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Adam Hasner Definitely Running for Senate (As If We Didn’t Already Know)


Former State House Majority Adam Hasner is really running for Senate. He kicked off his exploratory committee (despite the name, no one actually starts an one of these and then doesn’t run) and even said that he planned on following the “Rubio path to victory”™ (patent pending).

This is a cunning plan wherein some one deeply ingrained in the corrupting and corrosive, special interest dominated culture of Tallahassee runs as an outsider. They do this on the basis on not being in Tallahassee at this exact instant, as opposed to their primary opponent, who is currently serving in office in Tallahassee (for Rubio, this was Crist; for Hasner, it’s current Senate President Mike “the Appeaser” Haridopolos).

This will probably work (unless former Hooters employee, Connie Mack IV runs). Haridopolos’ career as a U.S. Senate candidates has opened up with controversy about the time he wrote a children’s book, when he was actually paid (using taxpayer dollars) to write a college textbook on the history of the Florida legislature. And then there was that time last week when Gary Fineout pointed out that Haridopolos’ fundraising during the legislative session may violate the Rules of the Florida Senate.

Hasner is laughing to himself and thinking that Haridopolos has set the bar, as regards ethics and basic competency, so low that the entire Miami Heat basketball team, standing on each others’ shoulders, could limbo underneath it.

Of course, what most people think when they look at these options is, “Congratulations on your re-election, Senator Bill Nelson.”

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Barbour Picks Up a Florida Operative


Haley Barbour, the soon to be term-limited governor of Mississippi, is still putting together infrastructure for a presidential campaign. Most recently, he picked Jeb Bush’s long time political adviser and former Mitt Romney operative, Sally Bradshaw.

This is evidence of both  Barbour’s growing ambitions of poor Mitt Romney’s “rats leaving a sinking ship” effect (Mitt is still the favorite to win the nomination, on the basis of sheer inertia, as much as anything else, and he is still favored over Barbour right now).

Barbour’s path to the nomination runs straight through the South, and adding Bradshaw to his team is another sign that his plan is to try and sweep the South (a plan which would be complicated by a Mike Huckabee campaign) and leverage that into frontrunner status.

Caveat lector: I lost an election to Haley Barbour in 2003, when I was working on the Musgrove for Governor campaign and am frankly a little bitter.

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One of My Favorite Bookstores; And Some Musings About Denny’s


One our way back from an early appointment, we stopped at Denny’s for breakfast. I don’t think I’d been to a Denny’s in several years. For your information, I had a veggie cheese omelette and coffee.

The coffee struck a chord with me. The familiar, thick Denny’s mugs. I remembered so many afternoon and late night trips to the Denny’s by the corner of U.S. 19 and Main Street/580 in Dunedin, Florida. How many times did I sit down there with Matt or Damian or Scott or Jeremy and pretend it was the Left Bank in Paris in the 1920s? Discussing our still nascent understanding of philosophy, literature, politics, and art?

Across from that particular Denny’s was a now defunct bookstore called Bookstop. Bookstop was (I believe) a subsidiary of B. Dalton (which was bought up by Barnes and Noble). Bookstop was the first bookstore near my home that was more than just your run of the mill, shopping mall based, Waldenbooks or B. Dalton, with their collection of bestsellers and tripe. This one had poetry and philosophy and literature in translation and hosted readings by authors. It blew my mind.

It’s gone now. And, if I could travel back in time, I wonder how it would compare to the bookstores I love now. But, based on personal history alone, Bookstop has to be considered one of my favorite bookstores.

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Adam Hasner Thinks Mike “the Appeaser” Haridopolos Is a Weak Candidate


A guy who is currently out of office (former Florida House Majority Leader, Adam Hasner) has looked at Mike Haridopolos youthful campaign for the U.S. Senate and said to himself: “I will beat this guy like a drum.” Yep. Hasner is officially “testing the waters” (which is actually a technical term and lets him start raising some money and traveling).

