From Naked Politics: “The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee just unanimously approved a bill to strike the word “shylock” and “shylocking” from Florida statutes, where it’s used synonymously and repetitiously with the term “loan shark.” …The word is named after the [Jewish] villain in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, who demands…
Charlie Crist officially announced he’s going to keep us in suspense until May regarding whether he’ll run for Senate or re-election as governor. This pretty much freezes up the Republican side of things until then. Rubio, Mack, and Buchanan can declare all they want, but nobody is going to be…
So, a bit of the massive Mel Martinez early-retirement rumor we missed yesterday is that Martinez might become president of a Florida university, and The Buzz points out it just so happens Florida International University is looking for a prez. Well, isn’t that nice. Martinez is denying left and right that he’ll…
Republican Congressmen Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart seem dead set against voting for Washington Democrat’s proposed $825 billion stimulus plan, even as the popular Republican Governor Charlie Crist is lobbying for the plan. In the first sign that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committe may be looking to try and oust the…
Let’s skip through the 2010 Senate rumor mill, shall we? Mel Martinez does not know exactly how he got into this horrible Senate job, and he allegedly wants to leave it as soon as possible. Roll Call reports Martinez is considering bowing out early — and that Charlie Crist is seriously considering running…
It’s a sign of just how much dominance Charlie Crist has in Florida politics that both races he could conceivably run in 2010 – Governor or, less likely, Senator – are having a hard time attracting big name candidate, but the next open race in Florida – for Governor all…
In terms of current political scandals, the one engulfing Florida Speaker of the House Ray Sansom has been pretty dull. He wasn’t a batshit insane narcissist with crazy helmet hair talking about how Senate seats were “fucking valuable” things. He didn’t conspire with the opposition party to install himself as…
Considering most runners in the 2010 Senate race haven’t held a position higher than congressman, it might behoove anyone with a stronger resumé to think about entering the fray, and what better job to have in your past when seeking a Senate seat than senator? Reportedly, former New Hampshire Sen…
Here is the map Republican death map that has been going around from Gallup. According to their calculations, there’s only five states left where Republicans have a strong advantage of adults who are likely to vote for their party. 536 has all the caveats and explanation of what this actually…
Absent amongst all this hullabaloo over who might seek the senate seat in 2010 is any murmur, any indication, any rumor of who the Dems might put up for Governor. Yeah, there’s this wild card chance that Charlie Crist might run for senate, and if that happens expect CFO Alex…
I know this is a little bit out of our coverage range, especially now that we have The Juice, but please forgive me, because I can’t pass this up. Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter is involved in a bit of a scandal. As a state representative, she voted for legislation that…
Both sides of the Senate 2010 fray just lost significant rumored candidates. Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum and Democratic Congressmen Allen Boyd have both said they won’t seek the open seat. McCollum has sought a Senate seat twice before. He claimed his party’s nomination in 2000, but lost to Democrat…
“How do you do? You see all this shrubbery in the back round here? This is one of the most beautiful atmospheres in the world. You might think I’m in …some kind of an island somewhere far off everyplace where’s this some kind of unbelievable resort area a thousand miles…
When Rep. Ron Klein isn’t twiddling his thumbs wondering if he should enter the Senate race, he’s already looking toward the likely redistricting ruckus set to take place after the 2010 census. “Mario Diaz-Balart has already told me he and Lincoln will be all over the state legislature to make…
With 22 months left before the election, there are still plenty of surprises left in this Senate race. The latest of which is that Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio told the Tampa Bay Tribune she’s considering running in the Democratic primary:”It was not something I was considering when there was a possibility…
About a year ago noted communist party tool The New York Times needed to fill one of the token conservative slots in it’s op-ed page and chose Wingnut Laureate Bill Kristol. Liberals were angered that the Times chose a conservative’s idea of what a conservative should be, instead of a…
Karl Rove used to have this gig scaring people into voting Republican and running whatever parts of the government Dick Cheney didn’t. Now he’s reduced to Twittering and arguing with college students.
One has to wonder what was going through Sen. Mel Martinez’s mind when President Bush’s helicopter took off from Washington this past Tuesday. Before Bush chose Martinez to be his first HUD secretary, he was a little-known Florida fixture who had run an unsuccessful lieutenant governor campaign with some wingnut from…
In his inaugural speech yesterday, Barack Obama declared that “we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”- a statement Riptide felt spoke directly to the future of Guantanamo Bay, a place where due process and human rights laws have been kicked aside in the name of…
It’s not often that Republican reps Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balarts must be happy about announcements of new Democratic leadership, but the buzz today that congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will be elected vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee must have them smiling. As co-chair of the Democratic Party’s Red to Blue congressional campaign…
Charlie Crist is still enjoying a quite enviable approval rating, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, with 65 percent of Floridians approving of his job performance. That’s about the percentage President Obama is getting in nationwide polls. Meanwhile, of all the names being thrown around for the 2010 Senate election, only…
As Barack Obama momentarily studied his massive audience before launching into his poetic and bold inaugural speech, an unrestrainable middle-age man next to Riptide on the Capitol lawn seating area yelled out, “This is the moment!”That summed it up pretty well. This weekend in D.C. has been a raucous runup…
