Peter Schorsch
Earlier this week I was a little hard on my favorite Speaker of the Florida House, so today I need to butter him up. But he deserves it.
Here’s why. You just have to love the way Richard Corcoran plays the game.
Take for example the comments he made during an interview with the Florida Channel’s “Face to Face” program. As Steve Bousquet of the Tampa Bay Times noted, Corcoran casually laughed off predictions of a late-Session meltdown. “The speaker says such talk is cooked up by news outlets and that his talks with the Senate have been amicable.”
Hold on a second there, Mr. Speaker. It was you, while speaking to the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club, who said the House was ready for a special session. So don’t blame us in the media for concerns about the 2017 Session coming off the rails.
Here’s another example of the Speaker’s gamesmanship. Today, the Speaker invited U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to address the Florida House. During his speech, Nelson commended Corcoran for his “courageous” work to address the wrong committed decades ago at the Marianaa (Dozier) School for Boys.
As Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida noted on Twitter, the Speaker just invited Nelson — who likely faces a challenge from Gov. Rick Scott in 2018) into the legislative chamber (the House) Scott is feuding with to praise the guy (Corcoran) Scott is at war with.
Man, that’s rich.
But what else can you expect from a master class player like Corcoran?
