"U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris on Friday said she will not seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, leaving behind a wide-open race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Graham. The woman who became one of the most polarizing figures in Florida politics for her role as secretary of state during the bitter 2000 presidential race denied she'd been pushed out of the running by a wary White House. And she took full advantage of the national publicity that her talk of a Senate bid garnered to announce she'll seek reelection to her congressional seat -- and perhaps eventually to the Senate... Harris said she decided against a Senate run despite 'every poll showing me leading the race' because she has unfinished business in the House [like she really cares about 'unfinished business']. She denied reports that the president's chief political advisor, Karl Rove, ever flagged her off the race and she laughed off suggestions that she was offered a consolation prize." Yeah...sure...right...

Katherine Harris stole the election - and now she's a Member of Congress. How did THAT happen? Watch Grand Theft America from BushFlash.com.

From Steve in Sarasota: "I was personally told to leave the hall by two Bradenton police officers when I asked them how they could prevent people from bringing literature into the hall. They just said, 'Those are the rules.' so I asked, 'What rules?', 'Whose rules?', and 'What law is that?'. They just kept repeating, 'Those are the rules.' So I challenged them by saying, 'You can't prevent people from possessing political literature. It's in the Constitution.' At that point the two officers told me that I had to leave the building. I asked for one of their badge numbers and one of them gave me his card...."

The Bradenton Herald reports: "The crowd's mood already was testy before the meeting began. Security guards and Harris' staff confiscated any written material people tried to bring into the hall. The confiscated literature included analysis of the Medicare prescription bills passed in the House and Senate in June as well as a chart showing Harris' voting record since she began her term in January. The fliers were distributed during an earlier news conference staged in the parking lot by senior citizens to protest House and Senate bills designed to provide prescription drug coverage through Medicare. The protesters were asking Harris to support reform and not support either bill, which they said provided too little coverage to too few through a plan that would ultimately privatize and weaken Medicare."

We're gonna hurl! 2000 notoriety (i.e. Election Theft) gives Cruella Harris a high profile in Congress. Harris won a lottery and got the first pick of offices among 53 new House members. "All my colleagues were demanding a recount," Cruella said... "There's just so much, and so many rules," she said. "It's been a little daunting"... Pass the Pepto Bismal, please! Plus we're wondering if Rep. Wexler (D) has been replaced by a Stepford Democrat "I hope she uses her notoriety to benefit Florida. I'll be rooting for her."

Victor Hill writes: "Jan Schneider couldn't picture herself in former Yale Law School classmate Hillary Rodham Clinton's shoes during the 1996 presidential campaign. She saw Clinton's frenetic schedule. The crowds, the speeches, the balloons. The focus on makeup, hair and style. The hoopla. "You're crazy," Schneider told Clinton, who attended Yale with Schneider in the early 1970s. "Nothing could ever make me a candidate in this insane election system." Yet today, Schneider, shy, plain and awkward before cameras and big crowds, is center stage in one of the highest-profile congressional races in the country. An underfunded, little-known, novice Democratic candidate, she's taking on rich, famous, Republican veteran Katherine Harris in a solidly GOP district. Schneider said outrage over Harris' role in the 2000 presidential election forced her to run. She couldn't stomach the idea of Harris waltzing into Congress as a reward for helping put Bush in the White House." Neither can we!

"Four times the [Sarasota] Herald-Tribune has recommended Katherine Harris in an election for public office. The recommendations were made with reservations, sometimes with trepidation, but always in the hope that experience would help Harris harness her extraordinary energy, bring clarity to her views and teach her to avoid those embarrassing blunders. That hope has vanished. Mistakes and misjudgments, which continued right through Harris' confounding resignation as secretary of state, can no longer be dismissed as the products of inexperience. Mishaps aren't the exception but the expectation. Likewise, the startling lack of clarity when Harris discusses public policies and her political vision -- without the aid of scripts or handlers -- can no longer be excused as a byproduct of a novice's uncontained enthusiasm. Desultory responses to questions are the standard, regardless of the stage of her career or the importance of the office sought."

