The Political Whore

By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.

Despite the censure vote on Governor Charlie Crist last week that evenly divided Palm Beach County Republicans (it failed to pass as the group deadlocked at 65 votes apiece), the head of the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee says his membership is united.

They’re ALL disappointed in Governor Crist. Read the rest of this entry »

By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor

Our debate on health care reform has been a disappointing state of affairs. Stories of town hall meetings turning violent and reports of organizations planting disruptors are hardly proud examples of a successful democratic process. It speaks volumes of how political a society we have come to be.

Click after the jump to watch what has been happening in Florida.

Read the rest of this entry »

The good ol’ boys have a plan to make it so…

By Chris Ingram
PoHo contributor

My prediction has now come true. Mel Martinez is resigning his senate seat. Give it a couple of days, and I expect you’ll be reading about our oh-so-tanned governor announcing he is appointing himself to Martinez’s seat because (sorry to John Morgan), he’s “for the people.”

Yes, this is legal. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE at 1 pm: Martinez will hold a 3pm newser and then Crist is expected to name former Secretary of State Jim Smith as the an interim replacement before the summer recess ends. Leading candidates so far include former Secretary of State Jim Smith, former Tampa Mayor and FLA Gov. Bob Martinez, former US Sen. Connie Mack and former Speaker Allen Bense.

After months and months of flat-out denying he would quit his Senate post before his term was up (ever since he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election in 2010), Mel Martinez today made a liar out of himself and announced he will step down now.

That leaves the appointment in Gov. Charlie Crist’s hands. Now, before everyone in the Democratic Party grassroots starts freaking out (too late, judging by my Facebook and Twitter account traffic), yes, Charlie can appoint himself but, no, he won’t. It would be political suicide to do that.

In 2005, CL’s then- Sarasota reporter Allyson Gonzalez gave Martinez a freshman report card. He didn’t do too well:

Read the rest of this entry »

By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor

Jeb Bush spoke recently with the Miami Herald about our education system and offered that America should be open to learning from other successful education systems around the world and adopting similar working models if they apply.

According to Bush:

We should be taking the best ideas from around the world, tearing down the barriers to let these things happen, and apply them in a way that we move away from this homogenous type education system where every child learns the same way and learns the same thing.

Watch the video and read the rest after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mrs. Former Fort Myers Beach Town Manager

This week’s HoCast marks a revamp of my format. While I will continue to do long-form interviews with political figures as podcasts, the PoHo brand will feature a fairly regular cast and a quick, funny format that looks at the top political and media issues, the Quotable soundbite and the Political Whore of the Week.

Joining me are Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Creative Loafing Film & Television editor Joe Bardi.

Our topics this week:

1. The shameful Today Show coverage of the Obama health care newser

2. The firing of the town manager of Fort Myers Beach for marrying a porn actress (shown above)

3. The Barack Obama-as-Witch Doctor e-mail flap

4. ESPN’s multi-problems with censorship (the Ben Rothlisberger story)

5. Mary Mulhern uses tax dollars to go to Cuba

This week’s PoHo Award nominees are:

New York stripper Christy Yamanaka, who was involved in the Judge Thomas Stringer scandal. He pleaded guilty this week to one count of mortgage fraud in connection with a house the two bought in Hawaii.

And, via txt message from an anonymous politician, this nomination:
“The Jersey 44, that’s lookin’ like a real political gangbang! Even by Jersey’s standards.”

Listen to the HoCast after the jump to find out who won:

Read the rest of this entry »

Florida, in light orange-yellow on the Dept of Energy map, above, joins some other states without renewable portfolio standards to require renewable energy production.

By Rick Kriseman
CL Green Community

Cross-posted from the Daily Loaf.

We are long overdue for a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in this state (a regulation that requires the increased production of energy from renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal). According to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, we are not only the most populous state without one, but we are joined by the likes of Alabama, Mississippi, and several other states not known for their progressive agendas.

In 2008, Gov. Charlie Crist signed legislation which required the Public Service Commission (PSC) to develop a renewable portfolio standard by February 1, 2009, which then had to be adopted by the legislature before being implemented.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Camile
Daily Loaf contributor

Cross-posted from the Daily Loaf blog.

