Madfloridian's Journal - Feeney: "Just A Poor Lamb Who Lost His Way"...Trib's Daniel Ruth Column

And it all led to some interesting conversation with a lady named Pepper Pennington. Yes, it is her real name.

I don't always read Daniel Ruth's columns. He is acerbic to the point of being unreadable sometimes. But I love that he went after Feeney.

Hat tip to FLA Politics blog for this back and forth between Daniel and Pepper.

Just a poor lamb who lost his way

Just how sleazy is Florida U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Where's Mine?

I've only written the first sentence to this column and already I want to take a shower.

Someday, when the ultimate history is written of unctuous, disingenuous, ethically challenged pols, Feeney, R-Why Yes, I'll Have Another, may well claim the dubious distinction of being a sort of one-man walking Tammany Hall-lite meets Eddie Haskell.

Feeney, R-Brown Bag? What Brown Bag? is currently running for a fourth term in Washington, which might suggest those poor, unsuspecting folks in the 24th Congressional District are more clueless than a sack of anvils.

Since 2002, Washington's answer to Kato Kaelin has blithely skipped to re-election, until this year when the Republican congressman actually found himself in a neck-and-neck race for his political survival against Democrat Suzanne Kosmas.

Darth Feeney?

Feeney's new press secretary is Pepper Pennington

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to be a doctor until reality bit and I received my first zero on a chemistry test and realized that I looked pretty lame in lab goggles.
The nerdiest thing you ever did as a kid was… I was a New Kids on the Block fan.
What was your very first job? I sold khakis at the GAP.
Biggest vice (PG-rated): College Football, Blue Moon, and my Blackberry.
When did you first think you might want to get into PR? When I didn't show up to law school and had to justify that decision to my parents, I thought I did a pretty good job explaining silly behavior.

Apparently Pepper sent Daniel Ruth a comment that upset him, to say the very least. Then he really let loose on Pepper and boss Feeney.

Pardon? Pennington Peppers Me For Being Feeney Meanie?

It was an obviously piqued and perturbed Pepper Pennington who pugnaciously propagated a pejoratively passionate passing shot over a recent column about her boss, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Pawn.

"After reading your column, I planned on giving you the same treatment that you extended my boss and call you a vulgar name," a fairly peeved Pepper Pennington puckered. "But I stopped because I feel so sorry for your miserable existence and the shame your family and colleagues must feel for being associated with you."

Say, that was mighty piquant of Pepper Pennington, who is the press apparatchik for Feeney's re-election campaign, which has been dogged by a scandal involving the congressman accepting a $20,000 golf treat to Scotland courtesy of none other than the now imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The term that so appalled Pepper Pennington was the suggestion in the column that Feeney, R-Panhandler, was simply a lying, fibbing, prevaricating pinhead. Feeney has taken to the airwaves in his Oviedo-area district to pout that his glomming on to Abramoff's frequent flier card was nothing more than a "rookie mistake" made by a newbie congressman unfamiliar with the bizarre rituals of Washington.

To which one can only say to Pepper Pennington: Piffle!

Well done, Daniel Ruth.