Yes, Haridopolos’ campaign is inspiring tons of confidence, but in his opponents, not his supporters.

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NRSC Chair Has No Faith in Haridopolos, Hasner or LeMieux


Texas Senator John Cornyn, who is also the chair of National Republican Senatorial Committee (the GOP equivalent to the DSCC), seems to be in agreement with Floridians – Mike “the Appeaser” Haridopolos, Adam Hasnet, and George LeMieux are a trio of hackneyed combinations of has been and never was.

What could inspire me to claim that I can read of Cornyn? Easy. The fact that, despite Haridopolos being in, LeMieux openly planning his announcement, and Hasner making no secret of his plans, Cornyn felt sufficiently underwhelmed by this posse of Tallahassee lifers to make multiple recruitment calls to Florida’s very own Joe Scarborough.

The other day, I issued by deeply felt apologies to Haridopolos. Apparently, I must extend my condolences to LeMieux and Hasner, as well.

So, Messrs. Haridopolos, Hasner, and LeMieux, I’m really sorry that every one agrees that it’s never going to happen for any of you.

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George LeMieux, I’m Sorry to Say This, But You Will Never, Ever Become Senator


Former interim U.S. Senator George Lemieux wants to become a Senator, but for real this time. He basically told a reporter that he would be making his announcement within the next few weeks.

LeMieux made it clear while he was interim Senator that he’d caught the bug. He sent out more press releases and did more media events than any two normal Senators combined (who actually have important jobs to do besides get the press to listen to them).

But, the thing is George. It’s never going to happen.

First of all, you were Charlie Crist’s best friend. And now that Charlie is considered an apostate of the worst stripe, none of the hard right GOP’ers (who make the majority of the primary electorate) will ever trust you.

Those that remain, the moderates and the folks who still like Charlie… well they look at you and see the guy who stabbed Charlie in the back after he made your career.

What I’m trying to say is that no one who votes in the Republican primary will ever really trust you.

Now, I know you’re looking at Mike “the Appeaser” Haridpolos and his disastrous start and thinking, “I can totally defeat this ridiculous excuse for a human being.” And maybe you could. If you were anyone but, you know, you.

Let’s be honest. Connie Mack is going to clean both your clocks. And he doesn’t jump in the race… well, y’all are such painfully damaged goods that I wouldn’t put it past even Adam Hasner to beat both of y’all like a drum.

So enjoy the campaign, but understand that, come November 2012, you’re going to be looking for some lobbying shop to take you in and pay for your sailboat and house on the beach.

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Christmas Books


Every Christmas now, for going on twenty years, my mother has always found an autographed book to be one of my Christmas presents.

This year, it was How Florida Happened: The Political Education of Buddy MacKay by, of course, Buddy MacKay.

Buddy was the last Democratic governor of Florida – he served for only a few months, having taken office when Walkin’ Lawton Chiles died just before his term ended. Buddy had been his lieutenant governor. Unfortunately, by that time, Buddy had already lost the election to Jeb Bush, who would go on to lay the groundwork for Florida’s current economic and educational failures.

A good man, Buddy MacKay was the last of an old breed of Florida politician who got pushed out the extremists and the lobbyists who now run Tallahassee as their own, private fiefdom.

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America Unchained Day – Saturday November 20th


Tomorrow is “America Unchained” Day. The idea is for people to restrict their spending only to locally owned, independent business – eschewing national chains in favor of the metaphorical mom & pop operations in your community.

I am in complete agreement with this goal. I have written a lot about the desire to support your local bookstore over the big chains and most especially over Amazon.com and other, online only retailers.

Tampa Bay’s best independent bookstore (and a personal favorite of mine), Inkwood Books, is promoting the event. They claim that this one day, if strictly followed by every consumer in the two counties, would generate $73 million for the area, because spending at a locally owned business generates 3.5 times as much local economic activity as spending at a national chain.

