Florida Follies

Still with us.

Back in 2000, Commissioner McCarty scoffed at the notion that Al Gore was a victim of Theresa LePore's butterfly ballot. She was so offended by the Florida Supreme Court's rulings during the election controversy that she became chairwoman of a campaign to oust "left-wing" justices. The whole thing, however, turned into a huge embarrassment. Two of the three targeted justices actually had dissented from the opinion that so upset Commissioner McCarty. The fund-raiser fizzled, no justices got voted out, and she ended up facing charges of election impropriety.

As was reported last week, the Florida Elections Commission ruled in May that Commissioner McCarty violated campaign laws, among them taking contributions above the $500 limit and filing an inaccurate disclosure report. The FEC could fine her up to $450,000. What is Ms. McCarty's response?

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It's hard to see how Commissioner McCarty was duped. Roger Stone, a Republican operative in Washington, asked her to front for the Committee to Take Back Our Judiciary, and she agreed to let the group send out 350,000 fund-raising letters under her name. She knew the purpose was to punish justices who wanted to count as many votes as possible. Even if none of the $220,000 the group raised went directly to Commissioner McCarty, she certainly expected to benefit politically from lending her name so prominently.