Category Archives: Florida Politics

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Florida To Poor People: Drop Dead

As noted previously, the Florida legislature adjourned without voting to expand Medicaid.  Which means that a whole lot of poor people here will go without health insurance next year.

It seemed like a watershed moment for the Affordable Care Act when Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), a staunch Obamacare opponent, embraced the Medicaid expansion in February.

“While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the costs, I cannot deny Floridians who need access to health care,” Scott told reporters at a press conference.

Scott wouldn’t be the one to “deny Floridians” a part of the health care law—but the Florida legislature had other plans. Lawmakers adjourned Friday after passing a budget that does not include funding for a Medicaid expansion. Unless the Republican-controlled legislature comes back for a special session later this year—which some Democrats are calling for—Florida will not expand Medicaid in 2014.

In Florida, where one in five non-elderly residents lack insurance coverage, the consequences are especially large: An estimated 1.3 million Floridians were expected to gain coverage through the the Medicaid expansion.

But we did get a bunch of new specialty license plates, so we’re good.

I have friends and colleagues who are conservative Republicans who work with the elected representatives of the state of Florida who shake their head in mystified sorrow over the stupidity and just plain ignorance that passes for what goes on when the legislature is in session.  It isn’t just the conservative mindset or the lingering effects of the shock of finding out that the country has elected a ni-CLANG! twice as president.  It’s a blend of fundamental ignorance and blatant anti-everything that has happened since the Roosevelt (Theodore, not Franklin) administration.  Government-subsidized healthcare?  Augh!  Socialism!

Gov. Scott, to his credit as a politician if not as a craven cynic who believes he can get re-elected by suddenly coming across as a pragmatist, is now trying to get the genie that he yanked out of the bottle back into it before the Teabaggers at The Villages find out he’s gone squishy and they come after him on their Medicare-supplied scooters.  The only thing that will save him is the fact that the Florida Democrats are so weak that the best hope they have is a warmed-over Charlie Crist.

Meanwhile, 1.3 million Floridians will be turning to the emergency rooms for medical care and the rest of us will be paying for it at a much higher cost because… FREEDOM!

Monday, May 6, 2013

We’re Safe For the Moment

The Florida legislature has ended their annual session without causing too much damage.  In fact, they actually did at least one good thing… by not doing something.

The Miami Dolphins do not intend to pay for any upgrades to Sun Life Stadium now that the team’s push for a subsidized renovation to the 1987 facility has failed, CEO Mike Dee said Sunday.

[...]

In a live interview on Facing South Florida with Jim DeFede, Dee gave the first in-person remarks by any Dolphins official since late Friday, when the Florida House of Representatives ended the annual lawmaking session in Tallahassee without taking up team-backed legislation providing public subsidies for the renovation.

Legislative approval was required to hold a May 14 referendum asking voters about the stadium renovation; the election was canceled Friday night. The Dolphins were hoping to get $289 million over 30 years from an increase in the mainland Miami-Dade hotel-tax rate, and $90 million over the same period in state sales-tax subsidies.

And that will also end the robo-calls I’ve been getting urging me to vote in favor of the renovation.

In other legislative news, the folks in Tallahassee decided that cutting education a couple of years ago was a bad idea and voted to pump over a billion dollars back into public schools and give teachers a raise.  The fact that an election is looming in less than two years had absolutely nothing to do with it, I’m sure.  Hey, we’ll take it, but don’t expect that to make voters — and educators — forget about all those cuts two years ago.  This basically puts us back to where we were.

Oh, they did also find time to create more specialty license plates, adding to the list of 120-plus already available.

Efforts are also slowly advancing to create the “Fallen Law Enforcement Officers” license plate (SB 712) and — on the House side — the “Sun, Sea, and Smiles” tag (HB 427), which would raise money for: the Florida Caribbean Charitable Foundation, Inc.; American Friends of Jamaica, Inc.; Haitian Neighborhood Center Sant La, Inc.; Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami, Inc.; Greater Caribbean American Cultural Coalition, Inc.; and Little Haiti Optimist Foundation, Inc.

What, no “Lesbians For The Metric System” plate?  Maybe next year.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Sunday Reading

Beating Back the Bush — The Sunday chat shows will probably have a few defenders of former President George W. Bush.  Here’s the counterpoints from Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon:

Bush Zoinks 03-04-04Every dog goes to heaven and every former president should get a shot at repairing his legacy, especially when it’s as tattered as George W. Bush’s. With the opening of his presidential library and museum this week, observers from former Bush officials to mainstream outlets were taking a fresh, rosy look at the Bush legacy. Some offered dopey and facially ridiculous cheerleading, while others offered more compelling suggestions to return to the Bush era with an open mind. After all, other presidents left office in a cloud only to be redeemed by history years later.

