One of my political rules of thumb in any Democratic primary is, if Joe Trippi is supporting one of the candidates, vote for the other guy. The rule worked in 2004, when Trippi became famous as Howard Dean's campaign manager. It worked earlier this year, when Trippi was urging people to support Harold Ford for Senator in New York. Now Trippi is backing gadfly billionaire Jeff Greene in the Florida Democratic primary:
In some circumstances, Democrats might be thrilled to have a wealthy local figure rescue the party from Meek's candidacy, which hasn't caught fire -- but this isn't that case. National Democrats view Greene as a distraction and a disaster, with money enough to cause trouble but too much baggage to win. He's being advised by Joe Trippi and Doug Schoen, who didn't respond to questions about his plans or whether he's hired them for a Senate race.
But Democrats are concerned enough that one sends over a file focusing on the fact that he made much of his fortune on the very financial instruments being scrutinized for causing the financial crisis. ..."I've never had more fun than now," Greene told Forbes in October, 2008.
All this before you get to the colorful parts of the file: Mike Tyson was the best man at Greene's wedding, and Heidi Fleiss lived with him for a time, platonically.
"She's a nice girl. I've had her over to Passover dinner with my mom," he was quoted as saying.