The Republicans are one Senate seat away from complete irrelevance in Washington, D.C. One.
Mel Martinez has decided not to run for re-election, and former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush has taken a pass. What’s a Grand Old Party to do?
He is the popular mayor of the fourth-largest city in the fourth largest state with a proven record of achievement and yet Rick Baker may have hit the ceiling as far as his political career is concerned. With Bill McCollum announcing that he will not run for the US Senate – thereby guaranteeing a bid for re-election as Florida’s attorney general — and Alex Sink’s decision to remain as CFO, Baker now finds himself without an open office for which to run. Read the rest of this entry »
Neither political party has a monopoly on stupid pork-barrel spending. Take this example from the Orlando Sentinel, which revealed that a former aide to Gov. Charlie Crist named Brice Harris may have violated ethics rules by steering grants to a medical clinic and then leaving his $70K government job to administer the grant for said clinic:
Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday that a former staffer in his office might have violated state ethics laws when he shepherded a $500,000 grant to a Panhandle sports-medicine clinic — and then went to work for the clinic to administer the grant.
“Well, there’s no question it probably doesn’t pass the smell test,” Crist said. “And that’s why I’ve asked our inspector general to do a thorough investigation and review it and see if he’s complied with the appropriate ethics rules attendant to it.”
Now, that’s bad enough. But find out what the half a mil in grants were for and then you will get fully outraged: Read the rest of this entry »
This one’s for the Gator Nation. Order me an Asher’s Special and I’ll be there in two hours …
The morning’s top headlines after the jump and just one click away:
He avoided talking about Ray Sansom’s ethical problems. He has refused to have the FDLE investigate the questionable hiring or the skirting-the-Sunshine meetings. But now that Sansom has quit, Gov. Charlie Crist has an opinion:
“I think the speaker did the right thing yesterday when he resigned the position at the college and I’m sure it was difficult,” Crist said today. “But I respect his decision.”
Now THAT is political courage!
Silence is golden.
Headlines after the jump … Read the rest of this entry »
It’s a Mike Gravel (’memba him?) Christmas, from Red State Nation in 2007
Credit: REUTERS/John Kolesidis
The guv has relented and agreed to let one reporter inside at his wedding to NY bizwoman Carole Rome next weekend in St. Petersburg, and it will be pseduo-retired St. Petersburg Times Pulitzer-winner Lucy Morgan. From Buzz:
After mentioning Morgan, Crist said: “Maybe I let the cat out of the bag. So be it. We’re open around here.” Crist and his staff are trying to balance their desire for privacy with media interest in the wedding — the first time a sitting Florida governor will be married since Claude Kirk in 1967. In a pool arrangement, a reporter observes for all news organizations, including competitors.
… He said he was “blessed” to have found Rome, adding of his wedding: “In just nine days, it gets consummated in a very formal way in my hometown of St. Petersburg, and I’m looking forward to it.”
The best thing about the Buzz post, however, are the comments, which illustrate what happens when you combine the speed of the Internet, the ability to remain anonymous and a story that really isn’t news in any way, shape or form (not to mention one that the majority of folks who read political news don’t believe in the least, that Crist is getting married). A few gems:
Instead of saying “it gets consummated in a very formal way”, why didn’t Crist simply say “we’re getting married”? What a babbling putz.
Screw the Senate, Jeb, run against this guy.
If you haven’t already, I highly recommend checking out Talking Points Memo’s “The Day in 100 Seconds.” It’s amazing how many video clips can be crammed into a minute-forty.
Slow news week: At the risk of going back to the SNL well once too often, here’s Andy Sandberg as Rahmbo, a Web-only offering from NBC.
Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri called President-elect Obama a “house negro?” Oh no he didn’t.
Wayne is otherwise detained, but he forwarded this letter from Senator Joyner and Senator Justice to Governor Crist regarding the issues with the Hillsborough County Elections office. Will Gov. Charlie get involved? Stay tuned …
The Miami Herald has an interesting post about the relationship between the McCain campaign, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Republican Party. It had grown quite testy for several months, but now Crist is planning on filming a commercial for McCain.
As to the difficult relationship, the Herald reports:
McCain campaign director Rick Davis had Florida in his “safe column.” That changed last month, just as the relationship between McCain Florida director Arlene DiBenigno and RPOF chair Jim Greer appeared to get frosty. Some Republicans say the third floor of the party’s George Bush building is divided – state Republicans on one side and McCain folks on the other. And there’s not much chatting going on between the two. Lots of closed-door meetings. Little trust. Sometimes state and county Republicans find out about McCain events by reading it in the papers or on the blogs.