Should a civic employee lose his/her job because they married an adult star?

That is the question behind the firing of Scott Janke, former town manager for Fort Myers Beach. The town council removed him from office with a vote of 5-0 after finding out that he is married to Jazella Moore.

Kiker acknowledged that Janke had violated no rules or laws and added that he had done a good job for the island town that had about 6,500 people, according to the 2000 Census. But the mayor was concerned whether Janke could remain effective and not distract the community from the business of the town along the state’s west coast. Read the rest of this entry »

‘Memba when Charlie Crist went to Europe last year? Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab (a former student of mine at UF years ago) takes the opportunity of the 1-year anniversary of the hobnobbing journey to see what exactly Crist accomplished.

Answer: not much.

The big news out of the trip heralded in a news release from the Governor’s Office last year – and the only point Crist mentioned to me when I asked him last week about results of his travels – was that Spanish solar energy company Renovalia would consider building a Florida plant.

Renovalia and Tampa-based Seminole Electric Cooperative signed an agreement to discuss that possibility.

Today those discussions don’t appear to have gone very far.

The formal agreement expired in December, and the two companies didn’t bother to extend it, though talks are still “ongoing,” said Seminole Electric spokeswoman Michele Collet Kriz.

And this man wants to be our next US senator? Can you say, junket??

By Lorna Bracewell
PoHo contributor

This just in from Securing Our Children’s Rights (SOCR), a Tampa-based lobbying group organized to secure, protect and preserve equal rights for children of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parents in Florida:

Securing Our Children’s Rights, Inc. (SOCR), is pleased to announce HB 3 – Adoption, for the 2010 legislative session, introduced by Representative Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach, that is a full repeal of Florida’s ban on adoption by its gay and lesbian citizens. Senator Nan Rich has a companion bill in drafting at this date.

Governor Crist has declared Wednesday, July 22, 2009 as Explore Adoption Day and we must contact Governor Crist and the legislature to Explore Adoption by repealing the ban.

WHEN: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
WHO: Governor Charlie Crist (850) 488-7146 or email to Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com

House Speaker Larry Cretul 850-488-1450 or 352-873-6564 or email to Larry.Cretul@myfloridahouse.gov

Senate President Jeff Atwater 850-487-5100 or 561-625-5101 or email to atwater.jeff.web@flsenate.gov

Your Florida Representative – www.myfloridahouse.gov

Your Florida Senator – www.flsenate.gov

THE ASK:
Please ask the Governor to support the repeal of the adoption ban on gay Floridians and ask him to encourage the legislative leadership to pass the repeal.

Please ask the House Speaker and the Senate President to support the repeal and encourage Committee hearings for the bills.

Please ask your representative and senator to support the repeal, and to become a co-sponsor.

Here are your fun facts and talking points, courtesy of SOCR:

Read the rest of this entry »

The landmark US Sugar-Everglades deal fashioned by Gov. Charlie Crist – limping toward the finish line, a fraction of its once grand scale – could have received a shot in the arm this week with three new appointees to the South Florida Water Management District.

Crist appointed three new members to the district board that oversees and approves the deal to purchase more than 78,000 acres of US Sugar property and eventually take them out of farming production as a means of lowering pollutant runoff into the Everglades.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Kottkamp took his whacks for misusing the state airplane earlier this year, so it will be interesting to see how (if??) the public reacts to his announcement that he wants to be the GOP nominee for attorney general in 2010.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp filed paperwork today to run for attorney general in 2010, even as an ethics complaint over his use of state planes remains unresolved.

Kottkamp, a trial attorney who has served as Florida’s second-in-command since January 2007, told reporters that the attorney general job is the “culmination of a lot of the experiences I’ve had in my life, it’s something that I feel passionate about.”

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist

On Wednesday, Hillsborough’s Moral Courage Award became respectable again. The County Commission voted 7-0 to remove Ralph Hughes from the award’s name. It also agreed to not to assign any honorary name to this award, going forward.

I attended this week’s commission meeting to throw my 2 cents in when I saw that Commissioner Rose Ferlita had put the Moral Courage Award discussion on the agenda.

