The Silence of the Harris

I don't think you can run a successful campaign challenging an incumbent by avoiding the media:

Already trying to avoid the media, Longboat Key Republican Katherine Harris is now canceling campaign stops in Southwest Florida as questions swirl about her ties to a Washington, D.C., defense contractor at the center of an ongoing national bribery scandal.

Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate, abruptly canceled a stop in Charlotte County on Saturday, and four other events planned for Lee and Collier counties were removed from her campaign Web site.

It's another sign that Harris' struggling campaign is now in full crisis mode. Political consultants say that shying away from the public right now is also a bad strategy.

"She can't hide and expect this to go away," said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant. "It looks like her campaign is circling the wagons."

She's circling those wagons because she's completely caught up in the Duke Cunningham scandal. In fact, now that the Dukestir has been safely put away for eight years, Harris is arguably the investigation's biggest target. Mitchell Wade, the defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing Cunningham, has also conceded that he funneled illegal campaign contributions to Harris and Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia. Look at how Cruella is trying to soft-pedal this:

Harris organized a conference call on Friday with her most loyal supporters in which she downplayed her connections to MZM Inc., saying, "There is nothing to it except for the press trying to be negative."

The company's owner admitted in federal court that he gave $32,000 in illegal campaign donations to Harris.

Continuing with the conference call, Harris described a campaign on a roll and gaining momentum daily. She said prominent national politicians, like U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., hosted a fundraising event for her in Washington last week, proof that all is well.

"Now there is a buzz in Washington," Harris said on the call.

In the Justice Department, maybe.

Wade and Harris had substantial contacts:

Over a private dinner in Washington, D.C., Wade and Harris talked about "obtaining funding and approval" for a Navy counterintelligence program that Wade wanted to open in Sarasota, Justice Department records show.

After that dinner meeting, Harris put in a $10 million budget request to the Defense Appropriations subcommittee to fund the project. Days later, an employee in Harris' congressional office went to work for Wade at MZM.

The funding for the project never was approved.

That's an important note, and this could all just be perfectly legal business as usual. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. But by cancelling all media events and basically hiding for a week, Harris is bringing this speculation upon herself. She could bowq out of the Senate race any day now.

And this is supposed to be a "top-tier" Senate race for the Republicans. What does a bad one look like?