This shouldn’t take long.
Common Cause, pain-in-the-GOP-ass extraordinaire group that Jeb once referred to as a bunch of “secret squirrels” is at it again. This time, they’re going after beleaguered Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), asking the Justice Department to do its job and investigate the skanky ho bag.
Common Cause wants to know whether Harris broke the law when she and Mitchell Wade met at an exclusive Georgetown restaurant in early 2005. At that dinner — which cost Wade up to $2,800 — Wade offered to hold a fundraiser for Harris and sought her help obtaining $10 million in federal money…
“Bribery takes two,” said [Common Cause Director of Ethics Campaign’s Mike] Surrusco. “We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’ “
It’s a violation of Congressional ethics codes to accept anything worth more than $50. Harris didn’t do too well recently explaining this whole $2,800 dinner deal to reporters. One can only imagine how she’ll hold up under Justice Department questioning.
In her interview Wednesday, Harris acknowledged for the first time that Wade had paid for the dinner at Citronelle, reversing a statement from her congressional spokeswoman earlier this year.
But in the interview, Harris also said her campaign had, at some point, “reimbursed” the restaurant.
When asked how she could have reimbursed a business that was owed no money — Wade paid the bill that evening — she abruptly ended the interview and walked off.
Her spokesman called back an hour later and asked a reporter not to publish anything Harris had said Wednesday night about the dinner.
On Thursday, Harris’ campaign released a two-paragraph statement that differed from her explanation a day earlier. It stated that Harris thought her “campaign would be reimbursing” her share of the meal but later found out that hadn’t happened.
To resolve any questions, the statement said, “I have donated to a local Florida charity $100 which will more than adequately compensate for the cost of my beverage and appetizer.”
Wade, of course, is the guy whose bribes landed U.S. Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) in prison. He’s also the guy who contributed $50,000 to Harris’ 2004 campaign. A few weeks after their $2,800 wine tasting for two in 2005, Harris requested a House appropriations subcommittee to support Wade’s request for $10 million to establish a counterintelligence facility in Sarasota.
Harris’ ability to lie at a moment’s notice induces two feelings. One is snorts of derision because her lies are always so flimsy and obvious. The other is grudging admiration for her sail-ahead attitude in declaring her story and sticking to it. Until exposed again, that is.
Harris has sought to distance herself from Wade since the Cunningham scandal broke last summer.
In July, she said she wasn’t sure why Wade and his company had contributed so generously to her 2004 campaign. She told The Tampa Tribune she knew little of Wade’s Sarasota project and had done nothing to support it.
That was three months after she had asked the defense appropriations committee to give Wade’s project $10 million in federal money.
