By PETER KERASOTIS
Florida Today

The end is near for Todd Manzi. "Win, lose or draw, April 15 is it for me," he said. "I never thought I'd look forward to tax day."

Todd Manzi is not a household name. Even in his own household, his name hasn't been too popular.

"What I've done has been very hard on my wife," he said. "It's been very hard on my family."

What he's done is seemingly take on the world. Manzi has tried to be a voice for fairness, reason and, yes, even truth. But sometimes he wonders if he's like a tree falling in the woods - with the emphasis on the word falling.

"I know I'm going to go down in flames," he said. "But I've always felt that this was my one chance to make a difference in society."

Perhaps.

Manzi is the man who started the Web site TheBurkStopsHere.com, along with the cause that goes with it.

The Burk in the Web site name is Martha Burk, the chairperson for the National Council of Women's Organizations. It's an organization that, safe to say, most of Americans never heard of before Burk took on the Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, the most prestigious golf tournament in the world.

Burk wants the all-male Augusta National Golf Club to admit a female member, and she has spent considerable time, money and energy toward that cause.

Burk and Manzi, along with a host of other sideshow performers, will be protesting this week at the Masters golf tournament, which Augusta National hosts. Burk is protesting Augusta National and Manzi is protesting Burk. The tournament starts Thursday and ends Sunday. Manzi is folding up shop two days later and returning to his real life.

He's both looking forward to the end and fighting it, as well.

This all started last summer when Manzi, 41, heard a news report about Burk on the radio.

Something clicked.

Or perhaps snapped.

Either way, it began him on a journey that has now cost him $20,000, not to mention that he hasn't had a job since September, which is another reason why he's looking forward to tax day.

Manzi, whose expertise is marketing and advertising, didn't like the message he was hearing from Burk. Not that he cares whether or not Augusta National has a female member, which is Burk's ax to grind. In fact, Manzi doesn't care a flip whether Augusta National has one female member, or a hundred. Like many people, he figures Augusta National is a private club, so it should be able to do as it pleases.

What he didn't like, though, was how one outside person - i.e., Martha Burk - began threatening and bullying companies that sponsor the Masters. As we know, the Masters beat Burk to the punch by dropping its sponsors, saving them from her harassment.

But Manzi wants to know why and how this all happened to begin with.

"How has one person gotten this much power to create this much havoc?" he asked.

It's a good question.

So far, he hasn't gotten a satisfying answer, except that many media outlets empowered Burk's cause by biting on the politically correct bait before stopping to look and see if it's real bait they're going after, or a lure.

Manzi suspects it's a lure, and that Burk is as fraudulent as a designer watch sold on a New York City side street.

"If not for the media," he said, "none of this would have happened, and she wouldn't have the power to be doing what she's doing. Nobody has taken the time to investigate her claims."

For instance, how many people know that the National Council of Women's Organizations is just a three-person outfit, operating on a $300,000 budget - shoestring in comparison to other lobbyist groups - out of a cramped 10th-floor office in the old Woodward Building in downtown Washington, D.C.?

The way Burk's been portrayed, you'd think she was a high-powered lobbyist with a big-time budget and staff. She's not. Because she doesn't need the money, she's an unpaid lobbyist with two young staff members. That's it.

From that lowly podium she's done something that really fries Manzi. She claims to represent 7 million women.

Really?

The NCWO advertises itself as an umbrella group for various and sundry women's groups coast to coast, designed to assist feminists with a venue to react more quickly to political developments as well as coordinate lobbying efforts.

Does that mean that Burk speaks for all these women's groups and all its members? Is she suddenly the voice for organizations like the YWCA, the American Nurses Association, the Association for Women in Science, the League of Women's Voters, the National Council of Jewish Women, the National Asian Women's Health Organization, and on and on and on.

"What she did was take every organization that pays dues to the NCWO and claimed to represent all their members," Manzi said. "And no news organization has called her on that."

But he has.

On his Web site, Manzi lists all these member organizations and asks some pointed and pertinent questions.

• Is the YWCA in agreement with Burk? If so, how do they explain taking money from corporations like IBM and Citigroup, companies that Burk targeted for boycott because they were Masters sponsors?

• Is the Business and Professional Women in agreement with Burk? If so, why was their 2002 conference sponsored by Coca-Cola and AT&T, two other Masters corporate sponsors whom Burk says sanction sex discrimination?

• Is the League of Women Voters in agreement with Burk? If so, Manzi wants to know how that squares with their statement that they believe "in the individual liberties established in the Constitution of the United States"?

Manzi claims one victory, contending that the American Women in Radio and Television dropped out of the NCWO because of his pressure. The AWRT claims it decided not to pay its dues and renew its membership. Whatever the reason, they are no longer an NCWO member, and the timing of their disassociation does seem conspicuous.

It goes on and on. Manzi's Web site also notes that some NCWO members are women-only organizations, yet the single-gender Augusta National Club is under attack by Burk.

"It's been very frustrating. Some of the things that have happened have literally blown my mind. How come when one member turned in his membership at Augusta National, it was big news? But when the NCWO lost a member, nobody asked why. The same questions on the other side of the issue aren't being asked. Martha Burk claims to represent (7) million women, and nobody has yet to challenge that. She was given instant credibility."

And that frightens him.

"What happens the next time?" he asked. "What happens the next time when she calls for a boycott of businesses and products? Who is going to stop her?"

All he knows is that it won't be him.

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Kerasotis can be reached at (321) 242-3694 or at pkerasot@flatoday.net