RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has announced a group of "headliners" who will speak at the Republican National Convention in Tampa later this month, and many of them are also-rans in the Veep sweepstakes.
They are: Kelly Ayotte (CL's darkhorse candidate for VP), Rob Portman, Bob McDonnell, Bobby Jindal, Artur Davis and Connie Mack IV.
You can bet your, well you choose the body part, that Mack would not be speaking if he weren't running to knock out Bill Nelson in his bid for re-election for Senate later this year.
But the most intriguing pick is Artur Davis, who fills up the Joe Lieberman/Zell Miller role as the former Democrat who will undoubtedly be hyped as an honorable man who finally saw the light. Davis was a Democratic Congressman in Alabama. Now he's a Republican living in Virginia. Former Georgia Governor Zell Miller was a Democrat you might remember who took to the stage in Madison Square Garden in New York City in 2004 to denounce John Kerry; In 2008, it was Connecticut independent Senator Joe Lieberman who went on stage in St. Paul to extoll the virtues of John McCain….
Meanwhile, s creative computer programmer in Tampa has created an application on your smartphone that can tell you where all of those invasive cameras installed in downtown for the RNC are located.
When the Tampa City Council gathers this morning, Joe Redner will be going before the board on a couple of issues – and the infamous adult club entrepreneur and liberal activist says he doesn't understand the animus from one particular council member.
And Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Police Chief Jane Castor and a host of other city administrators will speak tonight in Hyde Park in another town hall meeting to discuss the ways downtown, Channelside and Ybor will be affected by the RNC in a week and a half.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2012.