The summer recess of Congress has sent politicians back home into their districts and straight into the guerilla theater that has overcome reasonable discussion about how to reform the nation’s broken health care system.

Witness: Hundreds of angry conservatives and anti-Obamacare people (a few violent) turned up at a town hall organized by state Rep. Betty Reed in Ybor City last night with one mission in mind — some with one mission in mind: disrupt the forum and get headlines.

They succeeded.

Driven by right-wing media nutz such as Rush Limbaugh (who mentioned Kathy Castor’ appearance at the forum during his Thursday radio show, bemoaning that she would be surrounded by “union goons”), the state and local GOP and Glenn Beck’s 9-12 movement, the anti-Obama crowd banged on windows and doors in an attempt to get into the overcrowded Children’s Board meeting room.

10 Connects reported:

As people were asked to leave, several screaming matches erupted between participants. One man’s shirt was even ripped open.

So let’s spread the blame around: Rep. Reed admitted she should have gone for a larger venue to accommodate what she knew was a growing crowd. The SEIU union admitted it reserved a number of chairs for its members inside, while opponents and supporters alike stood outside and were denied admission.

TBO.com reported:

Democrats, including White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, have said the disruptions were organized attacks aimed at Democrats by conservative, anti-health care reform interest groups. Protesters at Thursday’s meeting in Tampa angrily rejected that contention.

One man whose shirt was ripped when he tried to force his way into the meeting said afterward he was assaulted by union members:

Here’s the details from FreedomWorks, plus a Tea Party video after the jump:

4/15  Gaslight Park, 410 North Franklin Street  Noon and 5pm.

Tampa-Gaslight Park  – FreedomWorks members and area taxpayers will gather April 15th at Noon(until 2pm) and from 5PM(until 7PM) at GASLIGHT PARK to send a message to leaders of both parties that taxpayers are angry with the bailouts, debt, pork projects, and wasteful spending rampant in Washington. Part of the national movement of “tea parties,” protesters are gathering in the spirit of the Sons of Liberty in Boston, who in 1773 protested the British government by dumping tons of tea into the harbor.

Details of the event in TAMPA:

WHAT:  Tampa Tax Day Tea Party Protest
WHO:  FreedomWorks members and taxpayers
WHERE:  Gaslight Park- 410 N. Franklin Street, Tampa
WHEN:  Noon to 2pm and 5pm to 7pm

Tom Gaitens commented:
“The behavior of the politicians in Washington has spurred taxpayers around the nation to action. Americans are rightfully angry with the current activity and will not sit silently while being robbed. Local residents are joining their voices with thousands of others across the nation and our voice will be heard. The movement is just beginning.”
FreedomWorks is a grassroots organization with over 500,000 members nationwide dedicated to lower taxes, less government, and more freedom.

Fox News has essentially rejiggered its online content to create FOXNation.com. Its supporters see its lofty goal as to transform the ‘Nets the way it claims to have reinvented television. This introductory mission statement from Grover Norquist:

I believe that FOX Nation has the potential to do to the Internet what FOX News did to cable television. That is, be a disruptive, transformative–but also profoundly constructive–media force.

Just as FOX News brought a new vision and voice to the media landscape in the 90s–fair and balanced reporting, plus strong debate and commentary–so FOX Nation will bring still more vision and voice in the decade to come. Only this time, the vision and voice will come from you, the American people. That’s right: Thanks to FOX Nation, all Americans will now have a landmark forum, a watershed opportunity to speak out on the issues they care about, want to learn more about–and do more about.

FOX Nation itself takes no position on issues–although unlike so many other Web portals, FOX Nation does begin with the presumption that America is a special and unique place, a blessed land to be treasured and defended.

So members of the Leave Us Alone Coalition, I predict, are going to love FOX Nation as it fully rolls out in the weeks and months to come. That’s right, conservatives, libertarians, and other believers in limited government have found a new home–at FOX Nation.

Fox’s own purpose statement:

The FOX Nation Statement of Purpose

The Fox Nation was created for people who believe in the United States of America and its ideals, as expressed in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Emancipation Proclamation.

It is a community that believes in the American Dream:  Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.   One that believes being an American is an honor, as well as a great responsibility—and a wonderful adventure.

This is a place for people who believe we live in a great country, a welcoming refuge for legal immigrants who want to contribute their talent and abilities to make our way of life even greater. We believe we should enjoy the company and support of each other, delighting in the creativity, ingenuity, and work ethic of one and all, while observing the basic rules of civility and mutual respect and, most importantly, strengthening our diverse society by striving for unity.