Today’s LA Times mentions that Greer/Crist shot down a plan to have the party pay for a flier linking Barack Obama to terrorist Bill Ayers. Some Republicans say it’s true. Others aren’t sure. Others remember a flier that featured Middle East terrorists.
The New Republic has also weighed in with a piece about how McCain let Florida slip away:
If John McCain were on a clear path to victory, there would be no campaign here at all. Yet there was McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, battling on Sunday across the state’s crucial central corridor in Tampa and Kissimmee. Come Wednesday, Bill Clinton will campaign with Barack Obama–the former president’s first joint appearance with the Democratic nominee–at an evening rally here.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of South Florida spoke for many of her fellow Democrats: “People are so excited that we have a presidential campaign that is still here.” Translation: She and others in her party are amazed that Obama has a real chance to carry this state.
The fact that McCain is on the defensive here and in such a broad swath of Republican territory is emblematic of the 2008 endgame. It is a sign of the extent to which Obama has outorganized and outstrategized McCain, and an indication of how almost all the issues have moved against the GOP.
We’re combining forces to bring you a more complete set of morning headlines in politics, media and pop culture. Joe Bardi’s Short List on the Daily Loaf and Wayne Garcia’s Morning Roundup in PoHo blog will now be combined, giving you even more news to start your day with.
Here’s a great idea. Too bad it’s illegal in Florida:
Today’s top political and media headlines from Tampa Bay, Florida and the world beyond. Updates in the aggregatin’ box to the right:
Study hard kids. You’re about to get a lesson in why being a C student is far from acceptable. Have a good weekend, everyone.
The St. Pete Times is reporting that Gov. Crist has asked girlfriend Carole Rome to marry him … and she said yes!
Was the question popped when Crist was visiting John McCain for his weekend barbecue/VP selection retreat in May? No, not the “Charlie asking Carole to be his wife” question. I mean, the “John asking Charlie when the hell he is going to get married and squash all those “The Gov Is Gay” rumors” question.
Call me jaded, but this news has got to mean that Crist has been hovering right at the top of McCain’s Veepstakes list — if only the Gov could be de-gayed a little.
Yes, I’m speculating, and no, I guess I’m not much of a romantic.
Congrats Governor Crist +1. I wish you both nothing but the best.
Gov. Charlie Crist tried to rebound from his horrible flip-flop on offshore drilling with a stunning, “Yellowstone”-sized deal to put a big chunk of Big Sugar out of business and save the Everglades.
From the NYT account:
In a deal that environmental groups said would be the largest ecological restoration in the country’s history, a plan for the state to buy the nation’s largest producer of cane sugar was announced Tuesday by the governor and officials of U.S. Sugar Corporation.
Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, with Robert H Buker Jr., the chief of U.S. Sugar, held up an agreement struck between the state and the sugar producer.
The intention is to restore the Everglades by restoring the water flow from Lake Okeechobee, in the heart of the state, south to Florida Bay. That flow had been interrupted by commercial farming and the Everglades have suffered as a result.
U.S. Sugar is one of two large sugar growers and processors in South Florida, but very politically connected (the Fanjuls and their Flo-Sun being the other), and in full disclosure, I have to say that I was a consultant to U.S. Sugar in the 1990s for one year. In all of this, though, I have yet to read where FLA is going to come up with $1.75 billion. From the Palm Beach Post:
The details of how the state will pay for the land are still unclear, as is the question of how exactly the state would use such a vast expanse of parcels scattered through Palm Beach, Hendry and Glades counties. The deal also includes some property U.S. Sugar owns in Gilchrist County.
The huge acquisition will require the state to refashion its $10.9 billion Everglades restoration plan, said Michael Sole, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection. The current plan relies on a complex network of pricey engineering projects, such as more than 300 deep storage wells, which critics have assailed as impractical and perhaps ecologically dangerous.
So maybe by not having to do the expensive engineering projects we can afford to buy out U.S. Sugar? Let’s hope so, because otherwise, last time I checked our state didn’t have a spare $1.75 billion. Didn’t we just slash the shit out of the state budget? Murderize funding for our higher education system? Gut our criminal justice system?
Crist’s oil drilling stance, widely viewed as a political ploy to assist John McCain’s presidency, was starting to hurt the Gov, as the Florida Democratic Party was more than happy to point out again today in an e-mail:
Crist has reason to worry about his support among the people of Florida. A Miami Herald report today cites a new Zogby International poll that shows the once-popular Governor’s approval rating dropping precipitously as he spends more time gallivanting around the country and less time attending to the state’s economic challenges.
