-Caveat Lector- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/tours/scandal/article.htm
> Longworth Building, Room 1506, Independence and New Jersey > Avenues SE -- Can't Type? No Problem After two years, Elizabeth Ray > had had enough. She had been on the payroll of Rep. Wayne Hays of > Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee. But while she > had a desk, a phone, a typewriter and a healthy taxpayer-funded > salary, Ray claimed she was paid not for her office work but for > being Hays' girlfriend. When she brought her story to the Post, > she was being paid $14,000 a year. She told The Post that she > couldn't type and wouldn't answer the phone, and that she was > worried about losing her "job" after Hays married his longtime > secretary. The revelation ended Hays' Hill career; shortly after it > hit the newspaper, he almost ended his life with an overdose of > prescription pills. Despite investigations into his indiscretions > (with the payroll more than the girl), he was never tried. > Elizabeth Ray's confessions made page one. > > Her book: "The Washington Fringe Benefit." From http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/McCarthy051202/mccarthy051202.html }}}>Begin Online Journal Contributing Editor Risky business and fast times at Feeney High May 12, 2002�HELP WANTED: The Christian Coalition's man of the year and Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Tom Feeney is looking for unqualified degreeless bimbette to raise money for putative congressional campaign. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a decided resemblance to Rebecca DeMornay a decided plus. If you can spell your own name you qualify." Even if that was the ad former Hooters waitress and Republican operative Bridgette Gregory answered, she still would have a problem other than the fact that she fell far short of the requirements of the job Feeney hired her for. According to Palm Beach Post reporter S.V. (Shirish) D�te's excellent story which appeared on Feb. 28, the taxpayer funded $55,000-plus "aide" by the name of Bridgette Gregory�who bears a striking resemblance to "entrepreneur" Rebecca DeMornay in "Risky Business"� couldn't even spell her name right. In numerous notification letters Gregory sent out to folks appointed to boards and commissions by Feeney, not only did Gregory exhibit awful grammar, she misspelled her own name several times. Another beaut of a letter she sent out to Seminole Tribe member James Billie read: "Please except [sic] my sincerest congratulations.." In fact Gregory's hiring and role, according to D�te and the Post was to (mis)use her state position to hustle money from lobbyists for Feeney's congressional campaign. Feeney admits that Gregory is running his campaign, but denied she used his offices to solicit lobbyists. The record, as D�te and the Post show, suggest otherwise. As for qualifications, the position Gregory was hired for required a degree. Gregory had no degree. Florida State University had her listed as a dropout and "not in good standing." But her standing was just fine with Tom Feeney who tried to re-write the job description upon learning that the Palm Beach Post was on to the shell game. Feeney fired back by banning D�te from the House floor, claiming the reporter shoved an aide. The banishment in fact occurred even before the story ran. Indeed, Feeney held a press conference days before the Post story ran to defend Ms. Gregory's�and his own� honor. Palm Beach Post editor Ed Sears defends both D�te's story (although the Post did issue one puzzling correction to the story which came across as throwing a bone to Feeney) and D�te s comportment on the House floor. In an email interview with Online Journal Sears said, "The whole banishment bit was a sham. The speaker was annoyed by the story not some alleged pushing and shoving." The Prosecution Calls Lucy Morgan My old friend and source of political gossip par excellence, the estimable Erin Brock, emailed me about the banishment of D�te . To my shock, Erin suggested that Feeney's star witness was none other than Pulitizer prizer Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times. After diligently searching the record, I couldn't find any stories verifying this or suggesting anything of the sort. Finally confirmation (of sorts) came from Miz Lucy herself in an email interview with Online Journal: "I haven't offered to be a witness for anyone," Morgan coyly protested, but I did decline to beat up on Feeney because I witnessed the incident that led to D�te's banishment from the House floor." And what did Morgan witness? "I saw D�te shove aside two of the sergeants deputies and attempt to grab Gregory by the shoulder." "Any other witnesses?" I asked, hoping she would give me the name of other reporters. "Kim Stone," Morgan replied. Stone, as Morgan points out, is another aide to Tom Feeney. Hmmm ... Morgan's version of events, you might well guess, is highly suspect in some quarters. Erin and another reporter I spoke with (who declined to go on the record) are of the opinion that Morgan's Republican sympathies or the fact that another paper broke the story, might lead her to embellish the facts or suffer from a faulty memory. However, still another reporter, who asked to remain anonymous, did witness the incident. He said Morgan's characterization was only partially correct. "I'd say D�te was aggressive. But it's not like he grabbed anyone and threw them aside. They stood in front of him, which they had no business doing in the first place. It was off the House floor, after all. And Shirish just pushed past them. It certainly didn't merit banishment," he said. "As for trying to grab her [the aide] by the shoulder, none of us, including Lucy, could possibly have witnessed that as it happened in a separate room," he added Erin Brock upped ye olde ante, saying it's her understanding that Morgan also put the kabosh on a petition condemning a fellow reporter's banishment. A skeptic might interpret Morgan's response as "Clintoneque." "To the best of my knowledge there was no petition circulated . . . I did receive a memo from AP that was sent to the entire press corps asking if we wanted to jointly sign a letter of protest to Feeney. "A subsequent memo indicated that most people in the press corps did not want to sign such a letter," Morgan responded. No matter whether or why a petition supporting D�te was circulated, the question remains why didn't fellow reporters circle the wagons? I'd say my friend Erin Brock's perspective probably explains the glaring failure to support D�te in any meaningful way: "It's all about access and appeasement, none of which are worth much...unless you're after spoon-fed pabulum and state-sanctioned news. Unfortunately, too many seem to be." Bimbettes and Banishments D�te is not the only one to suffer the wrath of Feeney over Gregory and to suffer banishment from the king's lair for his transgression. Republican Nancy Agrenziano of Dunellion was booted off the House Budget Committee by Feeney for not so fondly referring to Gregory and Kim Stone as Feeney's overpaid "Bimbettes." Argenizano was protesting the high salaries paid to Stone and Gregory and another aide, former Rep Paul Hawkes, who is raking in $146,000, while Feeney wants to cut funding for health care and other programs for senior citizens. "I'm a Republican . . . and this makes us look bad," she said. For what it's worth, the Orlando Sentinel also reported that the Christian Coalition's man of the year was also accompanied on several trips by Ms. Gregory. Risky business there, Father Feeney. Inquiring minds do want to know if you dance in your underwear? Your tax dollars at work, folks. Jack McCarthy for 15 years was managing editor and a columnist for the Tallahassee independent daily, "The Florida Flambeau," now defunct. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Download a printable version. For a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader, click here. The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not necessarily reflect those of Online Journal. Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright � 1998-2002 Online Journal�. All rights reserved. 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