Arthur Teele and the Miami Herald

Blithering idiots. The Miami Herald editorial on Arthur Teele includes this bizarre observation.

Mr. Teele's death extinguishes the light of a champion advocate for the people, especially those of Miami-Dade's less fortunate communities in Overtown, Liberty City, Little Haiti, Homestead and others. In his most recent positions as Miami Commissioner and head of the Community Redevelopment Agency, he fought to renovate blighted areas of Overtown and other communities. Mr. Teele's work with that agency became the focal point of corruption allegations against him, but no fair assessment of the man can be made without considering the contributions he made since he arrived here in 1983.

[bolding mine-ed] In other words, he was a crook but those were just allegations. The important thing is all the hundreds of millions he brought to transportation projects in Miami, and if his district is *still* one of the poorest in the state, well, hell, he was still a great representative cause we got our share of the boom.

This is the life they so endearingly recall, which includes some wonderful revelations.

Teele also had business associates with deep ties to the regime of deposed Haitian president Jean-Claude ''Baby Doc'' Duvalier. As recently as last year, Teele acknowledged that he owed $325,000 to businessman Claude Auguste Douyon, who was personal secretary to Duvalier. Douyon, who opened a Coral Gables art gallery after resettling in South Florida, provided Applied Electrical with operating capital, according to Teele.

That's mighty good pay for a secretary.

Teele may have been a Republican, but he was a black and he was crooked, the last two of which in the eyes of the Miami Herald is all that counts. It is, of course, the politics of race masking corruption.

And Teele's replacement isn't a lot better. The New Times has an imaginary interview because Jeffrey Allen won't give an interview.

Mr. Allen, could you explain what happened in 1996, when the Florida Supreme Court granted the Florida Bar an injunction against you for improperly soliciting business from the families of victims of the ValuJet crash? Also, if you can, please explain why the Georgia Supreme Court denied you the right to take the Georgia Bar exam in 2002.

Miami vice, apparently, includes the antics of their media and their politicians.