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Crist Shouldn't Be Looking For Washington Housing Just Yet

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

Updated: 02/18/2008 10:44 pm

When it mattered, Charlie Crist endorsed John McCain and arguably helped the senator win Florida and thus gain stature and momentum for Super Tuesday.

Here's hoping his reward might yet be a more favorable McCain view of, say, the national catastrophe fund bill should the Arizona senator become president.

What the reward won't be is a Crist vice presidency, no matter how much national barnstorming he does with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Being governor of the country's biggest swing state is huge, but in a general election Crist doesn't give him much more of what McCain already has - appeal to independents. McCain is a soft-core conservative and admired for his well-earned war-hero status. Crist is Republican Light - and one bad hurricane away from image implosion.

McCain's longtime appeal to independents is moot if he can't at least seriously placate - energizing is off the table - conservatives with one of their own on the ticket.

Now if Fred Thompson were at the top of the ticket ...

• So what's with the flap over John Mellencamp denying John McCain use of his songs at campaign events? So the balladeer of middle class sufferance looks askance at the McCain candidacy? So McCain is precluded from using "Our Country" and "Pink Houses"?

McCain had a winner on his last Tampa visit. No, not the Four Tops number that preceded his Tampa Convention Center speech, the one that most folks think is "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch." But it's "I Can't Help Myself." That would be fodder for the Democrats as well as Bill Maher and Jon Stewart.

But what's wrong with "Johnny B. Goode," which followed his Tampa presentation - along with a volley from confetti guns? "Johnny" might not be good enough for evangelicals, but Chuck Berry over John Mellencamp is a winner.

• David Shuster, network talking head for MSNBC, was recently suspended for crassly referring to the way the Clinton campaign had been using Chelsea Clinton to call celebs and superdelegates. He said they had "pimped out" Chelsea. Ouch.

The "P" word is insensitive and should not have been uttered. Shuster should have used more polite language - "exploit" would have worked - to convey that the campaign, which had imposed a tight gag rule on the 27-year-old saying anything public, was, indeed, pimping her out for the Clinton cause.

The Clinton campaign understandably and vociferously complained. But it wasn't Chelsea doing the vociferous complaining. She only talks to celebs and superdelegates right now.

• Last fall, Hillary Clinton changed her position on torture: "As a matter of policy, it cannot be American policy, period," she said. That's straightforward and consistent with American ideals, even in a perilous world.

The previous year she had said, "In the event we were ever confronted with having to interrogate a detainee with knowledge of an imminent threat to millions of Americans, then the decision to depart from standard international practices must be made by the president, and the president must be held accountable." She called it a "very, very narrow exception within very, very limited circumstances."

She was slammed by Barack Obama for having taken that initial position.

Two points.

First, what's wrong with changing your mind, especially after getting military input? As if there were no precedent for presidential candidates changing or routinely overhauling multiple positions to accommodate the politics of the moment?

Second, maybe she, ironically, shouldn't have changed at all. Maybe she could have fashioned a more appropriate response. To wit:

"If I, as president, were ever confronted with a situation where we have a detainee - and not some low-level dragnetee - who we know, not just suspect, has knowledge of an imminent - not indeterminable - threat to millions of Americans, then you can rest assured that I would do what most Americans would want their president to do: err on the side of millions of American lives. And then be prepared to take whatever heat is generated."

Candor has to count for something.

Just A Phase?

Spending money on a city amenity such as the new Curtis Hixon Park is problematic during challenging financial times.

And the legal uncertainty of revenue generated by the downtown Community Redevelopment Area hardly helps.

Mayor Pam Iorio, however, seems determined to make the waterfront makeover happen, and the case can be made for Tampa finally having a downtown gateway that doubles as the city's official, long-sought, community gathering place. One that aesthetically complements the Museum of Art, the Children's Museum and the Riverwalk.

Having said that, however, what's with those cheesy, 50-foot glass pylons that would spell out the city's name near Ashley Drive? Is Rafael Vinoly involved in some way?

At least the pricey pylons are part of Phase 2 - and subject to likely change.

Sunshine State(ment)

First, the good news.

The Florida Power & Light Sarasota solar plant was recently dedicated.

The bad news? The Sunshine State, which has about 8.5 million homes, has a total of one solar plant, including the one in Sarasota. It can provide enough energy to power 55 of those 8.5 million homes.

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesez@aol.com.

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