Florida's Loose Connections

Florida often has a lot of odd, loose connections to weird stuff that pops up in national politics. Ya think it might be because we have a lot of weird, loosely-wrapped people living around here?

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The first loose connection to be unraveled involves the goose extermination at Tiger Point Golf Course. The Ft. Walton Beach Daily News ran an article yesterday about the sudden disappearance-by-death of more than fifty geese at the local golf course in Gulf Breeze.

Among those applauding the slaughter? None other than Grant Hibbard. He's quoted as saying:

“I think there were probably a few people upset about it. Not the Hibbards. They came into my back yard and crapped all over the place. And they crapped all over the golf course.”

Not mentioned in the piece is that this is the same nationally-famous Grant 'Skip' Hibbard who helped the Swift-Boat liars trash John Kerry's war record back during the 2004 presidential campaign. As Media Matters reported back then about the Swift Boat attack --

"A review by the Globe of Kerry's [actual] war record ... found that the young Navy officer [Kerry] acted heroically under fire, in one case saving the life of an Army lieutenant."

We always thought trashing a war hero was an odd way for a Navy veteran to "support the troops." A reader who saw the Daily News article wrote in today to ask, "Wonder what it is that makes right-wingers like Hibbard want to kill things?"

Who knows? Sounds like he may suffer from a "severe handicap." We just can't recall if that's a golfing expression for poor putters or a term of art from the world of abnormal psyche.

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Speaking of golfers, the New Orleans Times Picayune has been digging into the past associations of U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA). Vitter, of course, is now world famous for three things: (1) being Southern Regional chair of Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign; (2) campaign ads that portray him "as a solid family-values sort of fellow" and defender of "traditional marriage against its assorted enemies;" and (3) being a chronic, long-time patron of prostitutes.

It turns out one of Vitter's favorite floozies, former Big Easy prostitute Wendy Yow Cortez, spent considerable time getting intimate with both golfers and Florida. According to a former boyfriend:

"She told me she had clients lined up; high-dollar people, lawyers, politicians, golfers."

After the couple split up --

Records show Yow has moved often, with addresses in at least five states during the past decade, including Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Florida and Iowa. She has used the last names of Yow, Cortez, Williams, Shackelford, Ellis, Scavone and Bruhn, among others, according to cross-referenced public records and interviews.

In 1995, she was arrested in Sanford, Fla., and charged as a felon fleeing from justice, and extradited to Arkansas, where she was wanted, according to police records.

A year later in Seminole County, Fla., she was booked with three counts of fraudulent use of credit cards. She was convicted and ordered to serve probation, but violated that sentence a few years later and was arrested again in 2001 in Longwood, Fla. Records show she served a jail sentence.

Bloggers: start your research engines. With such a lengthy sojourn in so many Florida communities, isn't it likely Ms. Yow was acquainted with a lot of other randy right-wing Republicans?

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Florida state representative Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) has obvious connections to Florida, of course. This could only have helped put him over the top for the coveted GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award.

Here, the national connection is to U.S. Senator John McCain's faltering presidential bid. Back in March, McCain chose Allen to be co-chairman of his Florida campaign. We can only imagine who Senator McCain might choose for presidential cabinet positions, in the unlikely event he finds the wherewithal to win the 2008 election.

Still, "innocent until proven guilty," you know. Jonathan Stein speculates on his Mother Jones blog that Allen may have some pretty interesting defenses to the criminal charge he faces of soliciting a (male) act of prostitution.

Allen recently introduced HB 1475 into the Florida state legislature, a bill called "Lewd or Lascivious Exhibition" that lays a mightier smackdown on offenders of Allen's stripe. (Question: Was he doing research?) And the Rainbow Democratic Club, a central Florida gay rights group, recently identified Allen as one of the region's most hostile legislators towards gays. (Opposition research, then?)

So, we ask you: just take a look at this guy (left). Is that the face of some hypocritical sexual deviate or the inspiring visage of a modern-day Republican conservative doing field research to better protect the family values of all us citizens?