Investigation? What investigation? Ana who?
Former congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera walked through the Cuba Nostalgia exhibit in West Miami-Dade Sunday kind of like the 
Pope would walk through the plaza or a rock star through his adoring audience.
Or maybe like Jesus would walk on water.
Since he jumped into the primary for the chance to run against Congressman Joe Garcia — who beat Rivera in 2012 — Rivera keeps telling us that nobody cares about the allegations that he financed a plantidate in the 2012 race or the questions raised about his trips to Nicaragua to visit gal pal Ana Alliegro — who was extradited and is now in jail as the feds try to pressure her to implicate him — or the fact that big GOP names like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, his former congressional colleagues, are supporting Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo in the primary, which we can’t forget because Curbelo keeps parading them out over and over again, even though he got their nods weeks ago, before anyone knew Rivera would run.
Last week, the normally camera-shy congressman — who has turned camera hungry — told Nelson Rubio and Maria Fernanda Silva on the Actualidad Radio morning drive time show Vision360 that nobody in the district had even asked him about the investigations.
“Residents are worried about the issues, and that is what I want to deal with. I don’t pay attention to the falsehoods of the Miami Herald,” he said on the air.
And Sunday, Rivera proved himself right. Voter after voter approached him with open arms, cheek kisses, wide smiles, strong hand shakes, tight hugs, thumbs up, requests for selfies — are they still selfies when you hand your phone to someone else? — and more enthusiasm than one would have imagined.
Nobody — but I mean nobody — dared talk about any of the clouds
“Look who’s there,” exclaimed a woman standing next to me as he walked in. She was talking to her husband. “You know he’s going to win.”
Ladra asked Elba Martinez what she thought of Rivera the candidate.
“I am so glad that he is going back to politics. It’s marvelous,” Martinez 
said, after she hugged Rivera. “Que se acaben ya los mentirosos.”
“Let’s finish already with the liars,” said Martinez, who, alas, cannot vote for her idol. She doesn’t live in the district.
I asked the former Congressman if he planted Elba next to me. He called me a cynic. And one might think that the whole two-hour visit was scripted — so perfect it was for him as a candidate. Except that if you have seen Rivera at church or at a La Carreta for lunch or at a funeral, even, you would know that rock star status is the standard.
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David Rivera has no past, only a future, at Cuba Nostalgia added by Ladra on
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