Hillary Hypes ’08 Campaign

Sen. Hillary Clinton has already banked $2.85 million in advance for her White House years’ spinography, “Living History.” The deal with Simon & Schuster is worth $8 million.

But she’s banking on more.

This is a campaign book: Hillary in ’08: “History Will Absolve Me.”

She’s not about to challenge a popular incumbent, so an ’04 run against President George W. Bush is out. Moreover, the timing of her book relegates the announced Democratic candidates to a publicity gulag and further diminishes their stature — and chances.

Sen. Clinton’s game plan is transparently pragmatic. She can continue to earn a hard-working reputation in the Senate, earn more chits as the Democratic Party’s top elected fund-raiser and look to be re-elected senator from New York in ’06. In ’08, the Clinton White House years’ focus is likely to be more on economic nostalgia than scandals, and there will be no incumbent to encumber her.

Plus, she now gets a chance to get all the seamier parts of the Clinton years out of the way — on her own terms. A little Whitewater whitewash, some victimization over Monica and a lot of humanizing for an otherwise calculating ideologue. She can spin it in the finest tradition of memoir bias.

Down the road, inevitably uncomfortable questions can be dismissed with a “that-was-then-this-is-now” refrain. She can underscore that with: “I’ve already dealt with that in my book.”

The woman is smart, tough, wealthy and increasingly viable as a presidential candidate in ’08. She’s doing it her way, with a little help and a lot of money from “Living Herstory.”

Iorio: Running For Office Easier Than Running The Office

Pam Iorio didn’t have to wait long to get a real feel for what being mayor was all about. Less than an hour after being sworn in, a police official took her aside and said they had a “security situation.”

As it turned out, it was a false alarm. But, nonetheless, it was a sobering reminder that running for office is nothing like running that office.

“It really hit home right away,” recalls Iorio. “You are now responsible for the safety and welfare of a large number of people, and you have to be prepared to step up to the plate.”

And that plate looks a lot bigger from the office of the mayor than from the office of elections supervisor.

There are bizarre distractions such as a possible public-nudity referendum. There also loom some mettle-detecting, rite-of-passage discussions with the Glazer family over Raymond James Stadium.

Then there are foreboding amphitheater scenarios; the unfinished Cancer Survivors Plaza; lots of frustrated homeowners on Davis Islands; no state money for the new downtown art museum; and the reality that reclaimed water may not be economically feasible for New Tampa. Then there’s that sizable tab the city pays long-term, retiring employees for accrued sick and vacation pay. Or even the little tab the city used to pick up for sandwiches brought in for Architectural Review Commission members. And more.

“Yes, there have been quite a few transitional issues and challenges,” acknowledges Iorio. “That’s not unexpected, and we’ll work through them. City hall has been a very decentralized organization, and that needs to change.”

To the surprise of some, Iorio has backed off some campaign positions and qualified others. On the campaign trail, for example, she vowed to hire the next police chief internally. Now she doesn’t preclude the possibility of a national search to get the right person.

On the hustings, she also said a uniform, $12-a-year, residential stormwater tax made the most sense. She has since reconsidered.

To many, Iorio was the poster pol for generational change in city hall. Yet she has retained Ron Rotella, Dick Greco’s go-to guy for development, as a contracted consultant.

“You’re given more information now than you were as a candidate,” explains Iorio. “You literally know more. And the perspective is totally different. It’s the nature of a candidate to have a very superficial dialogue going on. Governing is all facts.

“Being the mayor instead of a candidate means looking at the possibility of national searches and revisiting the stormwater fee because we want a fee and a structure in place that will stand court tests and provide a meaningful framework for stormwater problem-solving,” adds Iorio. “And, yes, that (includes keeping) Rotella on a contract in case we need to tap his institutional knowledge.

“And I suppose it also means doing things that aren’t in your short-term political interest but will serve long-term goals for the community.”

