Day: August 24, 2007

Murder-Suicide Claims Prominent GOP Strategist; Gaydars Going Wild

Trish
The Gonzalez crime scene

Ralph Gonzalez, a former executive director of the Georgia GOP while Ralph Reed was its chair, was found shot to death yesterday with two other men in a home he with shared with one of them in Orlando.

Gonzalez was among the three people found inside the home, and their bodies may have been inside since Tuesday, authorities said.

“The third person was the shooter. He shot my son first and then shot David and then killed himself,” Eva Gonzalez said.

A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives

The home where the deaths occurred was also listed as the headquarters of the Strategum Group, a Republican consulting firm whose clients include Jack Abramoff-linked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).

The other victims were identified as David Abrami and Robert Drake. Gonzalez lived in the home with Abrami, and Drake was a former roommate who was visiting from out of town.

“(It was) horrible. I can’t believe he lied in there, and the more I see all that blood, it was sickening. Why would anybody want to shoot my boy?” Eva Gonzalez said.

The police have an answer for that, Mrs. G. but you might not like it.

A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives…

“We are working it as a homicide, but there is some early evidence to suggest that this may in fact be a murder-suicide,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Allen Lee said.

An attack ad from the Strategum Group’s portfolio

Reed himself, the former head of the
Christian Coalition, also flies under
the gaydar in Republican
conservative circles. If he’s not gay,
he fooled me.

Our sympathy goes out to
family members of the three men,
along with our hope that you will have answers soon and that you will make your peace with whatever they turn out to be.

Florida Democrats Still Fighting to be Counted — But By Our Own This Time!

Trish

Florida Democrats are having that deja vu all over again feeling some more. But while being disenfranchised feels very familiar, having our own party do it to us is brand new.

Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing.

Buck explained that the DNC is considering yanking our delegates if Florida holds its primary before Feb. 5, 2008 as the Republican-led legislature recently mandated. Maybe what he, as a registered Independent, didn’t tell you is how galling is this prospect.

Our own FDC Chair Karen Thurman actually summed it up well in a missive yesterday.

Our state has seen far too much of this in the past: the 2000 election debacle, eligible voters purged from the voting rolls based on race, Black voters intimidated at the polls, 18,000 votes vanishing because of touch screen machines in 2006, the list goes on and on.

The list does go on and on, since she didn’t even mention the shenanigans in 2000 in nearby Duval County that led to the ouster of the Jacksonville supervisor of elections and served as the impetus for establishing early voting sites there.

Florida Democrats truly have had it up to here (holds hand over head) with having zero representation at the local level, feeble representation in Tallahassee, and dwindling representation in Washington. If our own party takes away our voice in the 2008 election, I for one would — Jon please cover your eyes — consider leaving this trainwreck of a party and joining Buck in the land of purists, contrarians, and exiles.

Thurman did supply a link to a page where you can register your feelings on this subject, which the FDC will then use to bombard DNC Chair Howard Dean. The page doesn’t even ask for money after you hit “submit.”

Go tell Howie that Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing. No more.

Foley Won’t Let FDLE See Perv Files on His House Computer

Buck Banks

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has run into a brick wall in its investigation into former Republican Rep. Mark Foley’s sicko come-ons to congressional pages. He won’t let the FDLE have access to his D.C. computer. And the House of Representatives is backing up the pedophile (hebephile, see comment 2), saying his computer is the same as House papers and only Foley can release those.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The appetite for power is old and irrepressible in humankind, and in its action almost always destructive. When exercised for the seizure of territory or suppression of liberties, it cannot be said to add to the welfare or happiness or improve the quality of life of those it rules, nor bring content to the ruler. What is it good for? As an inveterate activity of our species, it is largely a waste of time.

— Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author

Thanks to VRW for the tip.