Read the rest of this entry »

Reading through the latest report from the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy I felt the words of Jeffrey Lebowski (”The Dude”) come to mind: “That’s a bummer, man.”

I have never seen Florida’s economy and shortcomings so well explained and so depressing and dire. Here are the report’s conclusion:

Key indicators of the health of Florida’s economy point to a state in trouble.

Of particular concern for the future will be the need to direct spending to the most important priorities of the state, such as investments in education that will strengthen the capacity of Florida residents to prosper in a different kind of economy, with the goal of producing higher-paid jobs. The traditional drivers of economic growth in Florida have weakened and in some cases there is no prospect for change in the near future. Population growth is not expected to match the historic post-World War II rate, providing less demand for new homes and other construction – demand that spurs economic activity. The huge supply of existing houses for sale will further depress construction and economic activity which, in turn, will dampen tax revenue collected by the state. As the recession wanes, tourism spending will begin to recover, and so will jobs in that sector of the economy. But most of those are of the low-wage service variety — not the kind of higher-wage occupations around which to build a vibrant economy.

Creating an economy with better jobs in the future will be made more difficult against the backdrop of state funding in many areas that has long been inadequate and now is being further cut as a national recession drives down the tax revenues needed to pay for government services.

Still not at panic attack stage yet? Try these bullet points:

Read the rest of this entry »

The season of slime starts early, and isn’t even that original, to tell you the truth. Haven’t we seen these same “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” parody attack ads in every elections since at least 2004? Didn’t we see similar ads trotted out against Vern Buchanan two years ago?

Either way, the shadowy 527 group Don’t Bank on Sink has released an Internet ad mocking CFO and governor candidate Alex Sink’s use of state airplanes.

Watch the entire ad and learn more about who’s behind the group after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

From March on Politics:

he Florida Supreme Court has just approved the latest financial impact statement from Hometown Democracy petitioners, after rejecting their previous two submissions.

The high court has already approved the HD ballot question for the 2010 statewide ballot; the proposal would require voters to approve local land use plans. But without a valid financial impact statement, the question would have appeared with a notation indicating that no such information was available, according to the Secretary of State’s office.

The court rejected HD’s prior two impact statements on grounds that they were misleading and/or vague. The new one, according to a court opinion released today, is “clear, unambiguous, consists of no more than seventy-five words, and is limited to address the estimated increase or decrease in any revenues or costs to the state or local governments,” and therefore passes legal muster.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia

By Chris Ingram
PoHo contributor

An Open Letter to Sen. Saxby Chambliss:

Dear Senator:

We have known each other for many years, and I have always admired your conservative values and principles.

However, due to your recent endorsement of Charlie Crist in the open Florida U.S. Senate seat, which is a contested race among more than one Republican (including Marco Rubio), I now doubt your sincerity for honest and fair elections, not to mention good leadership and responsible government.

While perhaps you may have been too preoccupied finding ways to get yourself re-elected and weren’t paying attention when Charlie Crist fully embraced President Obama’s reckless and fiscally unsound “stimulus” plan, Floridians were watching. Read the rest of this entry »

Campaign finance reports are coming in for federal, state, and local offices. Reports are filed quarterly, covering the period three months prior – money raised from April 1 through June 30 of this year. With the election still more than a year away, campaign finance numbers show the relative strength of the candidates. In the race for the United States Senate, Republican Marco Rubio could be in trouble.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor
Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.

Last Saturday in Brandon’s Clayton Park, approximately 200 citizens gathered for a TEA Party (Taxed Enough Already) organized by conservative activist Terry Kemple, and featuring a rally-the-troops speech by State Senator Ronda Storms (right).

It was one of what was supposed to be over 1,000 such expressions of outrage at government spending under the Obama administration around the country on Independence Day, and followed a similar outburst of conservative sentiment at the first “Teabag” parties held on Tax Day, April 15th.

That day was also dedicated to federal largesse, though you may recall it more as a media battle between the seeming outright advocacy of the Fox News network, and the derision of it by more liberal commentators, including way too many allusions to what the phrase ‘teabagging’ meant. (This Keith Olbermann bit was just part of that onslaught.)

