Well damn it. There I was sitting in the press pool with all these very important political journalists, I held back on one or two jokes during today’s live blog. Afterall, other journalists were greeting me with “How, was the flight in?” I couldn’t respond with, “actually I just drove…
Pollsters can pour over all the phone surveys they want, but the real gauge of President Obama’s population may be the ratio of protesters his public appearances attract to the number of people hawking Obama merchandise. Oddly, if you used the math today at the Harborside Event Center you’d fall…
Riptide is live today from Ft. Myers, Florida for Barack Obama’s first visit to Florida as President of the United States of America. He’ll be continuing the themes from his stop in Elkhart, Indiana and his first press conference last night, talking up the need for a stimulus package. The…
Riptide just settled in at the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers. President Obama is scheduled to kick off the next stop on his Stimulus Tour in about 30 minutes, and we’ll begin the live blog then.So, why of all places is Obama in Fort Myers? The official line is…
Back in 2006 when the Republican party came to the hard, cold realization that they would have to run political train wreck Katherine Harris as their Senate Nominee they begged and pleaded with former Congressman and MSNBC talking head Joe Scarborough to run. “Please, Joe, Please, Don’t let us pretend…
Did anyone really care about Lt. Gov Jeff Kottkamp before, say, a few weeks ago? You know, when those rumors surfaced that Charlie Crist might resign to run for Senate, leaving Kottkamp as our 45th governor. All of a sudden, media attention bumped up ever so slightly. The Sun-Sentinel did…
It’s difficult to make the leap directly from the state Senate to a state-wide elected office. But it’s not impossible. Lawton Chiles got elected to the US Senate in 1970 by taking a 91 day, 1,003 mile walking trip across Florida. Bob Graham was elected to Governor in 1978 after…
While this entire stimulus bill saga is gripping DC, Senator Bill Nelson found time to tackle another problem. He filed legislation on Tuesday seeking to ban the import and interstate trade of reptiles. Nelsons interest in the matter stems from the problem of alien pythons in the Everglades, who we…
When the Herald reported yesterday that Donna Shalala might be returning to D.C. to take the reigns once again at the Department of Health and Human Services after Tom Daschle scampered off with his Sally Jesse Raphael glasses and tax mess, we kind of thought it smelled funny. First, nobody…
Every time you think that as a nation we’ve made huge strides past racism, some bullshit like this brings you back to the realization that too many people are bigoted pricks. Carol Carter, a Republican state committeewoman from Hillsborough County, recently sent out this email to a group of eight…
The 2010 election in Florida is shaping up to be insane — actually it’s already insane — and only two people of any consequence have announced their candidacy for either governor or senator. Former Speaker of the House Marco Rubio has this nice campaign website all set up and ready…
Mayor Manny Diaz is in D.C. exercising his duties as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and hoped to get some face time with another president. You know, that President Obama one. Flanked by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others, Diaz is running around our nation’s capital in…
When it comes to the 2010 Senate election, just about anybody who’s nobody is getting in. Rod Smith, a former state Senator of the conservative Democrat variety, made a decent run in the 2006 Gubanotorial primary, but ended up losing to Jim Davis. Along the way though he picked up…
Last night, a friend and fellow UM grad and I were talking about the sudden opening for Health & Human Service Secretary, and she said, “Obama should appoint Shalala.” To which I said, “I was hoping someone on the internet would say it, so I can blog about it.” She…
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…
