Politics & Crime

By Heather
Political potpourri:

* In Tennessee, the FBI has just completed a sting operation that netted one big fish -- Republican Sen. John Ford, who is just one member of the powerful Tennessee family who has made it in politics.

It never ceases to amaze me how people vote for a name, or a political party, and never consider what the person stands for. For example, Ford has been successfully sued for sexual harassment, lost paternity suits, gave a political job to his girlfriend and was fined for using $15,000 in campaign contributions to pay for his daughter's wedding.

He also is under investigation for receiving $429,000 over two years from a consultant who has ties to the state's Medicaid program. In the latest incident he allegedly took $55,000 to help a fake company get a contract with the state. "You are talking to the guy who makes the deals," he told FBI undercover agents.

How do these people keep getting re-elected? Ford's next deal may be one to stay out of prison, if all this is true.

* Closer to home, in Miami, federal agents seized a 750-pound shipment of cocaine hidden in fake plantains. The fake fruit was hidden among real plantains being shipped from Ecuador.

The fiberglass fakes were filled with drugs and placed among 1,080 boxes of fruit in a refrigerated container. The coke has a wholesale value of $6.1 million.

I don't think the Central American Free Trade Act we are considering says anything about cocaine.

* Have you heard Gov. Jeb Bush may be altering his party's policy on redistricting? At least that's what Democrats are saying after Jeb helped California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to finance a campaign to create an independent redistricting panel in the state that gives us Hollywood, earthquakes and "The O.C."

If Jeb likes the idea in California, surely he'll come back and pitch the same proposal for Florida. Then maybe we wouldn't have a representative who has to make a two-to-three-hour drive from his east coast home to Charlotte County to meet with the other 10 percent or so of his constituents!