The Miami Herald has issued perhaps the stupidest editorial of the 2012 political season, in which it has grudgingly endorsed Democrat Joe Garcia only because no one else is running.
You may recall that Mark Caputo, Manny Garcia and Scott Hiassen of the Miami Herald broke a terrific, entertaining story of political scandal in Florida. Republican Congressman David Rivera has long been mired in scandal involving what certainly look to be bribes and, now, electoral fraud.
Congressman Rivera's aide, "conservative bad girl" Ana Alliegro, recently vanished in the face of an FBI investigation into her involvement in a scheme to fund a fake challenger to Democrat Joe Garcia. Alliegro was, according to Fabiola Santiago, also of the Herald,
a Bonnie without her Clyde, a political operative with a penchant for dating and marrying older men with impressive jobs. Only they end up running for their lives, including former Miami Mayor Joe Carrollo, who begged for a divorce after 83 days.
…
she tried in 2007 to shoot her architect ex-husband, Moshe Cosicher, after he refused to remarry her.
No screenwriter could come up with a livelier scene than this Herald account of police and prosecution reports of that altercation:
“She then sat naked at a desk with her leg up and compared the gun to a male sexual organ.
“ ‘If you think your [expletive] is powerful (showing the gun), this is mine,’ Alliegro told Cosicher . . .
“She fired a round into the ceiling. ‘You see. It’s loaded — this is business,’ Alliegro allegedly said.”
Congressman Rivera's
nickname is
The Gangster
Now, the Herald's reporters are pretty good. But its editorial board? Well, they have a problem. They do concede that Rivera " carries too much political baggage to be an effective member of Congress."
But heaven forfend! Democrat Joe Garcia may be almost as nefarious! Continuing:
Mr. Garcia, 49, is too much of a verbal bomb thrower, a reflection of his work as a Democratic Party stalwart. What this district needs most is a consensus-builder. If elected, Mr. Garcia, a lawyer who has worked on energy and environmental issues, must do better.
A partisan Democrat! Get out the smelling salts. Give me some pearls to clutch! Criminal or partisan? What a difficult choice!
The Herald endorsed Joe Garcia, but only because a better candidate, like Al Capone, wasn't running.What the Herald editorial board apparently wants is a one-party state, like the one in Cuba. The political leadership there enjoys perfect consensus!
I reminded the editors that the American tradition is one of vigorous factions, contending with one another. Consensus is great if it happens, and especially if the different factions compromise with one another to reach it. But in America 2012, the only goal of the Republican Party is to prevent the re-election of Barack Obama. If they have to bring down the economy, promote a pathological liar into high office, or outright steal the election, that's secondary to their goal. They are quite willing to destroy the nation.
So screw the Republican Party, and up with Democrats with spines. You can mock the Herald's idiot editors here, and I hope you'll uphold a good old American tradition and do so.