Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi of Creative Loafing’s Film & TV section were on board again this morning to tape the weekly HoCast, in which we examined the week’s top political stories, made sense out of them and played funny-sounding audio clips.

Here was our tentative show rundown as written before taping; we added the Tampa health care reform “near riot” to the top of the issues list and had some audio from the unpleasantness:

1. BIll Clinton (and Al Gore??) set free the journo-hostages from North Korea. The price? An unsmiling photo-op with an equally unsmiling and flaccid Kim Jong-Il plus some “face” for the North Koreans. Worth it or not? What happens next time a nation takes poeple hostage and we don’t send Slick Willy or a different ex-president to rescue them? Can you imagine the hilarity that would have ensued if we’d sent former President George W. Bush?!? And how long will Hillary stand for Bill upstaging her?

2. Snakes in a State, starring Samuel L. Jackson Jr. Florida is overrun with Burmese pythons, and they’ve started eating our children and other endangered species. Time for a War on Snakes!
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/politicalwhore/2009/08/06/its-war-florida-vs-burmese-python-snakes-with-a-possible-pet-ban/

3. Privatizing BayWalk’s sidewalks: the sidewalk turned from a pathway for pedestrians to a home for the homeless, a protest site for those opposed to the war (nevermind that BayWalk played zero role in the war) and various other sundry uses that damaged the retail center’s business. Now, the city wants to give it control of the sidewalk and push thep public off land that it now owns. What do we think? What other bothersome public lands are we ready to give back to private interests? The Everglades (and all those snakes?)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/aug/06/060959/groups-protest-st-pete-plan-privatize-baywalk-side/news-breaking/

4. Hillsborough County votes to seek $15 million in federal stimulus money to pay for a temporary rehab of the Friendship Trail bridge. Is that what we should be using the stimulus for? And what do we make of the estimate that 600,000 people hike, bike or fish off the bridge every year? That is one in four Tampa Bay residents. Sounds a bit high to me.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/8/5/505115.html?title=Commissioners%20vote%205%20to%202%20for%20Friendship%20Trail%20project&cid=rss

5. John Edwards’ mistress testifies before an NC grand jury about his campaign finances. We ask: how much can one piece of ass cost somebody?
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/08/06/edwards_mistress_testifies_before_grand_jury.html

Here’s the live video stream of our taping, which we get ready for starting at about 10 am and tape at 10:15 am each week. Drop in early and catch our live mic gaffes.
Live TV : Ustream

My guest co-host for this week’s HoCast is Seth Nelson, a Tampa lawyer who is running for the Tampa City Council in 2011 (for Linda Saul-Sena’s citywide seat; she is term-limited).

He is a former law clerk on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, so we look at how Sonia Sotomayor did in explaining her statement about policy being made at the appellate court level. Plus, we discuss Walter Cronkite’s death and how it shows what is wrong with today’s news media and ask ourselves whether Barack Obama’s health care reform effort is in trouble.

And between all those headlines, Seth talks about why he’s running for the Council and what his top priorities are.

DL or listen to the podcast after the jump:

Download here.

I’m starting a new Saturday feature to wrap up news and blog posts you might have missed during your busy week. Here’s a look at the Week in Review:

New book blasts sportswriters for ‘hysteria’ regarding steroids – Mitch Perry. The WMNF anchor writes about a new book that lays the blame for steroid-mania at the foot of writers who aren’t aggressive. “The writers, the supposed experts, watched over the last 20-30 years as steroids became a very, very common substance. And they didn’t see it.”

Economic report calls Florida “a state in trouble.” The single most depressing (and real) assessment of Florida’s economic shortcomings we’ve ever seen. A must-read. (The graph above is from the report.)

POTUS and the Pope — Peter Schweitzer. Our contributors asks: if the US bishops are sideways with Barack Obama over his abortion stance, why is the pope so warmly receiving him?

Shadowy 527 group unloads YouTube attack ad against governor candidate Alex Sink (video). A Gainesville GOP leader is the face of the anti-Sink political group.

Bankruptcy judge sets auction date for Creative Loafing alt-newspaper chain. It is likely that two groups will bid in late August for ownership of Creative Loafing, pitting the company’s current management against lender Atalaya.

Political Whore Podcast #13: St. Petersburg mayoral candidate John Warren. The longshot, last-minute “community investor” and preservationist talks about lessons from history and how he would let downtown business owners handle panhandlers.

Crappy stadiums keep All Star Game from being played in Florida — Jim Johnson. Only two MLB cities have not hosted the mid-summer classic, Tampa Bay and Miami.

