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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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Posted on 07/13/2003 9:01:17 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
``I was an early and strong supporter of Al Gore. I helped him and President Clinton raise millions of dollars and I helped him win Miami-Dade County by 30,000 votes.''
-- Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas
When Alex Penelas made those comments last month, they created an uproar. Anyone who actually followed the 2000 presidential election remembers Penelas abandoned Gore in the final months of the race, and worse, had turned his back on his supposed friend during the infamous Florida recount.
And yet in recent weeks, Penelas has been trying to rewrite that history. Campaigning to be the state's Democratic nominee next year for the United States Senate, Penelas has portrayed himself as a party stalwart who stood shoulder to shoulder with Gore.
Penelas' words angered his rivals.
U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who is also running for the Senate seat being vacated by Bob Graham, referred to Penelas as ``a pathological liar.''
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, another Senate contender, laughed at the notion Penelas helped Gore, describing Penelas instead as ``a negative inside the Democratic Party machinery.''
All this rancor made me wonder if Al Gore had heard about the mayor's boastful claims that he was a ''strong supporter'' of the former vice president and that he was instrumental in helping Gore gather votes in Miami-Dade County.
''I had heard that, yes,'' Gore told me when I reached him by phone on Saturday.
What did he think of the mayor's revisionist memory?
Gore paused for a moment.
''I don't have any comment on that,'' he said. ``I would just prefer not to comment on it.''
But then he quickly added: ``I don't rule out commenting on it at a later time, but I don't care to comment on it right now.''
And to make sure I heard him, he said it again: ``I don't rule out commenting on it at some point in the future.''
Well, that ought to give Penelas a few sleepless nights. Gore is holding the proverbial sword over Penelas' head, allowing the mayor to squirm, and letting him know that some day soon he might talk candidly about his old friend.
And let's face it, a few well-placed words about Penelas letting him down and Gore could easily sink any chance Penelas has of winning the Democratic primary. The wounds of the 2000 election are still very raw among Democratic activists and it wouldn't take much to focus some of their anger on Penelas.
The black community, in particular, felt betrayed by the results. The NAACP, which is holding its annual convention in Miami Beach this week, mounted a historic voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaign in Florida. It spent more than $1 million to give blacks in this state a voice.
In 2000, nearly 900,000 Florida blacks voted, up from only 500,000 in the previous presidential election. And 93 percent of them cast ballots for Al Gore.
And so when Gore lost the election by a few hundred votes, Penelas' betrayal of Gore took on greater significance.
Why did he abandon Gore? Because in the wake of the federal government's decision to raid Elián González's home and send the boy back to Cuba, Penelas was afraid to be seen with Gore knowing it would anger his Cuban-American supporters.
During the final months of the presidential campaign, Penelas refused to make any appearances with Gore. In fact, Penelas took his family on a trip to Spain during the last month of the race rather than help Gore in those crucial weeks.
Today, however, Penelas desperately needs the support of blacks to win the Democratic nomination for senate. So he's a new man trying to make a big splash in front of the NAACP by apologizing for the county's snub of Nelson Mandela a decade ago.
How transparently pathetic.
The only apology Penelas owes the NAACP is for his political cowardice during the 2000 election. He thinks people won't remember how he abandoned Gore. He's wrong.
People do remember. And at least one of them might decide to comment on it, at some point in the future, and blow his hypocritical campaign right out of the water.
I love it when Demmycrats attack Demmycrats. And the funny thing is that comments like this will make it even more unlikely for a Demmycrat to win the U.S. Senate seat from Florida. How can Pinellas or Deutsch possibly work together on this campaign if one of them is nominated?
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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And you have probably never heard of another county with a DOPEY hyphenated name. Dade county (I hate using the official "Miami-Dade" County) has a Metro system of government so that the County has a mayor but ALSO the City of Miami has yet another Mayor as well. Stupid but true.
Is this the guy that hit his wife with the fry pan?
Actually the County was renamed. Miami still exists.
That was the mayor of MIAMI (city). Alex Pinellas is the Mayor of Miami-Dade County.
I suspect it's something similar.
That stuff.
Is an IMPEACED Judge ABLE to be a Senator?
...scratch that...I just remembered Waterboy Kennedy is STILL a Senator, and Queen Cankle got the Senate seat for NY.
Caveat...only impeached/convicted REPUBLICANS are verboten from seeking higher office!
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