Why I am not responding to Chris Ingram
Many of you are probably wondering why I am not pushing back against Chris Ingram’s jihad against me and Michael Ciftci. I really don’t want to waste a nano-second on this issue, but the level of vitriol pouring out of Ingram has risen to the point where I believe it is necessary for me to respond about why I am not responding.
Quite honestly, Chris Ingram bores me. He’s simply unoriginal. I guess he thinks ‘he got me’ by writing about my criminal record or past personal problems. But I am sorry, is there anyone in the Tampa Bay political scene who was unaware of my past problems? We live in the era of Google. It’s not like anyone can hide from any past grievance.
Not that I have hidden from it. In fact, the opposite is true. I have embraced my past, reconciled with it and rebuilt my life. So much so that past enemies, people like Pinellas County Commissioner Neil Brickfield, is now someone who wanted to sponsor me for a trip with his Rotary Club. Imagine that, six years ago, Neil was one of the driving forces behind my much-deserved prosecution; now he believe in me enough to put his name next to mine.
So if Chris Ingram, in all his un-originality, thinks he has accomplished something by writing on his blog, which so few people read anyways, about my past, he is sadly mistaken.
I wear my past as a badge of courage — as a testament to the power of being given a second chance. That is why I work 20 hours a day for my candidates, causes, clients and projects. Because there will always be people who will not, can not, forgive me. But there are countless more who have not only forgiven me, but have embraced what I am doing now.
Because if anything, I am certainly not boring. I am not unoriginal.
As for Chris Ingram, he think he’s clever by referring to Michael Ciftci as “Squirrel Poop.” Is that funny? Is that interesting? Maybe I am missing something…
You know, the trouble for Chris is when he looks around, here are his two most prominent supporters right now. Brian Blair. Todd Marks.
If you saw those three guys on one side of the room, how much distance would you put between them and you? So if on one side, there is Chris Ingram, Brian Blair, Todd Marks and on the other is myself, all of my supporters, including many of the people Chris has besmirched, including Marco Rubio, Jamie Grant, Jack Latvala and Will Weatherford — whose side do you want to be on.
Listen, there would be nothing more entertaining to me than to continue this pissing match with Chris Ingram, but where is the reward in it? If you’re a fighter, you’re either fighting for a shot at the title — or you’re not. I am sorry friends, but sparring with Chris Ingram doesn’t get me any closer to a shot at the title.
What’s particularly troubling about this Blogger Battle or Tweet Fight are two things: First, just three weeks ago, on Mark Foley’s radio show, both Chris and I could not be more complementary of each other. I don’t know if there is audio available from the show, but listen to the beginning of the December 22 program when both Chris and I are at the top of the program and you’ll hear two guys falling over each other to be nice to the other.
Which leads me to the second point: I think Chris Ingram has become unhinged. No one else has heard the conversations between he and I over the last few weeks and months. But if you could, you’d hear during one minute a very polite, very engaging, very complementary Chris Ingram, the next minute, you would hear a very profane, very disturbing Chris Ingram. He has called me many times just to hang up on me. And when I call him back, pleading with him to think twice about being so downright rude, he apologizes and is a seemingly different person.
Just within the last week, Chris has three times promised me he would not blog or write anything else about me, apologizing for what he has written, only for him to turnaround and launch into another tirade. From what I have been told from Chris’ previous targets, this is simply his modus operandi.
So I won’t be getting into the street with Chris Ingram. He simply bores me.
Why give the guy publicity?
Chris Ingram is a douche.
Keep up the good work and don’t let him bring you down. He is irrelevant.
[...] he hasn’t showed up on a campaign treasurer’s expenditure report in quite a while) is well-documented. That said, I still read his blog on the rare occasion he actually posts something [...]