Review: Florida’s new water quality website; the good, the bad and the really ugly

11-7-19 Florida website

Nov. 7, 2019 by David Silverberg

On Monday, Nov. 5, amidst much hooplah, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) unveiled a new state website, https://www.protectingfloridatogether.gov/, designed to inform Floridians of the state of their water quality.

The website has taken criticism for having outdated information but this may simply be a function of its newness.

But how well does it work as a website? The Paradise Progressive did a tour and can report the following:

All non-scientific information functions as a DeSantis propaganda machine.

Here are the top four headlines and excerpts from their lead sentences:

WATER QUALITY IS A TOP PRIORITY FOR FLORIDA

That’s why, less than 48 hours after being sworn in, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an Executive Order outlining his bold vision…

STATEWIDE EFFORTS

Governor DeSantis directed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)…

BLUE-GREEN ALGAE TASK FORCE

Governor DeSantis took a major step forward…

RED TIDE TASK FORCE

Under Governor Ron DeSantis’ leadership the Red Tide Task Force…

A subsequent “Timeline” section is similar in tone and focus.

October 25th, 2019

GOVERNOR DESANTIS BREAKS GROUND ON EMBANKMENTS AND CANALS TO COMPLETE THE C-43 RESERVOIR

October 23rd, 2019

GOVERNOR DESANTIS ANNOUNCES REMOVAL OF TAMIAMI TRAIL ROADBED

October 22nd, 2019

GOVERNOR DESANTIS AND FLORIDA CABINET TAKE ACTION TO EXPEDITE CONSTRUCTION OF EAA RESERVOIR PROJECT

C’mon, guys, this is heavy-handed even by Stalinist standards.

If this hagiography is the result of some underling’s over-enthusiastic effort to impress his boss, I would expect even DeSantis to be embarrassed. If it’s a result of just throwing old press releases onto the site, it displays laziness. If this is what DeSantis himself wanted, then he’s clumsily trying to build a cult of personality.

More seriously, what it does is call into question the factual information in the rest of the site. If the introductory articles seem overly propagandistic, a user might reasonably expect the same from the rest. It’s a big turn-off.

We then get to the important stuff: Water Quality Status

Not yet ready for prime time

Water quality status reports are provided for three regions: The Caloosahatchee River, Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River. A pop-up announcement tells you that it will be expanded statewide next year.

Click on one of the regions and you have the option of seeing a map with health and algae alerts or a water quality overview. Using an unusual two-step process (control + scroll), a user can zoom in and out of the map, which is useful and shows sampling points and results. Clicking on sampling locations brings up data about that particular location.

Because the website currently shows only the three regions, other than the Caloosahatchee River outlet, there is no data for other Southwest Florida beaches or anywhere else on the Gulf coast. As the pop-up states, data for the rest of the state will be coming in the future.

The website’s navigation is somewhat awkward, particularly the zooming in and out on the maps. Exploring the site is a clunky, step-by-step process that each user needs to conduct individually. Anyone accustomed to intuitive Apple-like navigation is going to be disappointed.

The site reports on the status and activities of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force, the Red Tide Task Force and a variety of other Florida environmental projects and programs. They’re useful, although at least on my computer their maps were slow-loading.

One of the most important elements of the website is also one of its least prominent—what individuals can do to help reduce pollution and mitigate water quality problems. There are excellent tips but this function of the site is relatively buried and a user has to hunt for it. Rather than paeans to the governor, this might have been more useful to feature up front.

The bottom line

The website is useful and certainly is light years ahead of anything that previous governor Rick Scott ever did on environmental issues. It is definitely a step in the right direction and it will go some way toward enlightening Floridians about water issues and how they’re being tackled.

This could be a scientific, informative and authoritative site.

However, DeSantis and his people clearly decided to make it a propaganda vehicle. Instead of a dignified and discreet picture of DeSantis and his seal at the top, just to remind you that he’s there, they decided to hit the user over the head with a DeSantis sledgehammer.