But we intuitively already know this. Just like we know that supporting the arts with public monies actually results in a net economic gain for the community. But we still take the easy way out – when times get tough, households shop take their money to big box stores and local governments cut funding for the arts. And sadly, each of these actions do their small part to actually extend the tough times, making recessions last just a little bit longer for everyone.

Ok. I’m coming down off my soapbox for now.

But shop local tomorrow – and buy a book from your favorite independent bookstore, will ya?

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Berlin One


While back in Florida, I visited Berlin One, a self-proclaimed art extravaganza taking place at my old haunt, the Ritz in Ybor (I saw more shows there than I can count back in my high school and college years).

A respected and beloved local poet, Brad Morewood, recommended the event to me while I was in town.

Before stopping at the Ritz, I went down the street a bit to the Ybor Arts Colony, a series of studios on the second floor of one the buildings on 7th Avenue, the main drag. I spoke for a bit with Moira Shriver, the wife of the Tampa artist, Jason Shriver, as well as city council candidate, Sara Romeo.

Berlin One itself was crowded with viewers, artists, and designers and enough hipsters to satisfy the most hard core San Francisco scenesters (I notice that ironic moustaches are very popular these days). It felt like my little hometown was growing up.

Ybor City’s artistic glory days were in the 70s, when local artists set up shop in old cigar factories. By the time I came around in 89-90, that scene was already disappearing – the galleries and quirky stores being forced out by clubs and bars catering to overage frat boys.

But maybe, having hit a certain saturation point, something interesting and dare I say – artsy – is coming back?

Moira asked me what I thought about the changes, about how people are trying to take back the area.

I like it. I like it very much.

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Juvenalia & Slams


It is a humbling experience to look through one’s old writings – you know, the ones that were so deeply praised when you 16, 18, 22? The one that now look like, well, like  they were written by a sixteen year old, eighteen year old, or twenty-two year old.

I used to attend a lot of open mic poetry events, back in the day – from roughly 1990-2002. The early ones took place at people’s homes and then coffeehouses started to come back – not Starbucks style places with lattes, but dingy little places with bad coffee whose main draw was a certain elán  and sense of commitment to a Beatnik style of life. Places like CAMS in Pinellas Park and Mother’s Milk in Clearwater.

These open mics were different from slams, about which I have mixed feelings. But I also have mixed feelings about my mixed feelings. Slams necessarily value performance and the delivery of widely accepted messages (opposition to discrimination, the societal problems caused by socio-economic inequality, love is cool, etc) over craft – rather the opposite of MFA poetry, which can by entirely too “crafty.”

I say have I mixed feelings about my mixed feelings because I also know that I am not an impartial judge, for two reasons. One is simply that, with a few exceptions, I don’t write poems that do well in slams. I have one or two, but they are rarities, so can’t discount the possibility that my anti-slam bias is itself biased by sour grapes.

The other issue is a little more tricky, because it has something to do with race (and a little to do with age). I am a white male, over 35 and I never really got into hip hop when I was younger. And slam poetry is closely intertwined with forms  of rap and hip hop – which is to say, with cultures emerging out of black and latino communities. How much of my mistrust of the quality of slam poetry is simply that of a privileged white male who closely associates himself with the classic forms of Western European culture and who cannot or will not properly understand a culture driven by those who are both younger and of a different ethnic environment.

But to return to my original point…

Once, I looked at my accumulated body of work and it seemed quite large. But, of course, the poems of one’s youth don’t hold up so well, do they? You look through all these puerile pages and wonder why you ever thought well of yourself?

When you reduce it just those that are actually “good,” you see that your true oeuvre is actually just a handful of pieces.

I shudder when I think what the local poets I used with read with must have thought of me. A silly boy writing sad, silly love poems. Humbling to imagine myself.

Leading of course, to wonder what will I think of what I write now in 15 years? Maybe well enough. There seems some evidence that once “peaks” as a poet in one’s late thirties and forties. I am nearing that point.