The Fox Nation is for those committed to the core principles of tolerance, open debate, civil discourse–and fair and balanced coverage of the news.   It is for those opposed to intolerance, excessive government control of our lives, and attempts to monopolize opinion or suppress freedom of thought, expression, and worship.

We invite all Americans who share these values to join us here at Fox Nation.

The first feature I spied on the new site: A grinning idiot Glenn Beck next to the headline, “Beck: It’s anti-American to try to keep newspapers afloat.”

More than a dozen of the GOP’s most conservative members on Thursday introduced a bill to reauthorize controversial PATRIOT Act provisions set to expire later this year.

The group of House Republicans – who include Whip Eric Cantor (Va.), Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) and Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith (Texas) – want to extend for an additional 10 years the ability of national security agencies to conduct “roving” wiretaps, have access to library patron information and greatly expand the reach of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Those provisions of the PATRIOT Act are set to expire this year.

Because without the ability to know that I checked out “The Devil We Know” by Bob Baer from the Jan Platt Library, the terrorists win.

Here’s a Washington lawmaker who introduced one of these meaningless sovereignty resolutions in state legislatures.

Best part? The radio yakfest host intoning, “I feel like I woke up in Stalinist Russia.” Oh, that and the coda in which an old song intones “run rabbit, run” and says the farmer is getting his gun as a picture of Barack Obama fills the screen. Nothing like a call to assassinate the president among right-wing friends, huh?

The New York Times sets the table for him by polling and finding Obama remains enormously popular:

President Obama is benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership, providing him with substantial political clout as he confronts the nation’s economic challenges and opposition from nearly all Republicans in Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

A majority of people surveyed in both parties said Mr. Obama was striving to work in a bipartisan way, but most faulted Republicans for their response to the president, saying the party had objected to the $787 billion economic stimulus plan for political reasons. Most said Mr. Obama should pursue the priorities he campaigned on, the poll found, rather than seek middle ground with Republicans.

Jacob Heilbrunn uses that poll data as his jumping off point for labeling Obama’s speech on the economy tonight as the epitaph for the conservative movement:

It’s further confirmation not only of Obama’s extraordinary political skills, but also the precipice that the GOP hasn’t approached but actively leaped over. When Obama delivers the State of the Union address Tuesday, he will wield the one of the most powerful hands history has ever bestowed upon an American president.

Obama will undoubtedly seize the opportunity to sketch out his program for American renewal, both in domestic and foreign policy. His speech, I predict, will not only be seen as a pivotal moment in restoring American democracy, but also an epitaph for the conservative movement that has finally run American into the ground.

By 2010, the GOP’s refusal to vote for the stimulus bill will been seen a as decisive event in the party’s fortunes–for the worse. Had the party cooperated with the president, it might have been able to resuscitate itself. The Times/CBS poll indicates that Americans are displaying great patience and don’t expect the economy to turn around any time soon. But they have seen through the GOP’s charade of purporting to stand for fiscal discipline–after plunging the country into $1 trillion of debt over the past eight years.

The conservative movement is now officially dead. All that remains is for the pallbearers to carry the casket to its burial site. Obama’s speech tomorrow will provide the funeral oration.

Bonus cuts: Rising GOP star and 2012 presidential contender-to-be La. Gov. Bobby Jindal will deliver the Republican response to Obama’s speech.

The body of his brother’s presidency is not even cold yet and Jeb Bush is (practically) off and running for the 2012 nomination, giving one of his (increasingly less) rare interviews, this time with the right-wing online Newsmax.com in which he sets out the direction he believes the GOP should take:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells Newsmax that the GOP must broaden its appeal to avoid becoming “the old white-guy party,” and recommends that Republicans create a “shadow government” to engage Democrats on important issues as the incoming Obama administration seeks to enact its agenda.

Bush also said Barack Obama’s election was neither “transformational” nor a landslide, pointing to the huge advantage in fundraising that Obama enjoyed. And Bush had this warning for Republicans looking for a new direction:

Bush urged Republicans not to abandon their core conservative principles in favor of a “Democratic-lite” agenda. Still, the GOP does need to do some real soul-searching, he said.

“If you take the [last] two election cycles, there’s real cause for concern, no question about it,” he said.

