The big news out of Washington this morning is that Tom Donilon has left his position as the National Security Adviser, and President Obama is replacing him with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice.
Because this position does not require a Senate confirmation, Republicans and their allies in the press will no doubt have a field day in blasting the President for his choice, since she became a pinata for them in their ire over the entire Benghazi incident. That's because she was the administration's choice to go on five Sunday morning talk shows five days after the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya, where she repeated the talking points that it was anger over an anti-Islamic video that led to the uprising on September 11. That has since proven not to be the case, and the anger over that has continued on nine months later.
On to local issues: This morning the Hillsborough County Commissioners will vote on whether or not to repeal their 2005 law banning the county's participation in gay pride events. The issue has fired up a lot of people, including John Stemberger's conservative group out in Orlando.
The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce have returned from their much heralded trip to Cuba, and one of the members of that entourage, City Councilman Harry Cohen, told CL his thoughts about it all yesterday.
And just like it's a very rare occasion to have all of our living presidents gather, it was a special event in downtown Tampa Tuesday morning, where Mayor Bob Buckhorn was joined for the announcement regarding the last phase of constructing the Riverwalk with the men and women who preceded him on trying to bring the project to fruition: Bob Poe, Bob Martinez, Sandy Freedman, Dick Greco and Pam Iorio.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2013.
