The background: Katherine Harris, the former Florida secretary of state, the woman who oversaw the 2000 recount, the one who buys mascara by the 55-gallon drum — yes, that one — is running for re-election. And she’s running off at the mouth. You can follow that link, but here’s the gist: While making a campaign stop in Florida, she said the U.S. has thwarted “at least 100 attempts” at terror attacks in this country since September 11, one of them just 100 miles down the road in Carmel, where “a man of Middle Eastern heritage had been arrested in the plot and that explosives were found in his home.”
Carmel’s a suburb of Indianapolis. The plot, Harris said, was to blow up the power grid of the whole area.
Anyway, as near as anyone can figure, no one knows the first damn thing about any of this, including the sheriff and the governor. Of course, as Harris said, this was “classified” information, “although obviously not classified to me.” (Or anyone else, at the moment.)
It seems to me there are a number of conclusions you could reach about this:
1) Katherine Harris is a damn fool; or
2) Blow up the power grid in Indianapolis? What, Louisville wasn’t important enough?
In other crazy-lady news at this hour, Mary Kay Letourneau is out of prison. “Free to love again,” one of my colleagues sighed today. Indeed.
deb said on August 4, 2004 at 6:34 pm
it’ll be interesting to see how the national GOP handles this. how can they aggressively support her re-election bid, which they are duty-bound to do, when she’s either a nutjob or has no sense of discretion or propriety, or even common sense? whatever will jeb have to say? my, my, my, what fun. i love it when a member of the grand old party shoots him/herself in the foot, and gives the party an oozing wound at the same time.
also, i love the deftly placed detail, easily overlooked if you aren’t paying attention, that a mayor was apparently the source of her information. since when is a mayor — unless you’re talking, say, rudy giuliani — a credible source on a matter of national security? probably some guy at a political function who was trying to impress her with his profound insider-ness while peering into her cleavage.
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deb said on August 4, 2004 at 6:39 pm
i’m sure this will do wonders, too, for the relationship between blameless middle easterners and their less-than-tolerant white neighbors in central indiana.
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alex said on August 4, 2004 at 6:55 pm
The fact the GOP would want to shore itself up in Illinois with Alan Keyes is cause for even more celebration. Some of what he’s written and said makes Ms. Harris seem absolutely erudite.
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Connie said on August 4, 2004 at 10:10 pm
Well, didn’t we already know she was a damn fool?
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joodyb said on August 5, 2004 at 10:41 am
yes, dammit! let’s make something of this loser keyes once and for all! we’ve certainly put enough effort into him!
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Danny said on August 6, 2004 at 1:03 pm
You know, years ago when the story first broke, I joked that MK Letourneau was also referred to as “The Best Teacher..EVER!” by adolescent boys. But yesterday I was listening to a great commentary on the radio by Jim Rome (sports talk) that really put things into the proper perspective.
It was recounted that MK had ruined at least eight lives so far; her ex-husband’s, her four kids’ with him, the student’s whom she raped, and the two kids’ she had with the student. He also mentioned that when he was in 6th grade and even highschool, he could barely handle himself, much less the a relationship and children. The student who was raped is now 21 years old, has a GED, is unemployed and has two children. Whew!
Danny
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