Two priorities that haven’t altered any, underscores Iorio, are the twin commitments to the cultural arts and to East Tampa revitalization.

“Yes, we are going to be successful in raising the money to build the museum,” Iorio emphasizes. “But the important point is that it’s not just the museum. It’s about a larger district that includes a riverwalk, a new and improved Ashley Street and a park that people will bring their families to. It’s about creating a city where creative energies are appreciated and fostered. A climate where musicians, artists and filmmakers find a home. This is the kind of city we can be.”

The kind of city that can’t afford to leave any neighborhood behind.

Tampa recently wrapped up its highly publicized crackdown on drugs and crime in East Tampa. The two-week tally: 449 arrests and 383 code violations. The final score: yet to be determined.

“Open drug deals and known crack houses — that’s just unacceptable,” stresses Iorio. “That has to be unacceptable in ALL neighborhoods. That’s a community value. We’ll never be the city we can be until we bring every neighborhood up to standard.”

And she has words of warning for those who may have been “laying low” for a fortnight until the much-hyped “Operation Commitment” ended.

“The commitment is not going away,” promises Iorio. “Everything will now get done out of the headlines. But we will have stepped-up enforcement. And to those who planned on ‘laying low’ for a while, well, you’ll be laying low for at least four years.”

Happy Birthday, Gladys and Jerry

Ever find your eyes wandering to the “Today’s Birthdays” feature of the daily newspaper — only to reaffirm that you’ve never heard of most of those mentioned? The latest ingenue or rapper isn’t part of your frame of reference.

Did you really need yet another reminder that when it comes to the culture of the mainstream, you’re stuck in a societal retention pond?

But then there was, well, validation the other day. May 28 apparently yielded only two birthdays of general public note. Singer Gladys Knight might be Pip-less, but she’s still going strong at 59. Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry West turned 65. It’s still hard to accept “Zeke from Cabin Creek (WV)” qualifying for Social Security, but I can still see him sticking a long jumper any time, any place.

Greco: Some Things Never Change

Dick Greco has left the building. The one on East Jackson. Now he’s in an office complex up on North Florida. Closer to Avila than Harbour Island. Troubleshooting for Eddie DeBartolo.

The trappings are as different as City Hall and the Magdalene Center.

His office is smaller. Less memorabilia. There’s room for a couple of footballs. And the walls are bedecked with several recent awards.

And a few favorite photos. Dick and Linda Greco. Dick and Jeb Bush. Dick and George W. Bush. Dick and Bill Clinton. Dick and Tommy Franks. Dick and George Steinbrenner. Dick and Linda and Fidel Castro. Dick and the other two-thirds of “Los Tres Amigos”: Jim Palermo and Fernando Noriega. Reminders of long-term loyalty and the circles Greco travels in.

His effusive, tactile manner, of course, is the same. “You look great. Working out? How’s that pretty wife of yours?”

Something else hasn’t changed.

He still notices stuff. In fact, if you see a guy in a black Pontiac rubbernecking down Channelside Drive staring at the trolley, go easy and lay off the horn. It may be a curious tourist, but it’s probably Greco.

“I still look to see how many are riding the trolley,” he says.

Earlier this month he called TECO to report street lights out near the Davis Islands bridge and Bayshore Boulevard. And he doesn’t always exit I-275 at Bearss Avenue on the way to work. He likes to vary the route to see more. He notices details such as overgrown weeds. He’s having lunch with a DOT acquaintance this week and he plans to present a short list of landscaping eyesores.

“I can’t stop looking,” explains Greco. “I will always do that. Just because I’m not mayor doesn’t mean I’m no longer interested. This is my home.”

He says he’s happy with his post-mayoral life, even if his biweekly columns in the Tampa Tribune are proving more challenging and time-consuming than anticipated.

After all, Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. is a close friend; he has history with the company; and the DeBartolo Property Group is not exactly a cloister. And the erstwhile “developer-mayor” is there to help do deals. He can talk the talk of zoning and DRI’s or just go on schmooze control. He knows government and has friends in notably high places.