Pot, meet kettle: Sen. Jeff Sessions (once accused of being a racist) questions Sonia Sotomayor about being prejudiced. In 1986, Sessions was dinged by the Senate Judiciary Committee that he now sits on for a federal judgeship. The reason: He was tied to making racial comments.

Former Tampa Tribune columnist Dan Ruth has a new blog.

Hillsborough’s Moral Courage Award regains respect by ditching Ralph Hughes’ name — George Niemann. By our contributor who attended and spoke at the meeting where the mega-right winger’s association with the moral courage was discussed.

The Audacity of Pork — Kelly Cornelius.

The Big Irony for Tuesday was watching the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, one Jefferson B. Sessions III of Alabama, grill US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor over her statements about the judiciary and race. (He ascended to the top GOP slot on the committee when Arlen Specter switched parties.) Sessions cited what he termed a history of statements that show she would not apply the rule of law but instead use her life experiences and racial politics to make decisions on the high court.

Sessions himself was the target of a similar grilling in 1986, when he was a nominee to the federal district court, according to this account in the conservative Black Political Thought/Hinterland Gazette:

Twenty-three years ago he was engaged in the fight of his life. He was appointed a U.S. attorney in Alabama in 1981 and was nominated to become a U.S. District judge by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. J. Gerald Hebert, a career Justice Department lawyer, testified that Sessions had once called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union “un-American” and “Communist-inspired.” He said that they “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” He sealed his own fate by saying such groups could be construed as “un-American” when “they involve themselves in promoting un-American positions” in foreign policy. He is said to have made remarks that he thought the Ku Klux Klan wasn’t so bad until he found out that some of them smoked marijuana. He said these comments were made in jest. Right.

Sessions faced a heated round of questioning from Sen. Edward Kennedy, who called him “a throwback to a shameful era,” and our current Vice President, Joe Biden. How ironic. The committee held four hearings during one of which Sessions pleaded that “I am not a racist.” Hebert also testified that Sessions had called a white civil rights lawyer a “disgrace to his race” for litigating voting rights cases. His nomination failed in committee on a 10 to 8 vote, with Specter joining the nominee’s original patron, Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.) in dooming the nomination. In 1994, Sessions won a state attorney general’s race, and then won election to the Senate in 1996 after Heflin retired.

Talk about somebody who (it would seem) would be prejudiced against a process or person, having gone through what must have been a painful rejection by Democrats decades ago.

The Washington Post has a full transcript of the Sessions-Sotomayor interrogation.

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

The shocking assassination of late-term abortion doctor George Tiller on May 31 has brought back the volatile issue of abortion on to the national landscape.

Of course, it’s never gone away. But the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor by President Obama to the Supreme Court — and her relatively scant record on abortion issues — has elicited analysis that, perhaps unlike every previous Supreme Court nomination over the past few decades, her nomination won’t be heavily focused by her thoughts on Roe v. Wade.

Pro-choice advocates were stunned when Gallup reported last month that for the first time since it began asking the question, a majority of Americans now call themselves pro-life vs. pro-choice (although a review of other similar polls taken over the past year continue to reflect a majority pro-choice America.)

If that wasn’t at least a soft blow to those reproductive rights advocates, Tiller’s death by the hands of 51-year-old Scott P. Roeder absolutely was.

And for a portion of the public, upon learning of Tiller’s death, thoughts immediately turned to Bill O’Reilly, who focused relentlessly on the controversial doctor’s status as one of just a handful of M.D.’s in the country who continued to perform late term abortions.

Some liberal commentators and bloggers immediately blamed the cable news analyst for inciting Roeder to commit murder.  O’Reilly, predictably, pushed back, and used the opening moments of his show last week to argue that his foils, NBC News and company, were just as responsible for the murder of U.S. soldier William Long in Arkansas by a Muslim convert.

For many in the abortion rights movement, Tiller’s death brought back the dark days of the 1990’s, when doctors David Gunn, Bernard Slepian and John Britton were killed for their work as abortion providers.

Sarasota resident Sherry Svekis received a late-term abortion from Tiller in 1985. Not being a regular Fox News viewer, she was unaware of the very public campaign O’Reilly had wrought against Tiller over the years until his death.

But after hearing the denunciations of Tiller,  Svekis penned a letter to the Tampa Tribune last week, describing her encounter with Tiller, and her very fond memories of him.

Intrigued by her acknowledging the abortion with the late doctor, I spoke with her last week.

In 1985 there were only a few places Svekis knew where she could get an abortion after being 20 weeks pregnant (she says she was at 24 weeks into gestation).

She says her mother, a Unitarian minister, had learned through a contact about Tiller, and after her ob-gyn physician contacted the medical examiner in Kansas, she felt confident that she would be in good hands.