The site in its current state is not really ready for prime time and it’s surprising that it was rolled out now. Much is lacking; as it notes, statewide data is unavailable and navigation needs to be improved. The site should be redesigned with the user in mind rather than the governor.

The great thing, though, about websites is that they’re flexible and can always be changed and upgraded.

So far DeSantis has shown a real commitment to environmental protection. We will see in the days ahead whether he has an equally real commitment to objective environmental reporting.

I’d suggest revisiting it in six months to see if there’s any improvement.

Liberty lives in light

BREAKING NEWS: Democratic victories in Kentucky, Virginia elections may herald change in Southwest Florida

11-06-19 Kentucky Virginia (2)

Nov. 6, 2019 by David Silverberg

Early election results in Kentucky and Virginia indicate that Democratic hopes for an upset in Southwest Florida are not misplaced.

In deeply conservative Republican Kentucky, Democratic challenger Andy Beshear unseated Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a staunch Trumpist for whom the president actively campaigned. This occurred in a state, like Florida, where Republicans hold both chambers of the legislature and both US Senate seats. As of this writing Bevin had not conceded and was citing “irregularities” in the vote.

Democrats swept Virginia’s legislative elections, giving the party complete control of the state government.

In Mississippi, however, Republican Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves defeated Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood.

Analysis: What this means for SWFL

The tendency in any election is for the winners to generalize the results while losers particularize them.

As in: Democrats will likely claim that the Kentucky and Virginia results show that Trumpism is a losing ideology and Democrats in deeply conservative jurisdictions can win despite Trump’s electoral base and his active campaigning. Republicans will likely claim that the Kentucky results are specific to that state , the result only of Bevin’s personal unpopularity. They will likely also point out that the Mississippi results show that Trump has not lost his touch.

In deeply conservative Southwest Florida, however, the Kentucky results do indicate that Democratic aspirations are not misplaced and that a good candidate, hard work and effective campaigning can bring a Democratic victory.

(More to come as details become available.)

Liberty lives in light

In the ring: Cindy Banyai and the fight for Southwest Florida

Cindy Banyai (Photo: Cindy Banyai for Florida)

Nov. 3, 2019 by David Silverberg

Updated 11:52 am with spelling correction and additional quote.

Cindy Banyai is a fighter.

Literally.

During a stint as an English teacher in Japan, she fought as a professional boxer in the super welterweight class. She even retains her pugilistic standing today.

Now, she’s entered a new ring—running as a Democratic candidate in Florida’s 19th Congressional District, the coastal area from Cape Coral to Marco Island.

This one is going to be quite a bout. On Oct. 19, Republican Rep. Francis Rooney, who currently represents the District, announced his retirement. The likely candidate to replace him has not yet emerged among the sitting Republican officeholders and a dark horse may appear.

And, she will have a primary competitor. Yesterday, Nov. 2, David Holden, the Democratic candidate who ran and lost to Rooney last year, decided to enter the race.

Banyai (pronounced Banyā, with a hard “a,” a name of Hungarian origin), however, has been vigorously campaigning since she filed on Sept. 4.

“I’m passionate about Southwest Florida, our kids and making this a better place to live,” the 39-year-old mother of three, aged ten, six and two, told The Paradise Progressive. “All the people here—everyone, regardless of political party, race, gender or religion—need a voice that really represents them in Washington and I feel I can be that voice. Plus, I’ve spent my life teaching and helping organizations to operate better so I bring a lot of expertise to the role.”

Background

To say that Banyai has an eclectic resume is to put it mildly.

A native of Detroit, Mich., the former Cindy Lyn Wachowski is a graduate of Michigan State University. In 1999 she interned in the Washington, DC office of Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) where a high school sweetheart of hers, Andrew Banyai, also worked.

She was a Republican. However, as time went by, she found herself drifting further and further from her Republican roots—a common experience for many Southwestern Floridians.

