NY Times columnist Gail Collins delves into Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial slugfest today, including allegaitons about drunken orgies on candidate Jeff Greene’s 145-foot yacht. Says Collins, “Being the rich candidate is not without its burdens. For one, there’s the matter of that yacht, the Summerwind. Greene might see himself as an upstanding family man, but his yacht is bad, bad, bad. It’s an embarrassing, headline-making connection — the Levi Johnston of boats.”
Despite Greene’s denials that his boat, the Summerwind, is a floating rumpus room, she continues:
Clearly, the Summerwind has a life of its own, cruising around the globe, burning 50 gallons of fuel an hour, throwing orgies for B-list celebrities while Greene is home reading. It played host to Lindsay Lohan, who Greene claims he’s barely met. It took Mike Tyson on a Black Sea cruise that culminated in a drug-and-sex romp in Amsterdam, but Greene was only around for the part where they visited an 11th-century monastery in Ukraine.
Straight from the file containing “Songs that make you want to scrape your own ears off” comes this little ditty, courtesy of Mike Weinstein’s unbearbly white son, Scott Leigh. According to Daily Caller, the state Rep’s son “wrote, produced, choreographed and danced the lead in the music video.” The online publication observed, “the ad would easily fit into an advertisement break during an episode of ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ – when the show was still in its prime. And, to clarify, the video is not a parody.”
The item was picked up and furhter savaged by Gawker.com, which issued this caveat:
Warning: If you watch this video, a campaign song about Florida State Rep. Mike Weinstein, you will be hearing “Mike! Mike! Mike Weinstein!” all day. It’s just thatcatchy.
Don’t know who Ander Crenshaw is? You’re not alone. Despite being the 5th-term Congressman serving Florida’s 4th District, and having previously served stints in the Florida House and Senate, he remains as invisible and politically irrelevant as he was in his days as an investment banker.
According to a piece in Roll Call, the newspaper of the Hill, Crenshaw is a member of the Obscure Caucus — a group whose members are most easily identified by C-SPAN’s inability to identify them quickly. The story explains that during a recent speech on the House floor, Crenshaw was initially mis-identified as freshman Rep. Michael Mahon (D-N.Y.). The piece continues:
The network quickly pulled that down and replaced it with Crenshaw’s correct identification, but by that point the Congressman was wrapping up his remarks.
As we watched this, we knew then and there that Crenshaw — a five-term Congressman who was mistaken for a freshman — was Obscure Caucus bound.
In fact, we’re kinda embarrassed that we missed him last time around.
Crenshaw, the story notes, also “tied for the distinction of introducing the least legislation in the 110th Congress.”
Check out Folio Weekly’s 2008 cover story on Crenshaw’s connections to big oil interests here.
As things between District 8 Florida Senate candidates Dan Quiggle and John Thrasher get weirder and more attention-gettier, you have to wonder whether Art Graham and Stan Jordan feel left out. Probably not …
In an apparent effort to link Quiggle to the much maligned trial lawyers who’ve launched a smear campaign against Thrasher, one or several Thrasher supporters slowly cruised by Quiggle’s Ponte Vedra home, camcorder in hand, to videotape him meeting with the attorneys. The folks who made the video, and subsequently released it to the Orlando Sentinel, claim it proves Quiggle met with the lawyers, but you certainly can’t tell from watching it (which we invite you to do above).
Besides being “creepy,” as Quiggle’s campaign manager Adam Guillette called the surveillance of Quiggle’s home in a phone conversation with Folio Weekly, the Quiggle camp is taking it a step further and claiming that the video constitutes an illegal act. In a press release sent out today Guillette said, “State law prohibits individuals from audio/videotaping a person (or attempting to tape them) without their permission. In addition, federal law prohibits individuals from ‘running’ license plate numbers for a political purpose.” Asked why it’s his opinion that video taping someone without permission is prohibited by law, Guillette referenced Florida statute 934.03, which prohibits intentionally intercepting or attempting to intercept wire, oral or electronic communication. The statute does not reference the legality of video taping a person without consent, and from watching the video, it does not appear as though the intention was to intercept any sort of oral communication (the window of the car in which the videographer rides appears to be rolled up). Yesterday, prior to a press conference where she did the talking, Quiggle’s wife Luanne released a statement giving the video’s creators (and Thrasher himself) a piece of her mind.
As a wife and mother, I am sickened by what John Thrasher has done … This is wrong. We have a son in kindergarten, a daughter in middle and a 9th grade son. Imagine, as a mother, having to already explain to your children why John Thrasher is using their picture in a political ad … Now imagine having to explain to those children that Dan’s political opponent has been filming them while they play, come home from school, and sleep … My husband is running for office for all the right reasons and John Thrasher has gone too far this time. I demand that John Thrasher asks his allies to stop this behavior, destroy any videotapes and apologize immediately … Hopefully you realize that as a mother, the actions that John Thrasher has taken today are sick. John Thrasher, do not mess with my family or my children.
Ultimately, it will be up to the State Attorney to decide if the act of videotaping Quiggle’s home was actually illegal — Guillette says a police report was filed today, and the State Attorney investigation will follow.
