Pam Bondi Is ‘Loser of 2014,’ And ‘Modern-Day Anita Bryant’ Says Top Florida Paper

Attorney General Pam Bondi has been excoriated by Florida’s Pulitzer Prize winning Tampa Bay Times.

 

Florida’s largest paper, the Tampa Bay Times – which has won 10 Pulitzer Prizes – has some harsh words for Pam Bondi.

Labeling her “wounded and diminished,” the Times says “Bondi’s clumsy communication skills and relentless defense of Florida’s gay marriage ban have made her a modern-day Anita Bryant.”

The paper adds, “Antagonizing Florida’s gay voters over same-sex marriage and Hispanic voters over immigration reform ensures Bondi has a bright political future ahead of her — if she moves to Mississippi.”

It also mentions “the unseemly junkets funded by groups seeking to influence her,” but that’s almost an afterthought. 

Bondi’s attacks on same-sex couples, masquerading as legal opinions, made the 49-year old Republican Attorney General an unwelcome household name, but her two divorces and three marriages (the last one, ironically, reportedly ceremonial and not legal,) made her seem hypocritical to many.

In May, Bondi claimed that recognizing out-of-state legal civil same-sex marriages would “impose significant public harm” and play havoc with existing marriage laws in the Sunshine State. She also suggested that same-sex couples don’t create stable or enduring homes.

Fortunately, just ten days ago the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Bondi’s emergency request to extend an already long stay on a ruling striking down Florid’s unconstitutional same-sex marriage ban, and couples will begin marrying January 6.

 

Editor’s note: an earlier version misstated the size of the Times’ readership.

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Hat tip: LGBTQ Nation