Bring thick skin to rough, tumble game of politics

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© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 15, 2001

The First Amendment requires neither politeness nor fairness. -- A Florida appeals court

C.C. "Doc" Dockery is a well-known businessman from Polk County. He wears different hats in Florida politics. His wife, Paula, is a Republican state representative. Meanwhile, it was Dockery who almost single-handedly bankrolled the successful campaign in 2000 to put a "bullet train" in our state Constitution.

Back in the early 1990s, Dockery, like many successful people in his circumstance, decided to make a substantial gift to his children. The gift would be in the form of stock in a company that he owned.

To calculate the taxes on such a gift, Dockery employed the services of KPMG Peat Marwick, the large accounting firm. Peat Marwick gave him the numbers. Dockery paid up.

However, the feds, if we might so refer to the Internal Revenue Service, decided that Dockery owed them more. In fact, they demanded $515,262 more. (That must have been a pretty big gift.) Dockery contested this amount. The dispute proceeded in the usual fashion to U.S. Tax Court, where, two years later, Dockery would ultimately prevail. He owed nothing.

However, soon after the fight began, it came to the attention of the local media. On Aug. 2, 1996, the Lakeland Ledger published an article under the headline: "IRS Says 'Doc' Dockery owes $515,562.00 in taxes." I wonder why they used the ".00"

Paula Dockery, meanwhile, was running for the state House as a Republican in the fall elections of 1996. The Florida Democratic Party could not resist mentioning the Dockerys' tax dispute in its campaign brochures. (Both parties like to "help out" in local races.)

"Let's face it," the Democrats jibed. "Taxes just aren't fun. But each year, we take the time to figure them out and pay what we owe. We don't always like it, but it's the law. Most of us see it that way -- but not the Dockerys."

As you can see, the brochure took a normal tax dispute and made it appear the Dockerys were deliberate tax cheats. The party's mailings went on to allege that the Dockerys were under federal investigation, and spoke of all the worthwhile things the government could have done with the money.

Dockery sued for libel. In trial court, the judge issued a "summary judgment" (in basketball, the term would be "slam dunk") in favor of the Democratic Party. Dockery went to the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which hears all appeals in our part of the state. The court's opinion in C.C. "Doc" Dockery v. Florida Democratic Party arrived Oct. 3.

Unfortunately for Dockery, he is the kind of person known in the law as a "public figure." Public figures have a hard time winning libel lawsuits. They must prove that the defendant acted with "actual malice." That means not just saying something that is incorrect, but saying it with a reckless, wanton disregard for truth.

Dockery's contention was that the Democrats knew the truth of his case perfectly well. The facts were in the very newspaper article quoted: that Dockery had relied on his accountants, and he was properly contesting his case in Tax Court. What's more, the stuff about being "under investigation" was completely unsubstantiated.

Nonetheless, the appeals court ruled unanimously against Dockery. Even though he later won his Tax Court case, it was not actual malice for the Democrats to say that he "owed" $562,000 -- after all, at that point in time, the feds still said he did.

In general, the appeals court concluded, politics is a rough and tumble business. Politicians and political players need to have "tough hides." If they ran to the courts every time one said something bad about the other, neither politicians nor the courts would ever get anything done.

The Democrats' brochure was slimy. The Republicans have put out plenty of slime, too. But the best "courtroom" for sorting out political mudslinging is the ballot box. Paula Dockery won her election and has been re-elected since, which is a more meaningful verdict.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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