So, is this week making you feel a bit nostalgic for the Bush era? Don’t. It’s been almost half a decade since the 43rd president left office, and he’s looking as bad as ever. Of course, that won’t stop a small circle of admirers (many of whom used to be on his payroll) from trying, so here’s your guide to taking on the five biggest specious pro-Bush talking points put forward this week:

1) Bush kept us safe: The biggest myth of the Bush presidency, by far, is that the president kept the country safe. As Charles Krauthammer wrote this week in the Washington Post in a typical example: “It’s important to note that he did not just keep us safe. He created the entire anti-terror infrastructure that continues to keep us safe … Which is why there was not one successful terror bombing on U.S. soil from 9/11 until last week.”

Just no. First of all, why does 9/11 not count? It’s not like the U.S. government was completely unaware of the threat from al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden until 9/11. After all, bin Laden had already helped orchestrate the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed hundreds in 1998, and Bill Clinton launched cruise missiles into Sudan and Afghanistan to try to kill bin Laden three years before 9/11. And then there’s that CIA briefing that warned Bush: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” — 36 days before Sept. 11. Bush’s response to the briefer giving him the news? To say, “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.” Then he went fishing. Literally.

As for the claim that there were no terror attacks on U.S. soil after 9/11 under Bush — also bogus. Conor Friedersdorf writes:

“Bush’s tenure included anthrax attacks that killed five people (more than died in the Boston marathon bombing) and that injured between 22 and 68 people. Bush was president when Hesham Mohamed Hadayet killed two and wounded four at an LAX ticket counter; when the Beltway snipers killed 10 people; when Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar injured six driving his SUV into a crowd; and when Naveed Afzal Haq killed one woman and shot five others in Seattle.”

Also, there was the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, just before the 2000 election, which should have brought an extra warning about the al-Qaida threat, and later on, bombings in London, Madrid, and Jordan. Meanwhile, thanks to the wars there, much of the attention from international terror went to Iraq and Afghanistan, where al-Qaida and sympathetic groups found it easier to kill American soldiers than to attack Americans on U.S. soil.

There are more, including the howler that Bush was fiscally responsible, and the most egregious one of all: “Iraq wasn’t that bad.”

The Deportation Machine — William Finnegan in The New Yorker on how undocumented workers are treated when they are caught.

You get arrested. The authorities run a background check. They need to know if you have outstanding warrants or unpaid tickets, if you jumped bail somewhere, if you’re driving a stolen vehicle. To obtain your criminal history, they routinely send your fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which keeps a database of more than a hundred million prints. The F.B.I., under a federal program known as Secure Communities, will share your fingerprints with the Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security’s core job—the reason it was created—is to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States. Your prints might reveal that you’re a suspected terrorist. D.H.S. is also charged with border security. Its Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm, ICE, will run your prints through the D.H.S. database—specifically, its U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology Program (U.S.-VISIT) and Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), which also contain more than a hundred million prints—searching for a match with people wanted for immigration violations. If a match occurs, ICE can issue a “detainer.” Now the local authorities, before they release you, may notify ICE, which may elect to transfer you to federal custody in order to begin deportation proceedings.

Florida Ethics — No, really.  Carl Hiaasen has the scoop.

Promise not to laugh?

An ethics bill was passed last week in Tallahassee.

It’s no joke. The Legislature unanimously approved a law designed to clean up its own sketchy act, and that of elected officials all over the state.

Gov. Rick Scott says he’s “reviewing” the bill. To veto it would be an act of profound cluelessness, but remember who we’re talking about.

The ethics legislation is significant because the concept of enforcing ethical behavior is so foreign to Florida politics. Decades of well-publicized misdeeds and flagrant conflicts of interest have failed to make a moral dent.

A few years ago, lawmakers went through the motions of establishing something called a Commission on Ethics. Most Floridians were unaware of its existence, for good reason. It was a total sham.

Doonesbury — The perpetual question.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Florida High

TPM points to an article in the Palm Beach Post about backers of legalizing medical marijuana in Florida and the connection to Charlie Crist.

Trial lawyer John Morgan, one of President Barack Obama’s top Florida fundraisers, has thrown his clout behind a medical marijuana initiative whose proponents have struggled for more than three years to get the question before Florida voters.

Morgan recently pledged to raise money — and plug in his own, if necessary — to get a measure on the 2014 ballot that would make Florida the 19th state to legalize the growing and purchase of marijuana for medical purposes.

Morgan also happens to be the boss of Charlie Crist, whose name might be alongside the pot measure as the Democratic nominee for governor. Crist served as the Republican governor of Florida from 2009 until he became an independent to finish his losing campaign for the U.S. Senate. He registered as a Democrat in December and has said he’s mulling another run for governor.