“It wasn’t so much that I left the party—the party left me,” she recalls. She found that the party wasn’t addressing her concerns over families, seniors and education. “A political party has to serve people and meet their needs. I just wasn’t feeling it where I was.”

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan with intern Cindy Banyai.

She also developed an interest in international trade and after working on Spencer’s personal staff, her next internship was in the Democratic Majority Office of the Senate Finance Committee under Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), doing research on US-China trade.

That in turn sparked her interest in Asia and the Pacific. In 2002 she began teaching English in Taiwan and then Japan, where she worked for seven years. Today she can speak Chinese and Japanese—in addition to French, in which she’s proficient, Spanish and the Indonesian language of Bahasa.

Along the way, she earned her Master’s degree and a doctorate, concentrating on international relations and community development.

She returned to the United States in 2009 to marry Andrew, then a criminal defense attorney. He had joined the Fort Myers law firm of Aiken, O’Halloran & Associates in 2007 and was made a partner in 2012. Today he is executive director of the Lee County Legal Aid Society, a private, non-profit organization that provides free legal aid to low-income residents.

In the States

Banyai’s first job back in America was serving as a census taker in Lee County.

Banyai with children, Ani, JT and Evie.

“It was a great introduction to the community,” she says. “It really taught me about the people here, their lifestyles and neighborhoods. But most importantly, it opened my eyes to what has to be done to give them a good life and provide for their needs.”

In the ten years since moving to Florida, Banyai has worked as vice president of Strategy and Operations at the Institute of Organization Development, a Fort Myers consultancy that helps all kinds of organizations and companies improve and streamline their operations and provide continuing education for their employees.

She served as a consultant to the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, a funding organization that makeshundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to local organizations and then coaches recipients to use that money effectively and efficiently. “Through that process and research in nonprofit capacity, I’ve coached hundreds of nonprofit service agencies in the region,” she says.

She also joined the faculty of Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) as an adjunct professor of political science and administration, preparing materials and teaching students about global issues.

“Teaching at FGCU has been great,” she reflects. “It’s really put me in touch with students and given me a strong sense of their hopes and dreams. I want to help them reach their goals and that’s a powerful inspiration for running for office.”

But as the 2020 elections loomed, Banyai felt she could do more. “Our environment, our economy, our kids and our seniors need an active, energetic congressperson in Washington, someone who will also report back to them regularly in town halls and face-to-face meetings. I’ve never been afraid of people and certainly not the people I want to serve. So I decided to throw my hat in the ring.”

In the ring

Banyai in her boxing days.

There is no doubt that it’s going to be a rough race, a difficult path and the odds are long—but she’s unfazed. “I’ve faced tough opponents before,” says Banyai, who adds that her boxing experience has been good preparation for politics.

“You really have to put yourself out there in boxing and be vulnerable and you need to have support around you to keep going,” she reflects. “I often say you don’t really know yourself until you’ve been punched in the face. Your face is the physical you and when you get punched someone is literally attacking everything that is you. How you react from there is everything. Are you going to cry? Run? Crumble? Get overcome with emotions and act irrationally, endangering yourself? You don’t know until that first time and it’s a battle to stay ahead of your base reaction and persevere every time after that.”

Boxing was also a building experience, she says. Despite losing bouts, “I never gave up. I kept hitting the bags, improving my skill, and searching for new opportunities. Eventually, I was sponsored by the Sugar Ray Boxing Club in Japan and earned my pro card there. I learned humility, perseverance, and how to maintain composure, even when you’re getting punched in the face.”

Those are valuable lessons for a political world that’s become rougher, nastier and uglier since Donald Trump took the political stage.

But Banyai says she’s ready to take a swing at Congress—for the sake of Southwest Florida, its families and the entire country.

