Wasserman Schultz Thinks She Gets To Decide Which Racial Group You Need To Be In To Run For Congress

Mind your own business

Wassermann Schultz and some of her cronies, Lois Frankel for one, are trying to get Val Demings elected to Congress in the Orlando area, specifically in the very redistricted 10th CD, currently occupied by Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster. The new district is way too blue for Webster-- under the new lines, Obama would have beaten Romney 60.7% to 38.4% instead of losing to Romney 53.3% to 42.5%-- and he's district shopping now, although will most likely wind up in FL-11, since Rich Nugent is retiring and the district is safely red. The changes, obviously are demographic. When Webster was elected it was a 60% white district. The new lines make the district 27.08% black and 22.85% Hispanic. So the line being pushed by Wasserman Schultz and Frankel-- this is a black district-- is a little weird.

Wassermann Schultz has always been big on dividing people up that way. When she was in the state senate she drew her own future district to include every Jewish person she could find in Broward County. Right now it looks like the contenders for Webster's seat are three black women, state Senator and civil rights icon Geraldine Thompson, DCCC/EMILY's List hack Val Demings, and Rep. Corrine, who already represents many of that 27.08% black part of the district in her old district, FL-05, and one white progressive, Bob Poe. It looks like Tampa Bay Times politics editor, Adam Smith, got the message from his pal Wasserman Schultz:

Here's a trend Florida Democratic leaders prefer not to talk about: Wealthy, white Democrats beating out minority Democratic candidates in districts drawn with an eye toward electing minorities.

The latest example is in the Orlando area, where former Florida Democratic Party chairman Bob Poe, a top Democratic fundraiser and white guy, last week jumped into a congressional primary contest that already included two African-American candidates, former Orlando police Chief Val Demings and state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, and Brazilian-American lawyer Fatima Fahmy.  The district now represented by Republican Dan Webster has been redrawn to make it so much more Democratic-leaning that Webster is looking at running elsewhere. The race is likely to be decided in the Democratic primary, where most of the electorate is minority, but Poe has a strong chance at winning.

Actually, with the exception of Demings, all the candidates are good and central Florida Democrats should be thankful they get to pick between a batch of good candidates instead of some sad-sack Blue Dogs. This should be a race about ideas and values and competence, not a race about race. I understand why power-mongers like Wasserman Schultz and Frankel are always making these kinds of ugly moves-- that's what they are-- but it amazes me that the biggest newspaper in the area would run it as though it were fact. 27.08% doesn't make a district a black district, a Latino, a white district or an Asian district. It's just a diverse, multicultural district with a strong Democratic bench and I'm not sure how Smith can say "most of the electorate is minority," with a straight face either... unless he's also counting the LGBT community-- in which case he should be delighted to see Bob Poe running as he'd be the first gay member of Congress from Florida-- or at least the first openly gay member of Congress from Florida. [Update: Pelosi endorsed Demings today, which isn't going to please Corrine, but it kind of reminded me of the time Pelosi backed corrupt conservative Al Wynn in Maryland over Donna Edwards. Donna's now one of the best Members of Congress and Wynn is one of the most corrupt lobbyists on K Street. That Pelosi!]

The X-factor in the FL-10 race-- but why are EMILY's List and Wasserman Schultz trying to dump her?

Options For Would-Be Tea Party Speaker Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster Staying In Congress Are Closing

Daniel Webster has been in the news lately because he's "running" (not really) for House Speaker as the Freedom Caucus/Tea Party candidate. He isn't considered a serious candidate with an actual chance to ever become Speaker, just a pawn in the game between the extremists and the mainstream conservative Establishment. But ole "Taliban Dan" is probably happy he's in the news as a potential Speaker rather than as someone who's about to lose his congressional seat. Let's talk about that for a minute. In 2010 Webster was elected in the 8th district in Central Florida. The following year, the corrupt Republican state legislature gerrymandered the state up again to create as many Republican seats as they could and Webster got a nice red seat, now called the 10th. In 2008, the 8th had gone to Obama by 5 points but the newly created 10th, which put many Democratic neighborhoods into the 9th district created a frankenstein-monster of a district that includes southwestern and southeastern Orlando but skirts areas where Democrats live, Obama would have lost by 5 points, quite the swing. And, in fact, in 2012, under those lines the district-- with a PVI of R+6-- gave Romney an even heftier 53-46% win. Webster beat a weak but well-funded Democrat, Val Demings, 52-48% in 2012 and then beat an even weaker Democrat, Michael McKenna, last year 62-38%.