Morgan, head of the Orlando-based Morgan & Morgan law firm, says he hasn’t spoken about the measure with Crist, who works as a lawyer in the firm’s Tampa office.

“That has not factored into my decision here,” Morgan said recently. “I plan to talk to Charlie and see what he thinks about all this. But what I do is not governed by what I think Charlie Crist might do.”

But others say the medical marijuana initiative could help draw voters to the polls who would more likely support Crist or another Democratic candidate than Gov. Rick Scott, the Republican incumbent who is seeking re-election.

Pop Tarts and Pringles go great with orange juice.  Or so I’ve heard.

Medical marijuana legalization, like marriage equality, is one of those issues where the dire predictions of doom and debauchery, fire and brimstone, has been thoroughly debunked.  Pot for healthcare has been working in 19 states, and were it not for federal drug laws, chances are that it would be legalized — and regulated — in a lot more places the same way liquor is.  And it would be taxed like crazy, thus insuring the states with a steady stream of revenue.

It’s also a safe issue for politicians to take a stand on.  There’s enough anecdotal evidence to show that medical marijuana is used by people of all different political stripes, and even the Tea Party folk must see that there’s freedom in being able to get baked when the chemo starts to get to you or Glenn Beck is just too much to handle without being stoned.

As for Charlie Crist, he’ll run on anything that will offer a glimmer of getting back to Tallahassee.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Bill Nelson Makes It 51

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) now supports marriage equality.

Nelson, who last week insisted marriage should be between a man and a woman, said he concluded that stance was inconsistent with the beliefs embedded in the Declaration of Independence.

“It is generally accepted in American law and U.S. society today ‘… that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’ I believe that. The civil rights and responsibilities for one must pertain to all.

“Thus, to discriminate against one class and not another is wrong for me,” he said in a statement to Tampa Bay Times editorial board.”If we are endowed by our Creator with rights, then why shouldn’t those be attainable by Gays and Lesbians? “Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn’t, and I won’t.

“So I will add my name to the petition of senators asking the Supreme Court to declare the law that prohibits gay marriage unconstitutional.”

He is now the fifty-first U.S. senator — of whom two are Republicans — to support it.  It’s not like it carries a lot of political risk for him; he was re-elected last fall fairly comfortably over tea partier Connie Mack IV (a name that reminds me more of a yacht than a person), and he’s more of the old school Democrats like John Glenn than the newer hipper progressives.  (Hardly surprising; Mr. Nelson once flew in the space shuttle.)

But let us not be churlish.  Welcome to the party, Senator.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Rick Scott Running Scared

Early polling suggests that Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election chances are dim.

Rick Scott’s approval numbers have seen no improvement over the last two months, even after his decision to allow Medicaid expansion in Florida. 33% of voters continue to approve of the job he’s doing to 57% who disapprove. Although his overall numbers are the same he has seen a slight improvement with Democrats (from 21/71 to 23/69) and a slight downgrade with Republicans (from 49/38 to 46/42).

Scott continues to trail Charlie Crist by double digits in a hypothetical match up, 52/40. That’s just a slight improvement for him from January when he was down 53/39. Crist, who still has a 28% favorability rating with Republicans, wins over 29% of the Republican vote and also has a narrow lead with independents at 47/41. Crist still isn’t as popular as he used to be- a 46/43 favorability rating- but that’s good enough against the backdrop of Scott’s unpopularity to give him a pretty substantial early advantage.

It’s at least a year before this kind of polling will carry much weight, but it will dictate how Mr. Scott and the gang in Tallahassee conduct themselves in the legislative session that just started.

It will be fun to see just how much pre-emptive pandering and sucking up can get done between now and the first week in May to lay the groundwork for the campaign next year.  Boost education and give teachers a raise?  Sure!  Cut taxes on the very rich?  Why not?  Suck up to the NFL and the stadium lobby in Miami?  You got it!  Issue a specialty license plate for Jesus-freaks and Pastafarians?  Coming right up.

It’s amazing what you can get done when you’re doomed.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Catching Up

Go away for a little while for some behind-the-scenes maintenance and look what happens.  Things happen without me.

So I missed out on the big announcement of the election of the new pope.  Turns out to be another old white guy, this time from Argentina, who has 18th century views on things like reproductive rights, marriage equality, the role of women in the Catholic church, and may have been complicit in the disappearance of dissidents during the military dictatorship in Argentina.  A real breath of stale air.

