The site committee for the Republican National Committee have left Tampa, as their three day tour of the facilities and amenities in the Bay area in their search for a home for the 2012 Republican National Convention ended on Tuesday afternoon.
The 10 member committee was joined on the trip by national party chairman Michael Steele, who is under fire for the latest transgression to occur under his watch (that being an Orange County consultant – since fired – who spent nearly $2,000 on "meals" at a bondage-themed club in West Hollywood). But Steele was AWOL for a departing news conference at the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel in St. Petersburg earlier this afternoon.
Instead, bromides were offered up by Governor Charlie Crist, Tampa developer Al Austin, the leader of the local effort, and Holly Hughes, the chair of the site selection committee who began her appearance behind the lectern today by employing the Tomahawk Chop, showing off her Florida bona fides (she lived as a teenager on Marco Island and Naples before attending for a time Florida State University).
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.
