The gloves came off quickly this morning in the first debate between Kendrick Meek and Jeff Greene, the two major candidates running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.
At times it got personal, when Meek, weary of Greene referring to the most negative blot on his candidacy, his relationship with a corrupt developer who hired Meek's mother and provided her with a Cadillac Escalade, former Congresswoman Carrie Meek, blasted Greene of having no shame.
"How dare you attack the character of my mother..someone who has lived here,who has been a stellar Democrat…how dare you Jeff Greene!" Meek said, adding that he would never attack any member of Greene's family.
Greene replied that he wasn't attacking Carrie Meek, "I'm attacking you," he said to Meek. Greene added that he considered Carrie Meek a great congresswoman.
Frequently the two men, who were interviewed by two Palm Beach Post reporters (the event was broadcast live online at the Post's website) clashed on who seemingly single handedly contributed more to the economic meltdown, if not outright caused it. Greene said that in addition to receiving money from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and failing to regulate them to protect homeowners, Meek also deserves blame for the Deepwater Horizon disaster, by accepting campaign contributions from disgraced BP, and failing to enforce safety standards on the oil industry.
As mentioned above, Green also frequently attacked Meek for his relationship regarding developer Dennis Stackhouse, who Meek tried to procure federal earmarks for. Stackhouse is accused of making off with a million dollars in public and private loans, in addition to employing Carrie Meek. Greene said that Meek should call for himself to be investigated by the House Ethics Committee (and quoted from a St Pete Times editorial that called for that as well).
Meek said the feds have been looking at the case for years and have not had any reason to investigate him (and in one of the funniest parts of the debate, when Greene was asked a question about the environment and his own consumption habits, replied that he drives a Cadillac Escalade).
Meek came back and attacked Greene on a number of fronts, but most prominently on Greene's use of derivatives, specifically credit default swaps. But as he has done throughout his short time on the campaign stump, Green defended himself, saying,
" When I saw the real estate market imploding, I had to do something….I went up against the biggest banks on Wall Street. I did a derivative trade against the biggest banks against Wall Street…if I lost, I would have written a check to Merrill Lynch…what caused the housing crises? The failure to regulate the banks, they were making predatory loans to borrowers who can't pay back their loans…Yes we do need to regulate derivatives…but they have an important place in our economy… In summary, I don't regret doing it. I didn't create this housing crises."
Several times Meek invoked Warren Buffett's comment that derivatives were "weapons of mass destruction" on the U.S. economy, and continued to hammer that home throughout.
Meek also tried to raise an essential question: Who is Jeff Greene?, saying that he had voted only four times in his entire life, only once in Florida in 2008, and was a "Ronald Reagan Republican" in California. Greene did run for Congress as a Republican in 1982 (and lost). He said he couldn't remember last week when asked by MSNBC's Chris Matthews if he had voted for Reagan.
The two did find common cause on some issues, such as gay rights. They're for most of them, except for same sex marriage. Their quibbles on illegal immigration also weren't very substantive. They also failed to answer the question on naming a significant Supreme Court Justice.
The energy seemed to go out of the debate towards the end, but by then the two had provided strong contrasts to each other. No doubt Kendrick Meek is more experienced and accomplished as a politician, but Jeff Greene is banking that that's not what voters are necessarily looking for most in 2010.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2010.