Liberty lives in light

BREAKING NEWS: Dems will face primary battle for 19th Congressional District seat

Holden headshot light jacket 3-7-18 10-19-19 Cindy Banyai

Cindy Banyai, David Holden

Nov. 2, 2019 by David Silverberg

Democrats in the 19th Congressional District will face a congressional primary battle next year.

After weeks of rumors, this morning David Holden of Naples, Democratic candidate for Congress in 2018, announced on Facebook that he would be entering the race. He will face Cindy Banyai, a Florida Gulf Coast University adjunct professor and organization management consultant, who filed for the office on Sept. 4.

This marks the second time District 19 Democrats will face a choice. In 2018 Holden faced Todd Truax, a senior care manager. Holden won the primary by 70 percent but lost the general election to Republican Rep. Francis Rooney by a vote of 63 to 37 percent.

Prior to last year, there had not been Democratic primary contests for the 19th District candidacy.

Rooney announced his retirement on Oct. 19. A Republican candidate has not yet filed.

Both parties’ congressional primaries will be held on Aug. 18, 2020. The deadline for candidates to file is May 1. A presidential preference primary will be held on March 17.

Liberty lives in light

SWFL delegation votes against US House rules for impeachment inquiry; Rooney open to evidence

The vote on HR 660 on the House floor. (Photo: House TV)

Oct. 31, 2019 by David Silverberg

Today the US House of Representatives established the rules for the public portion of its impeachment inquiry.

The proposed rules (House Resolution 660) passed by a party line vote of 232 to 196.

Southwest Florida’s representatives all voted against the bill.

Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) issued an extensive statement explaining his vote. As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee he had been able to participate in the closed door hearings and stated that he “found them to be fair to the participants; everyone has been able to have their questions answered except for one day which was unfortunately restricted.”

That said, he noted, “the majority of Congress, our news media and the American people have not had this access.” While today’s bill will ensure fuller public access, the fully open process used in the impeachments of presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton was better in his opinion.

As for the impeachment case itself, he stated: “I have consistently kept an open mind and listened to the facts as presented—and will continue to do so.” (Full text below.)

Rep. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), who has emerged as Southwest Florida’s fiercest defender of President Donald Trump, denounced Democrats for trying to, in his words, “undo the 2016 presidential election.” The bill passed today, he stated, is “filled with egregious tactics that prevent the minority and President Trump from having any meaningful part in this so-called impeachment inquiry and demonstrates to the American people that this is nothing but an attempt to subvert the will of nearly 63 million voters. History will not look kindly on what was done today.”

As of this writing, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) had not issued a statement on his vote.

According to the text of the bill: “…the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committees on Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, the Judiciary, Oversight and Reform, and Ways and Means, are directed to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Donald John Trump, President of the United States of America.”

The rule establishes that going forward the proceedings of the House Intelligence Committee will be open and transparent and it will work with the House Judiciary Committee as that committee proceeds with its impeachment inquiry.

Full text of Rep. Rooney’s statement:

“As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I have had the opportunity to take part in the closed-door hearings of the last several weeks and have found them to be fair to the participants; everyone has been able to have their questions answered except for one day which was unfortunately restricted. However, the majority of Congress, our news media and the American people have not had this access.

“While today’s resolution opens the way the hearings will be conducted in many ways, which is an improvement, the process is still less open to having all sides represented than prior impeachments. A truly judicial process like deployed in the Nixon and Clinton cases would be the best solution to assure due process. As to the merits of the impeachment case itself, I have consistently kept an open mind and listened to the facts as presented – and will continue to do so.”

Liberty lives in light

FGCU professor: Climate change hitting SWFL; citizen action needed — Updated

Prof. Michael Savarese addresses the Collier County Democratic Club. (Photo: author)

Oct. 23, 2019 by David Silverberg

Updated, Oct. 24 with link to Power Point presentation at end of article.

To an individual Southwest Floridian, the dangers of climate change can seem vast, global and intimidating.