Greco reminisces briefly on a quintessential day at the City Hall office. He could get as many as 200 calls. He remembers as many as 17 appointments.

And he misses it. To call Greco a “people person” is like calling Sam Rashid a “political activist.” Greco doesn’t suffer strangers.

He doesn’t, however, miss the mayor’s role in the grave new world of terrorism and municipal security.

“September 11 changed everyone’s life,” notes Greco. “Especially anyone responsible for public safety. I’ve seen all sorts of awful things over the years from accidents to shootings. You get those calls — and they can come at any hour — and you’re almost relieved if it’s ‘only’ a shooting and not someone blowing up an ammonia tank.

“I’ve been to too many ‘what-if’ briefings,” adds Greco. “But that’s the way it is now. And it’ll never be the same.”

It doesn’t take much for the 69-year-old senior vice president to reflect further. The photos are an easy prompt.

President George W. Bush: “I like the guy; he’s genuine. Very relaxed. It’s uncanny how a president can still give a sense of ‘being one of the guys.’ You really do feel like you’re with a friend. The generals at MacDill love him.”

Former President Bill Clinton: “His way with people is as good as I’ve ever seen. He can capture a crowd, and he can put you personally at ease. He talked to me like he knew me for 50 years. We rode together from the airport to Hillsborough High School. He asked me about the CIT. I told him what it would pay for, including the stadium and schools. At the high school, he had the crowd in 10 seconds. It was dead quiet. Then it flowed. He quoted everything I told him about keeping the Bucs and keeping students off double sessions. Didn’t miss a detail.”

Gen. Tommy Franks: “Very humble, very gracious. Very good sense of humor. He sees something good in everybody. Has a profound affection for his troops. Personally feels any loss. Will admit to crying in private. A great general, but an even greater man. He doesn’t just delegate authority. He delegates credit. You go to his place for dinner, and he introduces the cook and credits him for a great meal.”

George Steinbrenner: “A good, loyal friend. He’s there when the chips are down. Does so many good things that people never hear about. And he does it all the time. Kind of man who doesn’t want to give the impression that he has a soft side. Fiercely proud and always plays to win. I even know that from tennis. He runs everything down and dives if he has to. I don’t.”

Fidel Castro: “I don’t admire him, but he has a presence. As smooth as you’ll find. He seemed humble and respectful. Said all the right things. No lectures. He’s 76 and didn’t appear to be slipping — and we met for nearly five hours. Even sounded like a man who might want to change. People say he’s a ‘master showman.’ If it was a show, he was certainly the star.”

Castro’s recent crackdown on dissidents, however, hasn’t dashed all hope for the habitually optimistic Greco.

“Yes, it’s disappointing and discouraging,” acknowledges Greco, “but I still believe in talking to anybody. If I thought I could make a difference, I’d do it again.”

One thing Greco won’t do — at least not yet — is criticize or “assess” how his successor, Pam Iorio, is doing. He leaves it at: “Pam is younger and vigorous and will make some changes. That’s good.”

But he does want to set the record straight on term limits. Had they been repealed, he insists, he would not have run for another term.

“Committing to another four years would have taken me well into my 70’s,” he points out. “That wasn’t fair to Linda or me.

“Frankly, 18 years is enough. I’m happy with what I’m doing now. In fact, there are some things the company can do for the city.”

And he didn’t mean lighting on Bayshore or landscaping along I-275.

New News On Bay Area TV

Not that anyone asked, but here are a few suggestions for the Bay Area’s newest entry into television news, Town ‘N Country-based WTTA, Channel 38. The 10 p.m. newscast should be on air by mid-July.

1) Please keep us informed about the weather, but don’t hype and tease and scare us because hurricane season is here. Actually, it’s always here — or the drumbeat countdown to it is.

2) There are countless network, cable and internet vehicles for over-reporting national news. Let the others continue to pile on with redundant coverage of Laci Peterson or arsenic poisonings in Maine. Stick to local news for local viewers.

