Update: The Tampa Tribune is now reporting that the cost of the convention will be $124 million, with about $85 million coming from public sources. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will be honorary chair.
The Tampa Tribune had to sue to see the city’s bid to host the 2008 Republican convention. And even though the city — which had outsourced the bid work to the Tampa Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau — caved, they still didn’t exactly throw open the gates to the information.
The Tribune’s lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, states that Tampa delegated to the visitors bureau the governmental function of preparing the bid and, therefore, the bid is a public record.
Dianne Jacob, senior vice president of marketing for the bureau, said the bid is in a 2.5-inch-thick binder. The bureau will allow reporters to view the document but not photocopy it.
“That’s just our policy,” Jacob said.
What would there be to hide in the bid? If you answered, “Republicans trying to bill the taxpayers for another lavish party,” go to the head of the class. St. Petersburg Times:
According to supporting documents from the city, the convention would cost the city and other governments $12.7-million in direct expenses and in-kind services.
A majority of the expense would be for security, including $5.5-million for police and $3.7-million for barricades.
Tampa is competing with three other cities for this “honor” — Cleveland, Minneapolis, and New York. Tampa was first runner-up for the 2004 convention. New York’s smarm factor, however, was irresistible to Rove and the other 2004 puppet masters, who envisioned Bush wrapping himself in a flag atop smoldering World Trade Center rubble. But rarely are conventions held in the same city twice in a row, especially when New York is becoming more associated with Hillary Clinton.
Republicans stole the 2004 election with help from Ohio’s secretary of state, Kenneth Blackwell, so Cleveland might well be rewarded this time.
“It comes down to Ohio and Florida because they’re the battleground states,” [chairman of the Ohio Republican Party Robert] Bennett said.
Florida’s got one thing Ohio doesn’t, though — hurricanes, especially in September, when the convention is set. And how would it look if Republicans had to evacuate, just as they’re practicing their speeches on the lack of proof of global warming?
Which city has the largest mental hospital facility? I say book ’em into a mental hospital then lock ’em all in and hose them down with a fire hose to shock and awe them, throw the key away, and let them run for imaginary offices in their unreal minds.
Or here’s a better idea: hold the Repugnican Convention in Baghdad!
Then put them all in uniforms and push ’em up to the front lines. Condi could become their Joan d’Arc.
Or better yet, Let ’em all go to Hell.
thegrowlingwolf
Ah Florida, the sunshine state! It’s a secret bid?
If only I believed in a God that would send a hurricane to wipe the Greeeedy Old Pigs off Mother Earth.
I’m betting on Tampa, Ohio might not be very hospitable to the Rs this fall. Almost all of the top GOPigs in Ohio are under investigation or indictment and Robert Kennedy Jr has just thrown down the gauntlet on the stolen election of ’04 with special emphasis on Ohio.(special tip o’ the hat to Fitrakis & Wasserman and BradBlog for the relentless focus and deep digging here) This is not going to go away. By September, Ohio’s Political landscape will look like a battlefield, after.
Minneapolis? Where’s that? Can they throw a full blown bash? Are there enough hookers?
New York can throw a party! Last time the GOPigs came to town, Bloomberg went Nazi on the citizens that objected(and anyone else that was on the same sidewalk), the lawsuits were finally settled this past winter. Now that Homeland Security has reduced the Defense funding for New York’s security, I doubt they will be more welcome than last time.
Think they might choose New Orleans? The Superdome would be a perfect place to hold the convention, and the delegates could line up for hooker services at the Convention Center. Maybe a little fishing off the 17th Street Levee…?