Is Florida Rudy Country?

His signs claim so, but January 29 will decide. As I sat waiting for Giuliani to appear wrapped in our flag, I had the distinct feeling that there was a scarlet D on my forehead, much the same feeling that Hester Prynne must have had with her scarlet A in the novel, but hers was real, mine imagined. How many other Democrats were pretending to be Republicans (non-closet variety) in the Shell Point Church auditorium on January 14? What a crowd! Would that a Democratic primary candidate should appear here as well and attract even a quarter of the number of warm bodies surrounding me. Frankly, judging from the number of vehicles ravaging our lawns I'd say that Rudy's audience was a combination of our own residents, Naples plutocrats, and Fort Myers laborers in their work clothes.

When the audience's collective clock showed that he was already 40 minutes late he suddenly emerged from the stage wings with his legendary toothy smile aglow. He was late someone suggested because his presidential motorcade was stuck in traffic. I offered the comment that presidential motorcades do not get stuck in traffic, only we do. Perhaps Rudy is a dreamer and foresees a presidency in his future. One thing we do not need is a second delusional president. The crowd certainly did not erupt with applause, but it was polite. Let's say it sounded like several subway trains pulling into the Times Square station simultaneously, our own friendly way of letting him know that we knew of his New York City background. Had we forgotten, he would have reminded us (and he did) in a split second of how he saved New York during 9/11. This was his lead-in to a report he heard on the radio while stuck in traffic from Naples about a luxury hotel bombing in Kabul, something that would never occur when he becomes president. He reminded us of the first of his Twelve Commitments (read: Commandments) which is that "I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists' War on Us". Did his grammar advisor mean to say U.S.? Rudy does not resort to implications; instead he flat out claims that Democrats would allow this to happen.

Number four in his commitments is to cut taxes and reform the tax code. This is nothing new for a Republican, but his claim that if a Democrat is elected he or she will raise taxes 20 to 30% is a claim clearly his own. Filling out your income tax form will no longer be a chore either; in his new simplified Tax Code everyone will fill out one page only. Using the "Change" mantra which many politicians are chanting these days, he did make a rather amusing remark, claiming that the only change the Democrats are interested in is removing the change from your pocket. He ended this portion of his program by announcing that while mayor of New York he made 23 tax cuts. To insure that all the money you saved by utilizing his cuts stayed in the family there would be no inheritance tax at all. Big applause!

In the closing Q & A session he would end illegal immigration and expand legal immigration. Definitions of these two concepts were lacking, but he did say that all of his grandparents were immigrants who could not read and write English, but they learned these necessary skills by using their children's school books. This was a perfect lead-in to education while he feels is entirely a choice to be made by parents and not government. He also holds the state of Texas up as a model for settling lawsuits; I half expected him to recommend the death penalty for anyone who files suit. No, he would place a quarter million cap on any financial awards made in any lawsuit including those brought against doctors, who are leaving many states and migrating to Texas, where presumably they are manning the ramparts against the hordes of invading migrants in the Second Battle of the Alamo.

Wanting to leave the audience with the message that is his number one commitment, he closed with Terrorism which he counts as his strong suit. Admittedly, he knows his facts on this one, reciting every attack on U.S. property overseas before 9/11. It seemed as though he was undercutting the importance of 9/11 at the same time that he was claiming to be the savior of New York when that event occurred. Strange logic, strange man!

Byrnes vs. Neeld:Your Choice

Though Larry Byrnes and Robert Neeld are not running in the Democratic primary on January 29 their chance to compete will occur on August 26 with the winner ready to compete again in the November 4 general election against Republican Connie Mack IV as our representative in the 14th Congressional District. Both gentlemen will be featured at the Club's general meeting on January 26 in the Grand Cypress Room in the Woodlands. Mack has been entrenched in this post for years and has served the wishes of the area's developers and not the general populace. Trading on the popularity of his ancestry (witness the IV after his name), Mack has also been rumored to be living in California, though he maintains a home in Naples and has three offices in this area.

Larry Byrnes, who lives in Fort Myers, has for 44 years been an educator, including the first Dean of the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University where he is now a professor. I can find no record that he has ever run for or been elected to public office. His website http://www.byrnesforcongress.com/ is not very informative frankly. It features the usual electioneering platitudes: no mom and apple pie, but everything else. Pictures of his family abound. In all fairness he emphasizes education, which is his specialty, health care, the environment, and re-deploying troops from Iraq, all good things to be in favor of. His ads usually show him in running gear and ask you to join him, either a mildly clever attempt to let you know that he is running for office and needs your vote or else to show voters that he is in great physical shape and will not drop dead and leave voters to go through a special election if he cannot complete his term or, even worse, give our Republican governor the chance to appoint an interim Republican to replace him. . Take your pick. With seven months till the primary election for local offices we hope that he will revise his website and add some substantive opinions to it.

Robert Neeld, a resident of Cape Coral where he operates an accounting business, is evidently unmarried since there are no smiling family pictures on his website. Perhaps he is married and realizes the irrelevance of such pictures to his qualifications for office. If so, someone needs to tell him that pictures of him refereeing sports events are just as irrelevant. He has run for public office in the past and has been defeated. His website includes the same generalities as Byrnes' but does include his opinions on some issues that are controversial, issues that Byrnes avoids. You can read it at http://www.neeldforcongress.com/ Besides emphasis on health care, the environment, and education, he specifically advocates the right of citizens to bear arms, quoting Amendment II Bill of Rights amendments to the Constitution, which does make one wonder if he is anti-gun control. Nowhere is there any mention of re-deploying our troops from Iraq; strange, since it is an important issue with voters. He opposes the Family Marriage Amendment and the Right to Life Amendment and feels that the Patriot Act has gone too far in expanding the government's power on matters of domestic surveillance. Robert, you also have seven months to tell us even more about the issues that concern Democrats.

Read the websites of these two candidates and plan to attend the January 26 meeting with your questions for them. If you are driving to Shell Point drive west on Summerlin Road toward Sanibel. After passing the intersection of Summerlin and McGregor Boulevard stay in the right lane and exit at the next traffic light (Shell Point Boulevard). Proceed past the Comfort Inn and Suites and Golf Course entrances and turn right at the Woodlands guard station. Tell the guard that you are going to a meeting in the Grand Cypress Room in the Commons. He will direct you where to park.

New Health Care Blog

Health care is high on the list of issues which concern American voters. And well it should be considering the disastrous state of the American health care system. No one takes this more seriously than Richard Curtin, who is a retired surgeon and a Shell Point resident. As he states in his blog, health insurance in our mostly private market-based system is lacking for millions of Americans and millions of others are under-insured. The U.S. health care costs are double those of many other leading industrial nations though the results are appreciably lower. But why not let Richard speak for himself! To access his blog go to http://rrchealth.blogspot.com/