3) If you’re going to do sports, please place a premium on telling us who won and lost and not on-air “personalities” and inane happy talk.

Operation Golf War: Game Within The Game

Here’s what Operation Golf War or the “Annika Sorenstam Open” was really about.

First, it was a marketing coup. The Bank of America Colonial, which typically doesn’t excite the national media, was off the charts with coverage. More than 600 reporters and the MetLife blimp hovered over and probed the event’s main attraction: Annika Sorenstam. Galleries engulfed her. Sponsors could not have been giddier had Tiger been playing.

Moreover, Sorenstam will cash in with the sort of celebrity endorsements no performance on the LPGA tour could have produced.

Second, we need to remember that this was no Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs “Battle of the Sexes” sham that should have been covered by Barbara Walters. This wasn’t some made-for-TV Fort Worthless burlesque. This was legit, and not just because Sorenstam is that good. While the Colonial is not the most demanding PGA course, this was a bona fide men’s tour event with a number of world class players such as Sergio Garcia.

Third, the game, remember, is golf. Players compete against themselves and the course. It’s not a contact sport, nor is it one where sheer power is a determinative element. At the Colonial, Sorenstam’s average driving distance was 268 yards. The two-round average for the guys was 279. If anything, it was, not surprisingly, her putting that let her down — not an average driving deficit of 11 yards.

Golf is more about eye-and-hand coordination, technique, touch, experience, consistency and mental toughness. These qualities are not the exclusive province of the Y-chromosome crowd. Saying Sorenstam couldn’t compete would be like saying Chi Chi Rodriguez was too slight to play golf for a living, which would have teed off a lot of guys.

While Sorenstam didn’t make the Colonial cut, she did prove she could compete. She shot a 5 over 145 for 36 holes. And there’s no telling how many strokes the saturation media coverage and attendant distractions were worth.

By the way, Sergio Garcia, unimpeded by a media crush, shot a 143 and didn’t make the cut either.

Just one of those days for Sergio.

Just one of those media cross-hairs experiences for Annika.

Blair Niche Project: A Disservice To All

The aftermath of that notorious New York Times ‘ case of journalistic fraud has prompted a predictable and exhaustive reaction from the Times . It went on the offensive with an unprecedented page-one explanation and expiation of the Jayson Blair affair. With two jumps, the mother of all mea culpas ran to some 7,200 words. An editor’s note also pledged internal inquiries.

Ultimately, however, the public will forgive and forget, even forgetting what it forgave. How many folks — other than hand-wringing media mavens and Ben Bradlee — still remember Washington Post Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter-fabricator Janet Cooke? Anyone still care that it was a New York Times editorial writer, Herbert Matthews, who was duped into romancing the rebel that was Fidel Castro? The Times in time will metaphorically remove that New York strip steak from its black eye and go about its business as America’s newspaper of once-tarnished record.

But talk of “lessons learned” will continue apace. Here are two that should be among them.

The media, especially the New York Times , are serious business, albeit a unique, First Amendment-charged one. There’s a bottom line on the ledger, and there’s a bottom line on employee behavior and ethics.

The media aren’t immune to the venal side of human nature; that’s not the unconscionable part. That the 152-year-old, iconic Times had all the oversight of a mom-and-pop enterprise is. Between October of 2002 and April, Blair filed stories claiming to be from 20 cities in six states. No one noticed — or seemingly cared — that the self-promoting, plagiarizing Blair hadn’t submitted any receipts for hotels, rental cars or plane tickets. Heads besides Blair’s should have rolled.

In addition, no one questioned Blair’s blatant overuse of anonymous sources. They were not just unnamed — but unnameable — and the Times never asked.

Second, and even more important, however, is allowing any priority — including diversity — to trump responsibility to readers, who frankly don’t notice — or much care about — bylines. The Times has been particularly vulnerable on this score. Its track record on hiring minorities in the newsroom has never been a bragging point. It’s always been easier to champion affirmative action than to implement it.

