Ronda Storms, quite arguably, is the best thing to happen to Joe Redner since nudity was declared a form of speech.
Redner regularly runs for public office, gets on the right side of issues such as environmentalism and works at mainstreaming his image beyond the sleaze-connoting “Tampa’s Strip Club King.” His holdings are as diversified as they are legal.
Now, thanks largely to Topical Storms Ronda, he has high-profile, moral high ground.
Recall that Redner was juxtaposed to the posturing, pandering Hillsborough County commissioner in the embarrassing controversy over recognition of Gay Pride. Now there’s the flap over Redner’s contribution to the Auction for Angels charity. The inclusion of his innocuous “Joe Redner Enterprises” logo set the Arbiter of All Things Moral into another sanctimonious lather that involved phone calls to other sponsors.
Calls to needy children would have put it into a more appropriate context.
Fortunately, cooler, non-grandstanding heads prevailed, and the event was held as scheduled.
Meanwhile, Redner enjoys the view – and the irony — from the moral high ground provided by the dredge-and-fill politics of Storms.