A few weeks ago, nothing seems out of the ordinary in the Florida 8th. As we all know, Congressman Alan Grayson was going to have a tough fight on his hands with former Florida Speaker of the House Dan Webster. But then the craziness started.
First, Grayson released his famous (or infamous) “Taliban Dan Webster” ad, which twisted Webster’s words to portray him as saying that wives should submit to their husbands. We talked about that ad earlier in the week.
Now, T.E.A. Party activists have accused Grayson of “planting” an official Tea Party candidate to give Grayson the win in November. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Grayson has been working with Republican consultant Doug Guetzloe to plant Tea Party candidates throughout the Central Florida area.
Of course, the Republican Party and three Tea Party activists, Tim McClellan, Everett Wilkinson and Cheryl Matchett, say that the insertion of anyone labeled as a “Tea Party” candidate was purely running to be a spoiler in these races to take away conservative votes from Dan Webster.
The attorney for the three crazy tea partiers, Winter Part attorney Wade Vose, began serving subpoenas for Guetzloe, Grayson, TEA Party candidate for the 8th Peg Dunmire, to testify in this case. Guetzloe has, in return, filed a defamation lawsuit against the three activists.
As the days pass, this race is even becoming more crazy. Of course the insertion of a “Tea Party” candidate in the 8th Congressional district race will only help Grayson. But for these activists and the Republican Party saying that this is some vast conspiracy is just nutty. And, in addition, even if Grayson was behind it, how would Wade Vose be able to prove this conspiracy? Is there any documentation or anything showing that they have a case? I doubt it…just plain nuts!
Yet, even if this is the case, does this mean that the Republican candidate Dan Webster cannot stand on his own? Of course, we don’t know what Webster’s exact view is on this issue. And if he does have a view, it would be best advised for him to just be quite. Still, while Webster seems to have gained the upper hand after the “Taliban Dan Webster” commercial, this conspiracy idea might just bring a few voters back to Grayson.
What I find interesting is that the Democrats have gone through this same issue. Example: Alvin Greene in South Carolina. How did he, as an unemployed person, get enough money to pay for the fee to run for a U.S. Senate candidate? There have been a number of questions that we have asked about Greene, but instead of tying this up in court and wasting the taxpayer’s money (which I thought the Tea Party was against), the Democratic Party in South Carolina just lived with the result. He wasn’t what they wanted, but they have learned to lived with it.
These subpoenas just confirm the craziness of the Central Florida Tea Baggers. Even with the extremely bad Grayson commercial, this just shows that the conservatives that have taken over the Republican Party in Florida are just out of the mainstream. It is sad and yet scary at the same time.
Here is the ad from the Orlando Sentinel about all of this craziness!
The worst thing I see about this dust up, is the knee jerk reaction of Republicans that think the conservatives in this race are not republican enough and should shut up and sit down, letting their “betters” rule instead.
The electoral process is about people picking the candidate that best reflects their convictions, not a two party only, system.
If the people running the republican party had enough sense to run on ideas and principles, instead of running around in fear, they would be gaining instead of losing members.