If it's an election year, you can bet it's time for Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher to contribute to our amusement.
And sure enough.
Palm Beach County's serial bumble queen is at it again -- and who better to catch her in the act but Jose Lambiet of Gossip Extra. Lambiet isn't some born-yesterday blogger from the tabloids, remember, he is a first-rate newsman. When he tells me something, I know I can take it to the bank.
And what he told all of us Monday about Bucher is worth a retelling, considering he beat much larger mainstreamers to a story last week tens of thousands of Palm Beach County voters must be scratching their heads over.
Seems Bucher hatched a plan to use a Boca Raton mosque as a voting center for the presidential election. Oh, yes, and did I mention ...
In the middle of a predominantly Jewish district?
"... Never mind that mosque leaders spoke in favor of the violence of sharia law and were linked to anti-Israel activities," Lambiet wrote.
Last week Democrat Bucher approved the use of the Islamic Center of Boca Raton. Lambiet wrote about it. Nobody else wrote the story, just Lambiet.
Apparently the publicity forced Bucher into hiding.
On Monday Lambiet wrote that among the 50-or-so phone calls from folks “uncomfortable” being in a mosque, Bucher told him one caller threatened to phone in a bomb scare on election day if she insisted on using the Islamic center.
Now, as used to hot water as the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections is -- as oblivious to criticism as she's been in years past when she's come up with her hare-brained schemes or shot herself in the foot -- she wasn't about to jump into this roiling tub.
After sending in an inspector who cleared the mosque as safe, Bucher told the Imam “thanks but no thanks,” Lambiet said.
The crisis was averted. She opted for a library two miles away instead -- something she could have done in the first place if she had (uncharacteristically) thought it through.
It wasn't the first time Bucher moved a polling location because voters were uncomfortable in a house of worship. "We moved from a church several years ago when the priest refused to stop putting anti-abortion messages on his marquee on Election Day,” she told Lambiet.
Wouldn't you have thought that Catholic Church incident would have taught her a lesson about using churches as polling places? Not Susan Bucher.
Lambiet reached the same conclusion. "Just about now is the time for Palm Beach County officials to stop using churches, synagogues, mosques or any other place of worship as polling centers," he wrote.
Smart thought, Jose, as always. But Susan isn't going to listen. Connecting the dots isn't her thing. Which is why I rank her up there with Charlie Crist, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Annette Taddeo as the people I most hope won't disappear before I do. All of them, storywise, anyway -- gifts that keep on giving.
Here is just a sample of our archived Susan Bucher stories:
- Another Election Year, Another Susan Bucher Ballot Screw-up
- How Many More Susan Bucher Sci-Fi Thrillers Can Palm Beach County Tolerate?
- Oh, Susan Bucher, What Have You Done Now?
- Don Gaetz, Hero; Susan Bucher Down in Chad Central, Zero
- Big Name Felon Gets New Voter Card in Palm Beach County
- Back to Palm Beach County and Our Regularly Scheduled Election Night Blunder ...
- Scrutinizing Elections Supers: Give Gov. Rick Scott Credit
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
