More twists in the Florida US Senate race
An upcoming development fraud trial dumps some bad press on the already crappy Meek campaign:
As U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek championed a proposed biopharmaceutical complex for Liberty City in 2003, his Miami chief of staff received $13,000 from the project’s developer to help the aide buy a house, newly released police records show.
The developer, Dennis Stackhouse, is now awaiting trial, accused of stealing nearly $1 million from the failed Poinciana Park project that was supposed to revitalize the blighted Liberty City community. Nothing was ever built.
The police records show that Stackhouse engaged in an elaborate campaign to curry favor with Meek as the builder sought the congressman’s help in obtaining federal funding for the project. In addition to helping the aide’s house purchase, Stackhouse hired Meek’s mother, former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, paying her $90,000 in consulting fees and paying for a Cadillac Escalade for her to drive.
There’s nothing shady about Meek trying to bring a development project to Liberty City. But this doesn’t sound good, particularly the part about the $90K and Escalade to Meek’s mother, whose US Congress seat he basically inherited.
Meek, largely unknown outside South Florida, says he didn’t know about the pay-offs. But this isn’t the intro he needed for what was already going to be an uphill battle with his more well-known rivals, moderate-GOP-gov-turned-Indy-candidate Charlie Crist and teabagger pin-up Marco Rubio.
Maybe the national Dems knew this was coming. That would explain their hands-off stance on the Florida senate race, which was heretofore somewhat puzzling.
Earlier this month, Meek gained a challenger for the Democratic nomination: billionaire Jeff Greene, who made his fortune in credit default swaps, an income source that doesn’t kindle much love in Florida, where every other homeowner has an upside-down mortgage. Greene has interesting friends, including wife beater and ear-biter Mike Tyson, who served as best man at Greene’s wedding, and notorious tart-purveyor Heidi Fleiss, who stayed at one of Greene’s houses after she got out of jail.
What a freaking mess. And here’s the problem: It’s really, really, REALLY important to keep Rubio out of the US Senate, and not just because Florida doesn’t need a Jim DeMint clone representing the state.
If Rubio wins, it would be a major coup for teabaggery and would give the movement a young, presentable, articulate and not overtly crazy national spokesman in a key swing state. The Dems need to do whatever it takes to nip that possibility in the bud.
Posted by Betty Cracker on 05/17/10 at 07:55 AM • Permalink
Categories: News • Politics • Nutters • Teabaggery •
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