There is good news for Republicans, Bush said: The United States remains “basically a center-right country.” He cited President-elect Barack Obama’s stance on taxes as an example.

“Who would have thought the so-called liberal candidate would be the one advocating tax cuts, and attacking the Republican candidate for tax hikes — which wasn’t true, but was effective when you consider he was outspending Sen. McCain by five to one.”

Oh, and be a little more tolerant, he adds:

“We can’t ignore large segments of our population and expect to win,” Bush said. “We can’t be the ‘old white-guy’ party. It’s just not going to work, the demographics go against us in that regard.

“Among Hispanic voters, I think we need to change the tone of the conversation as it relates to immigration. In Florida, we’ve not participated much in the chest pounding and the yelling and the screaming. I mean, it just drives me nuts when there are substantive policy differences that we can show mutual respect on, but the tone needs to change. And I think we need to recruit more candidates who share our values in the Hispanic community. In Florida we’ve done that.”

Jeb!’s education reform think-tank, Foundation for Florida’s Future, quickly shared excerpts of the article with an e-mail blast.

And how good is that hard-charging “journalism” at Newsmax? Here’s the only mention of the fact that Jeb! could be looking to add a third Bush to the presidential rolls: “who frequently is mentioned as a top-tier GOP presidential prospect.”

Video here.

From Chris Ingram, a former Capitol Hill staffer and Republican consultant in Tampa:

Get Ready for Obamalism
I want to puke, but at least HRC isn’t the president-elect.

My friends, George W. Bush has left our Republican Party in disarray. Make no mistake, John McCain ran a lousy campaign, but McCain could have run a lousy campaign and won had it not been for the pathetic eight years of the Bush presidency. Bush I believe will go down in modern history as our worst president — even worse than Carter.

Despite being outspent by hundreds of millions of dollars, and taking bad advice by a bunch of (Bush) people who never had his interest at heart, John McCain’s numbers on Election Night were actually respectable. Had George W. Bush been on the ballot for re-election to a third term, I’m not sure he would have even carried Texas. McCain for his part put up a good fight and managed to win enough states to show this wasn’t a clear mandate on Obamalism. But in the long run, McCain was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or as my friend and noted political scientist Darryl Paulson likes to say, George W. Bush defeated John McCain not once, but twice.

So where do we go from here? I can tell you one thing, as sick as I am that Barack Obama (a man with no experience leading anything other than a bunch of little old ladies as a community organizer), is our next president, I am thankful every time I get ready to puke about that fact, that it is not Hillary “Rob’em” Clinton who is our president-elect. Yeah, Obama sucks. He’s a socialist. He cavorts with terrorists. He has no spine. He’s untested. He has no record. But he’s not a Clinton.

And for that, I am thankful.

The Democrats will do their damage to our country, and it will take a few years to fix things. We’ll survive. And something good may come of all this. Perhaps our (GOP) faithful will wake up and smell the coffee and quit defending the losers in our party that have created the mess we’re in. The same people many in our party see fit to want to protect instead of forsaking for no other reason than “they’re our morons/losers.”

To all my Republican friends I challenge you: let’s quit electing people because they have an “R” after their name. Let’s start electing people because we believe that “R” represents “responsible,” “conservative,” “leader,” “freedom,” “entrepreneurial,” and all the other things our party stood for when Ronald Reagan was president.

Justin York Florida Students for McCain on Facebook:

My friends,

I know this will be a rough day for many of us. I know for many of us it will be a day of rest as well. But for all us, it is a day of historic significance.

We can be proud to have supported an extraordinary American hero in John McCain. His call of service to a cause greater than our self-interest has been the cause of our organization, our party and ourselves for the past seven months. I thank all who came out, made phone calls, walked door-to-door, manned the offices across Florida, and worked your hearts out for the campaign and for this great man. You will always hold a special place of honor in my eyes.

Issues and parties aside, we can be enormously proud as Americans. The election the first African-American president is the culmination of a long journey from slavery to abolition; from segregation to civil rights. And now, an African-American will lead this nation during these challenging times.

Today is not a day to point to the flaws of Barack Obama. Today is a day of national unity. Today we can celebrate the successful practice of democracy and renew our shared dedication to self-government.

For too long, opposition partisans railed against our president. We challenged them and called them out on their irrational disdain for George W. Bush. We cannot fall into the same trap: no matter what happens, we must earnestly wish for the success of the new president. His success is intertwined with that of our country.