But unlike the Frankenstein depicted by his critics, Svekis says that Tiller was a compassionate man. She says nearly a year after her abortion, Tiller contacted her to see if she was interested in adopting a baby — after diagnosing that a woman patient he had was too far along in her pregnancy to abort.

“It was reminiscent of John Irving’s novel The Cider House Rules, the doctor who says he can give you an abortion or give you an orphan…. I don’t know what his guidelines were, but she was too far along for him to give her and adoption, and would we like to accept?”

She respectfully declined. But she was touched by his thoughtfulness. (She subsequently had two children of her own.)

“He spent the time to understand what a woman’s position was. Why she was there. What her physical and emotional situation was … he’d try to work with her and whomever came with that person to support her.”

Svetkis says she’s aware it’s a bit unconventional to want to tell the world about a surgical procedure from more than 20 years ago. She says her family and friends were aware of her abortion.

But, she says, when she heard of Tiller’s death, “It was like I needed to make my experience as public as possible as to what an incredible, compassionate man this was, and how important this service was.”

She continued, “There are so few people who can do it. And those that are and the people that can do this procedure are being intimidated out of their rights, and I view it as terrorism.”

Sherry Svetkis says she hopes that with the considerable skills that Barack Obama posses, that perhaps a discussion can be renewed in America about the issue of reproductive rights.

She says, “We need many more voices from the women, and families in this country who have made these choices, so we can have an understanding to what these situations are, and why its important to have services. It’s a woman’s right to her body, and Dr. Tiller was a firm believer in that. We need to support women so they don’t have to be in this situation.”

The Justice Department announced late last week that it was launching an investigation into whether anyone else was involved in Tiller’s death and investigating for potential violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act.

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

Last week, Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery said she was seriously contemplating
a run for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.

Apparently, she didn’t get the edict that party Chairman Jim Greer issued recently that all good Republicans should get behind Attorney General Bill McCollum’s candidacy.

But as far as Republican consultant (and soon to be PoHo contributor) Chris Ingram  is concerned, Dockery’s possible entrance into the race is a good thing.

“If the Republicans nominate Bill McCollum for their nominee for Governor, it’s over but the fat lady has not yet sung,” he said last Friday.

Ingram stresses that he has considerable respect for the very experienced AG, who spent two decades in Washington representing the Orlando area in Congress. He just thinks that the old style Republican Party tradition of letting the guy whose “earned” the chance to be the party’s standard bear is losing politics.

“Electing old white guys in their 60’s just because it’s ‘their turn’ is not a good solution for the Republican Party to turn itself around. …We need to look for some fresh young people with new ideas and who are public servants with an eye on the future as much as an eye on the past, and I just don’t think McCollum is the guy.”

There’s also a question of being in step with the Florida electorate. Barack Obama’s victory in the Sunshine state last year perhaps moves the state closer to purple in terms of its political ideology, as does the continuing high approval ratings of flaming moderate Charlie Crist.

Even ardent supporters of McCollum had to acknowledge that it was a bit of a reach at his speech declaring his candidacy when he declared,

The hallmark of my administration will be access and inclusion. It will be an administration that does not focus on partisan labels but brings the brightest minds from every walk of life together – every race, creed, religion – to solve problems and move this state forward.

Interesting rhetoric from one of the 13 “House Managers” who attempted to kick Bill Clinton out of the White House in early 1999 for not admitting he indulged in a little nooky with a White House intern, in one of the bitterest partisan skirmishes in the country’s history.

The 47-year-old Dockery says she’s weighing whether to run for the GOP nomination for Representative in the 12th Congressional district (the seat that Adam Putnam is leaving next year to run for Agriculture Commissioner), or for Governor, and will decide in a few weeks.

USF Political Science professor Susan MacManus told me last week that she does believe that Republicans in Florida are a little antsy that right now, all of their leading candidates for the state’s Cabinet positions lack diversity.

“There are some who really believe the future of the party depends up on having more women and Hispanics and African Americans running as candidates for their party,“ she said.

Since Marco Rubio doesn’t count (the 37-year-old Cuban American is a decided underdog to Crist right now in the state’s U.S. Senate race), all of the state’s GOP candidates for statewide offices are white males over 50 years old, with the exception of Adam Putnam for Agriculture Commissioner.

McManus says Dockery, if she opts to run, brings a lot to the party. “She’s from the all important I-4 corridor, she’s well known, well respected … and she brings a different type of face to the Republican Party.“ McManus thinks that for those in party (like Jim Greer, actually) who think that diversity is important, “she’s captivating that thought, I’m sure.”

