Be Grateful for Stephanie: Never Make Fun of a Florida DOT Secretary Again

How should Stephanie Kopelousos feel about this, I wonder?

Jealous? Relieved? Amused?

Before the day is out, Kopelousos, Florida Department of Transportation secretary, is going to find out that her always-colorful counterpart in Mississippi -- Larry L. "Butch" Brown -- was arrested in Biloxi early Friday. And what an arrest it was.

Seems Transporation Director Brown, 67, had been hard-partying at the Beau Rivage casino most of Thursday night, and by morning -- or so a witness toldme -- he was noisily falling over guests, questioning their lineage, even bringing down the odd cocktail table.

Casino security placed him under a citizens arrest until the police showed up to cart him off to the slammer and charge him with disorderly conduct and public intoxication. His police mug shot in Saturday's Biloxi Sun-Herald pretty much says it all.

But, no. Wait!

Later in the day, inexplicably, the Beau had a change of heart. The casino is "absolutely not" going to press charges against Brown and the whole thing was "a misunderstanding" and "the case is closed as far as (the Beau) is concerned." That, from the Saturday morning newspaper report.

So, you have to wonder what Florida's Kopelousos is thinking. In similar circumstances, would I be cuffed and whisked off to jail? Would anybody in this crazy state give me a break and let me off like they did that idiot Brown in Mississippi?I wouldn't be knocking 'em back in public anyway, would I?

Oh, boy, am I glad we don't have casinos in Tallahassee, or what?

Stephanie Kopelousos -- who, by the way, could never be mistaken for a Brown behave-alike --could not be reachedto answer these questions Saturday morning.