What’s more, the impact of climate change is already being felt in Southwest Florida, which is particularly vulnerable given its coastal location.

But as big and as overwhelming as climate change may be, people can take action to protect themselves and their communities and make a real difference.

10-21-19 Michael Savarese — Michael Savarese

That was the message that Michael Savarese, a professor of Marine Science at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) brought to the Collier County Democratic Club meeting in North Naples on Monday, Oct. 21, in a lecture titled “Climate Change Preparedness and Community Engagement.”

Among those measures, residents can improve their preparedness for severe storms. They can urge their county and municipal governments to do more to build resilience to counter the effects of climate change. They can put a focus on mitigation, eliminating or reducing the impacts of carbon emissions. And equally important, they can educate friends and neighbors about the dangers looming ahead if nothing is done.

The problem

Climate change is already impacting Southwest Florida—sometimes severely, said Savarese.

Sea level rise is eroding more than the shore and beaches, he pointed out. It’s altering the terrain further inland. In wildlands, mangrove forests are moving inland, away from salt water invading their traditional territory. They’re going into what are now freshwater marshes.

Elsewhere, the seawater percolating inland is killing vegetation and leading to soil subsidence and the formation of brackish “pocks” in the landscape, particularly in parkland where there are no buildings or structures imposed on the environment. Those pocks expand and join together, creating lagoons of seawater where there was once dry land.

Sea level rise is threatening Southwest Florida’s barrier islands, where the interiors of the islands become seawater-infused and the vegetation dies. Though the rims of the islands remain, their centers disappear, like Pacific atolls. Sea level rise is eroding beaches, for example, at Keeywadin Island, where the back of the island becomes beachfront as existing beachfront erodes.

“Florida’s coastline is critically eroding,” he warned.

“Nuisance floods”—daytime, fair weather floods unrelated to storms—are becoming more common. These have plagued Marco Island, Goodland and Naples.

Climate change is also making storms more intense, slower moving and wetter so they do more damage when they reach land, as evidenced by recent hurricanes like Harvey, Irma and Maria.

Precipitation is changing as a result of climate change, altering past seasonal expectations. The traditional “dry” season is now wetter and its pattern is harder to predict.

Responses

Savarese didn’t just focus on the problems, he also suggested steps that citizens can take to address the challenge and he presented them in a very clear order:

Understand the vulnerabilities;
Plan to improve resilience;
Implement the plans;
Mitigate the conditions resulting from climate change.

“The key,” he said of the measures being taken, “is getting from here to there.”

Some changes are already underway. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration is in its third year of studying Collier County’s vulnerability to sea level rise and storminess and is beginning the transition to planning to cope with it. On Sanibel Island, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Coastal Partnership Initiative project is studying the City of Sanibel’s vulnerability.

“The county and city levels are fully aware and understand the basic principles of vulnerability,” said Savarese. “I’m very much trying to get people to come together.”

There are obstacles. “You have to overcome this misinformation at the federal level at the state level,” he observed. “If it takes Collier County [alone] to take steps over 10 years and no [other community] does anything, it’s all over.”

Savarese had high praise for the environmental efforts of Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.), whom he said had been an advocate for dealing with climate change and provided federal support for local efforts.

In addition to existing measures, the University of Florida and FGCU have created ACUNE (Adaptation of Coastal Urban and Natural Ecosystems), a Web-based interactive tool allowing researchers to model the path and impact of individual storms, flooding and other climate-related probabilities.

Cities, towns and counties are also banding together to create regional organizations that can pool information and resources and work together.

All these were encouraging actions, according to Savarese—but there’s a big gap.

“What are we doing about mitigation here?” asked a member of the audience.

“Nothing,” answered Savarese emphatically.

Collier County is doing nothing to mitigate the root causes of climate change in the local area, whether that would be reducing carbon being released into the atmosphere or cutting down other forms of pollution—and the need is urgent.

