The American Spectator

p> IF NOT KATHERINE, WHO? br> The plea agreement negotiated by Mitchell Wade , the founder of defense contractor MZM, Inc., presents more than additional embarrassing material in the case of disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham , who was the focus of the federal investigation. It now appears Wade’s plea will also impact the Florida Senate race, though perhaps in a good way for Republicans. /p>

In Wade’s plea agreement, he admits to pressuring employees to donate campaign funds to two unnamed GOP House members in order to ensure that a provision worth millions of dollars to MZM would be inserted in an appropriations bill.

The two House members identified in press reports are Reps. Virgil Goode of Virginia and Katherine Harris of Florida. Hotline and the San Diego Union both identified the House staffers of the two Republicans as the possible conduit for the approps bill insertion, though neither Republican was aware that Wade had pressured employees to give to their campaigns.

There were good reasons for MZM to be focused on Goode and Harris. One of MZM’s largest clients, the Army National Ground Intelligence Center, is based in Goode’s district, where MZM also has a facility. Press reports had MZM looking to open a facility in Harris’s district, even though its two clients in the area, the U.S. Central Command and the Special Operations Command, are actually in a neighboring congressional district.

Harris has probably collected more than $50,000 in MZM contributions, and seemingly aware of where this story was going announced that all of MZM’s donations to her campaign were being handed over to charity.

That Harris has been drawn into the MZM scandal caps off what was a pretty bad week for the candidate who is seeking the Republican Senate nomination to take on Sen. Bill Nelson. Earlier in the week, she was running away from stories that both her finance chairman and campaign treasurer had resigned their positions.

It is at the point now where Democrats in the state are crowing about a Nelson landslide in the fall, with few prospects for Republicans to find someone to match up with Nelson this late in the game.

But some Republicans in Washington and down in Florida are talking about organizing a “Draft Jeb” campaign in the coming days. “The Governor is the only one who would be able to enter a race this late in the calendar and have a legitimate shot at knocking off Nelson,” says a GOP political consultant, who does work throughout the South. “But getting Jeb to walk into this mess is probably a fantasy. A fantasy for Republicans, a nightmare of him.”