Posted on 07/14/2006 2:53:53 PM PDT by devane617
TALLAHASSEE - Katherine Harris' floundering U.S. Senate campaign lost its high-level staff again this week and is groping for a message -- which doesn't surprise Republican insiders who trace the seeds of her trouble to the story of ``Joe's dead intern.''
This wasn't any old Joe.
It was Joe Scarborough, host of the prime-time MSNBC show Scarborough Country and a former Pensacola Republican congressman who was courted last summer by national Republicans to run against Harris. But before he could announce he wouldn't, Harris called major donors and suggested Scarborough would have to answer questions about the strange death of a former staff member in 2001, according to two former high-level Harris staff members, a GOP donor and Scarborough.
''That was the first clue that something wasn't right with Katherine Harris,'' Scarborough told The Miami Herald in a recent interview, noting that a medical examiner found his staff member's death was natural and not the result of foul play.
Harris, through a spokeswoman, denied Scarborough's account, saying she ''would never insinuate publicly or privately'' that he did anything untoward.
But her former staff members say they expected her to deny the previously untold anecdote, which they say marked the beginning of the Harris campaign's tailspin. Since then, Harris has been dogged by her connections to an indicted defense contractor and by heavy staff turnover from last fall through Thursday, when five top aides announced their departure a day after her spokesman quit. Her campaign had issued a news release Wednesday suggesting only spokesman Chris Ingram was leaving.
SIMILAR COMPLAINTS
In explaining his decision to leave, campaign manager Glenn Hodas echoed predecessors Jamie Miller and Jim Dornan. Miller had said the campaign wasn't good for Harris' health. Dornan said Harris had been erratic, temperamental and sometimes unfair -- and tried to blame him for the ''Joe's dead intern'' story when a furious Scarborough called, demanding to know what happened.
''This [story] encapsulates everything wrong with her as a candidate,'' Dornan said. 'She reacted without thinking. She made stuff up. She called people she had no business calling. And when confronted with the insanity of her -- I use this term lightly -- `strategy,' she denied it and tried to blame someone else.''
Dornan left the campaign in November. Miller, Republican heavyweight Ed Rollins and media guru Adam Goodman departed in April with a few others.
The latest to leave Thursday with Hodas and Ingram: field director Pat Thomas, deputy field director John Byers, political director Brian Brooks and staff member Stephen Gately. Ingram said he needed to get back to his family and private business, and Hodas said he needed to go home to Illinois-based Hodas and Associates.
''I wish Katherine Harris the best,'' Hodas said, ``but it appears all the old patterns are repeating themselves: Tantrums. Minor things cause her to blow. She doesn't take advice. Micromanaging to the Nth degree. It's nothing new. But I didn't have the energy to move on with the campaign, considering everything.''
A big consideration: polls. Nearly all predict Harris will lose by 20 to 30 percentage points against the incumbent, Democrat Bill Nelson.
But Harris said Republican Party polls show she will win with 53 percent of the vote if Republicans turn out the way they did in 2004 for now-U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez.
''You hear all of this discussion in the media -- it's designed to discourage you. Don't let it,'' she told a crowd at a June campaign event in Orange Park. ``It's designed to drive our polls down. Don't pay attention.''
The White House, however, has. It wanted Harris off the ticket in 2004. Strategists feared she would excite a Democratic base still bitter over the 2000 elections when she, as Florida secretary of state, certified George W. Bush as the winner in the botched presidential election.
Harris staff members and supporters say they expected White House support this time around. When given the chance last month to endorse Harris, Republican campaign wizard Karl Rove wouldn't, according to a St. Petersburg Times report.
Gov. Jeb Bush has said that Harris ''can't win'' and ``the campaign can't be about her.''
But Bush's prediction might have been self-fulfilling. The governor tried to recruit Allan Bense, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, to run against Harris in the spring as well as in 2005 -- thereby making it tough to raise the big sums needed from well-heeled Republican Party loyalists.
''It definitely hurt fundraising. It drove her crazy, but it didn't take long to get her there,'' said Rollins, Harris' former advisor and a top Reagan Republican strategist.
QUESTIONS SURFACED
Rollins said he finally resigned after Harris' ''story kept changing'' with regard to two high-price dinners she had with subsequently-convicted defense contractor Mitchell Wade, from whom she unwittingly accepted $32,000 in laundered campaign contributions. Rollins said Harris met Wade through convicted bribe-taking congressman Duke Cunningham. Harris has pledged to donate the $32,000 to charity.
As questions surfaced about Harris' connections to Wade, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, head of Republican senatorial campaigns, approached Scarborough to run because he was one of the few who could match Harris' star power and fundraising in a Republican primary.
Scarborough, Dornan and Rollins gave the same account: The TV personality called the political aides privately to say he wasn't running -- his son didn't want him to -- though he needed a few days to tell supporters personally of the decision before it was publicized.
Not fast enough for Harris, who called donors like Pensacola developer Collier Merrill. Merrill told The Miami Herald that Harris suggested Scarborough was going to have trouble when ''they start asking questions . . . about that dead girl,'' Fort Walton Beach staff member Lori Klausutis.
Dornan said he overheard Harris tell more than one donor: ``I don't know what he's thinking when he's got this whole issue of a dead intern on his hands.''
