Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will be coming to Fort Lauderdale on Monday for a $50,000-per-person couples fundraiser.
The shindig will be hosted by the president and COO of Auto Nation, Michael Maroone, and his wife, Michelle, and cohosted by Rick Case of Rick Case Honda, and his wife.
Case, you may remember, is famous not only for selling middling Japanese sedans but also for making headlines in 2011, when a TSA officer took a pen that belonged to Case that the car dealer had forgotten during a TSA preflight check-in at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Toussain Puddie, who then worked for the TSA, saw the pen and took it. Because it was a nice pen. And innocuous shit that's left behind during TSA check-ins like pens, shaving cream, and nail clippers are fair game.
Except that Case's pen was actually worth $450 because rich people can afford to be ridiculously frivolous with things. So he pressed charges even though Puddie insisted he didn't know the pen was worth that much and even though Puddie voluntarily came forward and told authorities he took the pen. Puddie was fired after the charges were pressed.
Anyway, the email being circulated to donors for the Romney fundraiser reads:
"This will be an intimate group of Mitt's strongest supporters and we invite you to join us at the Founding Member level, $50,000 per person."
Romney plans to swing through Florida for various campaign events next week (and the inevitable Will He Pick Marco Rubio to Be His Running Mate Questionmarks hysteria that will surely follow). The $50,000 per couple should help the presidential hopeful keep up the lead in raising more money than the Obama campaign for the fourth straight month as his car-dealer friends and others show up in a big way with their top hats and monocles and fancy pens.
A word of advice to the valets and coat checkers working the party: Do not take any pens or any other writing utensils you might see lodged in between car seats or inside coat pockets. Just a tip.
