One gets the impression that Matt Gaetz’s dad called the wrong guys when he asked for some favors to help his son. It would seem that it would have been more effective had Matt’s dad called Matt and said, “Do me a favor and grow the fck up so you’re not humiliating me and the state of Florida!” That would be a favor that might have gone a long way in saving Matt.

Because the other ones didn’t, at least not quite enough, and it sounds like there’s some background here that explains why.

Politico’s Gary Fineout went on down to Florida to figure out what is going on and ended up with a deep dive into a cesspool of money, power, and a thirty-something-year-old, college sophomore-like, congressional representative named Matt Gaetz. Just to put this into perspective, Matt Gaetz has been in our public lives for three to four years now, and we heard about “Dad,” too, much of the time. When one is beyond thirty, one’s “dad” shouldn’t be coming up a lot in conversations, not unless one’s talking tennis challenges, or taking the kids to be spoiled by the grandparents. But, no, Matt’s “Dad” came up an awful lot, perhaps because of the truly impressive number of driving under the influence arrests, Matt racked, without many convictions. That’s not supposed to be a thing.

 It is no secret in Florida political circles that Sen. Don Gaetz — known as “Papa Gaetz” — has used his years lording over and wheeling and dealing in panhandle politics, as well as his substantial wealth, to guide his son — referred to as “Baby Gaetz” — into the public eye and Congress.

“Papa Gaetz?” Sweet baby Jesus as communications director, these are truly awful people… why not just call him “Boss Hog.”

“Matt Gaetz’s political trail was not just preceded but heavily influenced by his father, a Republican multi-millionaire businessman who had a reputation for rhetorical flourishes and drag-out political fights. Don Gaetz all but paved his son’s way into Florida’s political world, and some suggest that his father’s stature and influence is even helping his son as he faces a probe into potential s*x trafficking,”

Well, Papa Gaetz may control the Florida panhandle but once a case makes its way to Main Justice (DOJ’s digs in Washington) there’s fck all Boss Ho… we mean “Papa,” can do.

“Don has a lot of power and friends in Florida politics,” the political operative said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There are a lot of people who owe him favors. They are repaying those favors by staying silent about his son.”

Well, “staying silent is one thing.” If he were really powerful, and it was real bad, people could be saying; “Matt couldn’t possibly have been on that yacht with four p*rn stars and two pounds of c*caine because he was with me at the Boys and Girls club wrapping up lunches to give out to donors stopping by.”

So, maybe that power only goes so far.

 “There’s obviously people who respect Don. There’s obviously people who feel like they have been hurt by him … Don’s very rough. If he’s against you, he’s against you in a very rough way.”

Let’s translate that from about 30,000 feet, and please remember – we are speculating. We are Political Flare, we don’t “report,” we analyze and comment on reports. We can speculate a bit. Our speculation is that almost no one “respects” Don (Papa). They fear him. The only reason one adult truly “fears” another adult is that the other adult is willing to go beyond the rules to harm you, rules being otherwise known as “laws.” Which fits nicely with “Don’s very rough,” and “rough” is a rough word because it’s difficult to conceive of things that are “legally” rough. This description of Don? It makes him sound like “a” don. This sounds more like mob stuff. It almost sounds like Matt might not be the only criminal in the family.

Maybe that’s why dad Gaetz didn’t call his son first when asking for some favors. Maybe his son would have said, “Actually, you would owe me some favors because I could tell a lot of stories, dad.”

We’re speculating, of course.

****
Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak