This Week's Hero: Anderson Cooper
CNNs Anderson Cooper may be half-celebrity-half-journalist, but last week he proved his better half is all newsman.
In a 10-minute, take-no-prisoners interview with Florida Democratic congressman Alan Grayson, Cooper surgically dismantled Graysons Taliban Dan and Daniel Webster Doesnt Love This Country campaign ads and left a normally overbearing Grayson unconvinced, but virtually without a closing response.
It was the only "gotcha" interview I ever saw that was introduced as one upfront, and that didn't deteriorate into a brow-beating.
In a rare defense of conducting such an aggressive interview, Cooper said this of Graysons Republican opponent, Dan Webster: Its not our job to stick up for everybody who gets hammered in a campaign ad but elections live or die on voters having accurate information.
We think its our job to call people out, no matter where they stand on the political spectrum, for polluting the waters of public knowledge.
Which, Cooper said, is exactly what Grayson did. He said Grayson's Taliban Dan ad was cherry-picked, taken, almost breathtakingly, out of context.
When Grayson responded that the ad had been taken down and a new one put up, and its basic premise that Websters concept of women is medieval is the overall truth of the ad, Cooper returned to his question: But, why would you allow the editing of a Webster speech to make it say exactly the opposite of what was being said?
Cooper showed footage of the speech making it difficult for any Grayson defense to gain traction.
At the end Cooper was gracious, fair, ever the respectful host. He gave the Democrat credit for agreeing to the interview. Grayson, he said, was the only candidate under fire for bad advertising who did.
In case you didn't know, Yale grad Anderson Cooper, a journalist who never had any formal journalism education, is the son of heiress Gloria Vanderbilt and her fourth husband, writer Wyatt Cooper. Hes part of old money in this country. Born with a silver spoon. Still, if you ever saw his crusading work on the Gulf Coast in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, you would know he has overcome the pedigree, the is-he-serious-about-what-he-does question.
Speaking personally, I knew all that. What I didnt know until this interview was how prepared he is to stick his neck out, making sure political discourse in this country however its proffered favors the interests of a well-informed electorate. Anderson Cooper is easily this week's hero.
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This Week's Zero: Albert Slap
You hate to bash such a sturdy, smiling, apple-pie-looking guy who, at first glance, could be a descendent of the Trapp Family Singers. Unfortunately, in spite of the hills-are-alive-type snapshot of him and his dog, Albert Slap doesn't have the folks who work for a living in the middle of South Florida singing and skipping through the wildflowers.
Come to that, he isn't endearing himself to many who pay taxes in Florida.
Or anybody working toward significant Everglades restoration.
Slap is an environmental lawyer who can practice law in any federal court in the nation.
He has a license to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. That would probably make the Florida-based environmental group Friends of the Everglades one of his more lucrative clients/friends/business contacts, because even though he has no license to practice in the state of Florida, he maintains a law office in Key Biscayne.
The bottom line is this: A federal court filing last week by Friends of the Everglades with the help of Albert Slap hasnt had anything but a bad effect on the Everglades restoration process. Why? Because the filing asks a federal judge to reject the Environmental Protection Agency's restoration plan announced in early September.
The South Florida Water Management District, which is responsible for Everglades restoration, says the action being pushed by Slap and his environmentalist friends will cost a stunning $1.5 billion.
Think about it. Thats $1.5 billion were talking about. Who will pay for it? The state? ... No. The feds? ... As if!
The lucky ducks on the receiving end of this tab are Florida taxpayers and businesses.
According to a story last week in The Florida Independent, Slap and his enviro-cronies say, hey, we know how to raise that $1.5 billion. Raise taxes to the maximum level. Never mind these oppressive economic times, what Floridians want are higher taxes. Whats that you say, business will be affected? No problem, let em go out of business.
"I understand that businesses are scared of being shut down and people are scared of losing work, but you cant pollute the water," says Slap. "If a business has to shut down and regroup, they have to shut down ... The Water District [SFWMD] has said they cant afford the funding, but they arent even at their maximum millage rate. If they were they could generate enough revenue to fix these problems."
Slap and his out-of-tune-ity friends dont care how much taxes rise to pay for the EPA plan.
Nor do they care that its $1.5 billion cost will still leave the Everglades billions perhaps tens of billions of dollars short of real restoration.
Like so many dedicated environmentalists, Albert Slap wears blinders. The my-way-or-the-highway philosophy is all there is. No compromise is possible, the end justifies the means.
Heres a zero of a lawyer who needs to come down out of the hills, put on the backpack down here, in the middle of the here and now, and start hiking through our Florida reality.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
