Last year, we dubbed Damon Weaver “the best political reporter in South Florida,” and after a long quest, the 11-year-old finally got to do yesterday what most political reporters only dream of — sit down for a one-on-one interview with the president of the United States. Dreams do come true!…
Say what you will about Rev. Gaston E. Smith, the Liberty City pastor who faces felony theft charges and is the subject of this week’s New Times feature, “In the Name of the King”. One thing is indisputable: The man can preach. We’ve received a couple of emails looking for videos of…
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in a town hall meeting in Nigeria as part of her tour of Africa. Apparently Nigeria can have town hall meetings without a load of loons ripping up Rosa Parks posters and whatnot, but they can’t really have an ethical election. Their controversial 2007 election…
In terms of Attorney Generals they don’t get much bigger than Janet Reno. Wait, excuse me. In terms of Attorney General endorsements they don’t get much bigger than Janet Reno’s. The former US Attorney General gave her blessing to Florida Attorney General hopeful Dan Gelber today. “Dan has the gumption and spirit…
I think everyone can agree we need to reform health care in this country one way or another (if you don’t, you’re either greedy or not paying attention), and since the Democrats are currently in control, they’re the ones taking a shot at it. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and…
All the names being floated around as our next temporary senator have been of the masculine persuasion. Why not some ladies? Time magazine adds to the ever-growing list of Senate maybes with two women. Minority women in fact. First up is Miami’s own Rep. Anitere Flores. She’s the deputy majority leader and is the only Hispanic female in…
So, we kept hearing that Bob Martinez, as in the former one-term governor, was in the mix to be appointed to the Senate. The thing is, well, he’s 74 years old, which isn’t necessarily a barrier to be a senator. But he was not a very popular governor thanks to a botching…
Remember Jason Wetherington? New Times Broward-Palm Beach columnist Bob Norman penned a story about the lad, who apparently went around blabbing he had a hotel-room tryst with Gov. Charlie Crist in 2006. Wetherington also worked for Katherine Harris’s hilariously failed 2006 Senate campaign. Anyway, per Norman, he’s been charged with stealing three…
George L. Metcalfe is an Orlando-area lawyer who likes to spend his time writing about gays having sex with children. His first piece of pedophile fiction was somehow published in the Florida Bar News, but sadly George had to edit his creative masterpiece down to 350 words. Not content with just…
Washington Post blogger and former Mouthpiece Theater cohost Chris Cillizza adds another name to the list of possible politicos Charlie Crist could appoint to Mel Martinez’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat: former state Rep. Allan Bense.Add that to a list that already includes Jim Smith, Gov. Bob Martinez, George Lemieux, Dan Webster,…
The Florida Political blogosphere has exploded with Mel Martinez Madness, and the main symptom is wildly wondering who will replace him. We already put in our two cents, but here’s the latest updates. Charlie Crist further confirms he won’t appoint himself, but will have someone picked out by the time the…
As long as I live, I don’t think Florida will see a more chaotic election cycle than 2010. Now, Mel Martinez has thrown in another twist by resigning early, leaving the decision to pick his appointment to Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running to replace Martinez himself. Let’s take a…
Manny Diaz wasn’t arrested for throwing a box of tea at his wife. He never showed up mad as hell, in his pajamas, at a constituent’s house at 5 a.m. He never lead the city’s budget into complete shambles. So, really, by those standards, he should leave office this fall as the best mayor…
Woah, boy. Grumpy Sen. Mel Martinez has apparently had enough of this “serving the people” stuff. Several sources report he will resign, possibly as early as today. His term would expire in early 2011, and he had previously promised to serve the rest of it. But the race to replace…
Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate today. No big surprise there. Every member of the Democratic caucus, save for Ted Kennedy who remains ill and could not attend, voted for Sotomayor. That would include, of course, Bill Nelson. While only nine republicans offered their “yays,” including Mel Martinez. She’ll…
Kendrick Meek’s hiring of Steve Hildebrand to run his Senate campaign was supposed to be a message that his candidacy was to be taken seriously. Hildebrand was deputy national campaign director for a little campaign you might have heard of — Barack Obama’s run for president. Hildebrand spent the closing days in…
Remember Keith Meinhold? Yeah, Riptide didn’t either — mostly because we were more into reading Goosebumps books back when the gay Navy officer made headlines in all the big newspapers. It was the summer of 1992. And even the paragon of media integrity The Rush Limbaugh Show followed his story. It was…
Perhaps if today was a different day this post would include such phrases as “gentle teasing,” “a pinky finger and some spit,” “ky jelly,” and “latex glove and a vat of crisco,” but we simply aren’t in the mood. However, in case you weren’t aware Ray Samson, the former Speaker of…
Look at this big, bright, blue collection of states we call America. Gallup released their latest report of political party affiliation and it is not looking good for the Republicans. In fact, according to Gallup there’s only 4 real red states left, with one leaning. Democrats meanwhile have huge voter…
We simply do not get this Obama as the Joker poster that’s making the rounds. What does the joker have to do with Socialism? The Joker = anarchy, right? Which is pretty much the antithesis of socialism. It would pass for something resembling humor if it said “Why So Socialist?”…
If there’s one point Riptide has been consistently making about Marco Rubio is that his values and policies are more in line with the right-wing, super-conservative blogosphere then they are with Florida voters. He pretty much hammered that point home this weekend by speaking at the RedState Gathering. RedState.com being…
Some of the county-level Repulican party organizations have been mumbling not-so-nice things about Gov. Charlie Crist, but yesterday the Volusia County GOP passed a motion censuring him. Among Crist’s crimes: Appointing Democrats to political positions, appointing so-called liberal judge James Perry to the state Supreme Court, supporting the stimulus bill, nationalization of property…
