Harris letter thanked contractor for dinner

[DoYouEverWonder]

July 8, 2006

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris capped off her pricey and famous dinner with defense contractor Mitchell Wade with a personal letter thanking the man, since convicted of bribery, for the dinner and conversation

Harris, a Longboat Key Republican running for U.S. Senate, attached a personal note on the thank-you letter typed on her congressional campaign stationery in March 2004.

"What a special evening!" Harris wrote in a the letter obtained by the St. Petersburg Times. "The best dinner I have ever enjoyed in Washington. I especially enjoyed getting to know you better! Please let me know if I can ever be of assistance."

For at least one meal, priced at $2,800, Harris has said she ate only appetizers, not dinner, and that the tab was so high because Wade took home uncorked bottles of wine. The restaurant said that would have violated its liquor license.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/07/08/State/Harris_letter_thanked.shtml


The best dinner she ever enjoyed in DC and all she ate was appetizers? BTW: Isn't she a married woman?

[Xipe Totec]

1. She only ate a little bit,

she didn't inhale her food.

Why does that sound familiar to me?...

:evilgrin:

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. This is what is wrong with Republicans in political power.

They really ARE running government like they run business, and graft & ingratiating gifts are part of the dance.

[jobycom]

3. Your last line implies exactly my first impression, too

Most female politicians I know, especially attractive ones (and Harris can be attractive in her way), use flirtation and a sort of coy sexuality as part of their schtick. Not just females--Clinton did it, too. But I still get woozy over the first politician who started that with me, before I was used to it. She's a local judge, and I was head of a club whose endorsement she wanted. She leaned into me when we spoke, she dropped her voice and whispered closer to my ear, she put her hand on my arm, or if we were standing, on my back, as she listened to me. I knew it was an act, but it still worked. Since, I've had many candidates do that, and I got immune to it. I've also seen women who don't do it, and they don't win as often, even when more qualified and more competent.

Sexuality sells, even in politics. Maybe that's all Harris was doing. Most men receiving a letter like that would feel the sexual overtones in "I especially enjoyed getting to know you better" and would read a double entendre into "if I can ever be of assistance." It's hard to tell whether this was just Harris's professional flirtation (the same thing that was caught on tape with a young reporter not long ago), or whether she was thanking him for more than dinner, isn't it? I suspect that's her standard operating procedure--either way!

I have no real point, here. Just analyzing. Either way, she's caught in a compromising position. No one wants to hear that there representative is willing to "be of assistance" to someone who spends lots of money on them.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. She got the dinner but the GOP is eating her lunch

Katherine will be looking for work as a pole dancer after November.

[Cha]

6. Ah, "Striptease" ala

Demi Moore.

[nealmhughes]

5. I love the part about the restauranteur getting huffy over the "takeout"

wine which would have violated his liquor license! Come on now, how could the bill have been that high without several bottles of very, very expensive wine? No matter what restaurant, even with a $200 bottle of wine, the bill could not have been over $500 at the most! And that would be Paris prices with a private dining room and footmen and butler, etc....
Now, if someone just dropped, say $500 and left a c-note for the staff in my joint and then wanted to take home several bottles of wine on his expense account, you'd better believer I would let him do it! What kind of an idiot buys wine in a restaurant for home consumption? Ever notice the markup from retail? Oh, I know -- a defense contractor with an unlimited expense account.