A KINDER, GENTLER RANDALL TERRY? WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!

In today's Palm Beach Post, political columnist George Bennett writes about Randall Terry, the anti-choice activist who co-founded Operation Rescue, who announced this week that he is challenging State Senate President Jim King (R - Jacksonville) in next year's election.

Terry tells Mr. Bennett that he "...don't want to be a protester. I want to be a statesman.", saying that his in-your-face days are over.

That didn't seem to be the case only a couple of months ago, when he was getting plenty of face time as a "spokesperson" for Terri Schiavo's parents in their efforts to prevent her feeding tube from being removed.

He also says:

"When I was leading Operation Rescue, I was in my 20s...There are things that I have said that make me wince now because that's not who I am now. I'm in my 40s. I'm in my mid-40s. I've mellowed. Hopefully I've matured."

"Some of my rhetoric was a little too strident and I did not give people the benefit of the doubt."

"I'm just not angry. I was an angry young man before. I'm a more musical young man now. I'm not middle-aged yet."

First, I'm 47, like Terry, and I'll readily admit that I'm in the "middle-aged" catagory. Get used to it, Terry.

His chances against King are slim at best. Check out my piece on him from March.