A majority of South Floridians acknowledge that Charlie Crist is doing a fair to poor job, “the first time in Crist’s 18 months in office that more people give the Republican a negative rating than a positive one.” [Miami Herald, 6/23/08]
Previously, Zogby polls showed Crist’s rating at 54-36 percent in September and 54-40 percent in December in South Florida. The latest poll shows the tide has turned on Crist, 43-52 percent.
I’m not sure the Everglades pact will be enough to turn that around, especially once we see the financial details.
(photo by Craig O’Neal)
Ever wonder how to make a viral video? The process has been boiled down to these nine easy yet mostly duplicitous steps.
More than 115,000 former felons who completed their sentences have had their civil rights restored since a new state rule went into effect 14 months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist said.
The rule by the Board of Executive Clemency, which Crist chairs, restored rights almost automatically, ending a policy of requiring the panel to act individually on every restoration of rights request. The rights include voting and the ability to get state and local licenses for certain types of jobs.
“Once somebody has truly paid their debt to society, we should recognize it,” Crist said Tuesday. “We should welcome them back into society and give them that second chance. Who doesn’t deserve a second chance?”
The 115,000 former felons Crist cited account for more than half of all former felons in the state who have had their rights restored during the last 14 years, according to the governor.
The governor made the announcement at a two-day summit of state officials, lawmakers, community activists, prison ministers and others to brainstorm ideas for keeping former inmates from returning to crime after their release.
* – I had originally put periods after the A & P in AP. Fortunately, AP’s #1 fan sent me an e-mail informing me of my mistake. Thank’s #1.
Courtesy of the funny-as-hell snarksters at St. Petersblog, this is one scary-as-shit mash-up:
Do me a solid and click on the picture and go to their website and give them a page view, since I normally dislike linking to others’ images without them getting some benefit.
This just in from the Creative Loafing food safety division: Attack of the killer tomatoes!!!
Side question: What do you think of the new, lean PoHo logo? Sound off in comments.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll out today (and downloadable as a Word doc) is not great news for opponents of the Florida Constitutional ban on gay marriage, aka Amendment 2 — 58 percent of Floridians would vote to approve the prohibition against same-sex nuptials, despite the fact that such a ban is already state law:
Florida voters support 58 – 37 percent a constitutional amendment that specifically defines marriage as a legal union between a man and a woman, making same-sex marriage illegal in Florida. Republicans back the measure 77 – 19 percent, as independent voters support it 52 – 44 percent, while Democrats oppose it 52 – 44 percent. Voters with no college degree back the amendment 64 – 32 percent, while college-educated voters oppose it 50 – 46 percent.
Note the split between college-educated and non-college-educated respondents. Ever wonder why the Republican-led Legislature is so hell-bent on crippling the state’s university system? Pound the university system into submission and maybe you can lower that opposition to stupid right-wing amendments, they gotta figure.
In related news, Gov. Charlie Crist’s approval rating continues to be strong at 61-23, although below his initial months after inauguration in 2007. Here is what the Q poll found:
“Any politician would die to have Gov. Charlie Crist’s approval rating. The economy is down; state programs are being cut and 60 percent of voters say they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the way things are going in Florida today, yet his numbers remain very, very good,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Crist’s support remains solid across the board with 67 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of independents giving him a thumbs up. In addition, 55 per cent of voters say Crist has kept his campaign promises.
Kept his campaign promises? I don’t recall him promising on the campaign trail to sit by impotently while the Legislature ignored his proposed budget and failed to tap reserves rather than make disastrous cuts to schools, or his promise to fail to bring about real property tax reform.
Finally, here are the approval ratings for other cabinet officials:
- U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, 51 – 26 percent;
- U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, 40 – 35 percent;
- State Attorney General Bill McCollum, 52 – 20 percent;
- Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, 33 – 25 percent.
Melquiades’ numbers suck, while McCollum’s seem off the charts, given that he lost the 2004 race to Martinez but has been rumored to be prepping another shot at it because of Melquiades’ poor showing in Congress. The high McCollum numbers (I just can’t imagine anyone really liking him) make me suspicious that this was a very Republican sample for this poll.
Former Tampa Trib newsman Tim Collie has a good piece about Gov. Charlie Crist’s girlfriend, Carole Rome, in this weekend’s South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
She’s been a fixture on the Manhattan charity circuit and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the American Red Cross, the March of Dimes, and other charities that help troubled children and the homeless.
She routinely rubs shoulders with celebrities ranging from Tommy Hilfiger, the Hilton family (her former neighbors in the Hamptons), and John McEnroe, whose wife, former rock star Patty Smyth, is a close friend.