Ingram thinks that Greer’s attempts to get the party to declare its fealty to Charlie Crist and Bill McCollum well over a year before the state’s primary is a “terrible way to run a political party.”

And Ingram thinks that while many in the party heartily agree with McCollum’s brand of conservatism, he’s the wrong messenger. Conversely, Ingram says, Governor Crist is a “phenomenal messenger,” but doesn’t stand up for anything other than Charlie Crist.”

Meanwhile, what about the aforementioned Adam Putnam?

The not-so-baby-faced Polk County congressman (he turns 35 this summer) has made a well declared shift in his career, leaving his role as conference chairman for House Republicans (making him the third most powerful Republican in the House) after last year’s election saw the Republicans take it on the chin for the second consecutive election cycle.

He’s winding down his Washington career, and is coming home to run for Agriculture Commissioner next year.

After giving a rather dry speech at the University Club in Tampa last week, I had a chance to engage Putnam.

It was a noted contrast to a similar opportunity I had recently with Marco Rubio. The former Florida House Speaker was circumspect on his race with the Governor, but happily took on such loaded proclamations that he wants to go to Washington to stop ‘the socialism taking place there’.

Congressman Putnam has been in Washington for more than eight years now and seems keenly aware of how the party is viewed these days.

Last week, Politico reported that Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana had instructed his minions to talk up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent controversy regarding the CIA during the Memorial Day recess.

So what about that, Congressman?

“I believe what she said about the CIA was troubling” he said, adding, “If she believes that the CIA lied to her, then we need to have a full investigation in determining that.”

But when I then asked him if he would also support an investigation into the use of “harsh” interrogation techniques in the Bush Administration, the tone changed.

“There has been a reversal in terms of investigations since this … and the bottom line is that people have come to the conclusion that she did not intend the CIA of lying, and if she really did, then we have a problem, but the fact that she’s walked back from that statement, I think means that everybody is ready to focus on supporting our intelligence collectors to give us the best possible information to keep America safe…”

Another indication of the Congressman’s intent not to throw rhetorical bombs a la Newt, Rush and the gang was when William March of the Tampa Tribune, joining me in the interview, asked Putnam his thoughts on Sonia Sotomayor, named just a little more than 24 hours before by President Obama to be his nominee to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court.

I think she appears on her face to be highly qualified for the position….It’s obviously the source of great pride among the Hispanic community to have broken another barrier in American history, and absent some really remarkable event in her past, I expect her to be confirmed, and confirmed with Republican votes….”

When I interjected that I had just heard Rush Limbaugh in fact say the opposite, that she was unqualified and incompetent to boot, Putnam didn’t flinch. “I think my comments stand.”

Adam Putnam seems to be the Republican that Chris Ingram has in mind when he talks about diversity, and about message. It remains to be seen how the rest of the state GOP gets that message.

This week’s podcast breaks down the Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination with Tampa media lawyer David Snyder. We talk about her race-based rulings, her temperament, Rush Limbaugh and Tom Tancredo’s charges of reverse racism and whether judges really do/should make policy or not.

Download or stream the HoCast after the jump.

The Political Whore Podcast can be downloaded in mp3 for your personal-pod-listening joy or savored on our streaming player below.

Suggested reading (articles mentioned in the podcast):

Lecture: ‘A Latina Judge’s Voice’ from The New York Times

The Latina Judge’s speech revisited, from The Volokh Conspiracy

National Review’s 2008 “warning” against Sotomayor

The New Republic, “The Case against Sotomayor”

“Sotomayor’s blunt style raises issue of temperament” The New York Times

“Judge Sotomayor and Race — Details from the full data set” SCOTUS Blog

Photo credit: pmarkham flickr.com

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor and R-LAND activist

Ever hear the saying don’t look a gift horse in the mouth? That is probably because horse’s teeth can tell you how old they are.

Being a horse person I am a strong believer in vetting before buying a horse which is also called a pre-purchase exam. Along with checking for any glaring unsoundness or other health issues it is a good way to see if your potential steed will hold up for the job you will be asking him or her to do. As you might expect, if you want a horse for light trail riding the pre-purchase bar might not be as high as, say, an Olympic jumper or even something in between.

Most vets will admit that while almost no horse “passes the vet;” there are just shades of failing. It still makes good sense to have a thorough exam performed. The only time it doesn’t make sense to vett a horse is if all you want the horse for is a lawn ornament. If you want a performance horse, however, you should know what you are buying and whether there is a reasonable assumption that your new steed can perform its job. So, before you take the plunge and buy old Dobbin, have him vet’ed.