"Florida's 'resign to run' law requires that elected officials seeking another office submit a letter on the day of qualifying for the upcoming race stating when they intend to resign... [Katherine] Harris, whose office enforces state elections law, said she did not realize that the law applied to her because" - well, she's a REPUBLICAN, just like George Bush and Dick Cheney! "So today, Ms. Harris, the official who made so much of 'following the letter of the law' during Florida's botched 2000 presidential election, resigned as secretary of state in a letter to Gov. Jeb Bush dated Aug. 1, but she said her resignation was effective July 15" - ONCE AGAIN illegally reinterpreting Florida law to benefit HERSELF! Of course, Harris insists her crimes are perfectly legal, and she should not be jailed or thrown off the ballot. But when Palm Beach missed a deadline set by Harris, she THREW OUT THEIR VOTES! Katherine Harris is a career criminal - lock her up and throw away the key!!!

Bow Wow! "7/3/02: Today starts out with a surprise! Captain Wayne Gunther, Campaign Manager for Percy (the dog) for Congress! The dog that is running against Katherine Harris! Learn how well he is doing too! He likes to relieve himself on a 'bush'. Make no mistake, Wayne is a true patriot making a loud statement about our political 'system' with Percy. Letters are pouring in from the whole world supporting his stance. Check it out at http://www.percyforcongress.com/!" Also, call in Meria's show today (602-404-7556) for the telethon to help keep her daring show going! There is also a donate button at the bottom of www.meria.net.

SARASOTA -- The newest candidate challenging Secretary of State Katherine Harris in her bid for Congress is truly an underdog: a border collie mix. Percy the dog is running as a write-in candidate in the Republican primary, said his owner and campaign manager, Wayne Genthner. Just remember to vote for the dog WITHOUT the makeup.

Here is a battle that belongs on HBO - investigative journalist Greg Palast versus Election 2000 thief-in-chief Katherine Harris. Palast described Harris' crimes in detail in the March issue of Harper's Magazine. Harris replied with a nasty ad hominen letter, totally in keeping with her Cruella DeVille character. Of course, Palast rips her letter to shreds. In a REAL Democracy, Harris would be held accountable for stealing an election - and then lying about it. But under Bush, we no longer live in a Democracy.

Law.com reports, "A state judge in Fort Lauderdale has short-circuited the contentious lawsuit over the Florida Legislature's congressional redistricting plan brought in Broward Circuit Court... 'This woman is crazy,' Judge Robert Lance Andrews said Tuesday of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris and her motion, which among other things claimed Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth had been 'the butt of humor' before the three-judge panel overseeing the federal case because they couldn't figure out what side of the case he was on. Harris, a Republican, became nationally known in 2000 for her role in the presidential recount battle. Butterworth is a Democrat. In his order dismissing Harris' attempt to disqualify Butterworth, Andrews wrote: 'It is irrefutable that the authority to speak or defend the state of Florida is vested only with the attorney general.'"

"Katherine Harris has a lot on her plate… She's finishing her term as Florida secretary of state, she's running for Congress and, CNN has learned, she's busy working on a book about the 2000 presidential election recount, which made her an international celebrity. Her book is titled, "Center of the Storm: Practicing Principled Leadership in a Time of Crisis." Sources say it will feature previously unknown anecdotes from the recount and will focus on the leadership principles Harris drew upon during the process." No shame, no remorse for blocking hand recounts, or for failing pitifully to fulfill her job description as Secretary of State. "It's a scandal that anyone would think she's qualified to be in Congress," said Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor and outspoken Harris critic throughout the recount debacle. "If the citizens of Sarasota are foolish enough to vote for a woman whose main qualifications are treachery and crookedness, then they'll deserve what they get."