Klausutis, 28, was a Scarborough staff member who died July 20, 2001, when she hit her head after experiencing heart arrhythmia, according to a medical examiner's report, news reports and family members. Echoing the official findings, one family member told The Miami Herald there was no foul play.
But some observers sought to make Klausutis' death a political issue, comparing it to the Chandra Levy intern scandal tied to former California Democratic Rep. Gary Condit.
Scarborough said he was shocked Harris would cite ''a bunch of hateful left-wing websites'' and that she would repeat ``the slanderous attacks of the same people who attacked her for years.''
He said he thought of suing, but let it go after ''a few heated days,'' and reflected on what he told incumbent Sen. Nelson.
Nelson, a Democrat, drew Clinton-attacking Bill McCollum as an opponent amid the Monica Lewinsky fatigue of 2000, and now faces Harris.
''He's the luckiest man in Washington,'' Scarborough said.
The reporter interviewing him was told to make up a list of questions that would be asked and that any deviation from that list would automatically end the interview.
After getting the list, he and his handlers spent about 20 minutes going over the questions and formulating answers. I was about ready to barf at that moment.
I know, I shouldn't call him an air-head...name-calling is a liberal trait that I need to outgrow.
Concocted by desperate, leftist media trolls and supported by RNC insiders.
She is a nutjob. Get use to it...
Isn't there a Pubbie in Florida who is capable of being a U.S. Senator and who doesn't have a closet full of skeletons, who can run?My question exactly ... why didn't at least ONE well-known Pubbie step up to the plate to try for this nomination? Can any of you Floridians explain this to me? Like her or not, the Harris campaign is a train wreck. I feel sorry for her especially because of her ovarian problems, but at this point it is obvious that she can not win.
Meanwhile Will McBride looks like a possibility.
McBride, a 33-year-old attorney from Orlando, brought along a towel with his campaign logo on it and said many Republicans had thrown in the towel on the Senate race.Link"I'm saying, pick up the towel. This race is not over," said McBride, who arrived early and shook hands with many of the local party activists. McBride described himself as an opponent of abortion and gay marriage and a supporter of gun-ownership rights who would fight "runaway spending" in Washington.
You must remember these papers can't just make this stuff up out of thin air and not expect being sued for slander .These aren't editorial opinions that they are putting out . They are reporting this as fact , if it is false, then you will see lawsuits for defamation .
She's a nutjob.
"Bill Nelson was an astronaut. He's not an airhead."
Ahh.... yes he is . He is not very intelligent at all, and quite frankly is an embarrassment to the state of Florida .
He doesn't seem too bad . I have a feeling that Harris will have to get out for her health, if not other reasons . This is very disappointing to say the least. I will have to give a long look at Mcbride . He seems right on the issues .
Maybe... maybe not. He's an attorney that has done both personal injury and immigration work. But don't do to him what you are decrying that others are doing to Harris. It doesn't help your cause one bit but does help you appear as what you decry.
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Will McBride PARTY: Republican |
You should include what his position is regarding the Second Amendment and gun control .It will be very important where he stands on those issues .
Your persistent name calling lacks intelligent substance, and indicates childish self-absorption. Would you dance on Katherine Harris' grave?
http://www.mcbrideforsenate.com/
Gee, why don't you just say you don't like me.
McBride, a 33-year-old attorney from Orlando, brought along a towel with his campaign logo on it and said many Republicans had thrown in the towel on the Senate race.
"I'm saying, pick up the towel. This race is not over," said McBride, who arrived early and shook hands with many of the local party activists. McBride described himself as an opponent of abortion and gay marriage and a supporter of gun-ownership rights who would fight "runaway spending" in Washington.
I pray he wins the primary. We need some fresh blood in the Senate. Katherine just doesn't cut it. I am sending McBride some money for his campaign. He has every issue I care about correct.
The sane thing to do was to stay in Congress as a Representative but instead megalomania got the best of her.
I doubt she even gets the nomination.
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree from Florida State University; law degree from Pepperdine University
My Alma Mater too!!!! Go Seminoles!!!! McBride is the one everyone should be supporting!!! I don't understand why nobody is on FREEPERS. This guy is a family man, opposes abortion, 2nd Amendment supports, young. And, more importantly NO BAGGAGE. I would love for him to be the one to send the astronaut back to space.
Yeah, he's looking like he would make a good candidate .
Yeah, he's looking like he would make a good candidate .
Not only good but pretty close to perfect. I believe the tide will change and hopefully people smarten up and get on board with a winner. I find it hilarious when people still give all this loyalty to a genuine nut. I am sorry but for those who say that people should be loyal to her are crazy. Yes after the primary we should huddle around her and hope she wins, but there is no way I will support her at this stage. That is what primaries are for and we get to chose who we support. It was easy to send money to him. I would have to have a gun to my back to send her money. Now in October perhaps I will open my wallet to her (actually I probably will). But hopefully I will not have to because I will be sending even more money to McBride.
We shall see. If her polling was tighter , I would chalk all of this up to MSM antics, but the polls aren't even close.
I'm of the firm belief that it's going to have to be a Republican without all the baggage and McBride looks squeaky clean so far . If that assumption is correct , he will be immune to MSM sabotage and would in fact benefit from MSM attempted hit pieces , unlike Harris who is a lightning rod .
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