Peter Franceschina, The Sun Sentinel

December 21, 2008

Peter Franceschina
The Sun Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33316

RE: “Living Outside the Law” – The sad tale of 4 Florida elected officials who don’t live in the districts that they represent and how they were able to overcome the stigma of breaking the law because of their devotion to public service and their desire to serve the people. As told by you in today’s Sun Sentinel.

Mr. Franceschina,

I thought the picture on Page One was marvelous.

Coming under the intriguing headline “Anger at GOP Luxury Jaunt” I thought you had found a bag lady – Check out those plaid PJ bottoms! – and that the story was going to be about how 8 years of Bush-Cheney just added more lashes to already bloody back of one of Broward’s undeserving poor. Boy oh boy but was I wrong! It was a picture of Lois Wexler [D-Plantation, Weston, Frostproof, Fountain of Youth, Niceville, inter alia] She was bent over like she had adult scoliosis. I would have bet that, had she had shoes, they wouldn’t match. Perhaps she was bent over by the burden of breaking the law every day. As a public servant she probably took an oath to uphold said law. The things people do to serve the public. Sometimes you have to break the law to help people, particularly when those people can’t help themselves

I was wrong.

The last 4 sentences of your story brought tears to my eyes. Where do we find such people? Maybe it’s time to update Profiles in Courage.

“Wexler offered to give the Sun Sentinel a tour of the condo
but then canceled and did not reschedule. She said the residency
requirement has been a hardship. “It has been very difficult on
me financially,” she said. “I’ve told this story to many,
many of my constituents, and it’s a sad story.”

Yes, it is a “sad story”.

Red lights and stop signs are “difficult” sometimes. They could even be considered a “hardship”.

Sir Thomas More said, “A man on oath holds his soul in his hands as if it were water. He opens his fingers at his own peril.”

Your story reveals still more suffering souls.

Jim Waldman [D – Coconut Creek, Ybor, Carol City, Mayport, inter alia]
Susan Bucher [D- Boynton Beach, Boca del Vista, Boca del Mentiros, Boca del Ladrones, Boca del Ginebra, inter alia]
Maria Sachs [D - Delray, Boca del Beppo, Boca del Caca, inter alia]

They have several things in common. They don’t live in the district that they represent. By publicly flouting the law and by publicly flaunting their disregard of the law, the glue that holds society together they share yet one more thing in common. They all have the letter D after their names.

It would be a chalk bet that they all swear allegiance to the law when it suits them. The reason they are able to do this is because they share another common trait. They are MALs. Modern American Liberals are all things to all men, particularly to themselves. Little things, things like where they live, are subordinate to the interests of making this a better place to live, a better place for the children, and, of course, the manatees. How can a silly law about where you live stand in the way of progress?

“This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast
and if you cut them down do you think you could
stand upright tin the winds that would blow then?”

Wexler, the trend setting Congressman from Florida, Maryland, and Oz, a man about whom it is impossible to say enough bad things, has more houses than Holiday Inn. Such is his devotion to public service that he has inspired his acolytes here to do likewise. He is Screwtape to these Wormwoods.

Are you sure his Broward namesake wasn’t a bag lady? She has that look about her.