Katherine Harris, a candidate for the 13th Congressional District from Florida, paid for a 30-second television ad in Sarasota and Manatee counties. "It makes an oblique reference to her role in the November 2000 election controversy, using a quotation from an ABCNEWS broadcast about a 'standing ovation … from members of both parties,' accompanied by a narrator who says, 'she was honored for her work, respected by Democrats and Republicans alike.' But the 'respected by Democrats' line drew a sharp response from members of that party. 'The only way that Katherine Harris can get votes from Democrats is if she's counting the votes herself,' said Kim Rubey, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 'She has a host of vulnerabilities and she's stretching the truth as much as she stretched the limits of Florida laws. So it's no wonder she's running ads so early,' Rubey said." So reports ABC News.

Katherine Harris tried to crash the annual dinner of the high-society Tiger Bay Club in Sarasota, and got thrown out on her ear. Harris "wanted to hear former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the scheduled speaker. But she was turned away just inside the door by club President Marj Baldwin, a 77-year-old fellow Republican famed around town for her blunt, stick-to-the-rules style. Baldwin said the event was sold out and Harris knew that. Still, Baldwin said, Harris tried to get in through the wine store next to Michael's On East restaurant, before asking if she could pay membership dues and get a seat... 'I don't have that much respect for Katherine because of the way she has conducted herself throughout the Senate and secretary of state campaigns,' Baldwin said. 'She broke a lot of rules.'" That's the understatement of the millenium!

One of the most important criminal actions taken by Katherine Harris to steal the Presidency was the fraudulent purge of thousands of alleged "felons" using a private vendor with Republican connections that was instructed to intentionally remove qualified voters. Did she learn her lesson? Yes - big-time! Having gotten away with stealing the last election, she's now planning to steal the next one, by hiring ANOTHER firm with Republican connections to maintain a list of ALL voters, not just "felons." No doubt, the verbal contract instructs the company to figure out ways to purge all of the Democrats they missed the last time around! Who will stop Katherine Harris, the Destroyer of Democracy???

The Tallahassee Democrat reports: "Secretary of State Katherine Harris 'is simply not interested' in her job and fired her chief troubleshooter for bringing her bad news as she started to run for Congress, the ousted official said Monday. In a 'whistle-blower' complaint filed with the Florida Commission on Human Relations, Dwight Chastain said it was his job as the Department of State's inspector general to brief Harris personally on investigations and suspected rule violations. He said he was blocked by Assistant Secretary Dave Mann and lost his job after reporting what he considered misuse of about $500,000 in licensing trust funds." Remember, Harris belongs in jail - not in Congress!

Writes the Village Voice's Donna Ladd: "'Katherine Harris belongs in jail, not the U.S. Congress,' wrote Democrats.com founder Bob Fertik... Harris violated a list of state and federal laws including the Votings Rights Act, the Ballot Design Law, and the American With Disabilities Act. They are collecting signatures (and donations) to encourage Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth and Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs to bring up charges against Harris on 14 points associated with the 2000 presidential election. For one, Harris contracted with a private company for a 'fraudulent felon purge,' costing Democrat Al Gore thousands of votes, the group alleges. [She] allowed Republican operatives to work inside her office, draft speeches for her, and coordinate with Bush-Cheney attorneys on interpretation of election laws. And she allowed county canvassing boards to count 680 clearly illegal overseas military ballots, including some cast after Election Day."

While the nation still grieves, Katherine Harris announced her candidacy for the U.S. Congress, bringing back all of the leftover anger from the Stolen Election. By our count, Harris has committed nearly 20 specific crimes while serving as Florida's Secretary of State, which are documented here. Either we are a country of laws, or we are not. We call upon Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth (The Capitol Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050, phone 850-487-1963) and Leon County (Tallahassee) State Attorney Willie Meggs (301 South Monroe St. #475, Tallahassee FL 32399, phone 850-488-6701) to hold Katherine Harris accountable for her actions. Sign the petition to indict Katherine Harris!

