the lurching return of Alex Penelas

[sisyphusshrugged]

So our boy Alex is running for the Senate, and Mr. Gore is not all that happy about it. This likely has to do with the fact that Mr. Penelas is arguably the single individual most responsible for putting Mr. Bush in the White House who was not actually Maureen Dowd or a member of the Gore campaign team from the Washington Post (hang your head, Dana Milbank)

Both Graham and Nelson have said they will not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary but that they felt compelled to come to Penelas' defense in light of Gore's remarks.

"This slash-and-burn politics has gotten us to the point that it is causing gridlock in America," Nelson said.

Several Democrats spoke on Penelas' behalf after Gore issued a statement to The Miami Herald published on Sunday praising one of Penelas' two main rivals, Rep. Peter Deutsch.

The statement added: "One of the other candidates in this race became in 2000 the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America." A Gore aide confirmed he was not referring to Betty Castor, who has led in recent polls.

A spokeswoman for Gore declined comment Monday on Graham and Nelson's reaction.

Some Democrats criticized Penelas for failing to actively support Gore during the final months of the 2000 election. George W. Bush won the White House after winning Florida by a mere 537 votes following a 36-day recount in some counties that was stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This is Gore and Deutsch using the politics of yesterday Ñ slash and burn," Penelas said.

Message discipline comes a little late to you Democrats on the panhandle.

Now, while I did at one point endorse Penelas for Lt. Gov (see here for why), allow me to repeat what I had to say about him at the time:

Alex Penelas sucks. I want that to be clear from the getout. Like unto the singularity at the roiling heart of the cosmic Hoover does Alex Penelas suck. When Alex Penelas announced that Miami-Dade was seceding from the union during the Elian mess, then did he suck. When his fingerprints were all over the decision to stop the Miami-Dade recount that helped Jeb Bush steal the country for his brother, suckage was there then. When he threw a fundraiser to help the Republicans keep control of the House in June, (nominally, he's a Democrat, did I mention?) the giant slorking sound from the south was sign and outward symbol of the transcendant suckiness of Alex Penelas, and verily he did suck.

To sum up: Alex Penelas is a boil upon the distended buttock of the body politic.

If there were ever a chance to lose Alex Penelas from national politics, this is it. If he comes back, let the little prick come back and take a Republican seat (or hop the fence and start competing with other politicians who share the cuban origins which seem to be his only political asset). He's campaigning for the Zell seat. We need this?

Comments

[dabroots.livejournal.com]

Very, very interesting. And the first I've heard about this guy. In other words, you're thinking that he's of the

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Very, very interesting. And the first I've heard about this guy. In other words, you're thinking that he's of the <a href="http://miller.senate.gov/"<b>Zell Miller</b></a>, a Democrat in name only, who essentially steals the Democratic Party name but supports the Republican Party?

Interesting, too, that Florida's two current members of the U.S. Senate would inject themselves into it.

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

basically, Penelas is the darling of conservative cubans in Miami. They seem increasingly not to be as important a voting bloc as they have been, since their children are peeliing away from them, but putting Penelas in the Senate would lock down their control of Florida electoral politics for some time to come. They're basically all he has.

[dabroots.livejournal.com]

In that case, I'm glad Gore slammed the shit out of him. It might take something like that to get constituents out to vote for his opponents.

[(Anonymous)]

He has been run by the same lawyer/lobbyists since he was boil on the rump of the Hialeah city council. His gatekeepers have had a stranglehold on Miami-Dade county for years and now want to peddle their wares in Washington. He is the kind of snake that only S.Florida politics nurtures. I'm sure there are other places as bad, but probably none worse.

I love that dirty water, Oh Miami you're my home!