The growing federal deficit was on the minds of most of the citizenry. Despite the fact that a large part of the current deficit can be laid at the feet of former President George W. Bush (as my previous column, referring NY Times columnist David Leonhardt, can attest to), those in attendance on Saturday were of no mind to hear such specific facts. Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist

Remember that water bill we were concerned about that would silence public input and made water permits easier to get (behind closed doors)? Environmentalists and editorial boards alike urged The Bent Over one to veto it. Well, on the heels of signing SB 360 and eliminating what little growth management laws we do did have, Governor Crist signed that water bill (SB 2080) making water and wetland permits easier to get and again disappointed us while putting yet another black mark on his environmental record. In his defense, he did ask them pretty please to continue to make their water permitting decisions in the open (while signing a bill that alleviated them from doing just that).

According to my research everyone in the House and Senate that voted on this voted in favor of it regardless of party affiliation.

Photo credit: Johnnyalive Flickr.com

His candidacy has been called “quixotic” as he flies into the face of a Republican challenger who likely will be Charlie Crist, but Kendrick Meek is strongly confident in his ability to force Floridians to examine the real record of their favorite, white-haired governor.

Meek is a rising star in the Democratic Party, finding himself with a seat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee after just four terms in office. Helps to have a progressive voting record and agenda. It probably also doesn’t hurt when your mom served on the House Appropriations Committee with (now Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, as Congresswoman Carrie Meek did.

He’s largely untested (he won his seat in Congress unopposed after his mother retired so close to the qualifying deadline that nobody could mount a real challenge to her son) but he’s shown great energy and won a good deal of the hearts and minds in the Florida Democratic Party, so much so that a few major challengers have stepped aside rather than force an expensive primary race with him.

Meek was in Tampa today and stopped by the Creative Loafing offices. We talked about how to pay for health care reform, whether the stimulus is working, his role in forcing smaller class sizes in public schools and his famous 2000 showdown with then-Gov. Jeb Bush over the dismantling of affirmative action in the state, which resulted in a 26-hour sit-in at the lobby of the Governor’s Office after Bush refused to meet with him and another lawmaker.

He also had this to say when I asked him why he is so confident he can beat Crist: Read the rest of this entry »

By Heidi Lux
Daily Loaf contributor

After my brief, stolen moment with Governor C. at the charity fashion show, my life returned to its usual mundane routine. I was a nobody. Why would C. even remember me?

So when I answered my cell phone after class Monday afternoon, I was astonished to find myself on the line with C.’s assistant. Apparently, the Governor had been impressed by me and wished to meet me under better circumstances, and would I be available Friday night? I would. I was instructed not to tell anyone the Governor and I would be meeting, nor was I told where the meeting would take place.

The week passed by me as I sat through my USF classes, unable to concentrate, my entire attention on C. What should I wear? Where would we meet? Was it a date? But the biggest question I had was, why me?

Finally at eight o’clock on Friday night, I stood on the stoop of my apartment building, in a black dress pilfered from my older and more fashionable sister Fate’s closet, and held my breath in anticipation.

Suddenly, a bright light illuminated the scene, accompanied by a loud noise and gusting wind. I didn’t know what to secure first, my hair or my skirt. So I halfheartedly tried to catch both while managing to hold neither, as a shiny, black helicopter descended in front of me. Read the rest of this entry »

That is the hope of legislators, who saw Gov. Charlie Crist sign a bill on Thursday that will curtail the practice of state workers who go through a state retirement DROP program, only to resurface with their same jobs 30 days later, giving them a pension and a salary.

You may recall the controversy earlier this year when Hillsborough Planning Commission chief Bob Hunter did just that, drawing attention from 10 Connects’ investigative reporter Mike Deeson and support from a group of activists, including PoHo’s own Kelly Cornelius.

From the Fort Myers News-Press:

State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said the bill he and Rep. Robert Schenck, R-Spring Hill, sponsored during the 2009 legislative session is specially appropriate in these tough budget times. Fasano said it is not fair that some high-paid public officials arrange to draw their pensions and continue working.