It was during a fundraising meeting in New York in September that she and Crist became close. Rome, a mother of two, was in the process of divorcing her husband, Todd Rome, CEO of Bluestar Jets, an international airplane brokerage.
“It was a meeting about fundraising and she’s very interested in fundraising, like I am,” said Crist, who was in the Keys on Friday evening. “She’s a Republican, her father was a Republican. We have a lot in common — sports, politics, fishing. I care about her a great deal. What can I say? It’s a serious, close relationship.”
The best thing about clicking over to the story, however, will be to check out the photo of the Gov and Mrs. Rome with H. Wayne Huizenga, multimillionaire, who definitely hasn’t traded in for a trophy wife
Now here’s a story that can knock Scott McClellan off the front pages and 24-hour “news” (and I use quotes there to connote that they do not, in fact, convey any news) networks: Charlie Crist is straight!
HuffPo reports that political trickster Roger Stone is peddling a Crist sex tape:
How interested is Florida Governor Charlie Crist in being John McCain’s VP runningmate? So much so that veteran GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone — who coordinated a few dirty stunts in support of Crist during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign — is quietly peddling a so-called “Charlie Crist sex tape.” That’s what Stone called it during a telephone conversation. And no, it is not a tape of Crist having sex with a guy. In fact, it isn’t even X-rated. The video was seemingly staged to kill the rumors that Crist is gay. Stone claims the tape — which he discussed recently with Politics1, but didn’t show to us (”I’m saving it for the national shows”) — “shows Charlie fooling around in a hotel elevator with his girlfriend … They’re making out.”
I’ve not seen the tape either, nor do I really wish to. Crist has consistently and in a straightforward manner denied being gay, and yet stories to the contrary have popped up for years. Like this one from the New Times in South Florida earlier this year:
The rumors about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Green Iguana just wouldn’t go away.
The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay.When I got Rick Calderoni, the bar’s well-known owner, on the phone, I expected him to stonewall me about it.
He didn’t.
Calderoni, who is gay, confirmed that Crist came into his bar quite often and that the two of them became friends.
Getting to the point, I asked him if he knew Crist to be gay.
“Yes,” he answered bluntly. “I just wish he would come out and admit it. That would be a great thing if he did.”
And no less a journalism authority than the CW’s “news” show asked the same question a few years back:
At least in the NY Times today. Not only does he get coverage for his invite to McCain’s weekend veep auditions, but he also gets the featured spot (with photo, in print edition) in a story about how budget-strapped state legislatures are trying to find low-cost options for covering the uninsured.
All the slams against Crist’s veep appeal notwithstanding — he’s too moderate, he’s too “single,” his hair is whiter than what’s left of McCain’s — the buzz does seem to be getting a little louder. The Romney/ Jindal/ Crist face-off this weekend might be almost as much fun (or every bit as excruciating) as those ubiquitous Alltel battling-nerds ads.
(Photo Credit: debaird)
The owner of the Green Iguana in Tampa tells the New Times‘ political writer Bob Norman that Gov. Charlie Crist used to frequent his bar in the 1990s and acted very, well, gay:
The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay.
When I got Rick Calderoni, the bar’s well-known owner, on the phone, I expected him to stonewall me about it.
He didn’t.
Calderoni, who is gay, confirmed that Crist came into his bar quite often and that the two of them became friends.
Getting to the point, I asked him if he knew Crist to be gay.
“Yes,” he answered bluntly. “I just wish he would come out and admit it. That would be a great thing if he did.”
I asked Calderoni if he was certain that Crist is gay. He told me that Crist socialized with a gay clique of friends but conceded that he’d never actually seen Crist become intimate with another man.
So how can he be sure Crist is gay?
“The way he acted,” Calderoni said.
How did he act?
Calderoni laughed and said, “Very feminine.”
Norman admits this remains circumstantial evidence of Crist’s sexuality.
The state is in a recession. His property tax reform plan is a drop in the bucket — at best. Big Insurance still has its way with our state. The budget is headed for multibillion-dollar deficits. The honeymoon is over with Democrats, who launched an attack this week against him for spending relatively little time on the job, opting instead to barnstorm with Republican presidential nominee John McCain as his name is floated on possible VP nominee lists. Republicans are losing patience as well, with some legislators pushing for radical tax cutting and elevating the divisive fight over teaching evolution. He even upset the GOP faithful by saying he would not attend a Broward County charitable event he told organizers he would attend so he could hang out with McCain at the senator’s AZ home.