I feel the same way about Supreme Court Justice nominees by the way. I think we can safely say they are well beyond trail horses and into the category of Olympic jumpers so the bar needs to be set very high.

I had some concerns when I read that Judge Sonia Sotomayor voted to uphold what appeared to me to be discrimination. This article describes Sotomayor’s ruling on a three-judge panel where New Haven Fire Fighters were denied promotions after passing the test to determine their eligibility. Why were they denied? Because there were no successful black candidates. The firefighters that passed felt they were discriminated against but their case was dismissed. Sotomayor voted to uphold that dismissal. I think that deserves some hard questioning. I don’t want a Judge to be bias toward or against one group or another. These firefighters passed their tests and it shouldn’t matter what color their skin was, it shouldn’t matter what color your skin is for ANY job in our country! Could she justify the dismissal legally? I don’t know since I am not a lawyer but it sure seems like discrimination to me. I hope a proper vetting would produce the answer.

Also of concern are some of her past comments “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Can you imagine the outrage if this were reversed and a white male said that?

To those that make these decisions please hold the bar high, look every horse in the mouth (gift or not) and perform a thorough pre-purchase exam. This position should not be about race or gender and most importantly it should be free of discrimination. All I am saying is don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions and perform a thorough vetting on her or any candidate before you buy because America doesn’t need any ornaments on the Supreme Court’s lawn.

Photo Credit: cmaccubbin Flickr.com

Let’s hope for his sake Barack Obama’s vetting team asked Sonia Sotomayor if she has paid her taxes. Let’s hope they asked her if she’s ever hired, employed, otherwise used undocumented folks for laundry, housekeeping, garbage pickup, whatever. Also, she damn well have been kidding about the impact a judge’s ethnicity and sex have on the decision-making process. She better downplay her comment about a Latina woman (isn’t that redundant) making better decisions than a white male considering the folks asking her questions are predominantly white males, and old white males at that.

Now, for the hard part…

By all objective criteria, Sonia Sotomayor is qualified for the nation’s highest court from her academic, legal, and judicial experience. That shouldn’t be an issue. If it is, we have a whole other set of problems. She’s a summa cum laude Princeton grad and a Yale law grad. She’s been on the federal bench since 1992, appointed by a Republican no less.

In her decisions, she’s tipped her judicial cap to the religious constituency by advancing First Amendment claims based on religion. She’s even sided with business in some of her rulings. Most importantly, she hasn’t entered the abortion fray.

In terms of how she’ll play politically, she’s an Hispanic woman who’s humble, hard working, and knows her roots. In the press conference, she didn’t come off as a man-eating feminista bent on punishing the imperialist dogs. From her remarks, you’d glean nothing of her accomplishments, which are considerable.

On the other hand, she’s made some statements that could give Dems pause and Repubs fodder. The two statements to which I’ve referred will need some polish. More importantly, she’ll have to nuance her response to the certain questions concerning public policy making. She’s on record for stating that the court is where public policy is created. That’s a problem for Obama. If she brushes off the questions, she’ll look like she’s ducking.  If she gives too nuanced a response, she’ll look like she’s lying. This is a problem that Republicans are sure to exploit, as well they should.  It was a dumb thing to say. She knew it too because she said so. “And I know, and I know, that this is on tape, and I should never say that.”

What’s troubling about that statement is that she’s smart enough to know better.  Does that go to judicial temperament?

Obama’s betting on her personal story, her educational and legal achievements, and her experience to get her confirmed. Those opposed to her nomination should nimbly zero in on her comments. Don’t touch her sex, her ethnicity, or her experience. Question her about her intemperate comments.

Another issue that has little to do with Sotomayor as a person or a jurist is her faith. She’s a Catholic.  If confirmed, that would make a sixth justice a Catholic.  Imagine that, six out of nine Supreme Court justices would be Catholic.  Forty-six years ago, the nation took issue with electing a Catholic president!  Where’s the diversity and “experience” in having six out of nine justices Catholic?

In the end, she’ll be confirmed. Not because she’s qualified or a woman. She’s Sonia from the block and the opposition can’t stop her.

Rather than allow herself to be put at the center of another racism and sexism-laden political circus around the qualifications of a candidate who brings more real-life prosecutorial and actual judicial experience than any other Supreme Court nominee in the last 100 years, Sotomayor should consider another strategy. She — and we — should instead view those hearings as nothing less than a trial to determine whether the GOP is ready to make restitution for its role in a number of judicial and political wrongdoings perpetrated in the Bush era. Those wrongdoings include unleashing unprecedented and dangerous political attacks on Latinos, and breaching the political and electoral contract the “new GOP” said it wanted with Latinos, one of the country’s most important voting blocs.