Katherine Harris Nighttime Soap: Critics Pan New Season—Could a Bobby Ewing "It Was All a Dream" Plot Twist Be In the Works?

When we last checked in with Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL), the villainess of Bush v. Gore was enduring more perils than Pauline in her race for the U.S. Senate. Since then, things have gotten even worse: She's fired her campaign team (again!). She's leaking (staffers) faster than the Exxon Valdez. She's fallen under the sway of charismatic cult leader "Dr. Dale" Burroughs of the Biblical Heritage Institute. She's not only paranoid but surrounded by secret, scheming enemies.

It's all become too much for Republican bluestockings, who like a little more decorum in their campaign debacles. The Lakeland Ledger sniffs that Harris should cancel this show for the good of Florida voters, who need to know if Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson can prove himself "against a candidate who doesn't carry the kind of baggage that Harris does." The Miss Prisms over at National Review base the same advice on nakedly (and predictably) party grounds: "It is now imperative for Harris to [drop out], for the good of the party she has served so loyally."

Harris is rapidly becoming the Republican Howard Dean: a candidate the party can't stomach because she actually stands for all the stuff they believe in. In the 2004 Senate race, the GOP persuaded her to stay out, but what can the party promise her in 2006, other than more advice about being "realistic"? What good is the Republicans' realism for Harris anyway, when it will just lead to more reasonable stabs in the back in the future? Everybody with a sense of fairness, not to mention anybody who appreciates camp value in politics, should be wishing Harris a glorious moonshot of a campaign. If the Florida GOP and the Bushes don't have as much balls as Katherine Harris, that's their problem, not hers. Let the dragon lady roar!