So it ought to be one helluva State of the State Address tonight by Gov. Charlie Crist as he tries to put a positive spin on the pile of dung that Florida finds itself in this year.
As he takes the podium, the first sustained attack against him by the Florida Democratic Party is no doubt ringing in his ears:
What if you elected a Governor and he never showed up to work?
That’s the question the people of Florida are asking these days after seeing their Governor constantly at John McCain’s side – in Virginia, New Jersey, Arizona, and other places – while there’s been little movement from the state’s government to deal with the Republican Recession facing Florida.
Incredibly, in the first month and a half of this year, Governor Charlie Crist took more days off than he actually worked – only a 48.3% attendance record during 30 potential work days.
The Florida Democratic Party even launched a new website to drive home the point. It says Crist has been out of the office more than he has been in it so far in 2008.
Crist’s press secretary responded in a Miami Herald blog:
Crist’s spokeswoman, Erin Isaac, did not dispute the numbers but said that the governor has been with McCain outside of Florida only when they traveled together on Feb. 4 and 5. Their schedules overlapped during two consecutive weekends in Washington, where Crist was attending meetings with members of Congress and other Republican governors.
“Gov. Crist has campaigned with Sen. McCain just two days outside of our state,” Isaac said. “There is no doubt Gov. Crist has been focused on Florida.”
It is a smart preemptive move that has nothing to do with Crist’s performance as governor and everything to do with the fight to win Florida in the November presidential election. If Crist remains as popular as he is now, the Republican nominee takes Florida easily. So it is strategically necessary to knock Crist down a few notches in the public’s eye.
Of course, this doesn’t make the legislative session that starts today any easier, politicizing a process already saturated with partisanship.
Crist’s State of the State is set for 6 p.m., a time later than normal so the Gov can garner a larger viewing audience. Given the state of the state, he might want to reschedule it again – for midnight, perhaps.
Influential gay publisher Mark Segal of the Philadelphia Gay News writes:
In a year that the political twists, turns and ups and downs have been more thrilling then a ride at Great Adventure or Disney World, and a year that is witnessing the most historical presidential election since Abraham Lincoln, can there be any more surprises? Absolutely. Amazingly, it’s a place you wouldn’t expect change: the Republican Party and the choice for John McCain’s running mate.
…
For McCain, at 72, choosing another white Republican man as his running mate would not look like change and might simply be waiting for the Democrat nominee to make a false move. He has no choice but take the
initiative and be bold in his choice for vice president. But how to embrace change without alienating the Republican base? Can he pick a V.P. nominee that can bring victory in one of the Republican must-win states and has solid Republican credentials?Yes, if he chooses the popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist ran for governor as a lifelong bachelor, with numerous articles and radio talk show openly questioning persistent rumors that he was gay.
As even Segal points out, Crist has consistently and directly denied being gay. But the possibility of having even a closeted gay VP candidate is just too much for Segal to ignore:
There is no doubt that Crist will be on McCain’s short list. With the rumors still flying, can he make it beyond the short list?
There are more reasons why he should than not. McCain has a strategic choice to make once he has the Republican nomination: play to the conservative base in his party who really don’t like him or try to pick up independents and Democrats displeased with their own party’s choice. The only chance McCain has to shake up the race is to make a bold choice — pick a running mate that is popular, from the South and a state he needs to win, who looks like the new breed of political change candidate and brings buzz to his side of the race. In this instance, the gay rumors actually work in Crist’s favor. Those rumors have been tried and tested over the years, and his denial still stands. If brought up, it would be seen as a dirty trick of the Democrats, politics as usual. As for the Republicans, they have proven in the past that as long as you deny you’re gay and it can’t be proven, they’ll believe you. And to toss them a bone, Republican favorite Jeb Bush endorsed Crist.
(photo: Crist in Israel with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, courtesy of US House of Representatives)
“I know you don’t love me now, but what if I gave you this giant check?“
(Photo Credit: Whitehouse.gov.)
OK, considering the source, gotta take this with a grain of salt, but I have heard similar buzz over the weekend:
McCain came out of his South Carolina victory 10 days earlier with a Florida lead, but Romney was pulling even until the endorsement for McCain by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. The word in Florida GOP circles was that Crist resented unofficial support for Romney by Crist’s intraparty rival, former Gov. Jeb Bush.
When viewed through the prism of the Crist-Bush rivalry, as well as the former gov facilitating Romney’s quick machine ramp-up here, Crist’s risky last-minute endorsement of McCain makes a whole lot more sense. The risk paid off.
I think I just threw up in my mouth…
Posted by: | December 04, 2008 at 08:14 AM