Katherine Harris--the woman who wasn't there

By Lee Russ

Tuesday, May 09, 2006 at 03:44 PM

You'd think that a president would remain eternally grateful to a woman who helped deliver the presidency.  But this is politics, and the woman is Katherine Harris, now known as the Senate Candidate from Hell.

What happens when the Candidate from hell greets the reluctant president, and grabs the president's hand in a death grip?

The [AP report ] of President Bush's Florida trip includes this description of him being greeted by Harris as he deplaned:

...Harris, the state's former secretary of state who captured headlines for her role in clinching the 2000 election for Bush, was waiting for the president as his plane landed in Tampa.

But though Harris spoke animatedly for several minutes and kept a firm grip on the president's hand, he wore a grim expression and didn't display the jocularity he usually bestows on local greeters. Harris did not attend other events with the president, while GOP Rep. Adam Putnam, who also was at the plane, did.

I'd love to have seen this little scene.  And know exactly what was buzzing through our commander in chief's decisive brain as he stood, paralyzed between the death grip and the paralyzing field of perfume.