Florida’s Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll resigned a day after she was questioned about her role in a charity scam involving internet gambling.  She is facing possible criminal charges.  Yes, I know the joke is that it’s an event for a public official to not be facing some kind of criminal charge in order to puff up the resume, but this one seems especially egregious: the scam was supposedly raising funds to help veterans, but the only thing it seemed to be doing was separating suckers — both in the internet “cafes” and through charity appeals — of their money.

Scott Prouty, the man who caught Mitt Romney on tape telling the truth about his views of the 47% last spring has come forward and told his story.  I’m sure he’s already getting the shitstorm from the right wingers who are going to dig into his background and make a huge deal about every time he scratched his ass.

The wingnut circus and trade show known as CPAC has hit Washington.  This annual gathering of the desperate and the doomed brings out the best in the conservative movement, which means we’re going to be entertained with all sorts of amusement.  Fortunately these folks are better at being unintentionally funny than they are at winning elections.  Best quote so far: Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX): “Vietnam was winnable.”  BYO popcorn.

Did I miss anything else?

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Rick Scott Gets Pwned

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s attempt to turn left on Obamacare and expand Medicaid in the state ran smack dab into a wall known as the state legislature.

On the eve of convening of the 2013 session, the House Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act rejected the expansion. A Senate counterpart committee postponed consideration of the issue, which is sure to be one of the biggest controversies of the session.

Scott, a Republican who bitterly fought President Barack Obama’s national healthcare plan as a candidate and in his first two years as governor, stunned conservative supporters on February 20 when he endorsed a three-year expansion of Medicaid, provided the federal government picks up the full cost for the first three years as promised.

“There’s definitely a fight between the governor and the (state) legislature over this. The Republicans in the legislature are much more fiscally conservative than his actions have shown him to be,” said Susan MacManus, a Tampa-based political scientist at the University of South Florida.

Republican legislative leaders have been openly hostile toward the plan, emphasizing that state lawmakers will make the final decision in drawing up a budget for next fiscal year.

While Democrats have pushed for full implementation of so-called “Obamacare,” the controlling Republican leadership has warned that the federal government might not keep its end of the bargain, leaving the state with a million more Medicaid recipients and reduced federal funding to cover them.

Whamo.  And the only reason that the federal government might not keep its end of the bargain is because the Republicans in Congress won’t let it.

Now a complete cynic would say that Gov. Scott knew all along that expanding Medicare would be a non-starter with the gang in Tallahassee but he went through the motions to sound all moderate and stuff just so he could campaign for re-election next year by saying that he tried to help out the poor people of Florida, but gosh darn it, those folks in the state capital wouldn’t budge.  But if you re-elect me, why, I’ll do my best to try, try again.  C’mon, gimme another chance.

That, or he just plain got blindsided by the wingnuts up there in Lower Alabama.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Rick Scott Suddenly Likes Socialized Medicine

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) pulls a switch.

Gov. Rick Scott 05-08-11TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday he supports expanding Medicaid and funneling billions of federal dollars to Florida, a significant policy reversal that could bring health care coverage to 1 million additional Floridians.

“While the federal government is committed to pay 100 percent of the cost, I cannot, in good conscience, deny Floridians the needed access to health care,” Scott said at a hastily called news conference at the Governor’s Mansion.

Scott, a former hospital executive, spoke with unusual directness about helping the “poorest and weakest” Floridians — a stunning about-face for a small-government Republican who was one of the loudest voices in an aggressive, and ultimately unsuccessful, legal strategy to kill a law he derided as “Obamacare.”

Gee, I wonder why he did that (cough 2014 cough).

Not surprisingly, the tea cups are rattled.

“This is just another example of Republicans lying to Floridians,” said Everett Wilkinson of Palm Beach Gardens, calling Scott “the Benedict Arnold to the patriot and tea party movement in Florida.”

But when it comes down to it, Gov. Scott, who made a huge fortune in the healthcare industry — and nearly ended up in the joint — before he became governor, knows that a big chunk of those federal dollars will end up in the hands of private hospitals.  When it comes to making a choice between sticking to the principles he’s adopted to win an election and making a buck, he’ll go for the buck, especially when he thinks he can turn it into a win at the voting booth, too.

PS: Mother Jones has a look at what has happened to Florida since Rick Scott came to Tallahassee.

Friday, February 15, 2013

There Goes the Neighborhood

One of the things Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) noted in his SOTU response is that he is just another working stiff:

Mr. President, I still live in the same working class neighborhood I grew up in. My neighbors aren’t millionaires. They’re retirees who depend on Social Security and Medicare. They’re workers who have to get up early and go to work to pay the bills. They’re immigrants who came here because they were stuck in poverty in countries where the government dominated the economy.

Yeah, except the house he lives in in West Miami isn’t a shanty in old shanty town.  The roof is not so slanty that it touches the ground.

