The Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Thomas lays the wood to Kendrick Meek:
If my mother pulled up in a sparkling white Cadillac Escalade, I’d pick up my jaw and say, “Hey, mom! What’s with the ride?”
But U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, Democratic frontrunner in the U.S. Senate race, exhibited no such curiosity when his mother, Carrie Meek, scored her new caddy.
He says he didn’t ask her about it.
That’s convenient, because the car was leased for her by Boston developer Dennis Stackhouse. He also gave Carrie Meek $90,000 in consulting fees and free office space for her non-profit group.
The dollars didn’t stop there. Stackhouse helped Meek’s chief of staff secure a home loan, fronting him $13,000.
I almost don’t have to tell you what comes next.
Kendrick Meek got a $72,750 earmark for a project Stackhouse wanted to build in Miami’s Liberty City. He tried but failed to get Stackhouse another $4 million after that.
He might have tried again but Stackhouse was arrested last year, charged with stealing almost $1 million in project funds.
The Miami Herald reported back in 2007 that Stackhouse didn’t have the financing, experience or tenants to pull off the deal. All he had were lobbyists and political connections. The development never got off the ground.
It all smells like road kill on an August afternoon.
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