...to such a sweet parking spot. From Roll Call's Heard on the Hill column (sub. req.):

As an incredulous HOH tipster put it — under the subject line “WTF?” — “Katherine Harris still parks her $100,000 BMW convertible in the Cannon HOB parking garage.”

HOH believes the value of Harris’ lovely BMW 645ci convertible coupe is probably more like $70,000, but he can confirm that the ex-lawmaker has indeed been parking it regularly in the Cannon House Office Building since she lost her day job. The car was there Friday evening, in the same spot where she always parked when she actually worked in that building.

Is that kosher? The car still had a medallion hanging in it from the 109th Congress, and a House Administration aide said Friday that House officials were still in the process of distributing parking permits for the 110th Congress. So for now, cars with permits from the 109th are being allowed in the garages. After that, Harris may have to find somewhere else to park the car when she’s visiting her old digs. HOH misses her already.

Harris was, of course, last spotted handing out business cards before the State of The Union address. Business cards for what, however, we don't know, since our determined efforts to procure one came up empty. So if anyone happened to get one....

Starting today, it looks like we'll be all out of Pink Sugar.

Former Rep. Katherine Harris' (R-FL) taxpayer-funded telephone lines at her 13th District office will be cut off today, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports. The failed GOP senatorial candidate said it is a "new beginning."

(Since I read that comment, I've been scouring the Web to find a clip of the Dana Carvey Saturday Night Live sketch in which he performs the original song, "New Beginning," but I just can't find it. Does anybody know if one exists online?)

Katherine -- thanks for the memories.

Rumors are flying that Katherine "Pink Sugar" Harris may try to re-take her House seat in 2008, Roll Call's "Heard on the Hill" column reports (sub. req.).

Harris gave up the seat, which represents Florida's 13th District, in order to mount her disastrous Senate bid. That district is now the scene of a hotly contested election. Republicans say their candidate, Vern Buchanan, won the seat by a few hundred votes; Democrats charge voting machine glitches illegally prevented thousands of Democratic votes from being counted.

Needless to say, Buchanan would need to lose this fight so Harris could run in '08. And the federal investigation into Harris would need to conclude without indictment. So for now, us rakers can only wait. .. and hope.

With a handful of votes counted in Florida, CNN is already calling Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) a loser in her Senate race.

She'll always be Pink Sugar to us.

The St. Petersburg Times reports:

Federal investigators have interviewed at least two more former chiefs of staff to U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris as part of a federal inquiry into her relationship with a convicted defense contractor.

Dan Berger and Ben McKay, who both worked for Harris in her first term and are now lobbyists in Washington, confirmed the interviews this week and said it was their understanding all congressional staff would likely be questioned. The two spoke separately to three investigators from the FBI and the Defense Department in Washington several weeks ago.

Two more former staffers interviewed, plus four that were earlier reported -- that makes at least six former Harris staffers questioned by the FBI.

Oh, Katie. We're going to miss you.

Our "Pink Sugar" stormed through the Washington Post Style section this morning, throwing crazy comments every which way like so many uprooted palm trees in a hurricane, insisting she will beat Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) in next Tuesday's election, despite trailing by a jillion points in every poll ever taken.

But how crazy is she? We sense a subtext to her madness.

Harris is a "wannabe" Jew, did you know that? Israelis mistake her for being Jewish, and sometimes talk to her in Hebrew, she says. "I can remember riding my bike to piano lessons and thinking about Israel," she says of her youth. "I thought I was adopted for a while." (Subtext: do you forgive me yet, Palm Beach County?)

Perhaps worried that she was being out-crazied by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), who's blamed his recent troubles with the FBI on a complicated left-wing conspiracy, Harris alleges she's beseiged by an even more complicated meta-conspiracy, "encompassing both the 'liberal media' and the Republican 'elite,'" as the Post describes it. (Subtext: I'm a uniter, not a divider.)

Do you remember her promises to spend her $10 million inheritance getting elected? Then she said, no, she's going to sell all of her assets and spend that on her campaign as well. Then she said she wasn't spending her inheritance, just her assets, which totaled $10 million so what's the difference? Now, she tells the Post that the $3 million she's put in is all she's going to spend. "[That's] everything that I have liquid," she told the paper. (Subtext: I'm frugal -- maybe give me a seat on Appropriations?)

But the greatest news of all is, Pink Sugar's writing a book! It will detail the multitudinous indignities visited upon her during her Senate run -- by fellow GOPers, the press, and possibly the Starbucks barista who didn't make her coffee hot enough. "It's going to be great," she promises. (Subtext: Give me C-SPAN, or I'm taking Oprah hostage.)