Rubio's House 02-15-13

He’s also planning on moving to Washington.  He’s got it on the market and is asking $675,000 for the place.

I don’t have a problem with him moving to Washington; a lot of senators and congresspeople do that.  But don’t try to tell the world that he lives in a “working class” neighborhood when he and a lot of his neighbors have pools and landscaped yards.  The only working-class people there are the ones who clean the pools and cut the grass.

By the way, I don’t know how long he’ll be able to keep up this working-stiff schtick on the national stage.  There are enough skeletons in the closet from his tenure in the Florida legislature to make things hot enough for him that he’ll need more than one bottle of water to cool off.

Via Americablog.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Friday, February 8, 2013

Cover Boy

This is one reason why I dropped my subscription to Time magazine:

Rubio Time 02-08-13

It’s People for politicians.

Charlie Pierce:

My money’s on the fact that, sooner or later, Time is going to regret this one bitterly. The scramble in the courtier press to revive the Republican brand because some Republicans are going out of their way to claim that they’re reviving the brand is one of the more unseemly journalistic escapades of recent years. It is all about whether New Slogans will sell. It is all about the careful nurturing of Bright New Stars (see above) or Young Old Favorites (There seems to be a move afoot to rebuild Paul Ryan as the Giant National Figure he was said to be before Willard Romney picked him and Ryan turned into Sarah Palin with barbells.). It is not in anyway about the fact that, young or old, famous or obscure, any Republican is still wedded to extremist ideology on things like the economy and the environment and the rights of women, and that some little head-fake toward common sense on immigration is not going to be enough to achieve liftoff, no matter how much hot air you blow into his image.

Four years from now, he’s going to be just another Republican.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Sweet Smell of Desperation

Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) hears the footfall of doom as he draws ever closer to his bid for re-election next year.  Polls are showing that he’d lose to freshly-minted Democrat Charlie Crist, and now he’s pandering to voters whom he offended deeply by signing a restrictive early-voting law in 2011 and then running away from it like his, um, hair was on fire.  Now he says he’s all in favor of expanding early voting… back to where it was.

His latest attempt to suck up to a major constituency is his proposal to give Florida teachers a raise.  This comes a year after he stuck public employees with a law that forces them to make a 3 percent contribution to a pension plan that is already solvent.

Scott planned to announce his proposal Wednesday in Ocoee. No details were immediately available.

The Florida Supreme Court last week upheld a Scott-proposed law requiring the pension contribution from teachers, state and county employees and some municipal workers.

The Legislature last year approved Scott’s request to increase public school funding by $1 billion but left it to local school boards to determine how much, if any, would go to pay raises.

That was a turn-around for the Republican governor, who in the previous year persuaded lawmakers to cut school spending.

Nice try, Governor.  And while no one would begrudge giving a pay raise to teachers (full disclosure: when teachers get raises, so do some administrators), is there a way you could do it without being so shamelessly ham-handed about it?  It makes us feel so used.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Rick Scott: I Knew Nothing

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) says he had nothing to do with a law he signed.

Facing a highly critical group of black legislators, Gov. Rick Scott largely defended his record Tuesday but distanced himself from a controversial election law that led to fewer early-voting days and long lines.

Scott agreed with black lawmakers that the 2011 election law contributed to the chaos at the polls in November, including long lines all over the state and up to seven-hour waits in Miami-Dade. But Scott, who is seeking re-election in 2014, said it was largely a decision of the Legislature.

“It was not my bill,” Scott said. “We’ve got to make changes, I agree. … The Legislature passed it. I didn’t have anything to do with passing it.”

Scott signed the bill into law in 2011. His administration spent more than $500,000 in legal fees in a largely successful defense of the law, though a federal judge struck down new restrictions on groups that register voters.

So that’s how he’s going to run his re-election campaign: “I’m not responsible for the all the bad stuff that happened under my watch.  Elect me again.”

Yeah, that seems to be working.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Another Reason To Be Proud of Floriduh

Alex Parene at Salon profiles Rep. Ted Yoho (R), a new member of Congress from the Sunshine State who is cut from the Allen West/Ben Quayle mold.

Hooray for citizen-legislators who are also ill-informed ideologues! Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., has gotten a lot of press attention for being an inexperienced political “outsider” who beat a more well-known, better-funded incumbent in a primary last year, before winning election to the House in November. It is a cute story. He’s a large animal veterinarian. He ran a funny ad with pigs in it. He probably drove a truck around his district shaking hands and stuff. Great stuff, very inspiring. This is why he’s on cable TVall the time. A veterinarian, in Congress!

[...]

