St. Pete Times reports on the bizarre twist in the career of Katherine Harris. In spite of being engulfed in the Duke Cunningham scandal, Harris is determined to go forward with her quixotic attempt to unseat Senator Bill Nelson this November. But, it looks like she is really just going slowly insane.
As Katherine Harris’ rocky Senate campaign takes an increasingly evangelical Christian bent, her remaining top campaign staffers are preparing to jump ship.
Colleagues say Harris’ closest confidante lately appears to be spiritual adviser Dale Burroughs, founder of the Biblical Heritage Institute in Bradenton.
“Dr. Dale,” as she is known among campaign staffers, describes herself as a licensed clinical pastoral counselor who counsels in behavior temperament, career, crisis and disaster, among other things.
Check out Dr. Dale’s pathetic curriculum vitae. She cites no psychological traning whatsoever. She doesn’t even provide an alma mater. But for Katherine Harris’s sake, it is a good thing Dr. Dale is experienced in ‘crisis and disaster’ counselling…because that is what Harris’s campaign has become. You know it’s bad when your advisers think you are nuts.
Friends and advisers say Harris has been deeply religious all her life, but religion recently has become a central part of her campaign. Campaign staffers warily describe Harris as leading a “Christian crusade.”
“It was always part of the background, but it was never an integral part of the campaign. It never engulfed her,” said former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who quit the campaign in November but keeps in touch with staffers. “She’s grasping for a pillar she thinks this campaign can be raised on.”
As Harris sees her political career careening into the dustpin of history she has decided to ‘grasp the pillar’ of Jesus (and her Daddy’s fat inheritance) to pull her fat out of the flame.
For months, Harris’ campaign suffered from weak fundraising, heavy staff turnover and a lack of party support. She has trailed well behind Democratic incumbent Nelson in polls. Just as her campaign was starting to turn around, federal prosecutors revealed that a defense contractor at the center of a bribery case had given Harris more than $30,000 in illegal contributions.
Rather than pull the plug, Harris went on national TV to tell conservative commentator and Harris supporter Sean Hannity she was putting $10-million of her own money in. She invoked her father, who died in January, and sounded like she planned to invest her inheritance in the campaign:
“I’m going to put everything on the line. Everything. Not just my future and my reputation. My father’s name. I’m going to take his legacy that he gave to me, everything that I have, and I’m going to put it in this race. I’m going to commit my legacy for my father, $10 million,” she said.
But, there is just one problem with putting her Daddy’s name on the line besmirching her father’s name by associating it with her corruption:
Campaign advisers understood Harris wanted to put the inheritance in the race, but now say she won’t have access to that money until after her mother’s death. On Tuesday, she clarified to the Times that the money would come from her current assets, including selling real estate.
“My dad didn’t leave me that money. This is what I have,” said Harris…
Given Harris’s evident detachment from reality, it is not surprising that “[h]er top campaign advisers, having failed to persuade Harris to drop her struggling campaign against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson, are preparing to leave.”
But Harris remains undaunted:
“I just have to retool and find people that are really committed to me.”
Good fucking luck.
An assistant finance staffer had her last day with Harris on Friday. Pollster Ed Goeas dropped off the campaign last week after advising Harris she should drop out because he saw no chance of success.
The party establishment is jumping ship. But Harris is bent on taking Jesus down to the ocean floor.
“I am willing to take this widow’s mite, this pearl of great price, and put everything on the line. No matter how much you have, are you willing to take what you have and sell it all for a great price,” Harris said in the transcript provided by ABC News.
The widow’s mite refers to a New Testament parable about a poor woman giving what little money she had to the temple.
It should be about as fascinating as watching a carwreck. Or witnessing the sinking of the Lusitania.
