I’ve carried the story my whole life, because I carry the name.
In the Gospel, Peter swears he will never abandon Jesus — and before the night is out, he denies knowing him three times. Then the rooster crows, and Peter weeps, because he finally understands what he is.
I can’t remember seeing Ron DeSantis weep. But this week, the cock crowed for him just the same.
For more than a year, DeSantis held Florida’s entire legislative process hostage to property taxes. He called lawmakers back to Tallahassee for a Special Legislative Session. He insisted, demanded really, that the Legislature put relief on the ballot. They did. And on Monday, the Governor announced he won’t lift a finger to pass it.
“While I support it,” he said, “I do think it’s not all I was hoping to see.”
The reason he won’t build a political committee to pass it?
“What the Legislature did wasn’t my proposal,” DeSantis explained. He conceded Amendment 3 is still “good for taxpayers.” He admitted he’ll vote for it himself. He just won’t spend a dollar or a day of his political capital on it.
Hours later, a fundraising email from his RON PAC hit inboxes — asking donors to help him elect other conservatives. He wasn’t working to provide the very relief he demanded for homeowners.
Strip away the policy and you find the man, and the man has a pattern.
Ask Paul Renner, the House Speaker who branded Florida the “Free State” at DeSantis’ side, only to later get knifed by DeSantis, who described him as ill-advised the day Renner filed for Governor.
Ask Jay Collins, the Lieutenant Governor DeSantis handpicked, paraded, and then refused to endorse in Collins’ own hometown.
Ask Donald Trump, who saved DeSantis’ 2018 campaign and got repaid with a Primary so bitter that Trump’s own voters now call DeSantis a traitor. Ask the staffers who needed cupcakes to lure him to meetings, one of whom told reporters, “loyalty and trust, that is not a currency he deals in.”
Some on the MAGA right diagnosed it years ago, in a statement titled, simply, “A Lesson for DeSantis: Loyalty Counts.”
DeSantis keeps proving his critics right. Trump made him. Renner served him. Collins idolized him. The homeowners believed him. Each one, the moment they stopped being useful, became disposable.
I’ll admit at first I was surprised by DeSantis’ decision on Amendment 3. So I called a source who has advised DeSantis in the past, and said as much. They stopped me cold.
“You probably know him as well as anyone not in his inner circle,” they said. “After watching him for seven years as Governor, how could you possibly be surprised?”
I had forgotten that DeSantis is a man with no people … no friends … no country.
The rooster has crowed far more than three times now. The difference between DeSantis and my namesake is simple. Peter heard the crow and wept.
DeSantis hears it and sends out a fundraising appeal.
The post With Amendment 3 denial, the cock crows three times for Ron DeSantis appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..