FL-Sen: You think you've seen it all, and then you finally see, well, something else. After GOP primary rival George LeMieux zinged Connie Mack (pretty good, I thought) as the "Charlie Sheen of Florida politics" for his history of drunken bar brawls, how did Mack's camp respond? They responded by, pretty much, defending Charlie Sheen! I know you think I must be kidding—hell, even I feel like I have to be kidding—but I'm not. Mack's campaign manager declared that LeMieux's remarks "mock the tragedy of drug and alcohol addiction." Oh yeah, yeah, good luck with that one!
Meanwhile, Mack's also been taking lumps because he and his wife each declare a homestead exemption on property they own, even though married couples ordinarily are only allowed one such tax exemption. Mack and his wife, fellow GOP Rep. Mary Bono Mack of California, claim that they are "financially independent" from one another, which makes the arrangement permissible, but one expert says that only applies to estranged couples—and what's more, an investigation of the Macks' financial disclosure forms does indeed indicate some entanglements. The Lee County Property Appraiser is investigating the matter, but he sounds ready to whitewash it.Of course, that doesn't mean the issue will recede as a political matter, though it's also interesting to note that it's Mack's own fault that his foibles came to light. He recently stepped up attacks against Dem Sen. Bill Nelson for taking advantage of a tax break available to farmers by allowing a small herd of cattle to graze on some land he owns. Mack's tried to make a big deal of this, but it's boomeranged by focusing attention on his own properties. What's that about people in glass houses not throwing cow pies?
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