"Amid the shambles of Florida's presidential election, one of Secretary of State Katherine Harris' lame excuses was that there hadn't been enough money for voter education. The auditor general has now disclosed one possible reason: Foreign travel by Harris' Latin American consultant had been charged improperly to the division of elections. Further, Harris' department 'routinely' billed expenses to the wrong accounts, often flew first-class to foreign cities at the taxpayers' expense and failed to monitor its 55 cellular telephones for personal use... Florida Republican leaders need to seriously reassess the wisdom of her campaign for Congress. The record in Tallahassee does not commend Katherine the Great." So writes the St. Petersburg Times.

Denver Post columnist Diane Carman has an important scoop: "Coloradans, please welcome that darling of disenfranchisement, one of the country's leading supporters of airline travel at public expense, the countess of chad herself, Katherine Harris. The secretary of state of Florida will be the keynote speaker for the Restoration Weekend, a public policy conference at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. In some circles - including that one - she's a national hero. This is the woman who brought her skills as a commercial real estate broker and granddaughter of a cattle and citrus mogul to the office charged with managing the state's elections and developing historical and cultural exhibitions. Her record speaks for itself." Given Harris' responsibility for ensuring fair elections in Florida - and her appalling failure to do so - it is a scandal that she is keynoting a right-wing political event. Where is the outrage?

Katherine Harris will be swinging through the Midwest in September - as a featured guest at Republican fundraisers! Republicans are so proud of her efforts to STEAL elections that they will give as much as $2,500 to shake her felonious hand. She'll be in Minnesota on 9/14, with stops in Iowa and Michigan. It's time to start planning those protests - how 'bout having Cruella look-alike contests at each stop?

When Katherine Harris was elected and moved to Tallahassee, she registered to vote - but her old registration remained active for 7 months. At the same time, Harris' office was illegally purging thousands of valid voters, mostly Democrats and many black. "I guess they had a computer program that only purged Democrats," said Tony Welch, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party. "When they can't even catch a problem with the top elections officer in the state, that's just sad." And one more reason why Katherine Harris should resign.

After evidence revealed that Katherine Harris intentionally misled Floridians about the illegal use of her office for the Bush campaign, Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe called for Katherine Harris' resignation on Wednesday. "Secretary Harris illegally used her office to benefit the Bush campaign and to call the race for George W. Bush long before she knew results of the Palm Beach County recount... Katherine Harris has violated the public trust with the Florida voters and proven she is not capable of being an impartial Secretary of State. It's time for her to end the charade and the nightmare of her tenure and simply resign." You go, Bob!

Katherine Harris has insisted that her office was never used for partisan Republican politics, claiming repeatedly that she had erected "a firewall" between her state office and the Republican Party. So when computer technicians found a campaign speech praising George W. Bush on one of Harris' computers, Harris' office lied and said it was merely received on that computer, not written on it. But Harris' former Communications Director, Donald Tighe, admitted he wrote the Bush campaign propaganda on Harris' computer. We demand Harris' resignation for lying to the American people!

Clay Roberts, who directs Florida's Division of Elections for Secretary of State Katherine Harris, is personally responsible for the fraudulent felon purge that illegally disenfranchised thousands of voters, most of whom were Democrats and black. Roberts belongs in jail for those activities. But according to Salon, Roberts is now fighting his fellow Republicans in the state senate who want future felon purges handled by Florida's county clerks, rather than by Harris and Roberts. Katherine Harris should fire Clay Roberts immediately, and Jeb Bush should urge the Florida legislature to join the rest of the country in allowing ex-felons to vote.

FL "Secretary of State Katherine Harris won't allow computer investigators hired by several Florida newspapers to monitor the work of a computer scientist hired by her... A consortium of newspapers is seeking access to the hard drives of two computers at the Department of State used by two Republican strategists during Florida's famed election recount, which gave George W. Bush the presidency by 537 votes... Ramakrishna Gummadi, researcher with the computer science department at the University of California at Berkeley, said it is not difficult to erase material from a computer's hard drive and that, without constant monitoring of an inspection, 'you could lose data completely.'" Florida media, this is a RED ALERT! Don't let Harris SCRUB those hard drives!

