Michelle Spence-Jones is not taking her latest suspension from the Miami City Commission quietly.
The District 5 commissioner has taken aim at her two biggest adversaries -- Gov. Charlie Crist, who suspended her again yesterday, and the Miami Herald, which has oft criticized her attempts to keep her seat -- with probably the best news release of the year.
"First of all, I would like to correct the Miami Herald," she writes in the first line of the release. "I did not compare myself to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
Spence-Jones is referring to yesterday's column by Fred Grimm, who has roundly blasted Spence-Jones, where he writes:
But Tuesday evening, Spence-Jones, as is her wont, framed her coming collision with Crist as a race issue. She invoked Martin Luther King Jr. and suggested that if Crist removed her so close to MLK Day, it would demonstrate a blatant disrespect a for "everything he stood for."Not so, Spence-Jones says. "I would never compare myself to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," she writes.
She also blasts Crist anew, saying, "Just because Gov. Crist is falling in the polls like a rock, I refuse to become a key element of strategy in his campaign for U.S. Senate."
Click through for her whole statement.
First of all, I would like to correct the Miami Herald; I did not compare myself to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I stated that: African-Americans died for our right to vote and that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his life fighting for freedom, justice and equality.
I would never compare myself to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
It is our position that under Florida law, I had the right to run in the City of Miami special election, and now that the voters have re-elected me, I have the right to serve.
We have filed a lawsuit that will be heard on Tuesday, January 19, because the constitution does not allow a governor the unfretted discretion to treat a Raul Martinez differently from a Michelle Spence-Jones.
Just because Governor Crist is falling in the polls like a rock, I refuse to become a key element of strategy in his campaign for the U.S. Senate.
Thank you, and I look forward to my day in court.