The stage is set for Rep. Katherine Harris' (R-FL) dramatic last minute comeback. She's down 20 points in the polls. Her campaign is way behind in fundraising ($1 million in the bank compared to Sen. Bill Nelson's $6.8 million). She's a national laughingstock. But she's not giving up. She won't ever give up. In fact, she's even going to sell her Washington D.C. house.

That's right. To prove that she's "committed," Harris has said that she's selling her home to generate campaign funds.

All she has to do is find the right buyer. But as The Orlando Sentinel notes, Pink Sugar seems to be taking her own sweet time:

Harris has talked about selling her Washington, D.C. home for months, but former staffers have said they saw no sign she was preparing to do so. On Tuesday, two Washington real-estate agents said there is no indication the four-bedroom house near Capitol Hill was ever placed in the multiple-listing service, a database of properties for sale.

Harris' spokeswoman tells the paper that Harris isn't going the realtor route, but that doesn't mean it's not for sale:

Harris spokeswoman Jennifer Marks said Harris is not using a multiple-listing service. She said Harris has already shown the home to potential buyers and has someone available to show the home when she is not in Washington.

"She's hopeful she'll be able to sell her Washington residence shortly," Marks said.

Hmm. A cynic would note that it's probably a good move for Harris to sell her Washington home regardless -- since she'll likely be out of office by January. But with only three weeks left in the campaign, she doesn't seem to be in much of a rush.

We don't even get to write our own punch lines now. This latest from Central Florida News 13:

If you navigate to U.S. Senate Candidate Katherine Harris' website, you will notice the top headline/press release reads, "Harris Beats Nelson -- Leads 54%-45%.

However, it's not until clicking on the link that you're informed the results came from a straw poll taken at the Lakeland Bi-Annual Politics in the Park.

In the rest of Florida, she's trailing incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) by over 30 points.

Update: The "straw poll" was worse than I thought. Apparently, you had to pay $25 to vote in it. And that even goes for the 6-year-olds. Also, Harris trails by slightly less than 30 points, not "over 30 points," as I wrote earlier.

We've long observed how Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) has succeeded in setting fire to her own political ambitions. But speculation is growing that she could cause casualties beyond her own Senate dreams.

Harris has trailed by as many as 30 percentage points behind incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D). Although we note with admiration that she has recently trimmed his lead to a mere 18 points now, no one outside the Harris campaign expects the gap to disappear -- or switch to Harris' favor.

Now the New York Times reports that Harris may claim casualties beyond herself. The House seat she gave up to run for Senate, once a sure thing for Republicans, is now in danger of falling into Democratic hands.

Read more »

Ouch. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) -- our Pink Sugar, bless her heart -- wasn't slated to appear at a campaign rally with Gov. Jeb Bush and the GOP candidate to replace him, Charlie Christ. Rumors swirl she wasn't invited.

At the last minute, Harris added the event to her schedule, and the fellas graciously made a place for her. The two men "denied there had been any effort. . . to keep Harris away from the event." Yeah, right. The old, 'I thought he was going to invite you.' 'No, I thought you were going to invite her!'

Man, I bet the kids used to pull that on her in the sixth grade. It still hurts.

AP reports:

Rep. Katherine Harris, who as secretary of state oversaw Florida's 2000 recount that gave George Bush the presidency, easily won the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Bill Nelson, shrugging off critics who derided her campaign as spectacularly inept.

"Tonight I say to Bill Nelson: Come home, Bill. Enough is enough," Harris said Tuesday.

Also, apparently it's now okay for mainstream reporters to state as fact that Harris is "widely ridiculed" -- that's generally the kind of observation journos like to hedge behind a quote. Anyway, Katie, I'm glad you're still with us. On to November!

Oh, Katie.

Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) has set fire to her own ambitions yet again, this time declaring to reporters, "if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin."

It's increasingly clear to observers that the Harris for Senate campaign has become, in essence, a Civil War re-enactment of Sherman's march through Atlanta, with Harris playing Sherman and her campaign playing Atlanta. Even the tone of media coverage of her antics seems to have shifted, to be no more or less than a somber and respectfully brief, unflourished recounting of the mayhem that she has caused.

That's probably because she's down roughly 30 points in recent polls, so her self-immolating displays hardly matter. Hence reporters are more likely to give only a spare report of the facts, insert an obligatory Democratic "outrage" quote, make a sympathetic call to Harris' spokeswoman for whatever clean-up statement she's allowed to give, and call it a day.

What's more, it turns out Harris may not even have the money to fund her own self-destruction. The $10 million of her own money she promised to pour into her campaign -- which was necessary, because she couldn't raise outside funds to keep going -- doesn't exist, according to a new report.

Read more »

Rhyan Metzler, the Harris campaign aide who reported a fallen tree despite no one else having heard or seen it come down, left soon after questions were raised about the incident.

The backstory: on Thursday, Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) held a rally for her struggling Senate campaign in an airport hangar -- a building which dwarfed the meager 40-person crowd that showed up.

