This is Hardly Surprising

Yes!

Raise high the BOHICA image, because Here It Comes Again!

A year or so ago, the Republican National Committee determined that the 2012 convention to determine the Party nominee for President would be held in the city of Tampa.

Which is in Florida.

This gladdened the hearts of many business owner, hoteliers and restaurateurs in Brandon, Tampa, and in neighboring Pinellas County. After all, a national party convention means big bucks flowing into the local economy - hotel rooms, meals, diversions, theme parks and other attractions. I expect the two big strip joints on Tampa's Dale Mabry, Mons Venus and 2001, will do a great business as all of these delegates, aides, lobbyists, fixers, family members, press people and assorted hangers-on look to have a bit of fun.

You can say a lot about former RNC Chairman Michael Steele. He may be a hack and a fool, but he and his Committee on Arrangements set things up right. Contracts were drawn up and agreed to, then duly signed.

Fast forward to this past week.

The new RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus (the only man whose name sounds like a social disease) sacked Steele's arrangements committee practically the day he took over the top seat.

Which brings me to this article from the St. Petersburg Times.

The RNC breezed into Tampa to have a little chat with the various hoteliers who had signed contracts with the Committee for room rates and fees to cover the Convention - and promptly told them, in not so many words, that their contracts are about as useful as toilet paper.

For starters, the room rates? Too high, the RNC wants them lower.

Second - those fees. The fees are paid by the hotels to the Convention, and the RNC wants them increased, from $30 per room to 10 percent of the bill.

If the hotels knuckle under and acquiesce (which they probably will), the 100 or so hotels who have committed some 15,000 rooms for the week-long convention will see a drop in the revenue they can realize from this shindig. The Tradewinds Resort on St. Pete Beach could see a decrease of $150,000 in their projected earnings for the convention.

While this is hardly surprising, one has to wonder why the RNC won't honor the contracts that they've signed in good faith with the hotels.

Or, to put it more simply:

Why does the Republican National Committee hate small business?