He is a bog-standard talk radio conservative, only instead of one of those with years of experience navigating the House of Representatives, like his predecessor, he is one who believes that he will shake things up by constantly repeating clichés about being an outsider.

But even if you don’t find Yoho’s politics reprehensible, there’s not much reason to get excited about this guy’s amazing rise from animal doctor to random member of Congress. If you yourself are a right-winger, your agenda is much more likely to be advanced by skilled parliamentarians like career politician Mitch McConnell than by a guy who can’t figure out how the committee assignment system works. John Boehner is your best hope, not your enemy. Yoho’s first act as a member of Congress was to cast a rebellious leadership vote for Eric Cantor, a true conservative, and one who voted for John Boehner.

Naturally, Yoho’s chief of staff also has no institutional expertise or relevant experience beyond an internship, because for some reason we have all agreed that what’s wrong with Congress is “too much expertise and experience.”

Yeah, because knowing how things work is such a hindrance to getting things done for the people who elected you to work for them.

Allen West of Florida and Ben Quayle of Arizona (and son of the former vice president) each lasted one term in Congress before getting tossed out for being too far out there.  (Note: that also happens to Democrats, but not as often.)  Mr. Yoho is from a very safe district, so he will probably be around long enough to entertain us with his antics before someone even more fringed comes along.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Doggone, Gov. Scott

Back in 2010, Florida Gov. Rick Scott made a big deal about adopting a rescue dog and, thanks to a campaign on Facebook, named the Labrador Retriever Reagan.  How very cul-de-sac of him.  But apparently things didn’t work out so well.

The last time Reagan made the newspapers was the day before Scott was sworn in as governor in January 2011. John Kennedy, then a reporter for the News Service of Florida, reported seeing the governor-elect walking Reagan in Tallahassee.

Asked last week what had happened to the dog, Scott’s current and former communications directors refused to answer.

[...]
On Monday, the Times asked the governor to clear up the mystery.

“He was a rescue dog,” Scott said, “and he couldn’t be around anybody that was carrying anything, and so he wouldn’t get better.”

Scott said Reagan never bit anyone but “scared the living daylights” out of people at the mansion. He said one kitchen employee threatened to quit and photographer Eric Tournay was frightened when the dog “barked like crazy” every time he saw him with a camera.

So the Scotts gave the dog back to his prior owner, Scott said, about a month after the family moved to Tallahassee. The governor’s office on Monday told the Times it was trying to find Reagan and its new family.

There are a lot of things to consider when taking in a rescue dog.  First among them is getting to know the dog; a lot of them come from abusive situations, and they may have behavioral problems that are ingrained, which makes it hard to adjust to a new home and environment.  So you don’t just go and pick out the cutest dog and take him or her in; you need to spend time getting to know each other and learning what might be roadblocks to a happy life together.

It’s pretty clear that the Scotts didn’t really take any of that into consideration when they adopted Reagan, even though they say they’ve had rescue dogs before.  And it’s really not a good idea to exploit the adoption for political purposes.  Those kind of things can come back to bite you in the ass.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Looking Back/Looking Forward

As I do every year on New Year’s Eve, I make predictions about the upcoming year.  Let’s see how I did for 2012:

Barack Obama will narrowly win re-election against Mitt Romney. It will be a campaign of fear, loathing, excess, and outrage… and that’s just on the GOP side until the inevitable coronation of Mr. Romney. The amount of money to be spent on both sides will be enough to run several mid-sized countries. Re-election campaigns are, of course, a vote on the performance of the incumbent, and Mr. Obama will have to defend his record, but the Republicans have, by their own actions, inactions, and lurch to the right in response to their hatred of all things Obama, made the choice in the election pretty clear. The stated GOP agenda has been to deny Barack Obama a second term, but other than that, they have offered nothing of substance if they win the election. That’s not surprising; they never do. They live on bumper sticker slogans and ten-word answers — Repeal Obamacare; Ban Abortion; Deport the Brown People; No More Taxes; Kill the Queers — but they offer no solutions, unless you want to go back to revive the bold and new ideas from the administration of William McKinley. The campaign will resemble that of the one in 1948 where Harry Truman, coming back from dismal approval ratings, beat the patrician and automatonic Thomas E. Dewey. Mr. Truman ran against an intransigent and right-wing-whacky Republican Congress, and Mr. Obama has pretty much the same situation. It won’t be a landslide, but unless there’s a complete meltdown of the Obama campaign juggernaut, he’ll win and might even win back Congress for the Democrats. It will not be the end of the right-wingers by any means; if anything, the re-election of Barack Obama will drive them even further over the cliff, and we will find out that the level of lunacy is infinite.

