Florida Not Going To Scarborough Fair
Looks like the Bushies will have to look elsewhere for a champion in their intra-GOP jihad against U.S. Representative and senatorial candidate Katherine Harris, because Joe Scarborough ain't running:
Considered by whom? The GOP establishment? With their track record? Please. As I wrote last week, the White House got Congresswoman Harris to bow out last year, and their fair-haired boy Mel Martinez barely scraped by by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin against a profoundly weak Democrat candidate in Betty Castor. Nelson has one advantage over Castor - incumbency - and even that may not be an unmixed blessing. Whereas Ms. Harris had every advantage over the first moderate stiff the Bushies put up, Florida House Speaker Allen Bense, and was at least a match for Scarborough, which would only have meant a bruising primary fight that could only have helped Nelson.
You know what the real parallel to Katherine Harris is on the Democrat side? Hillary Clinton. Think about it - a "controversial" female politician, guaranteed to fire up the opposition but who is just as beloved by her own party's grassroots. The biggest difference is the Democrats are proud of Hillary, revere her to quasi-goddess proportions, and are certain to make her their next presidential nominee; whereas the Republican establishment is, evidently, ashamed of Ms. Harris and utterly obtuse about her ability to fire up the GOP rank & file as much as she will the Donks.
Indeed, one could argue that lack of White House backing for her candidacy will make Ms. Harris a more effective senator, if the disillusioning experience of Senator John Thune (R-SD) this year is any indication - a slice of pre-emptive lame duckery that I wouldn't think the White House would want to set quacking. But it sounds as if they made up their minds about Ms. Harris a long time ago, which would explain why they have such a vested interest in her defeat.
And if - or, rather, when (since the last prominent Florida race the Democrats won was Nelson's five years ago) she wins? There will only be one group of winners: Katherine Harris, and the people of the state of Florida.
Maybe Joe Scarborough will be first in line to book the sentor-elect following her "shocking" triumph.
TV host and former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough won't run for the U.S. Senate, he said yesterday, making Katherine Harris currently the sole GOP candidate for her party's nomination to take on incumbent Democrat Senator Bill Nelson.
While admitting that he may someday return to politics and seek office, Scarborough, who hosts MSNBC's Scarborough Country, said that after consulting with his family, the former four-term U.S. representative decided that the time hasn't come for his re-entry into elective politics....
Scarborough was the latest of top Republicans pushed to take on Harris, considered a sure winner in any Republican primary but an odds-on prospect to lose in the 2006 general election.
Considered by whom? The GOP establishment? With their track record? Please. As I wrote last week, the White House got Congresswoman Harris to bow out last year, and their fair-haired boy Mel Martinez barely scraped by by the hair of his chinny-chin-chin against a profoundly weak Democrat candidate in Betty Castor. Nelson has one advantage over Castor - incumbency - and even that may not be an unmixed blessing. Whereas Ms. Harris had every advantage over the first moderate stiff the Bushies put up, Florida House Speaker Allen Bense, and was at least a match for Scarborough, which would only have meant a bruising primary fight that could only have helped Nelson.
You know what the real parallel to Katherine Harris is on the Democrat side? Hillary Clinton. Think about it - a "controversial" female politician, guaranteed to fire up the opposition but who is just as beloved by her own party's grassroots. The biggest difference is the Democrats are proud of Hillary, revere her to quasi-goddess proportions, and are certain to make her their next presidential nominee; whereas the Republican establishment is, evidently, ashamed of Ms. Harris and utterly obtuse about her ability to fire up the GOP rank & file as much as she will the Donks.
Indeed, one could argue that lack of White House backing for her candidacy will make Ms. Harris a more effective senator, if the disillusioning experience of Senator John Thune (R-SD) this year is any indication - a slice of pre-emptive lame duckery that I wouldn't think the White House would want to set quacking. But it sounds as if they made up their minds about Ms. Harris a long time ago, which would explain why they have such a vested interest in her defeat.
And if - or, rather, when (since the last prominent Florida race the Democrats won was Nelson's five years ago) she wins? There will only be one group of winners: Katherine Harris, and the people of the state of Florida.
Maybe Joe Scarborough will be first in line to book the sentor-elect following her "shocking" triumph.
posted by JASmius at 1:21 PM
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