Something is rotten in the State of Florida. Well, something besides Governor "JEB!".
Congressman Peter Deutsch has taken a page from Robert Torricelli's playbook and is quietly funding a 527 whose sole purpose is to attack Democratic front-runner Betty Castor. The issue he wants to exploit: the fact that Betty Castor did not fire alleged terrorist-sympathizer and University of South Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian when she was President of USF from 1993-1999.
Read two explosive articles that are sending shockwaves through the Florida Democratic Party as we speak:
#1: Deutsch Donor Starts Group
#2: Terror financing suspect could haunt Castor
The basic storyline here is simple and uncontroversial enough: In 1995, the FBI contacted USF (read: Betty Castor) about Sami Al-Arian claiming it had reason to believe that he was involved with terrorist organizations. In June 1995, Castor cut relations with a local Islamic studies organization Al-Arian had been running in partnership with USF. By April 1996, Castor had suspended Al-Arian as the FBI ratcheted up its investigation of Al-Arian. In May 1996, a private investigator hired by USF to delve into the claims against Al-Arian reported that there was nothing to them. Betty Castor and USF tried for several months to get some indication from the FBI that its investigations of Al-Arian were turning up anything incriminating; the FBI effectively told USF "no comment." Betty Castor and USF allow Al-Arian to return to teaching at USF in August of 1998. In 1999, Betty Castor ends her tenure at USF.
A good timeline of events surrounding Sami Al-Arian is HERE
As you can see, Al-Arian wasn't arrested for anything until 2003. And that was for "racketeering" (this despite having the entire homeland security apparatus investigating him intensively for nearly a decade).
The point here isn't that Sami Al-Arian is a victim (quite honestly, he was involved in many questionable activities and he deserved to be investigated). It's that Betty Castor acted did the right thing. She didn't over-react as so many university presidents do when presented with the slightest controversy. Betty Castor upheld basic standards of academic freedom as well as the rule of law, and the assumption of innocence.
Peter Deutsch, usually a good Democrat, has chosen to join the ranks of Bill O'Reilly and other obnoxious right-wingers in exploiting this issue for personal and political gain.
The lying liars are coming after Betty Castor. What are you going to do to help her fight back?