There is a stark contrast between the Florida media’s study of Rep. Katherine Harris’s ties to MZM and the Virginia media’s study of Rep. Virgil Goode’s similar ties.
Harris accepted $32,000 in illegal contributions from MZM. She requested a $10M federal appropriation for MZM, but it wasn’t approved. She recently gave away some $50,000 that she’d received from MZM and affiliated individuals.
Ever since MZM’s Mitchell Wade pleaded guilty to bribery a few weeks ago, Harris has been under a serious investigation by Florida media. The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, along with the San Diego Union-Tribune (who discovered the corruption in the first place) and, recently, the New York Times have been on Harris like white on rice. There is serious speculation that Harris is going to drop out of the U.S. Senate race as a result of these ties to MZM, with the Times describing her campaign as on “the brink of collapse,” the press corps “brimming with questions,” and Harris as being “besieged by the media.”
Contrast this with Rep. Virgil Goode. He accepted over $90,000 in illegal contributions from MZM. He has confessed to, immediately after receiving the bulk of that money, providing MZM with $3.6M in federal funding. He solicited another $500,000 in grants from the state of Virginia for the company. He was pushed into giving away the money from MZM.
Based on the information currently available, it certainly looks like Rep. Goode is in this deeper than Harris. I speculate that there are a pair of reasons why Harris is getting it so much rougher than Goode.
First, Harris’ high profile and U.S. Senate race make her a much larger target. Her role in the 2000 Florida recount and unintentional ongoing imitation of Cruella DeVille (with better breasts) have placed a big “Kick Me” sign on her back.
Second, her district (and her would-be district of Florida) places her in the distribution area of several major dailies with the budget and apparent editorial willingness to aggressively question and investigate her.
Still, Harris’ grilling must make Virgil Goode rather nervous. The first guy to be implicated, Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, is just beginning a decade-long prison sentence. The second guy and the big fish, Mitchell Wade, is also facing many years in prison. The third person and the least-involved of the related congresscritters, Katherine Harris, may well drop out of her Senate race and lose her House seat over the scandal. Investigators and major media (the New York Times and the San Diego Union Tribune, I expect) are going to turn their attentions to Rep. Goode once they finish with Harris.
I wonder if Virgil Goode is prepared for the media spotlight if and when it points his way. Scandal is antithetical to his image; he lacks both the experience and the resources to deal with it. He’s got designs on Sen. John Warner’s seat, and if he doesn’t watch his step in the coming months, any prayer of that may be gone.
In a recent statement (PDF) — his first on the MZM scandal — Goode wrote:
I do not have an attorney. Since I have not done anything wrong, I see no reason to get one.
As an attorney, he knows that anybody accused of a crime needs any attorney, especially the wrongly accused. The “I don’t have any attorney because I didn’t do nothin'” schtick shows that he’s still thinking in terms of reelection, not going to jail; it’s just an act. He’d be wise to lawyer up before the media finishes with Harris and turns to him. Here’s hoping that won’t be long from now.
Harris might lose the Senate race, but after her recent press conference it’s hard to imagine she will drop out.
I didn’t know she’s gone through with that press conference. She’d scheduled one a few days ago and then abruptly canceled it at the last minute, without explanation. Googling around, all I can find that is she made that one weird TV appearance last week and has spoken to some small groups in the past few days and said that she’s still in, and she intends to contribute $10M of her own money to the race. If she’s spoken publicly about this or taken questions on the MZM scandal, I can’t find anything about it.