In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel this week, Harris R-Longboat Key, said it was "news to me" that the total bill had been that expensive.
Maybe Harris drank so much expensive wine she didn't notice the mounting bill. In any event, Ed Rollins, her former political strategist, says he asked Harris last year how the meal could have been so expensive.
Harris, he said, told him that Wade bought expensive wine.
"She was very anxious," said Rollins, "and wanted to know how she could reimburse the restaurant."
When Rollins said that couldn't be done, Harris asked about repaying Wade. Rollins said he advised against that, pointing out that Wade, by then, was a convicted criminal. He said he told Harris to talk to a lawyer.
Ignorance might be the norm for Harris, but the defense doesn't fly in light of Rollins' candor. The rest of Harris' defense is based on the assertion that "her campaign had, at some point, 'reimbursed' the restaurant."
When asked how she could have reimbursed a business that was owed no money -- Wade paid the bill that evening -- she abruptly ended the interview and walked off.
Excellent strategy. But it gets better.
Her spokesman called back an hour later and asked a reporter not to publish anything Harris had said Wednesday night about the dinner.
In other words, please don't mention that the candidate lied, or that she walked off in a huff when you caught her at it.
Here's the desparate spin that followed:
On Thursday, Harris' campaign released a two-paragraph statement that differed from her explanation a day earlier. It stated that Harris thought her "campaign would be reimbursing" her share of the meal but later found out that hadn't happened.
To resolve any questions, the statement said, "I have donated to a local Florida charity $100 which will more than adequately compensate for the cost of my beverage and appetizer."
A whopping hundred bucks? If Wade ordered a bottle of his favorite French Bordeaux at a cost of $1,000 (as the linked story implies), the value of even a single glass of wine exceeded $100.
Poor Harris now has only $9,999,900 of the personal fortune she's pledged to spend on the campaign. But giving a token contribution to charity won't help her overcome her cozy/sleazy relationship with Wade.
In 2004, Wade gave Harris' congressional re-election campaign $50,000. Some $32,000 of that turned out to be illegal because Wade instructed his employees to give money to Harris, for which he later reimbursed them.
The Justice Department has said Wade, who personally handed many of the checks to Harris, did not tell Harris the contributions were illegal.
In early 2005, about a year after giving the illegal campaign contributions to Harris, Wade arranged the dinner at Citronelle, according to the plea agreement in his criminal case.
There, he discussed sponsoring a fundraiser for Harris and asked her help in seeking the $10 million in federal money for a counterintelligence facility in Sarasota. Harris later submitted that request to a House appropriations subcommittee, where it was rejected.
By the end of dinner, Wade and Harris had run up a bill of $2,800, Rollins said Thursday.