The 27-year-old Blair was fast-tracked since he came to the Times in 1998 as part of an internship program designed to improve the paper’s racial diversity. He had studied at the University of Maryland, but didn’t graduate. He also had done interning at the New York Times -owned Boston Globe . Those are credentials? Reporters at papers much less prestigious than the Times often begin their careers at weeklies and small dailies to learn the journalistic ropes. It can be as humbling as it is educational. Journalists need both.

Blair bypassed such incubators and crucibles — and was soon carving out a reputation for errors, suspect skills and immaturity. But he seemed to have enough enablers, including a black managing editor who apparently acted as a mentor.

The Times readily admits that Blair’s duplicity was a betrayal of trust to readers and acknowledges a need to “examine the newsroom’s processes for training, assignment and accountability.”

What the Times also should have admitted was that it was using Blair. His “scoops” were giving him an increasingly high-profile. He started to appear on camera as well as on page one. He was becoming a promotional coup and a marketing tool. Blair was proof positive that the Times wasn’t just kick-butt aggressive, but it was also “walking the walk” of inclusion.

Ultimately the Times did Blair no favors by allowing him to bypass a meaningful apprenticeship. Worse yet, it ill served the other 375 reporters at the Times, as well as journalists everywhere — especially all hard-working, lower-profile, highly competent newsroom minorities who don’t have to weave a trail of deception to get noticed.

Moreover, the Times’ lousy faire attitude toward accountability only reinforced the troubling trend in the media for news reporters to morph into news celebrities. Ashleigh Banfield was bad enough.

Imagine, the Times expended more than 7,000 words to explain and apologize for itself — and still left stuff out.

Tallahassee Takes: Jeb to Johnnie

The conservative Weekly Standard ran a recent piece on Gov. Jeb Bush, anointing him as the early favorite for the GOP 2008 presidential nomination.

As Dana Carvey might say, “Wouldn’t be prudent.” Even with the best possible spin on Jeb’s controversial tenure as governor. Even with the understanding that Jeb was his own family’s top presidential choice before his loss to Lawton Chiles and brother George W.’s upset of Anne Richards. Even though Jeb’s a quicker study and a better debater than his president brother.

Here’s why Bush in ’08 only works if the 22nd Amendment is repealed for George W.

Americans respect a familial legacy, but not something akin to aristocracy. Father-to-son is fine. It worked for the Adamses and it’s already worked for the Bushes. The third would not be a charm. It would smack of monarchy and entitlement. And Jeb’s arrogance would underscore it.

*Recently a big deal was made of a poll conducted by several of this state’s largest daily newspapers. Some of “The Voters Speak” results were, well, weird.

For example, despite this state’s fiscal miasma of a Legislative session and budget roulette, 54 per cent of respondents said they would still vote for the amendment to reduce class sizes. That’s even more than voted for it (52 per cent) on last November’s ballot.

In addition, 58 per cent of respondents indicated they “disapproved” of “the job the Florida Legislature did in the recently concluded legislative session.” Why not 100 per cent? It meant that 42 per cent either approved or didn’t know enough to be appalled by that embarrassing, do-nothing circus.

*House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, the man most responsible for driving the regular Legislative session into a ditch, did accomplish something of note. Imagine making voters nostalgic for Tom Feeney?

“The Punisher” To Reward Tampa

Welcome news that Tampa will soon be the primary production location for a major movie starring John Travolta. “The Punisher,” an adaptation of the Marvel Comics superhero, will begin shooting this summer. The title character is an undercover FBI agent who turns vigilante after his family is murdered by mobsters.

The feature movie shoot, this city’s first since Burt Reynolds’ “Cop and a Half” in 1992, will mean a hefty economic jolt, one worth an estimated $2 million. It could only get better if “The Punisher” decided to stay on and work East Tampa.