Gus Bilirakis, Live and In Person

You gotta hand it to our boy Gus. He walked right into the lion's den on Monday when he made a brief appearance at the West Central Florida Labor Day Picnic at the fairgrounds. Take my word for it, labor is not crazy about Republicans these days.

I was working at the tri-county Democratic booth (Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough) when I looked up and there he was (only my second Gus sighting, btw). Of course, he was surrounded by handlers, including an older woman who might have been (and probably was) his mother. We've written of her before here at GusWatch. I'm too lazy to find the link, so trust me on this one.

Anyway, one of the handlers brought Gus over to meet us. I surprised myself when I immediately told him that I didn't want him to give Bush any more money for the war in Iraq, and that I wanted him to do what he could to bring our soldiers home from Iraq now. Gus tried to counter with the tired, "But what will happen if we pull out?" To which, I replied, "What will happen if we don't?" Gus was then left to convince me of how very seriously he takes the war in Iraq.

Before he moved on, I also told him that I hoped he would support House Resolution 676, which calls for single payer healthcare, and then I told him we would be delivering healthcare stories to his office in the very near future.

Here are my impressions:
(In my best southern accent) Bless his heart. He is so obviously in over his head. He can only talk in the vaguest of generalities, and he has the most pathetic and creepy handshake. Why did his family let him run for office? They won't be able to protect him from the vultures (us) forever.