The SunPost

Yep, when the Piano Man is not playing a song somewhere, he is devouring food at this classy Italian joint on Lincoln Road. On Monday night, Joel was so focused on his meal that he was either oblivious — or uninterested — in the events happening a few blocks away at a gay bar on Michigan Avenue known as Halo Lounge. Howard Dean — the former governor of Vermont, a primary presidential contender in 2004 and the current chairman of the Democratic National Committee — was giving a speech that went something like this:

“Not only are we going to New Hampshire, we’re going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we’re going to California and Texas and New York, and we’re going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we’re going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeaararh!!!”

Er, actually that was a quote from Dean’s famous speech following his defeat in the Iowa Democratic Caucus four years ago that sank his chances of becoming the Democratic nominee in ’04. The lesson: Never make an emotionally charged speech when you’re sick with the flu.

However, just because that speech was over the top doesn’t mean the message is out of whack. Dean is the architect of the “50-state strategy,” which basically means that the Democrats won’t just worry about winning votes in the so-called “swing states.” Instead, they will focus on victories — be they Electoral College votes or Congressional seats — throughout the United States. The Dean strategy has been credited for the Democrats’ recent gains in the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

That is why Dean’s photograph should be displayed in the dictionary alongside the word “irony,” especially after the DNC chair went along with the decision to strip Florida of its 114 convention delegates to punish the state for holding its primary in January without the party’s permission. Never mind that the decision was made by the Republican-dominated Legislature. Never mind that the Republican National Committee only took away 57 of its delegates from Florida, or that it didn’t force Republican presidential contenders not to campaign in the Sunshine State. Never mind that it was Florida’s razor-thin margin that threw the entire 2000 presidential race into chaos. And never mind that the incident has made many Florida voters, particularly Democrats, paranoid about whether their vote will count.

It was this contradiction of philosophies that attracted Murmurs to the fund-raising event at Halo Lounge. It also attracted Rima Bardawil, a Democratic activist and attorney, who wanted to take Dean to task for denying Florida Democrats the right to have a direct say in the nomination process. The DNC’s action, Bardawil said, threatened to turn votes away from the Democratic nominee in Florida come November. “How could you cut off your nose to spite your face?” she asked.

Carl Zablotny, publisher of Wire, put Dean’s visit to Miami Beach this way: “He’s come to clean up the mistake he made earlier in the year.”

“He comes down to Florida quite often,” pointed out Damien LaVera, regional press secretary for the Democratic National Committee. As for Florida’s delegate situation, LaVera said, “We’re confident something will be worked out,” alluding to a compromise whereby Florida delegates would be admitted to the Democratic National Convention. “We’re focused on building a party centered on victory in November,” he added.

The event attracted Miami Beach elected officials, including Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Commissioners Richard Steinberg (now a candidate for state representative) and Deede Weithorn. Noticeably absent was the leader of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, Joe Garcia.

Murmurs took the opportunity to pester Bower about receiving the thanks of Sen. Hillary Clinton after she “won” the Florida primary. Bower, who heard about the remark from the media, said she hasn’t officially endorsed anyone in the Democratic race. However, Bower met Clinton at a fund-raiser when she was running for mayor against Simon Cruz and noted that this was the “year of the female.”

Dean finally arrived through the rear of the bar and spoke of the need for unity in the party, telling those in attendance that the Republican Party wants to strip away the rights of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. “They [the Republican candidates] want to stay in Iraq; we [Democrats] want to get out,” Dean said. “They increased the deficit; we want to cut it.”

And so Dean vowed that Democrats would campaign in all 50 states. The only mention of the Florida delegate-stripping debacle was a reference to “fighting between politicians.”

Of course, the Fourth Estate would not let that go. During the inquisition, Dean mentioned the possibility of organizing a caucus for Democratic voters. At one point, he even justified the move to strip the state of all its convention delegates so Democratic primary candidates could campaign here before the primary. Huh? Wasn’t there, like, a pledge amongst the Democrat presidential wannabes not to campaign in Florida? Sen. Barack Obama seemed to think so.

So Murmurs had to ask: What did the DNC accomplish by the Florida boycott and what do they expect to lose? Phil LaPadula, editor of Express Gay News, reminded Dean that it was the Republican Florida Legislature that made the decision.

“I hope to have this all resolved before the convention,” Dean said. However, Florida and Michigan “have to respect all the other 48 states.”

With that, a flustered LaVera whisked Dean away. Murmurs asked LaPadula what he thought of Dean’s answer. His reply: “He’s doing his job.”

Oh, Canada

Bower didn’t just cheerlead for the Democrats on Lincoln Road; she also conducted an orchestra.

Last Sunday, Bower swiped a baton and the Brampton Symphony Orchestra swung into a rousing rendition of “Stars and Stripes Forever,” marking the end of a musical program at the Colony Theater and the beginning of a burgeoning sister-city relationship between the city of Brampton, Canada, and Miami Beach.

In the audience was beaming Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell, Bower’s counterpart in that Ontario municipality. At a reception that followed at Britto Central on Lincoln Road, Fennell and Dennis Cutajar, her city’s economic development commissioner, discussed the sister-city agreement. Fennell hopes the agreement will provide tourism, cultural and economic exchanges between the two cities. With a population of 433,806, Brampton is far larger than Miami Beach and one of Canada’s fastest-growing municipalities. But, according to Robert Raines, the symphony’s CEO and principal conductor, the two municipalities have a lot in common. “They both lie in the shadow of larger municipalities — Toronto and Miami — and both communities are friendly and warm.”

The concert benefited the SoBe Music Institute scholarship fund, a nonprofit organization that provides professional music education at subsidized rates for both adults and children. Carson Kievman, the founder, said the proceeds hadn’t been tallied yet. It was not a sell-out, but organizer Ray Breslin, president of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association, said he had underestimated the challenge of getting a crowd last Sunday. “I wasn’t sure how it would go, being it was Super Bowl weekend, but we had a beautiful audience, and everyone was sincerely interested, so we couldn’t have asked for more,” he said.

Of course, Conductor Raines demonstrated he knew how to goose the crowd. Apparently not content with the standing ovations many of his performers were already getting, he announced that, if the crowd applauded boisterously enough after the finale, he would bring Mayor Bower onstage to conduct. And so he did. Asked how she enjoyed her first conducting experience, Bower exclaimed, “It was exhilarating — it was better than dancing!”

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