Katherine Harris received $32,000 in illegal campaign donations

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Katherine Harris Goes Into Hiding...

PORT CHARLOTTE -- Already trying to avoid the media, Longboat Key Republican Katherine Harris is now canceling campaign stops in Southwest Florida as questions swirl about her ties to a Washington, D.C., defense contractor at the center of an ongoing national bribery scandal.

Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate, abruptly canceled a stop in Charlotte County on Saturday, and four other events planned for Lee and Collier counties were removed from her campaign Web site.

It's another sign that Harris' struggling campaign is now in full crisis mode. Political consultants say that shying away from the public right now is also a bad strategy.

"She can't hide and expect this to go away," said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant. "It looks like her campaign is circling the wagons."

The company's owner admitted in federal court that he gave $32,000 in illegal campaign donations to Harris.

"Now there is a buzz in Washington," Harris said on the call.

Harris' ties to defense contractor MZM Inc. have been under the microscope since Feb. 24.

That's the day when MZM founder Mitchell Wade admitted to bribing one member of Congress and giving Harris illegal contributions in March 2004.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060305/NEWS/603050833

[MadMaddie]

1. Oooops guess Katherine oughta be getting ready for her

new bunk mate......in prison!!

[warrens]

3. Big Marge is changing the sheets and dusting the window treatments

And setting out the good china.

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. It's all part of the big picture

Just one more shard of jagged glass in an already ugly mosaic. In a few years, once we add everything up, put all the glass shards in place, step back for a proper perspective, and look at all the several crimes of Spurious George and the rest of the Bush League, an almost obsessively detailed plan to consolidate the world's resources into the hands of a few greedy and undeserving people will reveal itself in all its marvellous complexity.

Nobody in the Evil Empire expected that the public would finally get to see large chunks of the big picture before it was too late. They believed all their handiwork would become a fait accompli before anyone would notice. But they miscalculated, silly geese that they are; we have noticed, and now they'll be on notice.