IS KATHERINE HARRIS GETTING READY TO TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM? WILL SHE WITHDRAW FROM FLORIDA SENATE RACE?

Today the the Quinnipiac poll released more bad news for right-wing whacko Katherine Harris. According to the polls, her uphill battle to unseat right-of-center Democratic Senator Bill Nelson has gotten a little more uphill. Nelson now bests her 55% v 31%. (And it's not like she doesn't have the name recognition. In fact, that is precisely the problem. People know who she is and do not like her and no not think she would make a good senator.)

But this is more than just a blurb on what a jerk Katherine Harris is and how another set of bad poll numbers have come out. Apparently the Bush Brothers, who are desperate that the GOP retain this seat (in light of a possible impeachment trial for George W. in 2007), have once again
joined with Elizabeth Dole, head of the moribund Republican Senate Campaign Committee (whose task of recruiting strong candidates is a total shambles), to find a plausible alternative to Harris. Suddenly Florida House Speaker Allan Bense's name is back in the DC rumor mill. (A few months ago, after polls showed that Harris would cream him in a WingNutia-dominated primary, he had said he wasn't a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat. Now he seems to be changing his mind again.)

Meanwhile Harris' campaign manager, Jim Dornan, abruptly quit yesterday. There was an interesting line in his resignation statement: "Congresswoman Harris feels that in this period of national crisis, her first obligation is to her constituents in the 13th District, to fully fulfill her term, and to serve them everyday in Congress." I read that as a recognition by Harris that the constituents she needs to please are the ones in her congressional district, not the ones who will be voting for the Florida senate seat. And remember, Harris won last year by one of the slimmest margins in the House and is considered an endangered incumbent (and, of course, a Democratic target).

She's been known to sacrifice her own ambitions and whatever dignity she ever possessed in the past for the Bushes and the GOP. Some think she is-- albeit reluctantly-- about to do it again.


WEDNESDAY LUNATIC FRINGE UPDATE

As if everything weren't going badly enough for Katherine Harris' doomed quest for a senate seat, yesterday MSNBC.com ran a piece that exemplifies what a dangerous loon she is. By dangerous I don't necessarily mean she's going to bite one of her constituents and give him rabies. I mean she is using taxpayer dollars for harebrained schemes to please religionist lunatics. Her latest misadventure shows that when she was Florida Secretary of State she did more than just rig the 2000 presidential election for Bush. She also "ordered a study in which, according to an article by Jim Stratton in the Orlando Sentinel, 'researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to test "Celestial Drops," promoted as a canker inhibitor because of its "improved fractal design," "infinite levels of order," and "high energy and low entropy."' The study determined that the product tested was, basically, water that had apparently been blessed according to the principles of Kabbalic mysticism, 'chang[ing] its molecular structure and imbu[ing] it with supernatural healing powers.'"

That's lovely, I'm sure, but why with taxpayer dollars-- especially when Florida was warned months in advance by the head of Florida's Bureau of Entomology, Nematology and Plant Pathology that the holy water was a hoax and [like everything Republican] "not based on any credible known science." He added, "I wish to maintain our standing in the scientific community and not allow [the developers of Celestial Drops] to use our hard-earned credibility" to promote their product. That didn't stop Harris' ceaseless efforts to please religionist whackos and win their votes. After the tests it was determined that the holy water didn't work. Who'da thunk?