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Shame on you all for missing what the real problem is

If I were a member of the Legislature and somebody offered me a $48,000 trip, I would punch the guy in the nose.

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published October 17, 2005

I hope you saw that two of your local legislators, Sen. Dennis Jones and Rep. Frank Farkas of Pinellas County, were among those who took a $48,000 trip paid for by a gambling company that wants to expand its operations in Florida.

My favorite part of this scandal was not the chartered jet that picked them up at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. My favorite part was not the dinner at the race track and casino.

My favorite part was not that the whole trip was money-laundered and reported as an "in-kind contribution" to the Republican Party of Florida, to take care of the fact that no individual legislator can legally accept a gift worth more than $100.

Nope. My favorite part is Farkas' explanation.

Farkas said he was invited by Jones and did not check on whether the party was paying for it.

"Shame on me, I guess, for not looking at it a little closer," Farkas said.

Now, think about that for just a minute, because it reveals much about how the Legislature thinks.

In Farkas' mind, the main misstep here was that the company paid for the thing directly. How gauche.

Had the company done what everybody else in Tallahassee does, and bought its access through a big fat contribution to a political party on the front end, nobody would be batting an eye.

They could have put Farkas, Jones, and Sens. Jim King and Mike Bennett in a football skybox and sold tickets to donors. They could have made the four "guests of honor" at some bogus function or other.

Then they could have let the lobbyists write their own law, tack it onto an empty "shell bill" in the next legislative session, and pass it without any public input. And that would have been okay in their book.

This is what kills me about the Florida Legislature.

If I were a member of the Legislature, and somebody with a stake in legislation (actually, if anybody) offered me a $48,000 trip, here is what I would do.

First, I would punch the guy who offered that trip to me in the nose, hand him my handkerchief and dare him to press criminal charges.

Second, I would call the Florida Attorney General's Office and my local state attorney and demand an investigation.

Third, I would make the entire affair public and issue a statement that said:

"When you are trying to influence the decisions of the Florida Legislature, you have to come to Tallahassee and take part in the public process that occurs in a public setting, just like the taxpayers have to do.

"It would be unethical and even immoral for me to give anyone, especially a campaign donor, more access than any citizen of Florida has."

Now that this has become public, there is harrumphing in Tallahassee. The trip looks so bad that the Republican Party is paying the money back and blaming the members. The Senate president, Tom Lee, has ordered an investigation. The chairman of the Florida Democratic Party has issued a gleeful condemnation.

Please. They are peas in a pod. All of them do the same kind of thing, including Tom Lee and the Florida Democratic Party. Before Madame Democratic Chairman gets too high and mighty, she should remember that her own party took a big payoff from Florida's telephone companies and agreed to conspire with the Republicans to jack up telephone rates.

The fact that four members of the Legislature got caught in this case with their paperwork down is not the offense.

The offense is that it is possible for those with a stake in legislation to pay money to be in the presence of legislators, period. Fix that, Mr. Senate President, and you will have served Florida.

[Last modified October 17, 2005, 18:52:44]