The law won’t take effect until July 1, 2010, so employees who retire before then will still be allowed to return to work after 30 days and keep their pensions. But the new statute will require a six-month break in service, which Fasano said will prevent elected big shots from “double dipping.”

“The six-month ban on re-employment will put a stop to the abuse of this system by elected officials, and judges in particular,” said Fasano. “Those individuals will not be able to take a six-month break from their elected or appointed positions. It will also keep senior management from ‘retiring’ and coming right back to their old positions at a higher salary, since their position will have to remain unfilled for six months.”

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel:

Sidestepping critics who say it won’t solve Florida’s pill-mill problem, Gov. Charlie Crist signed long-fought legislation Thursday designed to crack down on clinics and doctors who dole out excessive narcotic painkillers — mainly in South Florida.

The law will force pain clinics, pharmacies and doctors selling pain drugs to log every prescription into a statewide computer database, where the medical officials and police can detect drug dealers and addicts who go from office to office amassing hundreds of pills a day.

Also, the law gives state regulators new powers to inspect and closely oversee clinics owned by investors, a segment of the business that police identify as a blatant source of illegal narcotic pills.

“I’m thrilled,” said Tina Reed, a Davie mother whose adult son used to be an addict and runner for a dealer, and who had been part of a coalition lobbying for the bill (SB 462). “It may not be a perfect bill but the fact is we have a database established that we can work on. We’re not cured of this crisis, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

Read the full story.

Cross-posted from The Daily Loaf

By Heidi Lux

I did not go seeking my scandalous affair with Governor C., it found me. 

The first time I met C. was on a freezing cold February evening. The temperature had fallen to an unbelievably low 68 degrees, and I was forced to wear a t-shirt due to the extreme temperature. Fate, my older sister, had dragged me, reluctantly, along with her to a charity fashion show she was modeling in at the Vinoy in St. Petersburg.

It was a half hour drive from our apartment in Tampa. If I had known the way things were going to turn out, would I have still crossed the Howard Frankland, or would I have paused and reconsidered when I reached West Shore Plaza, stopping in the mall for some window shopping at BCBG before heading back to my mundane middle class life? I cannot honestly say whether the Destiny St. Clair I was then would have been so bold as to willingly embark upon the life I have since lived, but as I reflect now, I’m glad it all happened. Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Smith, right (and we mean far right) back in Congress, back in the day.

By Dan Sullivan
PoHo contributor

Just when you thought the race to replace outgoing Sen. Mel Martinez couldn’t get any more complicated, a man named Bob Smith threw another wrench into the system last week.

Upon hearing about Smith’s entrance into the race, my immediate reaction was, “Who the heck is this Bob Smith? And what does he think he’s doing poking his nose into one of the most pivotal political battles within the Republican Party for the 2010 election season?”

Read the rest of this entry »

By Mitch Perry
PoHo contributor and anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio.

For weeks, state and national political reporters have been anticipating that the Charlie Crist/Marco Rubio race for the Republican nomination for Senate in Florida next year will be a barn-burning battle between competing philosophies in the party.

That’s despite a poll released last week that shows the governor with an overwhelming lead in the match-up.

And now Rubio doesn’t necessarily have a hold on all those disaffected Republicans who think the Governor is too moderate for their tastes.

Enter Sarasota resident Bob Smith.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Gainesville Sun has an article detailing how right-wing Attorney General Bill McCollum has dropped code words friendly to social conservatives in a bid to appeal to moderate voters in his bid for Florida Governor.

Equality Florida says:

The Gainesville Sun reports that Republican Bill McCollum is moderating his political views and appealing to the Charlie Crist voters in his run for Florida Governor. The article points out that McCollum’s support for includng sexual orientation in Hate Crimes laws and the fact that his finance chairman’s lead oppositon to Amendment 2 has drawn the ire of arch conservatives including form Christian Coalition leader Dennis Baxley.

His finance team chairman is Jonathan Kislak, who last year led a group that unsuccessfully opposed a constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage in the state. McCollum says he disagrees with his friend on that issue.

