In defense of an ethics complaint against him for a TV attack ad in his campaign for Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez — who 
must know himself that he is losing the race — said, en alta voz y con orgullo in a TV news interview that he can lie because, well, it is protected by the first amendment.
Really. I kid you not.
Gonzalez was caught seemingly unprepared outside an event by Univision 23 reporter Carolina Rosario, who was doing a story on former Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia‘s ethics complaint about the ad, which says Garcia paid some worker a $400,000 salary while the employee was MIA. Ladra has already covered the multiple ways that is, at best, misleading and, at worst, “a big, fat lie,” like Garcia told Ladra last week.
But the gist is that the employee is one of 40-some union reps from the 10 labor organizations with the county who get paid leave as per negotiated in their contracts by the administration, not by Garcia. The property appraiser position has no control over that.
See the video from Univision 23 that Ladra calls “Eddy’s Last Words”
Still, the state rep — who really has no place calling someone out for a no-show job since Ladra believes he has had a few of those while a legislator — defended the 30-second spot, which features former perennial candidate Alex Dominguez, who has crossed over to t
he dark side after coming in fourth in the first round Aug. 26, and which has been on high rotation on mostly Spanish-language TV but is also in English.
“It’s $100,000 a year. It is $400,000 in four years. Yeah, he can say it doesn’t exist,” Gonzalez said about the ghost employee featured in the ad, “because, really, there is no employee that makes $400,000 in one year.”
In fact, the highest paid employee was former Property Appraiser and now Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, with about $155,000-a-year.
Read related story: Eddy Gonzalez’s ‘$400,000’ ad is a desperate last stab
Asked if he didn’t think that the ad was confusing or misleading (and thank you Ms. Rosario for the follow up question), Gonzalez hedged and hawed, using words like “clearly” and “public record,” which has become a favorite staple of anyone hiding anything.
“Really we said clearly in the commercial that Pedro Garcia paid an employee $400,000 while he was there, an employee who never went to work. And that is a public record. You can look for it.”
Well, why doesn’t he just produce it? If it’s a public record he’s seen, why doesn’t he just show us instead of sending us on a wild goose chase? Garcia, who asked the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust to force the ad off the air, has repeatedly challenged Gonzalez show proof of the claims. Gonzalez, who never returns Ladra’s calls, has declined to do that.
But wait, the best part of the TV interview was yet to come. The part where, Ladra believes, Gonzalez ended his political career forever.
“We live in a free country, where we have freedom of speech. Where we can say things…
really, we can even say things that are lies,” Gonzalez said. Say what? Ladra had to rewind on the web video.
“We can even say things that are lies,” he actually said. On TV.
Wait, let me take that in for a moment. “We can even say things that are lies.”
So, Eddy Gonzalez says the first amendment guarantees us the right to make stuff up? I think that’s the first time I’ve heard a politician openly admit to that. It’s almost refreshing.
If it didn’t sorta sound like a confession.
Maybe Gonzalez was thinking the same thing because then he quickly added, “But we are saying the truth. We are saying things that happened during his administration.”
What “we” are doing is stretching the truth, Rep. Gonzalez. A lot. Just like you do when you say you live at some house or apartment your sister owns in East Hialeah, which is your newly drawn district, when you know you live in the same house as you always did with your wife and kids in your old district.
Read related story: State Rep. Eddy Gonzalez lives, works outside his district
But it’s not just what Gonzalez says about how lies are protected speech. It’s how he looks saying it. Gonzalez is a sweaty mess. I know it’s hot out, I get shiny, too, or maybe he has a medical condition, but it’s an especially bad look for a political candidate. Screams of shady. And just listen to how he says “freedom of speech,” like Tony Montana might say it. Did he forget how to say libertad de expresión?
And, I’m sorry, but Ladra says what everybody is thinking, is he slurring his speech? Is this outside a South Beach nightclub with those purple lights? Has he already started consoling himself or buffering himself for this bruising loss?
Well, if he didn’t know it before, Gonzalez couldn’t have woken up the next day and seen that interview and actually think that he stands a chance.
Unless he’s lying to himself about it. And, hey, that’s his constitutional right.
Eddy Gonzalez: ‘We can even say things that are lies’ added by Ladra on
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