, easily angered and sometimes bursts intotears. If she doesn't like what she is being told, she refuses toaccept it.

As a result, her congressional office has been a revolving door, andin recent weeks, she lost what was left of her original core campaignstaff.

"She is very, very hard on the people that work for her," said JimDornan, her Senate campaign manager until he left last November. Otherstaffers painted a similar picture but would not be quoted by name.

At the end of last month, one of her top advisers, Ed Rollins, apolitical aide to President Reagan, resigned along with her campaignmanager, her press secretary and other key staff members, quitting anoperation that some GOP insiders have depicted as a political trainwreck.

According to the latest polling data, Katherine Harris trails Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson by 12.1%.