It is always with a sense of trepidation, if not outright dread, that I open an e-mail from Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman. One cringes just imagining what stupid stuff the FDP has come up with this time. Today’s electro-missive from Tallahassee was a doozy.
Seems the party is going after Republican Rep. Tom Feeney who represents District 24, which covers a broad swath of Central Florida, including Orlando and Brevard County, where it is illegal — illegal — to wear a thong bikini on the beach.
You might remember Feeney for his association with jailed uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Jack took Tom and a bunch of buddies in a chartered plane to Scotland to play golf at the venerable St. Andrews course. The always-generous Abramoff paid for Feeney’s expenses, including lavish dinners and accommodations with fistfuls of tainted lobby dollars. The House Ethics Committee eventually made Feeney pay nearly $6,000 to cover his expenses for the trip.
In September 2006, Feeney was named one of the 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. The organization said Feeney’s ethics issues arise from trips he has taken in violation of House travel and gift rules, and his failure to disclose his ownership of rental property.
OK, so Feeney is an appropriate target for political action and he really needs to be run out of Congress on a rail. But puh-leeze, Karen and krew, can’t you mount an intelligent, savvy, effective campaign against him? Apparently not.
First, they create an on-line advertisement that is sophomoric and ineffectual.
Then they put up an anti-Feeney Web site that is poorly designed and ineffectual.
Then they fill the Web site with ineffectual content in the form of seven “questions.” These”questions” are in the form of badly written press releases that, well here’s a sample:
“Can we trust Florida’s most corrupt politician to be honest about his golf score at St. Andrews? Or did Abramoff let Feeney get away with a few mulligans, gimme-putts, and lost balls?” Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. “Other than illicit relationships with crooks, we still don’t know Tom Feeney’s handicap. But we hope he enjoyed his golf trip, since those 18 rounds in Scotland may prove to be the fatal stroke of his career in Congress.”
That appears to be an attempt at snarkiness, but instead it devolved into a kind of dumb-sounding playground-level taunt. Maybe that kind of discourse is effective in Talla-sassy, but that dog won’t hunt in more sophisticated parts of Florida. Like Apopka.
Maybe there will come a time when the Florida Democratic Party gets savvy and sophisticated, and really figures out this politics thing and becomes a true force against the Republicans in Florida. Yeah, I should live so long.
Everytime Thurman makes a feeble, silly stab and thinks she is “cute” she costs her own party dearly. Love him or hate him, Feeney has his supporters and all she does is make them rally around him….what a moron she is.
C.Elmore
Feeney has his ethics problems and should be removed from office by the voters. It is the voters that will decide this not either of the political parties. Karen Thurman is a joke. When you have a state party leader that thinks she is too smart for the national party - like letting the primary delegate election go through without attempting to negotiate it with the national just beacuse the “big bad republicans did it” is childish. Karen should come clean with the Florida democrats and tell them that the bill changing the primary date was co-sponsored by one of her democrats. Hell-o.
I’m sure he’s rallied his supporters regardless of Thurmans ability to self destruct. As for this ineffectual website, an uber- intellectual such as yourself should never underestimate the middle school mentality of the typical Floridian.