There will be many times we oppose President-elect Obama, but for now, let’s embrace a patriotic grace and wish him well.

I encourage you all to pray with me for the safety and success of the new president.

Thank you, and God bless you all.

Justin York

From Jim Johnson, State of Sunshine blogger, on the GOP holding serve in the Fla. Legislature:

Here is something amazing:

Florida voted for Barack Obama for president – the first Democrat to win since Bill Clinton in 1996 and the first northern Democrat since FDR in 1994.

Florida also ousted two Republican Congressmen: Tom Feeney and Rick Keller.

Hillsborough County voters sent Republican incumbent County Commissioner Brian Blair packing.

The mood was anti-incumbent, and anti-Republican.

Except on the state legislative races. Going into election night, the Republicans held a 77-43 edge in the State House and 26-14 edge in the State Senate. Coming out, the numbers are the same.

Florida House of Represenatives
Two districts switched in the House: District 32 saw incumbent Democrat Tony Sasso (who won in a special election) ousted by Republican Steve Crisafully. To be sure, the Republican Party of Florida had this seat as target number one. Surprisingly, District 81 – an open seat held by term-limited Republican Gayle Harrell – was carried by Democrat Adam Fetterman over Republican Michael DiTerlizzi.

Locally, almost all incumbent legislators won big – and none of them lost. The closest races were in House District 48 where Republican Representative Peter Nehr beat Democrat Carl Zimmerman by 2% in a rematch of 2006. In House Distrct 69, Democratic Representative Keith Fitzgerald won by 5% in another 2006 rematch over Republican Laura Benson. The rest of the incumbents all won by double-digits.

Florida Senate
On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate races were just as predictable. The only close race was in Orlando’s District 19 where incumbent Democrat Gary Siplin held off Republican challenger Belinda Ortiz by 1%. The next closest race was 16% (58-42). That is a strong incumbent advantage.

Interesting Results
In all, these numbers are fairly surprising. Given the general environment, the fact we had so few upsets has two factors: undervoting and lack of competitive races — even in open seats. Until the Democrats can (or perhaps if they ever can) field viable candidates in more races, the Florida Legislature will continue to be very Republican.

PEER Review:

VICTORY!

What?  Surprised to see a claim of victory on a Conservative blog after an election night where the most liberal candidate for president ever claimed the White House?  Don’t despair, my friends!  Though the Republican party suffered many defeats last night, True Conservatism scored some major victories, in our own state and some other unlikely places.

The State of Florida passed a Marriage Amendment.

The State of Arizona passed a Marriage Amendment.

And while the votes are still being gathered in California, their Marriage Amendment is ahead as well!  And with over 96% of precincts there reporting, signs are good that it will pass.

So what is the count?  As of now, 29 states have passed marriage amendments, with California pending, it could be 30.  Arizona, the one state to ever actually fail to pass a marriage amendment (in 2006), now has a marriage amendment.

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Texas
Utah
Idaho
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Virginia
Wisconsin
Colorado

We’ve already stared to hear, and will continue to hear the word “mandate” thrown around frequently.  Many are suggesting that this election broke the back of the Republican party.  Some are claiming this election was a referendum on Conservatism and that our ideology is on its way out.

But consider the fact that this year, when the democrat voting presence was stronger than ever, Marriage Amendments passed.  In our own state which went to Obama, it passed with more than 62%.  That tells me that traditional family values and True Conservative social values are both alive and well and there is indeed Hope for the future.  That gives us a reason to celebrate.

In one corner is John McCain, the former maverick turned uninteresting grouch whose campaign is distributing video clips of one of his rivals appearing to accept some levels of embryonic stem cell funding and research. McCain’s campaign is understandably nervous, because the war hero senator is dropping like a rock in polling and can’t survive the imminent arrival of the Rear Admiral (Fred Thompson).

In the other corner is serial position-changer Mitt Romney, who has won many social conservative hearts and minds despite previous stances that were less-than-conservative. In this case, according to the NYT, McCain doesn’t appear to have the goods on Romney; the video has enough wiggle room in it for Romney’s campaign to make the argument that he hasn’t changed in his opposition to destroying fetuses to enable stem cell research.

Of course, it is not even part of the battle that both men’s positions are out of the mainstream for the nation as a whole.  But then again, this isn’t about the nation as a whole; it’s about winning the Republican primary. Plenty of time to “nuance” a position in the General Election.