Just because some of the winger groups are “upset” at McCollum not breathing fire on stem-cell research or hate crimes or God knows what else doesn’t mean that McCollum has fundamentally changed his stripes.

He hasn’t.

By Ben Luongo
PoHo contributor

Charlie Crist leads over Marco Rubio 54 percent-23 percent (measuring registered Republicans) for the 2010 Senate seat in Florida according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. The other 23 percent of voters are undecided or giving other answers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Should local governments have spent your tax dollars in campaigns for referenda such as the Penny for Pinellas?

Senate Bill 216 is now law, and its top advocate, St. Petersburg state Sen. Charlie Justice is pretty happy about it. SB 216 bans local governments from spending tax dollars to educate voters about referenda, a process that is both defended by government as a necessary means of explaining tricky civic issues and criticized by those who say it is merely advocacy campaigning with taxpayer money.

I’ve got both sides of the issue on it. First, Justice, who issued this statement upon Gov. Charlie Crist signing the bill:

Read the rest of this entry »

From TBO.com’s William March:

State Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach made it official Monday, announcing he will run for attorney general and bringing the party one step closer to a three-way Democratic primary.

State Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres announced for the office last week, and former state Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua is expected to announce soon.

Big Oil’s offshore drilling scheme appears to be making a comeback. A start-up political group is looking to gather petition signatures and put the idea on the ballot, bypassing the politically sensitive Legislature.

From the Fort Myers News-Press:

Claiming that offshore drilling is the answer to the nation’s addiction to foreign oil, conservative activists are gearing up a constitutional drive to lift Florida’s 20-year-old ban.
Advertisement

Sponsors of the drive, FloridaOil.org, are exploring a unique approach to getting around what has long been considered the third rail of Florida politics, one so charged that a last-minute attempt in the Legislature this spring quickly died when Senate President Jeff Atwater, a Republican from North Palm Beach, put his foot down.

“Atwater proved that we can’t rely on the Legislature,” said the group’s chief organizer, Dan Baldauf of Bradenton. “Legislators actually prefer that we do it this way, because it helps them keep their hands clean.”

This sounds like it is more about folks who want to procure some spending cash from the oil and gas companies than a legit movement with any legs. The story notes that the group has raised just $2,000 so far but expects a lot more once it attracts the attention of the oil-producing companies.

Although carefully worded polls will show support for offshore drilling, this is a big loser at the ballot box.

Here’s an advance look at my print column that will run in next Wednesday’s issue of Creative Loafing:

Green in 2008: Gov. Charlie Crist when being green was easier, with Michael Rea of the Carbon Trust in the U.K. signing an agreement for Florida and that nation to “share expertise on low carbon innovation and investment and to jointly develop strategies to attract low carbon industries.”
Photo: Florida Governor’s Office

They were heady, green days for Charlie Crist in July 2008 as he flew to London to attend a global climate-change conference and hobnob with members of Parliament to discuss the planet’s growing environmental crisis.

Back in the day, Crist shared a national spotlight with the likes of movie star Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, gaining attention as a group of state leaders who stepped up for the environment when George W. Bush’s administration turned a blind eye to science.

It was zenith of his 2007 pledge to turn Florida green, lower emissions and grow a biofuel industry. Last year, he laid out a $200 million investment in his green vision. But today, as Crist is all but a lame duck governor running for the U.S. Senate, very few of those hopes and promises have come true. Blame the knuckle-draggers in the Legislature. Blame the recession. Or, if you are like some environmentalists in the state, blame Crist for not having the strength or guile to get his way on green.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Orlando Sentinel:

2008’s winner for Best Politician, Sen. Charlie Justice

Times flies when you’re struggling to make ends meet, but it is rapidly approaching that time in each summer when a Tampa Bayite’s thoughts turn to … Best of the Bay!!

This year, as we expand and make voting for the best goods, services, places, people, restaurants, bars, strip clubs, etc. more fun and interactive, we’re going to start by asking you: What categories in People, Places and Politics (the equivalent of our News & Politics section, my personal bailiwick as your Political Whore) would you like to see in the balloting?

Here are a few of the classics and new CL staff ideas we hope to feature this year (after the jump):

Read the rest of this entry »