"The Florida Democratic Party wants to have a representative present when a computer expert checks hard drives in Secretary of State Katherine Harris' office for erased files. Harris said Wednesday she would allow the media to inspect computer hard drives in her office, following allegations she may have allowed information sought by reporters to be erased from them. But she said she would have a computer expert chosen by her office test the computers first to 'verify that no public records created on these two computers were destroyed.' Democratic Party lawyer Karen Gievers wrote to Harris Thursday asking for a Democratic representative to be there when the expert, a consultant named Bill Morgan, tests the drives." Democrats need to watch Harris like a hawk!

Katherine Harris may be the most lawless public official in America. Whenever a question of law is raised, she interprets it in one and only one way - the way that helps her and the Republicans. Harris did this repeatedly during the Florida recount, and should be impeached for those actions. Harris now claims e-mail sent from her office computers are NOT public records, unless SHE says they are. Sorry, Katherine, no one ever elected you Empress.

The NY Times exposed that Republican hacks "Mac" Stipanovich and Adam Goodman wrote crucial memos for Harris to deliberately misinterpret Florida law to count overseas military ballots lacking postmarks. But Harris refuses to provide details, and newspapers are pissed. "Katherine Harris apparently is willing to violate Florida's public records laws to avoid scrutiny of the activities of two Republican operatives who came to work in Harris' offices during the 36-day presidential recount period... Now Harris' office says some of the withheld material may have been erased when the computers were 'reformatted' for other uses. That's convenient. But all the selective editing and erasing raises an important question: What doesn't Harris want Floridians to see? ... The appearance of impropriety hardly could be more striking."

On Sunday, the NY Times reported that Katherine Harris issued carefully-worded instructions on November 13, 2000 that were deliberately intended to help Republicans. The instructions gave Republican lawyers ammunition to pressure county officials into counting overseas absentee ballots that were illegal because they lacked postmarks. Now Harris has told the Times that she clarified her instructions on November 13. But Harris cannot produce the November 14 document, and her staff refuses to respond to repeated requests. It looks like Harris has been caught lying one more time!

Poor, poor Cruella De Harris! She thinks she may have been the victim of actions motivated by political bias. Imagine that! But guess she's the expert. Harris's response to the findings of the Civil Rights Commission on Florida's disenfranchisement of thousands of black voters in the 2000 election was a grab bag of accusations: the CRC is just trying to fan racial tensions...the panel's chairwoman voted for Al Gore...the CRC isn't focusing enough on renovating the election system...they leaked their results too soon...whine, whine, whine. Of course, she got to vent through Rev. Moon's right-wing mouthpiece, the 'Washington Times.' By the way, we hear Harris is considering running for Congress! We're not surprised - she sure makes the grade under the tough new GOP standards for heavy-duty hypocrisy, corporate brown-nosing, and high-powered whining.

Florida Republicans are running as fast as they can away from Katherine Harris. Even though the next state election is 20 months away, the Florida Democratic Party is already airing television ads attacking Jeb Bush. With those commercials in mind, GOP political strategists say it's dangerous for Republicans to align themselves too closely with Harris. Democrats, meanwhile, are savoring the possibilities for future television ads, many of which are sure to feature Harris. "There's a whole lot of fodder out there," said Tony Wyche of the Florida Democratic Party. Picture an ad with this quote when Harris innocently asked a 4th grade girl to describe Harris' job: "You get to choose the president of the United States," the brilliant girl replied.

"Yo, Katherine! You tried so hard to appear above the partisan fray! You announced an ambitious overhaul of Florida elections. You did the Today show, and Hannity & Colmes. Conservative groups are feting you on your current rehabilitation tour. You're even being chatted up as a candidate for national office. But, oops, big time. You agreed to headline the June meeting of Free Republic in South Carolina. You're tagged, again, as just a mean-spirited partisan hack." So writes Pam Parker in Online Journal.