The most effective and frequent bit in Marco Rubio’s Senate campaign ads: that picture of Republican rival Charlie Crist embracing Barack Obama at a rally for the president’s stimulus plan. Of course, every Republican governor ended up accepting money from the stimulus plan, including more colorful and conservative characters such as…
At first glance, it seems a little strange that despite the fact Florida is a classic swing state that actually has more registered Democrats than Republicans, the GOP controls both houses of the state legislative by large majorities and sends more Republicans to the House in DC.That’s because after the…
Gov. Charlie Crist is a Noles fan, but it’s not so surprising that he can relate to Gators quarterback Tim Tebow.UF had high hopes of repeating its national championship and was the favorite throughout the regular season. Tebow, meanwhile, was talked about as a potential Heisman double winner, but this…
Former Florida Sen. Paula Hawkins died yesterday at the age of 82. A Republican, Hawkins was a trailblazer for female politicians in the state of Florida.In 1972, Hawkins was the first woman elected to a statewide office when she took a seat on the Public Service Commission, then an elected…
Florida KidCare provides health insurance to children, but if you ask Charlie Crist for the phone number, he might send you to a sex line.The Palm Beach Post called the Gov and got a pre-recorded message in which Crist rattles off a bunch of numbers for state services. But the…
The Florida Supreme Court today approved Gov. Charlie Crist’s request for a grand jury to investigate and deal with corruption in local politics, two days after his initial request was rejected.”The Statewide Grand Jury will add to the great work already being done by Florida’s 20 State Attorneys to target…
Out of all the senators who served in Congress this year, our Bill Nelson was the second most Googled senator, according to the New York Times. He came in, understandably, just after the late Ted Kennedy. This means Nelson is America’s most Googled serving senator. No one is really sure why. He’s pretty…
Comically tacky, evil lawyer-clown Scott Rothstein turned himself into the FBI today (if you’re not up to date on it, our Broward New Times brother Bob Norman is writing the equivalent of a book about it on his blog), but he’s also found himself in the middle of a lot…
The best part about suspended City of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones’s preordained re-election to her vacated seat is this: She’ll be able to make another acceptance speech.Her defiant diatribe a few weeks ago — when she took office moments before being cuffed and booked on grand theft charges — was…
Sad clown-like, professional radio shouter Rush Limbaugh is ready to declare “I like Rubio,” but hasn’t made a formal endorsement of everyone’s favorite Floridian right winger.”I’ve never met him, nor have I met Crist, but I know that there’s a sea change brewing and effervescing in this country,” Limbaugh told a…
Shocking news from Politico: Sarah Palin was apparently uninformed and failed to come to a simple understanding on issues while running for vice president! In this case it was issues relating to Latin America policy and Hispanics.A top adviser on Hispanic issues to John McCain’s presidential campaign said Sunday that…
Daily Kos/Research 2000 just released their latest Florida poll, and there are a lot of interesting little poll number factoids to be pulled. Riptide tends to have some smart readers, so we won’t recap the entire poll, but instead let’s mine some of our favorite nuggets.The Senate Race:Republican Primary:Charlie Crist…
Sarah Palin will be in Florida as part of her Going Rogue book tour next Tuesday (but only the “Real America” parts of Florida, so sadly she won’t make it down South), but will she drop off an endorsement in the Senate race while she’s here? Palin tells National Review Online…
You know a candidate is really serious about painting himself as a hardcore conservative when he tries to place himself to the right of Right Wing Deity Ronald Reagan. But that’s exactly what Marco Rubio did today, by declaring that the Gipper’s support of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of…
In regards to the stupid YouTube video we talked about Wednesday, popular conservative Blogger Erik Erikson of RedState.com declares that Charlie Crist is playing the race card. Here’s the Headline: “Charlie Crist Finally Pulls Race Card. Jealous of Rubio’s Better Tan.””The video shows Marco Rubio speaking in Spanish, then has a…
Just days after sending out a fiery letter calling for the resignation of Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman — a letter that made liberal use of his word processor’s bold and underline features — Miami-Dade Democratic chairman BJ Chiszar has been given the boot. Chiszar’s letter is five pages of “inside…
Just weeks after much too much of Florida’s political establishment and media took a dumb Crist/Rubio remix of an old YouTube meme way too seriously, there’s another stupid YouTube video that certain journalists, it seems, are forcibly trying to turn into a controversy. It’s a ridiculous anti-Rubio ad that somehow tries…
From CBS News: Asked if he would welcome the support of former GOP vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Rubio offers an unqualified yes, adding that “I can’t think of anything her and I disagree with off the top of my head.”…
There’s no doubt Orlando-area Rep. Alan Grayson pisses Republicans off (and probably takes glee in it), but it’s not good news when his top GOP challenger is also pissing off Republicans.Armando Gutierrez Jr., a Miami native and son of local political mover and shaker Armando Gutierrez, moved to Orlando last month…
All of Florida is wondering when Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio will come out and make it official. They are totally in political love, but why won’t Jeb put a ring on it by endorsing Rubio over Gov. Charlie Crist in the Senate primary? Years ago, things weren’t so hush-hush. During…
Well, the ‘Tea Party’ is an official political party in Florida now. Orlando lawyer Frederic O’Neal registered the new party with the Florida Secretary of State in August, and serves as its chairman. “The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money that seeks to control…
Charlie Crist went on CNN yesterday and said that he didn’t endorse the stimulus package. Huh? What? Riptide was there when he appeared with President Obama touting the stimulus in Ft. Myers. Even though the White House is claiming that he did in fact pretty much endorse the bill, Crist says he…