Yikes — Florida Dems’ Electoral Future Rests on Karen Thurman’s Shoulders

Buck Banks

The only good thing I can say about the fact that Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman will be in Washington tomorrow lobbying the national Democratic Party to not punish Florida Dems because the Republican-controlled Florida legislature moved the presidential primary to Jan. 29 is that she won’t be at the Barak Obama fundraiser in Miami. I bought tickets to see Obama and was not looking forward to having to listen to Thurman if she was participating in the event.

The potential smack-down by the national Democratic Party could have far graver repercussions than just screwing up Florida’s primary.

Instead, she’s going to be arguing her case before the Democratic National Committee, which holds the keys to whether Florida’s primary counts and whether candidates will be punished for campaigning in the state. As co-editor Trish admitted in an e-mail yesterday, the very thought of the defense of Florida’s electoral fate falling to Thurman made her feel queasy. Thurman sent an e-mail today asking Florida Dems to write messages explaining why their party should not be punished for something it — as the minority in the state legislature — could not have stopped.

As an Independent, I don’t get to vote in the presidential primary, and I have no plans (as my wife does) to switch to the Democrats just so I can. But the potential smack-down by the national Democratic Party could have far graver repercussions than just screwing up Florida’s primary. If candidates face punishment for campaigning in Florida, it’s likely some will just skip the state, which would help the Republicans. Worse, if the national party takes away delegate seats, it could mean that once again Floridians’ votes won’t count. But I’m not really worried — Karen Thurman is on the case. Yikes, I’m feeling a mite queasy myself.

Actually, the only thing that makes me feel optimistic about Thurman’s task tomorrow is that I don’t believe the national Democratic Party would be stupid enough to fault Florida Dems for breaking rules that they could not in any way not violate. It’s simply not the Fla. Dems’ fault that the Republican-dominated Florida legislature moved the primary date (Although one could argue that in a way it is, because the Florida Democratic Party is, as we Crackers say, useless as teats on a boar hog, and has, therefore, through its ineffectiveness ceded power to the Repugs).

So maybe this trip to Washington is just a formality, and it won’t really come down to how well Karen Thurman can make her case before Howard Dean, et al. Then maybe Trish will get over her queasiness and the Democratic Party won’t shoot itself in the foot and blow the presidential election.

Yeah, and the Army Corps of Engineers will fix the Everglades, Charlie Crist will admit to being the father of a love child and the Miami city administration will go a month without having a corruption scandal. Oh, and pigs will fly, too.

Former Christian Action League Pres. Pleads Guilty to Hooker Charges

Jon Ponder

Via Pam’s House Blend, Coy Privette — the 74-year-old right-wing Christian nationalist politician, former Baptist preacher and member of the Baptist State Convention, who was fired as the president of the Christian Action League after he was arrested June 19 for aiding and abetting prostitution — has pleaded guilty to those charges.

When we first reported this story, several Privette supporters wrote in to say that, despite the fact that the charges were investigated by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation, the allegations were either erroneous or trumped up and politically motivated to take down a prominent spokesman for “family values.”

Summers taped phone conversations with Privette for investigators and gave police a picture of Privette kissing her cheek, which she took with her camera phone.

Now that Privette has pleaded guilty, the preponderance of the evidence against him has been revealed:

Privette, who has made few public appearances since his June 19 arrest, had to sit in public and watch as [a prosecutor] spelled out details about investigators’ evidence that he paid Salisbury resident Tiffany Denise Summers for sex six times from May 4 through June 25.

Investigators had records from two Salisbury hotels where Privette signed in under his own name. They had separate security tape images showing Privette and Summers in the same hotels on the same days.

They also had evidence from Summers, 32, who cooperated with authorities once investigators called her in.

She taped phone conversations with Privette for investigators and gave police a picture of Privette kissing her cheek, which she took with her camera phone.

He was sentenced to 48 hours of community service and a year of probation, and is required to undergo counseling and pay court costs.

Privette still holds elective office on the Cabarrus County Commission in suburban Charlotte.