YOU GOTTA ASK YOURSELF...CAN "THE LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE CHATTERING CLASS" REALLY GET OVER THIS BUMP IN THE ROAD???

The St. Petersburg Times has a great piece this morning about the new crisis facing Congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris (R - Longboat Key), as she faces questions about her connections to a former defence contractor at the centre of the bribery case which forced the resignation of California congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Prosecutors say they do not believe that Harris knew that $32,000 of the $50,000 she received from MZM, Inc. employees and their spouses were illegal because they were reimbursed by company founder Mitchell Wade. After initally refusing to return the contributions, Harris donated the amount to charity after urging by staff members.

MZM, which Wade started in 1993, was a high-tech national security firm that did intelligence gathering, technology and homeland security analysis and consulting for private companies and governments. At one time, MZM had almost $200-million in government contracts.

Court documents say Wade took Harris, described as Representative B, to dinner early last year in Washington to discuss a possible Harris fundraiser and MZM's hope for a Navy counterintelligence facility in Sarasota.
Wade later prepared a proposal for the program and submitted it to Harris' staff.

Harris sent a letter to Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, the Indian Shores Republican who heads the defense appropriations subcommittee, outlining the $10-million request for the MZM facility. Young's office followed its usual policy and would not release the letter, and Harris had not decided Wednesday whether she would.

Harris' spokeswoman, Borie, said she does not know why the MZM project was not funded. Young's committee received 3,570 requests from 392 members last year. Most were not funded, with no explanation.

This is happening just as fellow Republicans were quieting their doubts as to wheather Harris, who was Florida's Secretary of State while serving as co-chair of President Bush's campaign at the time of his 2000 "hanging chads" election, could successfully challenge Democratic incumbant Bill Nelson.