As I noted shortly after the election in November, I nailed it.  The only thing I missed on was the possibility of winning back the House, but the Democrats did gain seats.

The Supreme Court, by a vote of 5 to 4, will uphold the new healthcare law, and the California Prop 8 case will get on their docket for 2013.

Right on both counts.

Despite the best efforts of the Republicans, the economy will continue to improve, but at about the same pace as it currently is, meaning that by Election Day the unemployment rate will be around 8%. Consumer confidence will continue to grow, and while the housing market will still be soft, bigger ticket items like cars and appliances will start to sell; those old cars can’t run forever.

Right again, although I underestimated the strength of the auto market.  They are having their best year in a long, long time.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will be recalled, which will send a shiver through right-wing governors from Ohio and Michigan to Florida. As the thousands of people in the streets from Madison to Wall Street proved, you mess with the middle class at your peril, and that sleeping giant has been awakened.

Okay, I blew that one, and Rick Snyder in Michigan is making Scott Walker look like a liberal.  But I think the backlash will continue, and he has to run for re-election in 2014.

Here in Florida, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) will win another term in a tight race against Rep. Connie Mack (R), and Rep. Allen West (R) will be tossed out on his ass by the good people of Broward County. Alan Grayson (D), who lost in 2010, will win back a seat in Congress, and this will send a strong message to the Florida Democrats that if they can find some good people to run for office, they can beat Rick Scott in 2014.

Nailed that one, too, but the strongest contender in the race against Mr. Scott is the newly-minted Democrat Charlie Crist.  Hold your nose, Democrats; to quote E.J. Hornbeck in the film of Inherit the Wind, he may be rancid butter, but he’s on your side of the bread.

The Tigers will go all the way this year. They got very close this year, and there’s always next year.

They did make it all the way to the World Series, only to blow it in a four-game shut out.  Argh.

We will lose the requisite number of celebrities and friends as life goes on. As I always say, it’s important to cherish them while they are with us.

This year seemed especially harsh, both with friends at work and at home, and names that have been part of our lives.  Peace.

Personally, some things never change. I’ll go to the William Inge Festival in April — my 21st time — where we’ll honor David Henry Hwang. I’ll go to Stratford in July with my parents, and I’ll go back to work on Tuesday. I’ve done some tinkering with the Pontiac as it verges on becoming a certified antique, which happens when the 2013 models go on sale. I have no plans to move or change jobs, and the only momentous thing that will happen is that I turn 60 in September. Big whoop.

All true, and to celebrate the Big Six-Oh I threw a little party.

Okay, let’s move on to the predictions for 2013:

- President Obama moves into his second term with pretty much the same situation in Washington and Congress as he has had for the last two years, so nothing will really get done.  The budget matters, including the fake drama of the Fiscal Cliff, will still be around in some form because it’s a lot easier to kick it down the road than actually do something, especially when you have a Republican Party that absolutely refuses to work with the president on anything at all.  It has nothing to do with policy, deficits or debt, taxes or revenue.  The reason is pretty simple: they don’t like him, and so like a kid in grade school who refuses to do his math homework because he hates the teacher, they refuse to budge.  You can pick your excuses, ranging from his Spock-like demeanor to his refusal to suck up to the Villagers, but most of it comes down to the unspoken reason that dare not speak its name: he’s black.  No one dares say that out loud, but get three beers in any Republican, and I’ll bet they’ll admit it by saying “He’s not one of us.”  How many dog whistles do you need?  A big tell was that in the last-minute budget negotiations, Mitch McConnell went to Vice President Joe Biden as the go-between the Congress and the president.  Why?  Because Mr. Biden was in the Senate and knows how to talk to them, and also because he’s the white guy.  So we will have another year of gridlock, and the new Congress will make the one just concluded look good.

- The Supreme Court will rule the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Prop 8 are unconstitutional.  It will be a very close vote, probably 5-4 on both cases, and they will narrowly rule on both cases, doing their best not to fling open the doors to marriage equality with a blanket ruling and leave the rest of it up to the states.  But they will both go down.  On the other hand, they will rule against Affirmative Action.  I also think there will be some changes to the make-up of the Court with at least one retirement, either voluntary or by the hand of fate.

- Even if we went over the fiscal cliff or curb or speed-bump, the economy will continue to improve, with the unemployment rate going below 7% by Labor Day.  I know this only because I know that our economy, like the water level in the Great Lakes, goes in cycles no matter what the hand of Wall Street or Washington does… unless they completely screw it up like the last time and make it even worse.

- After the extreme weather we saw in 2012, at long last we will move to do something about climate change or global warming or whatever it is fashionably called.  It won’t be done by Congress, however; it will be because the people who make a living off the climate, such as agriculture and coastal enterprises such as fishing and tourism, will make it happen through their own efforts.  (Yeah, I’m being extremely optimistic on this one.  A year from now I will happily concede I blew it.)

