Politics and scandal

As I’ve said before, I spent the formative years of my political leanings in a hot-bed of liberalism; a university campus. As a junior, I went to my first campaign rally – for Clinton/Gore in the fall of ’92. My first presidential election as an “adult” was that ’92 election. I watched the man I voted for become embroiled in a couple political scandals, most notably the Jones/Tripp/Lewinski flap.

Now I get to see what it’s like from the other side of the political spectrum… and the cup runeth over.

The scandal du jour… today I read that my least favorite Florida politician, Tom Feeney, has been tied to the infamous Jack Abramoff. You remember Tom Feeney… he was the guy that created a new seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in his own back yard (while he was the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives) – effectively giving himself a promotion.

It seems that Mr Feeney underestimated the value of a trip he took, and denies he knew Abramoff paid for it. It turns out he was only off by about three or four hundred percent on the value of the trip – but hey, what’s fifteen grand between friends?

Oh, that’s right… he doesn’t know Jack.

All of this could be perfectly innocent. Hell, people are trying to give me twenty grand with no strings attached all the time.