Beware the McCollum makeover

Bill McCollum announces his bid (AP Photo/John Raoux)

In announcing his candidacy for Governor of Florida, Bill McCollum described how if elected his administration would demonstrate "a renewed commitment to our environment.” It sure better be “renewed”, given that in McCollum’s last year in the U.S. House of Representatives, the estimable League of Conservation Voters gave him a dismal 26% lifetime environmental rating, gaining him infamous addition to their “Dirty Dozen” list of the most anti-environment members of Congress.

But that's not the only "Dirty Dozen" list that McCollum has been named to.  No, in fact the venerable Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence put the then-congressman in its own hall of shame, citing him as having one of the "worst records on the issue of guns" of anyone in Congress.  Of course, McCollum describes that status as nothing more than support of the constitutional right to bear arms.

What chilling examples these are of the kind of Herculean makeover campaign the McCollum team has already begun to mount, in hopes of finally getting him the kind of high profile statewide gig he has so longed for. His 2006 election as Attorney General just doesn’t seem to have done enough to heal the wounds of unsuccessful U.S. Senate runs in 2000 and 2004. He is an ever-ambitious lifer in the grimy game of electoral politics, which usually means prioritizing one’s own advancement over and above the positive impact one can have at any particular level of achievement, or responsibility.

For instance, the single item that jumps out of the 20-plus year congressional resume of this ultra-conservative Florida native is his 1998 “service” at the bequest of the then-ruling Republican Party, as one of an emboldened posse of prosecutors trying to impeach President William Jefferson Clinton for allegedly obstructing investigations into his sexual infidelities and into his subsequent statements about those infidelities. Tell me, how many mainstream moderate voters in this country, Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative, knowing what they know now about the kinds of presidential misdeeds that actually do have critical importance and impact, how many do you think believe that Bill Clinton’s personal demons and sexual misconduct warranted the kind of prolonged partisan witch-hunt that Congressman Bill McCollum helped lead?

When McCollum left Congress in 2001, he went to work for a law firm lobbying on behalf of big business and special interests. No surprise there. But somehow or other, in the eyes of just enough Florida voters, that qualified him to be elected Attorney General in 2006 -- an election year, mind you, in which statewide general election voter turnout sank from a prior-year average of 64% to a near-record low of 47%..

And what has been the single item that jumps out from his current term as Florida’s AG? Well, the Miami Herald blew the lid off the story of how McCollum awarded two no-bid contracts totaling nearly $1.5-million of taxpayer’s money to his former media consultant, who in exchange produced a TV ad campaign starring, what do you know, Bill McCollum, front and center. These supposed “public service announcements” warn of the dangers of online sexual predators, an emotionally charged “hot-button” issue that McCollum has tried hard to make one of his political calling cards in recent years.

Problem is, McCollum himself was a member of a national task force comprised of 49 state Attorney Generals tasked with researching and reporting back on the seriousness of the problem. To quote the New York Times coverage of the final report’s release, “A task force created by 49 state attorneys general to look into the problem of sexual solicitation of children online has concluded that there really is not a significant problem.”

Then there’s the quote from Jaemi Levine, South Florida resident and founder of an organization called Mothers Against Predators: ''I can't imagine spending that kind of money on an ad that doesn't get anything across except Bill McCollum's face.'' As the media and public outcry over the no-bid contracts and self-serving, campaign-style TV spots piqued, the response from state Republican Party chairman Jim Greer was predictable. The criticism amounted to no more than a “partisan witch hunt”, said Greer. Yes, he used the same words I just used so much more accurately to describe what McCollum took part in when he helped try to run the wildly popular Bill Clinton out of office.

As we witness Republican attempts nationwide to figure out their proper path to redemption – or at least to election and re-election – it would serve us well to watch the intersection and convergence of the national party’s re-branding efforts with desperate makeover campaigns like the one McCollum’s team officially launched on Monday. It’s a playbook written by people like Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz, conservative pundits and wordsmiths who believe that you can “fool most of the people some of the time”, if you use the right language and keep repeating the same disinformation often enough.

As the gubernatorial race unfolds, expect to hear and see the Florida GOP twist itself in knots trying to convince voters that Bill McCollum is actually some sort of a mainstream conservative, a “values” Republican, a tough law-and-order guy who’s still in touch with centrist voters. Expect to hear a lot of promises about how a McCollum administration would be all about “inclusion” and “transparency” -- buzzwords the Republican spin doctors thinks they can appropriate from Liberals and use to hypnotize weary, disinterested voters. So in the spirit of freedom of information -- accurate information -- here are some “Real McCollum” talking points to arm you with for the inevitable debates to come.

• Voted (1994) to grant federal aid only to those schools allowing prayer
• Voted (1996) against habeas corpus rights for defendants appealing death sentences
• Voted (1997) for using federal education funds for private/religious school vouchers
• Served (1998-9) as prosecutor in Republican effort to impeach President Clinton
• Voted (1999) against strengthening the Social Security “lockbox”
• Voted (1999) to reduce the waiting period on gun purchases from 3 days to 1 day
• Voted (1999) against banning “soft money” political contributions
• Voted (2000) to ban partial-birth abortions
• Voted (2000) for total repeal of estate taxes on wealthiest Americans
• Touted (Miami Herald, 11/3/2000) his 20-year friendship with Kenneth Lay, the disgraced, now-deceased CEO of infamous Enron Corporation -- the single biggest donor to McCollum’s 2000 campaign

I can only imagine the kind of double-talk the McCollum camp will employ to answer questions about his record in Congress or as Florida’s AG, or about his leading role in the attempted impeachment of President Bill Clinton. But in a race where McCollum is already leading in early polls, let’s make sure we all keep raising these questions, over and over again, with friends and neighbors, and in every imaginable media venue.

By the way, don’t know about you, but I can’t wait until President Clinton, maybe with the Secretary of State by his side, maybe even with our current President at his side, shows up in Florida to campaign for Alex Sink, or whoever the Democratic nominee turns out to be. Hell hath no fury like a Bubba scorned.