Jack Kingston shares your frustration, Buckeye fans.

He too hates the University of Florida football team. For the Georgia alum has all too often seen his Bulldogs fall to those panhandle punks as Ohio State did in the BCS national title game.

So he decided to fight back – sort of. The Georgia congressman cast the lone opposing vote last week on House Resolution 39, which “commends the Florida Gators for their victory in the 2006 Bowl Championship Series.”

“There was just so far I could go as a Bulldog,” Kingston, R-Ga., said.

The resolution, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz ,D-Fla., passed by a 414-1 vote.

Sixteen of Ohio’s 18 representatives, including democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, voted for the resolution. Republican congresswoman Deborah Pryce, who represents the Columbus area, was one of the two Ohioans who abstained from voting.

These celebratory declarations usually pass unanimously through the house. For instance, a similar resolution honoring Boise State’s perfect season passed, 415-0, last week.

To Kingston, a Savannah, Ga. resident who has been representing the state’s first district since 1993, the vote was made on a whim. Florida is Georgia’s fiercest rival and he had never liked these frivolous resolutions anyway, so why not, Kingston figured.

“There are a lot of people who see this world in serious terms, and think this bill should be measured in the same yardstick with Iraq and immigration reform,” Kingston said. “But this is a hero resolution, and I just decided to interject a little fun into it.”

Not everyone is laughing, however.

Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., said Kingston missed the point and is disappointed he would not support a fellow SEC school.

“Poor, poor Jack. He’s such a poor loser,” Brown said to The Gainesville Sun. “The University of Georgia didn’t teach him about good sportsmanship. We (are) gonna beat him again next year.”

To Kingston, though, it is people like Brown who just do not get it. And for all the irate Florida fans who have condemned Kingston as an SEC traitor among other pleasantries, he can only chuckle.

“Good lord, they’ve got bigger problems to worry about down there,” Kingston said.

If it were his choice, these fluffy resolutions would be banished.

“We’ve had five hearings about military preparedness this week, and I think it’s okay to pause and commemorate a championship,” Kingston said. “But recorded votes and taking this seriously, good gosh.”

For the record, and this indeed must be set straight if Kingston ever decides to run for higher office, his vote had little to do with the Buckeyes.

Though Kingston did vote “yes” in January 2003 for a similar declaration commemorating OSU’s last national title, the congressman has little use for OSU. In fact, Kingston attended Michigan State for two years and was in the Spartans student section in 1974 when the top-ranked Buckeyes fell, 16-13 in East Lansing.

Yet ever the savvy politician, he made sure to praise the almighty – “We loved Woody” – and was armed with the stock conversational sign off.

“Go Buckeyes,” he said with a laugh.

David Briggs can be reached at [email protected].