One action people can take is to join the Citizens Climate Lobby, an apolitical, non-partisan environmental activist group.

“There will be decisions made about funding adaptive planning and that effort will be important,” he said, urging his listeners to weigh in at the county and municipal levels when those decisions are discussed.

“If a city would sign a resolution saying that carbon-less is the way to go, that would be a beginning,” he said. “Have a target community that steps up, like the City of Naples.”

The state has appointed a “resilience officer” to oversee resilience measures. Counties and cities in Florida are doing the same. He suggested that appointment of resilience officers for Collier County and its towns would be a step forward.

Some of these steps seem very small in light of the enormity of the problem—but every single one is important, no matter how small it may seem. “Here in a community so entrenched in conservative values, it takes baby steps,” Savarese noted.

To see Prof. Savarese’s Power Point presentation, click here.

Liberty lives in light

Steube, Diaz-Balart vote for Schiff censure, Rooney not voting

01-13-19 us capitol cropped

Oct, 22, 2019 by David Silverberg

In a procedural vote yesterday, Oct. 21, two of Southwest Florida’s congressional representatives voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-28-Calif.) who, as the chairman of the House Select Intelligence Committee, is leading the impeachment inquiry into whether President Donald Trump is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

By a vote of 218 to 185, the US House of Representatives voted to table House Resolution (HR) 647. The tabling means that its consideration is postponed indefinitely, effectively killing it.

Both Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) had co-sponsored an earlier version of the legislation (HR 630) and voted for HR 647. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) did not vote.

The censure bill accused Schiff of misleading Congress and the American public, specifically when he parodied President Trump’s summary of his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In that call Trump requested that Ukraine conduct an investigation of Hunter Biden in exchange for releasing US military aid.

Trump has been tweeting relentlessly against Schiff, calling him “shifty,” “corrupt” and “a fraud.”

House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) defended Schiff in her own statement, saying: “Rep. Schiff is a great patriot. America is well-served by his strategic leadership.”

After the vote, Schiff himself tweeted: “It will be said of House Republicans, when they found they lacked the courage to confront the most dangerous and unethical president in American history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did.”

Liberty lives in light

BREAKING NEWS: ROONEY ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT, WILL NOT RUN IN 2020; Opens door to Democratic challenge

Rep. Francis Rooney announces his retirement on Fox News in an interview with host Leland Vittert.

Oct. 19, 2019 by David Silverberg

A day after he broke ranks with President Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues and two days after he publicly stated that he would be running again, Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) changed tack and announced today that he is retiring and would not be running for office again in 2020.

Rooney made his announcement and the reasoning behind it on the Fox News program “America’s News HQ” to host Leland Vittert at around 12 pm.

(The five-minute interview can be viewed in its entirety at “Rep Francis Rooney announces retirement, wants to be a ‘model for term limits.’”)

Rooney’s announcement opens the field for a wide spectrum of potential Republican candidates and should make for a lively Republican primary on August 18 of next year.

On the Democratic side the declared candidate for Rooney’s seat is Cindy Banyai, vice president of strategy and operations at the Institute of Organization Development, a Fort Myers-based company that assists organizations in improving their management and customer service practices. Banyai is also an adjunct professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.

As of this writing Banyai had not yet issued a statement on Rooney’s retirement.

On Sept. 20, Banyai authored an op-ed criticizing Rooney’s environmental record titled, “We can fight the climate change crisis in Florida and make a difference for our kids’ future” that appeared in the Fort Myers News-Press.

(Much more coverage of Rooney’s retirement and the race for his seat will be coming in the days ahead.)

Liberty lives in light

National spotlight focuses on Rooney as he breaks Republican ranks on impeachment

CNN’s Poppy Harlow interviews Rep. Francis Rooney yesterday.

604 days (1 year, 7 months, 27 days) since Rep. Francis Rooney has faced constituents in an open, public town hall forum.

