May 12, 2010

steele 1_df0ea_959a8.jpg

Man, the comedy keeps writing itself:

Breaking news on Twitter from Politico's Mike Allen -- the 2012 Republican National Convention will be held in Tampa.

Florida has been a fiercely contested "swing state" in recent presidential campaigns, and Barack Obama's victory there in 20[08] was the Democratic Party's first since 1996.

The Politico is right--Florida is a critical "swing" state. There are some high visibility and politically strained battles going on there (I'm looking at you two, Crist and Rubio). But somehow I suspect that there was another element factored in to the choice of Tampa:

A reputation can sometimes be hard to shake and the city of Tampa has a reputation it would probably like to eliminate. For the past decade some have called Tampa the lap dance capital of the world.

Paul Allen, the founder and publisher of NightMoves magazine, says he hears about the city's reputation all the time. He believes the shear number of strip clubs in the Bay area has undoubtedly contributed to the city's rep.

"In greater Tampa Bay, I think the last count is around 56 different clubs that are adult-oriented," he said.

Another reason for the reputation is the city's role in the adult industry. "If you own a club in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and you want to book a feature (dancer) to come to your club, there's basically four people you can call. Three of those four companies are based right here in Tampa," Allen said.

You can't write comedy as gold as what the RNC does all on its own.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon