McCollum's Moment in the Sun

Attorney General Bill McCollums lawsuit against the federal government is garnering heavy media attention. At this moment, a Google news search for Bill McCollum generates 2,932 articles in the last 24 hours.

Even McCollums staff seems a bit surprised by all the attention their boss has received. Staffers in his communications office could not even hazard a guess as to how many calls and emails they have received today. A "ton" was their best guess.

While most of the articles do not touch on McCollums gubernatorial campaign, this is the kind of press attention that any candidate would love to have. State CFO Alex Sink, the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, is generating around 250 articles for the past month -- and some of those involve her responses to McCollums lawsuit. McCollums chief rival for the Republican nomination, Sen. Paul Dockery, R-Lakeland, generates 91 articles for the last month.

While McCollum has been in politics for decades, he has never garnered this type of attention. He took over the Seminole County GOP in 1976, and he served in the U.S. House from 1980 to 2000. He had some high profile assignments in Washington, including serving as a House manager in the Clinton impeachment and on the Iran-Contra Affair investigative committee. But, the attention he is receiving for the lawsuit is something else altogether.