Oct. 19, 2019 by David Silverberg

The national political spotlight shifted to Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) yesterday, Oct. 18, as he broke ranks with the near-solid unanimity of his House Republican colleagues and stated that President Donald Trump may have committed impeachable offenses. Rooney said he would be open to voting for impeachment if warranted—although he’s not yet convinced it’s warranted.

Rooney made his remarks following revelations by Mick Mulvaney, White House chief of staff, that Trump did indeed press Ukraine’s president for a political quid pro quo in exchange for US military assistance.

In a 10:20 am interview with CNN’s Poppy Harlow, Rooney stated:

“Whatever might have been gray and unclear before is certainly clear right now, that the actions were related to getting someone in the Ukraine to do these things. As you put on there, Senator Murkowski said it perfectly: ‘We’re not to use political power and prestige for political gain.’” (The reference is to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who had stated, “You don’t hold up foreign aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative.”).

(The full Rooney interview can be seen at “GOP lawmaker on quid pro quo: It’s serious and troubling.”)

Rooney, who has served as a US ambassador, was careful to say that he wanted more information before deciding that impeachment was warranted.

“I don’t know. I want to study it more,” he stated. “I want to hear the next set of testimony next week from a couple more ambassadors. But it’s certainly very, very serious and troubling.”

Rooney also drew a telling parallel to Watergate, which President Richard Nixon had denounced as a witch hunt.

“I don’t think this is as much as Richard Nixon did,” Rooney said. “But I’m very mindful of the fact that back during Watergate everybody said it’s a witch hunt to get Nixon. Turns out it wasn’t a witch hunt but it was absolutely correct.”

He also acknowledged that House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) “had a point” when she told Trump in a meeting that “with you all roads lead to Putin.”

“I was skeptical of it, like most Republicans,” he noted of Pelosi’s remarks. “But I have to say this business about the Ukraine server, which no one heard about until it was mentioned recently, tells me what—are we trying to exculpate Russia, who all our trained intelligence officials have consistently corroborated that Russia was behind the election meddling, not the Ukraine?”

Rooney’s openness and independence from the Trump line generated headlines in the political media.

“I didn’t take this job to keep it’: GOP Rep. Rooney hints he’s open to impeachment,” said a headline in the Washington Post. “GOP Rep. Rooney Won’t Rule Out Impeachment: It’s ‘Certainly Clear’ There Was Quid Pro Quo,” stated The Daily Beast.

Rooney further broke Republican-White House ranks when, as Politico put it: “First Republican calls for Rick Perry to answer House subpoena.” Rooney had called on the Energy Secretary to comply with the House impeachment investigation.

“Everybody that can bring any information to the table ought to testify, so that some huge mistake is not inadvertently made,” Rooney told Politico. “I’d like to see any evidence that needs to be adduced brought up and made available to people.”

Rooney’s remarks and his low fundraising totals for the past quarter have fueled speculation that he may not run again in 2020. However, his office denied this to NBC2 reporter Dave Elias in a report broadcast Thursday, Oct. 17: “Despite low fundraising, Congressman Rooney will run for office again.”

As of this writing, a query on this topic to Rooney’s office by The Paradise Progressive has not received a response.

Analysis

Under normal circumstances, Rooney’s careful, cautious expression of openness to the evidence and independent thought might not be extraordinary—but these are no ordinary times.

By simply, carefully expressing a willingness to consider the evidence and where it might lead, Rooney broke the largely solid Republican phalanx protecting the President.

But Trump is demanding what’s nearly impossible in a free, independently thinking society. He wants absolute, mindless loyalty to whatever he’s spouting at the moment, which, like the Ministry of Truth in the novel 1984, can suddenly and unexpectedly shift to its polar opposite.

After the President’s emphatic insistence that there was no quid pro quo, the White House completely altered its stance and Mulvaney said that even if there was a quid pro quo, it was no big deal. Then the White House reversed direction again and denied Mulvaney’s original statement.

