Photo credit: johnnyalive @Flickr.com
This week in review once again proves that political corruption, circumventing the rules, and the love of boats are all bipartisan
1. Hillsborough County Commissioner Jim Norman, R is still not saying which investors paid for his wife's $400,000+ vacation home in Arkansas (that his name is not on). Doesn't this separate finances claim seem to fly in the face of traditional marriage that Norman preaches about so often? For instance, when Commissioner Kevin Beckner tried to drag Hillsborough county out of the dark ages and provide domestic partner benefits to county employees, Norman, who is in contention for the Commission's biggest homophobe, opposed it. Norman also supported a discriminatory board policy which could cost the county taxpayers a fortune (just like the Kevin White lawsuit did) due to a faulty policy. I wonder…………..since the Normans don't seem to practice traditional family values when it comes to things like sharing their finances on vacation homes, do we taxpayers foot the bill for Mrs. Norman's health benefits? If we do I don't think we should have to any longer. In related news, reading a few of the comments under these Norman stories over the past week shows that the Salvation Army( which pays Mr. Norman over $90,000) should see their donations drop significantly this year as citizens seemed appalled at this ahem……….development. Norman's pontoon boats at his wife's vacation house were also called into question since they might be worth over $1000.
2. The Tribune just endorsed Norman's opponent Kevin Ambler over Norman. This is like picking a heart attack over a stroke. Yeah, if I have to I'll take the heart attack too.
3. Ex-Commissioner Brian Blair, R is a loser…………..again. Looks like current Commissioner Kevin Beckner kicked Blair's ass… again. This time in court as the judge ruled last week that Beckner did not defame Blair during their campaign back in 2008. After that stinging loss and subsequent public meltdown, Blair sued Beckner for the statements used against him during the campaign. Trouble for Blair was that they could be backed up by media reports. It is always nice to see a good guy win one and let's just hope Blair had to spend a fortune on this case. He is currently running for State House District 47 since he lost his commission seat to Beckner. Please don't send him to Tallahassee.
4. Josh Burgin,R (Brian Blair's former aide now running against Mark Sharpe for a countywide seat on the BOCC) got a pretty nice campaign donation severance package from Republican power broker Sam Rashid (whose full name as Chris Ingram recently educated us on is Samad Sultan Rashid) As Rashid's influence certainly seems to be diminished, it begs the question whether or not the Sultan still deserve the title of power broker? Sharpe should win this one handily and he already has the endorsement of the Tribune, the Times and even this NIMBY.
5. John Kerry, D is in some hot water over his 7 million dollar yacht regarding taxes or lack of them. Moral of this story…………..it pays much better to be a Senator than a Commissioner. Who wants a pontoon boat when you can have a 7 million dollar ride? Maybe Kerry should have put the boat in his wife's name?
7. Charlie Rangle, D (the darling of the ethically challenged) is trying to cut a deal for his tax evasion on his property in the Caribbean among 12 other violations he was charged with (what, no boat to hide Charlie?) This again proves it pays much better to be a "public servant" in Washington vs just staying local because in my opinion a retreat in the Caribbean sure beats the heck out of Arkansas. Did we mention Rangle was the Chairman of the Ways and Means committee? I found this photo of him smiling with President Obama back in 2009 on the White House's photostream on Flickr.com The photo credit is listed as an official White House photo by Pete Souza
8. President Obama was a guest The View this week. We are in the middle of two wars, staggering unemployment numbers, the worst environmental disaster the country has ever faced and he finds time to ham it up with the ladies of The View? How Presidential of him. This on the heels of blaming the media (Fox News) for his premature decision to fire Shirley Sherrod. Looked like he was able to easily charm the View hostesses where Behar asked him about Lindsey Lohan and Mel Gibson.
9. Disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich never spoke in defense of himself in his federal corruption trial. According to this account from the Chicago breaking news one of the items the prosecution focused on this week was:
Prosecutors also focused on Patti Blagojevich, saying she received tens of thousands of dollars from Blagojevich fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko without doing any work for it. Prosecutors allege the money was a kickback to the then-governor. Noting that the defense in opening statements told jurors that Blagojevich didn't make a dime off the alleged schemes, Niewoehner said, "Follow the money. How many dimes are in hundreds of thousands of dollars?"
In conclusion, boys………….put the vacation houses, the boats, and anything else of value in your wife's name but also remember to always marry up (see Christ, Charlie) so nobody can question if your wife can afford these luxury items for you. If your wife isn't independently wealthy then have your favorite developer or campaign contributor (who could be one in the same) give her a fat job or a good deal on a house with the help of a influential political fundraiser (and developer) like Tony Rezko (see #9.) Rezko was recently found guilty of fraud and bribery (hey, it worked for the Obamas). If that doesn't do it then get a good "severance" package (see Bean, Pat). And finally when you want to soak your wounds and try to rehab your falling popularity, show up of the View where the only thing missing was the actual shark for Obama to jump over.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.