Kendrick Meek Shows Off Jeff Greene's Style

The campaign team of U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is forwarding this story in Fridays Washington Post about Democratic U.S. Senate rival Jeff Greene.

The article speaks for itself, insisted the Meek team before providing quotes from the story --Greene making fun of an elderly magician (yes, you read that right); Greene has a less-than-fond view of the Koran; Greenes career in finance; Greene, who grew up in Florida, has lived in other states.

Some of these attacks could hit home, especially the jabs about Greenes business career. But some of this comes off as the Meek team flailing around, trying to find something that sticks -- and some of these attacks could backfire. A lot of Floridians have roots elsewhere and a lot of Floridians have a less than stellar view of Islam.

The fact remains that Jeff Greene is the subject of a front-page story in the style section of the Washington Post -- hard to imagine Meek getting that kind of attention. A lot of Florida Democrats have been steady and unexciting workhorses. Some of them have done well (Reubin Askew and Bob Graham), others not so well (Jim Davis). Now exciting and unconventional politicians can wear out their welcome (Claude Kirk comes to mind) and perhaps that is what will happen to Jeff Greene. But in the meantime, Greene has added some excitement -- something the hard-working Kendrick Meek, who has labored for this Senate nomination for years, has simply not done. Meek simply has done nothing to fire up his supporters, which is why one poll shows him almost 30 points behind Charlie Crist in this race.

Greene is often bewildering and overly agressive but he is different. Meek is hard-working and reliable -- and growing increasingly irrelevant in this campaign. The question is will Democratic voters roll the dice on Greene or reward Meek for his years of service.