All that was clearly more than Rooney could swallow.

“The president has said many times there wasn’t a quid pro quo . . . and now Mick Mulvaney goes up and says, ‘Yeah, it was all part of the whole plan,’” Rooney complained to a reporter according to Politico.

Asked by a reporter if he didn’t buy the White House walk-back on Mulvaney’s remarks, Rooney replied, “What is a walk-back? I mean, I tell you what, I’ve drilled some oil wells I’d like to walk back — dry holes.”

Several factors make Rooney’s heretical receptivity to impeachment even more significant.

First, prior to his 2016 election and all through his first term in the House, Rooney was a staunch and outspoken Trumpie, going so far in 2017 as to call for a political purge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to fill it with Trump loyalists. When Trump came to Fort Myers on Halloween, 2018, he praised Rooney’s active defense of him. “He’s brutal,” Trump said of Rooney. “He gets the job done.” For such a past loyalist and self-described conservative to now admit doubts is truly seismic.
Second, pro and anti-Trump partisans are intensely scrutinizing Republican House members for any sign of change in their positions. “REPUBLICANS MUST STICK TOGETHER AND FIGHT!” the president hysterically tweeted late yesterday. For Rooney to even admit that the evidence may lead to impeachment when the President insists on a near-Papal infallibility and unquestioning loyalty is major heresy indeed. In the media, writers are using the metaphor of a dam to describe the Republican position. Rooney may be the first crack.
Third, in a Florida Republican congressional delegation whose attitudes are marked by the extreme Trumpism of Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-1-Fla.) and Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.), Rooney’s doubts shake the very redness of the Sunshine State. With Florida an absolute must-win for Trump in 2020, if there are defections in Republican ranks, which is based on a razor-thin majority anyway, the state could go blue in 2020, ensuring a Republican presidential defeat.

Late last night, Rooney attempted to clarify his position using the current political lingua franca, a tweet: “I am in favor of finding out all of the factual information available in this process that is already underway. I did not endorse an impeachment inquiry,” he tweeted.

But at a time when the concept of “factual information” itself is in dispute, even the idea of pursuing truth makes Rooney a revolutionary.

Liberty lives in light

US House passes bill condemning Trump’s Kurdish decision; Diaz-Balart, Steube split, Rooney absent

House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi confronts President Donald Trump over his Syrian withdrawal decision at a White House meeting. (Photo: White House)

Oct. 17, 2019 by David Silverberg

In a definitive, bipartisan, overwhelming vote, the US House of Representatives yesterday condemned President Donald Trump’s precipitous withdrawal of US forces and betrayal of its Kurdish allies.

The bill, House Joint Resolution (HJRes) 77, “Opposing the decision to end certain United States efforts to prevent Turkish military operations against Syrian Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria” required a two-thirds vote to pass and did so decisively by 354 to 60 votes.

Southwest Florida’s congressional delegation split on the motion. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-25-Fla.) joined 128 other Republicans in voting for the bill. Rep. Greg Steube (R-17-Fla.) joined 59 other Republicans in opposing it. Rep. Francis Rooney (R-19-Fla.) was absent.

As of this writing, none of the congressmen had issued statements explaining their actions or absences.

In addition to opposing Trump’s decision and calling for an end to Turkish operations the bill also called on the administration to aid the Kurds with humanitarian assistance and restrain the Turkish military. Lastly, it called “on the White House to present a clear and specific plan for the enduring defeat of ISIS.”

The bill has now gone to the Senate for consideration.

Following passage of the bill, House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-12-Calif.) and Democratic lawmakers went to the White House to discuss the Syrian situation. That meeting devolved into a stormy confrontation between Pelosi and Trump, with Trump calling her a “third rate” or “third grade” politician and Pelosi telling Trump: “all roads with you lead to Putin.” Both sides characterized the other’s behavior as a “meltdown.” (An in-depth account of the meeting as reported by The New York Times can be read here.)