Opinion: RIP Pee-wee. Christian Ziegler has taken your place

Until now, there has never been an incident that has embarrassed Sarasota like the time a famous children's actor was arrested by undercover detectives pleasuring himself inside an adult motive theater.

Indeed, Christian Ziegler is the new Pee-wee Herman.

One night, back in 1991, a Herald-Tribune reporter was doing a routine cops check when she came across a name she recognized: Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman, the impish TV and movie character so originally wacky that even Disney on drugs could not have imagined him. Reubens was a graduate of Sarasota High, and we proudly embraced him as ours.

Until Aug. 26, 1991. That's when some undercover detectives from the Sarasota Sheriff's Office arrested a few gentlemen pleasuring themselves to pornographic movies inside the South Trail Cinema. Reubens was one of them.

Reubens, sensing the end of his career, pleaded with the H-T and the Sheriff’s Office to look the other way. If an arrest was not made, and if a story was not written, he would perform at a charity event in full Pee-wee character. There were no takers. Not only was the story written, but it was accompanied by a mugshot of a hippie-looking Reubens that shocked the nation. Eventually, the Pee-wee Herman story was on the front page of every newspaper, along with the Moscow Summit. Rolling Stone wrote a cover story with the headline "Who killed Peewee Herman?"

No one, because he wasn't really dead. Stars such as Joan Rivers, Cyndi Lauper, Robert Klein and Bill Cosby (OK, that one didn't age so swell) came to his defense, and support rallies were held in major cities, much to the surprise of many. But Sarasota's image was not off the hook.

The disgust was eventually directed to where it belonged, and that was the Sarasota Sheriff's Office for arresting Reubens in the first place. They had nothing better to do than hassle Pee-wee Herman?

Reubens eventually pleaded no contest to indecent exposure and was fined $50. After he brilliantly appeared at the MTV Music Awards and said: “Heard any good jokes lately? I know you are but what am I?’’ all was forgiven and mostly forgotten.

Still, for several months in 1991, Sarasota was a national embarrassment, just like it was the year before when five people were arrested on Lido Beach for wearing thong bathing suits.

Ziegler's governor connection: Opinion: Christian Ziegler helped a GOP governor get elected. Wonder what he thinks now?

The Pee-wee you never knew: Opinion: The decency of Paul Reubens helped Sarasota High heal deep wounds

More: Opinion: Bridget Ziegler has no background in education. Maybe that explains it all

Now to be clear, what Reubens did and what Ziegler is accused of doing are two very different things. Ziegler is being investigated for allegedly raping a woman on Oct. 2, not for hanging out in an adult movie theater. He has not been charged with a crime, but on Monday, he was voted out as the Florida GOP chair.

Here's who ran stories on Ziegler's ouster: the Anchorage Daily News, Fox 5 San Diego, the Hickory (North Carolina) Record, the Jamaica Observer, KAKE TV in Wichita, Kan., and the British Broadcasting Co.

That's not counting Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, Forbes, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, the New York Post, the New York Times and the Washington Post. You can pretty much name any major news source in this country, and they have run a Ziegler story of some sort, and you can guess what's on the Internet. This bad Pee-wee-type publicity is not doing Sarasota's reputation any favors, especially as tourist season is upon us.

Both Christian Ziegler and his wife Bridget have claimed for years how much they love Sarasota. Christian Ziegler was a former Sarasota County Commissioner, and Bridget Ziegler is a current member of the Sarasota County School Board.

Until he was booted out in disgrace on Monday, essentially for tarnishing the reputation of the party, Christian Ziegler pigheadedly refused to walk away from his state GOP position. Apparently, he was under the delusion he was Donald Trump. His wife, for her part, is still clinging to her school board seat despite loud calls for her to resign.

They are not standing up for themselves in any admirable way. They are only being selfish, and the longer they use this ridiculous strategy, the more they are in the news and the worse Sarasota is portrayed, not just in this country, but internationally.

You know, it's been over three decades since the Pee-wee Herman incident, and much has happened in that time, including Reubens' death in July.

RIP Pee-wee.

All is forgiven, and your genius is missed.

It took a while, but someone has come along and really embarrassed Sarasota this time.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Zieglers bring bad publicity to Sarasota on Pee-wee Herman level