Hypocrisy yet again is the subplot to a Democratic Party drama, this time involving the story I wrote about late Sunday, the firing/layoff/pink-slip dismissal of an African-American, Broward Democratic Executive Committee Operations Director Michael Howson.
While two other websites posted stories Monday on Howson replacement Travis Perron (redbroward.com and BrowardBeat.com), both of them concentrated on rumors that Perron is being recruited to knock off Rep. Katie Edwards in the District 98 primary.
That's interesting, and maybe it's even true. But don't bet on it. If I asked for a show of hands in Edwards' district on who is unhappy with her policies and/or constituent service, I wouldn't get enough people to fill the public restroom at Westgate Shopping Plaza. Surely dumping one of the most effective minority-party lawmakers in the Florida Legislature isn't what Howson's pink slip is all about.
Is it? I'm going to say no.
I'm going to say there's another story the Broward DEC should be worried about separate from rampant racism. One that resurfaced in the Howson matter. Oh, it's nothing new. We've seen the prickliness of minimum wages rear its ugly head before.
The same party firing shots at Republicans for maintaining a nation of Oliver Twists and failing to raise the minimum wage is the party that quietly pays key employees bread-line wages. No wonder Democrats love government handouts -- they rely on them.
Howson made $22,000 a year? We're talking $10 an hour. That isn't a salary, that's a wage south of a Red Lobster waiter's take-home pay after you figure in tips. Even Perron: $30,000 for him to run around town presenting himself as a "political director"? Embarrassing.
And did I mention that neither of these paychecks includes health insurance? Whatever Obamacare choice these poor guys signed up for comes out of their pathetic $10 and $14.40 per hour respectively.
These are young men. Imagine, for instance, how Howson must miss splashing all that disposable income around South Florida.
If I were a high-flying Broward Dem, I'd want to know what my $250 Unity Dinner ticket bought last March?
While all this miserliness was/is afoot among employees of the Broward Democratic Party, President Obama and national Democratic leaders have been stumping hard for a minimum-wage lift. Little do they know, I'm guessing, what goes on in the most Democratic county in Florida (553,120 registered Dems, twice as many as registered Republicans).
President Obama and Hillary Clinton have said they want Congress to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour, up from $7.25. Other Democrats, notably Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Saunders and Martin O'Malley, want to see a $15 minimum wage.
"Things like child care and sick leave and equal pay," Obama told the nation in his last State of the Union Address. "Things like lower mortgage premiums and a higher minimum wage. These ideas will make a meaningful difference in the lives of millions of families. That is a fact. And that's what all of us -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- were sent [to Washington] to do."
I'm sorry, Mr. President, your own troops didn't hear you. Their actions down here among the grass roots make your words a pile of bullcrackers.
This isn't the first time a South Florida Democratic executive committe was caught with its wages down, either.
Remember last year when Sunshine State News revealed that the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party, under Annette Taddeo, had rescinded her staff's employment and instead gave them "independent contractor contracts"?
Last year Democratic Party staff in Miami-Dade County forwent their paid vacation. They had no choice. They paid their own taxes, their own Social Security, their own dental insurance, life insurance -- whatever they had taken out automatically before they were cut loose.
No more feeling of belonging, no more sense of permanence. In an instant, these folks went from secure insiders to hanging out on the fringe.
The very things Democrats berate those cold-hearted, miserly Republicans for.
Broward DEC Acting Chair Cynthia Busch and Perron -- who will have a hand in the party's finances -- might be taking a page out of Taddeo's book as we speak.
Perhaps they, too, will set up a shell "consulting company," as Taddeo did with 537 Consulting, and solve their pending insolvency woes. It could mean the new "political consultancy" could pay employees out of a pool of campaign donations. The party benefits, the company benefits, presumably everybody benefits except the emp ... uh ... independent contractors. Can't wait to see what's going to happen next.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