- The extremism from the right that entertained us in 2012 will continue, albeit muted because 2013 isn’t an election year except in New Jersey, where Chris Christie will be re-elected and start his Howard Dean-like campaign for the presidency in 2016.  The GOP will refuse to acknowledge they have a problem, but as 2014 looms and the wingers that were elected in 2010 face re-election, they will find themselves scrambling hard for candidates that can survive primary battles where the nutsery reigns and then win the general election.  The only reason Governors Rick Scott of Florida, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and John Kasich of Ohio will be re-elected in 2014 is if the Democrats don’t move in for the kill.

- I’ve given up predicting the Tigers’ future this year.  Surprise me, boys.

- We will lose the requisite number of celebrities and friends as life goes on. As I always say, it’s important to cherish them while they are with us.

- Personally, this year looks good on a couple of fronts.  The Pontiac is due back from the body shop this week, and I have formally entered it in its first national Antique Automobile of America car show to take place in Lakeland, Florida, in February.  Things are looking better at work with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools getting a number of important grants, including a $32 million program from Race To The Top for math preparation, and the District won the coveted Broad Prize for Urban Education this past fall.  One of my short plays has been selected for production in May 2013 at the Lake Worth Playhouse’s Short Cuts series, and hope springs eternal for a full-scale production again of Can’t Live Without You here in Florida.  This time I have a good director who would love to do it if we can get a theatre.  I’ll be off to the William Inge Festival in May to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Inge’s birth, and plans are in the works for our annual trip to Stratford, Ontario, next summer.  My family continues to enjoy good health and good spirits.  The blessings continue.  (PS: No, I still don’t have a Twitter account.)

- And of course, the usual prediction: One year from now I’ll write a post just like this one, look back at this one, and think, “Gee, that was dumb.” Or not.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Short Takes

Another senior al-Qaeda leader has been killed in Pakistan.

President Obama wants $60 billion for Sandy recovery.

Still stuck — Cliff talks “going nowhere” according to John Boehner.

The Supreme Court will hear two marriage equality cases: DOMA and Prop 8.

Prank call to London hospital about Kate Middleton ends horribly.

Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist becomes a Democrat.  Gee, I wonder what he’s going to do now…

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Voter Suppression In Florida

To paraphrase Captain Renault, I’m shocked, shocked to find voter suppression going on here.

A new Florida law that contributed to long voter lines and caused some to abandon voting altogether was intentionally designed by Florida GOP staff and consultants to inhibit Democratic voters, former GOP officials and current GOP consultants have told The Palm Beach Post.

Republican leaders said in proposing the law that it was meant to save money and fight voter fraud. But a former GOP chairman and former Gov. Charlie Crist, both of whom have been ousted from the party, now say that fraud concerns were advanced only as subterfuge for the law’s main purpose: GOP victory.

Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer says he attended various meetings, beginning in 2009, at which party staffers and consultants pushed for reductions in early voting days and hours.

“The Republican Party, the strategists, the consultants, they firmly believe that early voting is bad for Republican Party candidates,” Greer told The Post. “It’s done for one reason and one reason only. … ‘We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,’ ” Greer said he was told by those staffers and consultants.

“They never came in to see me and tell me we had a (voter) fraud issue,” Greer said. “It’s all a marketing ploy.”

Greer is now under indictment, accused of stealing $200,000 from the party through a phony campaign fundraising operation. He, in turn, has sued the party, saying GOP leaders knew what he was doing and voiced no objection.

“Jim Greer has been accused of criminal acts against this organization and anything he says has to be considered in that light,” says Brian Burgess, Florida GOP spokesman since September.

But Greer’s statements about the motivations for the party’s legislative efforts, implemented by a GOP-majority House and Senate in Tallahassee in 2011, are backed by Crist — also now on the outs with the party — and two veteran GOP campaign consultants.

Wayne Bertsch, who handles local and legislative races for Republicans, said he knew targeting Democrats was the goal.

“In the races I was involved in in 2008, when we started seeing the increase of turnout and the turnout operations that the Democrats were doing in early voting, it certainly sent a chill down our spines. And in 2008, it didn’t have the impact that we were afraid of. It got close, but it wasn’t the impact that they had this election cycle,” Bertsch said, referring to the fact that Democrats picked up seven legislative seats in Florida in 2012 despite the early voting limitations.

Another GOP consultant, who did not want to be named, also confirmed that influential consultants to the Republican Party of Florida were intent on beating back Democratic turnout in early voting after 2008.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.