A weekly look at the Tampa Bay area and national politics from a conservative viewpoint – plus a helping of sports and lifestyle items. Warning: not everything printed here should be taken at face value!

Clearwater City Council’s very curious choice

A veteran Clearwater city hall watcher described the City Council’s choice of former council member Jay Polglaze to replace resigned council member Doreen Caudell as very curious. And the observer had good reason – primarily because just two years ago Clearwater’s electorate rejected Polglaze’s bid for re-election after one undistinguished term in office. It was only the third time in a quarter century that an incumbent has been defeated in a Clearwater city election. Second, Polglaze brings a built-in conflict of interest to the table as he serves as executive director of the Clearwater Downtown Partnership whose strong mayor initiative was crushed at the polls last month. Even if he severs those ties, as he should, there will still be lingering doubt as to where his allegiance lies. And it was some conflicts of interest that, among other things, led to his defeat in 2016. There were better options out there such as former council member Carlen Peterson. As it is, Clearwater politics keep getting more and more curious.

Great Tampa Bay, politics and stuff:

1. Continuing in the vein of curious politics, Hillsborough County (pretty much the home of curious politics) has a county commissioner trying to overturn the wishes of the majority there with an attempt to undo their transit tax that passed with nearly 60 per cent of the vote.

2. Although his allegations of malfeasance and incompetence are on target, Governor Scott served no useful purpose by suspending Broward election chief Brenda Snipes. There were no more elections for her to mess up (or manipulate) before her scheduled resignation. Why not let her go quietly into the night?

3. Joe Biden is proclaiming he is the most qualified to be President in 2020. He would also be the oldest to ever take office by five years. Surely the Democrats could find someone not yet drawing Social Security to run.

4. Come on city of Clearwater, you can do better than just a few skimpy holiday banners on a picturesque roadway leading to one of the world’s best beaches.

5. Biting commentary from the 5:05 Newsletter: Brenda Snipes resigned as Broward County Supervisor of Elections. Some voters praised her work saying that thanks to her their grandparents voted democratic for the first time, adding, "They would never have done that when they were alive."

Sports, the media and other stuff:

6. With Urban Meyer’s retirement, every pundit in the world is comparing him to other high achieving coaches. It astonishes us that almost every list omits the name Bud Wilkinson. We chalk it off to the youth of today’s writers. Look him up – starting with his three national championships at Oklahoma.

7. Remember when the PAC-10 championship game meant something?

8. More sports news from out west: Seattle, which managed to lose a basketball franchise for lack of attendance, now gets the NHL’s 32^nd team. Why? Wasn’t Ft. Wayne, Indiana available?

9. For the last several years, only one playoff team has come from the NL East. With offseason moves by the Mets, Nationals and Phils, not to mention the division winning Braves, the road to the World Series will run through the NL East in 2019.

10. A treasured kid’s Christmas gift turns 100 this season. Lincoln Logs were conceived by John Lloyd Wright, son of noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The logs joined other icons like Monopoly, Slinky and View Master in the Toys Hall of Fame in 1999.

A great day of football

Last Saturday’s day of football was something out of one of Clair Bee’s Chip Hilton novels – come from behand victories – several of them engineered by backup quarterbacks – last play of the game Hail Marys. It is hard to remember a single day of college football with more drama. You had two coaches dueling who could have called each other’s plays (Saban and Smart). There was a rookie coach going 13-0 and, alas, a couple very worthy teams (or at least one) falling short of the final four playoffs. We could make a case for either Georgia or Oklahoma. Football fans will be talking about Saturday, December 1, 2018 for a long time to come.

UP NEXT: The Era; Ray’s Stadium controversy

Editor’s Note: Sometimes an item mentioned in the “Up Next” section above does not appear as scheduled. Usually it’s one of our 100-125 word lead or concluding commentaries being bumped by some major occurrence such as the passing of President Bush two weeks ago. The referenced item being bumped usually appears one or two weeks later.

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