Webster for Congress?

It's never too early to begin handicapping political races in this little corner of heaven.

And, some recent events have yours truly concluding that former state senate majority leader Dan Webster is getting ready to run for Congress.

Up until recently, conventional wisdom was that Orange County's mayor Rich Crotty would try to unseat the precariously perched Alan Grayson in the 8th congressional district that includes Orlando.

But, Crotty's got some problems stemming from his entanglements at the local expressway authority. Not only did he recently rush thru an unpopular toll hike, but a grand jury report released the very next day slammed him for strong-arm pay-to-play tactics. It concluded that Crotty had benefited from a "culture of corruption."

Now, flash forward to today's blue ribbon report released by Webster. In it, he calls for some pretty significant reforms at the expressway authority, including:

• Cutting the bloated and top-heavy payroll by $600,000.
• Leasing or selling the TWO current headquarters buildings. (That's right, up til now they felt justified in having not one but TWO headquarters . . .)
• Passing the savings along to everyone with an ePass transponder, not just the frequent users the authority has favored to this point.

What's not to like about this?

Finally, a Republican is talking about shrinking the size of government and reducing its burden on the general public. Perhaps, the party will not have to spend as long in the political wilderness as I feared it might.

I've liked Dan Webster for a long time, and really respected his endorsement of Mike Huckabee over John McCain et al in the party primary during the last presidential election cycle. If only more folks around here had been of a similar mind back then . . .

Anyway, you read it here first, ye socks. Webster's running for Congress. And, today he dealt a body blow to his primary rival.