Pol-Deb Kathy

First things first: So it's Kathleen, er, ah, Katherine, er maybe Kathryn . . . maybe Kathlyn, eh? It's over six years since this grimacing idiot was crammed down our political, judicial and social throats, and respectable news outlets still can't get her name right. It's Katherine, thank you.

That being said, let's press on, shall we?

The phenomenon that is Kathleen Harris just fascinates me. She came to meteoric prominence during the historically disgraceful, disgracefully historic 2000 Bush-Gore electoral debacle in Florida, where it was proven without the slightest shadow of a doubt within just a few days that she, as the Florida secretary of state, was a dabbling, clueless, criminally incompetent figurehead leader in a department that had no idea what it was doing. She stumbled her way through the mess until the far more cerebrally horsepowered national GOP studs got there, got her to shut up and disappear, and then just steamrolled the opposition, the Constitution, the public will, whatever got in their way. And now we're stuck with the idiot who prevailed, and his economy, and his wars, and his trampling of constitutaionally protected privacy statutes and prisoners' rights, the cabal of lies and corruption, all of that fun stuff.

But enough of Dubya the Clueless, and Back to Kathy. Just how did she get to be the secretary of state in Florida? Certainly not on the back of an informed electorate, as the position is not an elected one. Rather, the Florida Secretary of State serves at the pleasure of the Governor, so it's an appointed position. It's pretty clear to me that it was done as a reward for just having lots of personal wealth, having lots of positive pubic social and electoral contact and support to the GOP, the kind of thing that middle-aged folks who have a lot of money tend to get involved with, to make things they way they want, to make themselves feel good about themselves, to create the fiction that they somehow are "serving" the great (non-monied, non-Republican) unwashed, that their somehow giving back.

I can't help but notice just how proud Florida is of her, from the very special listing at , which offers only her name and the fact that she was Secretary of State 1999-2002, and currently serves as a state representative, since 2003. (Yeah, this is a University of Florida site, and it's grossly incomplete, but then again the entire state doesn't even offer a listing of past state-level political leaders and appointees--the state's web site link to the historical listing of governor's doesn't even work.) Not a single word about what she did, nothing at all. No mention--go figure--of the 2000 election, but not even the most lame catch-all blurb about how she "improved processes" or "created synergistic effects" or "synchronized operations" or maybe even "came to work on time and in the right outfit on a semi-consistent basis." Absolutley nothing about her work for 3 years, which goes a long way to clueing you in as to the kind of performance she gave; even the Republican shills can't keep a straight face and make something good up--give it to Karl Rove for some wordsmithing.

And somehow, through some incredible magical process, she actually was elected to the US Congress as a representative of the State of Florida. That's blue-state intelligence and voter competence for you there, eh? That's saying a lot about the voting public of her Florida district, that, despite her unquestionable partisan leanings and arguably criminally corrupt actions while the Florida Secretary of State (does that make her the "FLASOS?"), they still thought she was a good enough person to send to Washington to make sure the three elements of government were balanced, that taxes and defense and all of the truly national issues were taken care of responsibly. This painfully grinning deb was going to do all of this? Puh-leeze.

I mean, just look at the pictures of her. Just look in those eyes, those worried, unfocused, frightened eyes. It's the same with Dubya, of course, except he's taught himself to squint to look like he's a deep thinker, to keep folks from seeing the abject terror and lack of confidence in his eyes when it comes to everything that's going on, especially public speaking.

Yeah, she's made noises about how pictures of her were doctored, and she was just trashed in every liberal outlet--and the comedians had a go at her, too--over what appeared to be a very seriously non-spin-doctored approach to applying make-up. Yeah, I'd have to agree. I can't imagine any fat, cigar-chomping political consultant worth his suitcase full of hundred-dollar bills would allow her to go out in public like that. But she sure did, and lots of folks noticed. I can't help but point out that the unadvised amount of make-up is just another clear indication of the lack of self-confidence, the need to hide while in the public eye, to make them all think that you're something you're not, that is pretty and young and acceptable. What a horrible unstated admission of personal lack of confidence. A strong and confident lady wouldn't slather it on like that, with that lipstick tending toward making you the natural successor to Tammy Fae Bakker as the next Ultimate Drag Queen Icon.

But wait, apparently there's been some kind of magical makeover. Compare these two photos:

This is a change that's taken place just in the past five years or so. How has she managed to get younger and more attractive? Well, surgery is almost certainly one of the answers. That, and someone who finally got her attention about makeup. And an image consultant, all of that happy stuff. Hell, now she looks (to me) like the mom in Donnie Darko, actress Mary McDonnell.

And now she wants to be a senator. Yeah, a senator. Hell, she's got the money to act properly as a senator, at least 30 million dollars of personal fortune, probably a lot more. So that qualifies her as a GOP candidate right there. The good news is that even her party has wised up to her, but luckily they don't have to tel her to go; the public is doing that. There apparently is a more qualified Republican who is more electable than she is, and that's the guy who will get the effort and the money. So she's out, and hopefully that'll be that for her Senate aspirations. And hopefully soon enough she'll depart the Congress all together, and we can concentrate on getting rid of some more incompetent morons who are there working for themselves and not the US citizens.