By all accounts, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi was supposed to fly this weekend to a lavish luxury resort with a couple dozen of her closest friends, family and colleagues (including Gov. Rick Scott) and tie the knot with her fiance, Dr. Greg Henderson. Then something happened. No one is actually quite sure what exactly, but the Republican bride ended up postponing the affair.
Bondi, a former Fox News legal analyst, had mentioned her impending nuptials in the past few months, but only let a few details slip. She mentioned wanting to get hitched in the spring somewhere "far away." Though, no one in the press had much a clue as to the exact plans until Republican State Sen. Ronda Storms (a former primary rival of Rick Scott's in the governor's race), who just happened to be on the same plane to the Cayman Islands this weekend as Bondi and her guests, uploaded a picture of a beaming Bondi passing out cocktails on the plane to her Facebook page.
Gossip blogger Jose Lambiet did a little snooping, and then confirmed that Bondi planned to hold her ceremony at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the luxury resort's Grand Lawn. And, then it got canceled.
Of course there's a little speculation it was for personal reasons, but the likely reasons are probably political. It's a time when most Floridians can't even fathom having a destination wedding with 60 to 70 guests, and a time when it's politically tone deaf to hold such a lavish event overseas when Florida's economy could use any kick it can get. There's also some buzz that holding a wedding anywhere else but a church wouldn't play well with the GOP base.
So now Bondi is telling the press the event was just a pre-nuptial celebration. Her wedding has now been postponed and will be held at a more politically convenient location: a small Baptist church near Tampa.
It's kind of icky to make political hay out of a politician's wedding celebration. Yes, Bondi is a member of the anti-gay marriage Republican Party (though her personal opinions on gay rights issues have been murky, at best). Yes, she's been married twice before (sanctity of marriage, indeed). Still it's hard too feel bad for her. She still got a pretty luxe vacation, and will still hold her more politically convenient wedding ceremony.
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