Columnist Carl Hiaasen sums it up nicely regarding former Reagan appointee and Miami-Dade Commissioner Art Teele, who took his own life in the lobby of the Miami Herald last week (and was buried this weekend):
Who did I piss off in this town?
That's what former Miami Commissioner Arthur Teele asked Herald columnist Jim DeFede over the phone last Wednesday afternoon. Not long afterward, Teele walked into the lobby of this newspaper and made a show of shooting himself.
For those who cared about him, and there were many, the grief is deep and scorching. It might seem a harsh time for blunt words, and there's no joy in delivering them.
But facts are facts. Teele was a complicated person who did many good things. He also veered disgracefully astray. Even through the tears and tributes, that cold truth looms. And although he's gone, it's not too late to answer his question: Who did he piss off?
He pissed off the law.
If the evidence is to be believed -- and there's a mountain of it -- he schemed, scammed and ripped off taxpayers. He took kickbacks. He lied. He stiffed the IRS. Worse, he betrayed the African-American community that he claimed to represent. It appears very much that he was corrupt, and that's why he got in trouble.
Read the rest here.
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