When asked why about the rally's size, "Harris blamed the paltry turnout . . . on a last-minute location change caused by a falling tree," the Palm Beach Post reported.

Reporters checked with the airport and were told there had been no reports of any trees falling there.

When the inconsistency was noted to the Harris campaign, spokeswoman Jennifer Marks blamed Metzler, the political director, for telling Harris the tree story.

When the Post reached Metzler by phone, "He said the tree incident was 'not necessarily' the reason for his quitting. He hung up when asked for further reasons," the paper reported.

The Orlando Sentinel's Jim Stratton brings us scenes from what's left of the Harris campaign Thursday, which hosted a campaign rally at which none of the nine elected officials listed on the event's flyer showed up.

Stratton, whose comic sensibility appears matched only by his eye for tragic detail, reports that one official, State Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, insists he never endorsed Harris nor promised to attend any rally. Harris insisted the man was lying.

"They called back twice and said he'd be here," Harris told the Sentinel. "He said he was going to be here on the stage with me today."

As a result, Stratton reports, "the most prominent official on hand was former state Rep. Allen Trovillion, who left office four years ago." Trovillion appears not to have been listed on the flyer.

Without the nine guest stars, Harris was alone in addressing a crowd of about 40 people -- and that number includes the reporters and campaign aides.

Read more »

From the St. Pete (Fla.) Times:

In the U.S. Senate primary, Rep. Katherine Harris has been touting key political endorsements from fellow Republican lawmakers. The problem is, some of them never endorsed her.

Several members of the U.S. House called the Harris campaign to complain Wednesday after the St. Petersburg Times notified them of the endorsements listed on Harris' Web site. Minutes later, their names were removed.

The list of politicians whose names came down includes Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, Cliff Stearns of Ocala, Mark Foley of West Palm Beach and Jeff Miller of the Panhandle. . . .

Chris Ingram and Glenn Hodas, who both recently worked on the Harris campaign, said Harris told them to use the endorsements of members even if they hadn't confirmed their support in writing.

Since learning that Rep. Katherine Harris drinks Starbucks lattes, we've put the word out to our network of Washington informants: if you see anyone important ordering coffee, we want to know.

The Muckphone rang a little after nine this morning: Recently deposed CIA chief Porter Goss was just in a Starbucks on Capitol Hill, a reliable tipster told me. I saw him order a grande latte.

Fascinating. The former GOP House intelligence committee chairman, hand-picked by Bush to bring the CIA to heel, sips Starbucks?

Interesting trivia, to be sure. But with two prominent GOP partisans quaffing Starbucks brew -- and big ones, at that -- let me put this question out there: isn't it about time to put to rest this canard that only liberals sip lattes?

Man! Y'all are getting a triple venti extra-hot non-fat serving of Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) news today. Hope you got your pink sugar ready!

Over at Election Central, Michael Powell catches even more news today of minion mistreatment by the Recount Queen.

Watch out, it's strong stuff. Here's just a taste:

Once, she threw her cell phone at a wall. Another time she slammed a computer keyboard into a desk... To younger staffers, she would say "What are you, stupid?" or "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard" while complaining the campaign did not have enough Ivy League-educated employees. To older staffers, she would say, "You ruined my life."

That's right: Driving Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) around for her Florida campaign is a man thrice accused and twice convicted of embezzlement, the Miami Herald reports.

Bruce Carlton Jordan, now 42, was first accused of stealing from his employer in 1998, but paid back the $5,000 his coworkers said he'd taken.

In 2003, Jordan -- who's said to be a longtime friend of Harris', as well as of Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Christ -- made over $6,500 worth of unauthorized purchases on a credit card belonging to the Florida Funeral Directors' Association, of which he was executive director. He also wrote himself nearly $3,500 in checks from the group's PAC.

In 2005, while on probation for those lapses in judgement, Jordan bamboozled over $3,000 out of his new employer, Florida Workers' Advocates, by abusing his boss' credit card, falsifying expense statements, and writing fake checks drawing on the organization's accounts.

Jordan now works as a volunteer on Harris' campaign, as her driver and "personal assistant," the paper reports. They did not confirm if he had access to the campaign's funds.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports -- with bonus revenge quote from former Harris staffer:

Katherine Harris won't have to worry about her opponents in the U.S. Senate race taking more shots at her during a candidates' "showdown" in Jacksonville today.

They weren't invited.

Although the Florida League of Cities promoted its forum today as one of the first to bring all of the gubernatorial and Senate candidates together, the nonpartisan group didn't invite any of the three Republicans challenging Harris on the Sept. 5 ballot. They did, however, invite Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary. . . . Nelson has already said he won't be able to attend.

