For Harris Campaign, Worst Hits Come From Own Party

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Poor Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL). She’s got enemies all around her — her former staffers, former advisers to her Senate campaign, even her own Republican party.

Now, they seem to be conspiring to bring her down with leaks. In a way, it’s almost noble that the party will smear its friends as easily as it would smear an opponent. In Harris’ case they’re even gentlemanly about it — her former campaign strategist Ed Rollins has now gone on the record twice to share derogatory information about her.

This time, he backs up two former staffers who tell the Orlando Sentinel she made an earmark for Mitchell Wade’s MZM, Inc. “a priority,” overruling their objections to it. Before Wade found himself singing like a canary to federal investigators, he was busy helping to procure hookers, spreading cash around Capitol Hill, and taking Harris to a $2,800 dinner, all apparent efforts to win fat government contracts. Rollins told Harris he thought her dealings looked bad — and now he’s telling you:

“I said, ‘Duke Cunningham got cash from Wade, and in your case he’s promising to raise money,'” said Rollins. . . “I told her, ‘This is how it’s going to look.'”

His comments back up those of anonymous former staffers, which told the paper:

“[Harris] said, ‘It’s important to me, so submit it,'” said an ex-staffer who was involved in the process. “She wanted it in.”

. . . “Katherine was pretty adamant about it,” [another] former staffer said.

We might need to give Rollins a call today, see what more he’s willing to talk about. And while we’re on the phone, maybe he’ll give us his list of the 15 lawmakers he believes could get indicted as a result of Hookergate.

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