"It's a one-person debate," said Chris Ingram, a former Harris spokesman, who is now the spokesman for LeRoy Collins, one of Harris' three Republican challengers. "I hope she doesn't lose."

It's 1 o'clock; do you know where your Katherine Harris update is?

Right here. One of Harris' primary opponents is blasting Harris for a campaign mailer sent out in June, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Titled "Campaign 2006: Fact and Fiction," the mailer is an upbeat take on Harris' chances in November.

To bolster that case, the mailer cites the endorsements of Jeb Bush and Florida Republican Party Chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan. And it cites a poll showing Harris trailing Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) by a mere 3.9 percentage points.

Except, well, none of that is true. Bush and Jordan haven't endorsed Harris - quite the opposite. Jordan has asked Harris to drop out of the race. And that poll is more than ten months old. Harris trails Nelson by approximately thirty points.

Harris responds, her head held high:

"It has been brought to our attention that a letter was drafted and distributed by former campaign staff members, without the Congresswoman's knowledge or approval, making false claims regarding endorsements. This type of negligent behavior is a primary example of why Congresswoman Harris has been forced to let many of her former staff members go; their lack of professionalism and integrity continues to haunt her to this day...."

Hmm. There was a mass departure of staffers in July (it wasn't the first), but we've never heard of Harris firing any of them. So it seems that not only has she blamed the problem on the staffers who fled the sinking ship of her campaign, but it sounds like she's trying to spin their departure as some sort of housecleaning, as if her campaign weren't desperate for aides. Maybe she fired them after they quit?

From the NBC affiliate in Ft. Myers, Fla.:

[At a local Republican meeting, Will] McBride [Harris' leading opponent in the GOP primary] became upset after a Harris supporter posed a particular question to him that he felt was over the line.

"She asked me why I changed my name to McBride to hide the fact that I was Hispanic," said McBride. "I've been William Richard McBride my whole life. I'm proud of my Hispanic culture."

But what may have concerned him more than the question itself was the person he believes was behind it - a Harris staff member named "Eddie." . . .

"After the meeting, I went with a Miami Herald reporter and I asked her, 'Who put you up to that question,' and she said, 'I'm sorry Mr. McBride. It wasn't my idea. It was the campaign. It was the Harris campaign,'" said McBride. . . .

"Nothing can be farther from the truth," said Harris. "If anyone has been found to do that, they would be fired immediately. But no one in my staff has done such behavior."

But when she was asked specifically about Eddie, Harris would not give a direct answer.

Reporter: "Was Eddie fired?"
Harris: "We will not condone any behavior like that."
Reporter: "But was he fired?"
Harris: "Thank you. Thank you."

A couple days ago, Reader JS wrote in with this observation:

It looks to be a given that [Rep. Katherine] Harris [(R-FL)] will (a) get the [GOP Senate] nomination; and (b) lose big. But I haven't seen any speculation on whether she will be a drag on Republican chances in Congressional races in FL.

An interesting observation, I thought. What do the experts think? I checked around, and it turns out JS was on to something. Harris' tenacity is perilous for at least one GOP House candidate in Florida.

Here's what I learned: as a Senate candidate, Harris is poised to ride near the top of the Florida Republican ticket. Unfortunately, she's expected to boost turnout statewide by Democrats eager to vote against her -- and she's thought to have the reverse effect on Florida Republicans, who seem increasingly concerned about sending this erratic, scandal-tainted character back to Washington, lest she provide a bigger embarrassment to their party.

Most Florida races are all but locked up. But one -- ironically, Palm Beach County's 22nd District -- is neck-and-neck. And the GOP incumbent, Clay Shaw Jr., is said to be deeply concerned about the political price he may pay for Harris' candidacy. ("So Shaw's really biting his nails over this?" I asked one professional election-watcher. "To the bone," she replied.)

A Democratic victory in the FL-22 race, by the way, is thought by some to be key to the party's takeover of the House.

Update: An earlier version of this post was written under the delusion there was no FL governor's race this year.

At least four former aides to Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) have now been contacted or interviewed by the FBI as part of a widening investigation into wrongdoing by lawmakers and special interests.

We learned yesterday that Harris' former chief of staff (Fred Asbell) and a top campaign adviser (Ed Rollins) spoke with investigators curious to know more about Harris' involvement with Mitchell Wade, the man who has admitted to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). Harris took thousands of dollars from Wade, and attempted to win his company an earmark. (She failed.)

Now, AP reports that two more former staffers -- one from the Hill, one from the campaign -- have been interviewed by the Feds:

[T]he FBI this week called a former congressional staff member and asked if she would talk about Harris. The woman said she would cooperate, but an interview was not scheduled. A former campaign staff member said he also was contacted by the FBI Wednesday, but has not yet been interviewed. Neither wanted to give their names because of the continuing investigation.

Harris continues to maintain she is not a subject of the investigation.