But then the state of Florida was sued for the gerrymandered districts and a judge threw them out and one of the districts most effected was Webster's. Under the new lines-- Under the new lines-- which includes African-American neighborhoods of west Orlando and does not include any of red-leaning Lake County (or Polk County)-- the district that gave Romney a 53.4-45.7% win over Obama would have given Obama a 60.7-38.4% landslide win. Bye-bye Webster. (The likely Democratic challenger is a well-known, well-heeled and well-liked former state Democratic Party chairman, Bob Poe, a progressive who will first have to beat DCCC/EMILY's List deadbeat, Val Demings, who wants to give it another' try but is intensely disliked in the area.)

Meanwhile, there has been constant chatter about John Mica moving up to FL-06, a deep red district, much of which was his previously and leaving FL-07, his current district. The rationale is that FL-07 is a tough district, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans and could be a challenge for Mica. Under the old lines Romney beat Obama 51.8- 47.1% but under the new lines it would have been an exact 49.4-49.4% split. (FL-06, by contrast, newly open because current Congressman Ron DeSantis is running for Rubio's open Senate seat, will have a population that gave Romney 52.2% to Obama's 46.6%, much safer for Mica.) The problem is that Mica doesn't want to move and says he won't do it, especially since the DCCC has a typically lame candidate, Blue Dog Bill Phillips who would pose no real challenge to Mica. So much for the musical chairs scenario... unless Webster wants to skip a couple districts and move up to FL-06 himself, completely new territory for him.

He'd be looked at as a carpetbagger in a basically coastal district that stretches along the 95 from below Edgewater and New Smyrna Beach all the way up along the coast through Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, and St. Augustine. Worse yet, for Webster, former Tea Party Republican Congresswoman Sandy Adams is already running in the 6th (as is New Smyrna Beach ex-mayor Adam Barringer). And the Democrat who represents Daytona Beach in the state House, Dwayne Taylor, announced last week that he's running as well. If Ted Cruz is at the top of the GOP ticket and it's an especially bad year for the GOP, FL-07 and FL-06 could both go blue (although Mica would be a better bet for the GOP in either district than Webster who would have a real struggle in both districts, though they're viewed as not as impossible as the new 10th. So, in all likelihood, like I already said... bye-bye Webster.

A Further Dissection Of Rep. McCarthy And Washington’s Favorite New Game: Speaker Of The House Roulette

-By Noah

Damn, Kevin McCarthy, we hardly knew thee! It would have been so… interesting!

Now the Republicans will have to find someone truly in need of an exorcism to take your place.

The whole process is reminding me of those horrible Russian roulette scenes in The Deer Hunter where the protagonists keep putting bullets in the gun, holding it to their heads, then take very deep breaths and hope for luck; all in order to escape their horrible existence. Is there a workable way out?

Making sense is not a Republican attribute but McCarthy’s personal lexicon and communication abilities are so bad that he and his Abbey Normal brain probably need to spend some quality time under the knife of neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.

Yet, unbeknownst to most Americans, Rep. McCarthy (R-CA) rose as high as the position of House Majority leader. His peers elected him and he was the preferred successor of outgoing Speaker John Boehner. What category of sub-humans is more pathetic? Is it those fellow republican congresscretins who voted to make him Majority Leader, or is it the republican voters in his home district who voted to send him to Washington; feeling that he was a fine choice to represent them, mixed up word salad, chopped syntax, grammar atrocities and all? Hey, the man looks good in a suit! What else do we need?

Remember when LBJ said that Gerald Ford had spent too much time playing college football at the University of Michigan without a helmet? Do we need to institute concussion protocols in Washington? I think so! Perhaps for voters, too!

Here are some selected quotations from Rep. McCarthy. No, they are not typos. This is McCarthy vérité. Sadly, it wasn’t his inability to form coherent sentences that cost him a chance to be Speaker. It was his admission, proudly declared on Sean Hannity’s Nightly Buffoon-O-Rama TeeVee show, that the Benghazi hearings only existed to drag Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers and favorability ratings down.

"We have isolated Israel, while bolding places like Iran."

"It defies belief that the president would allow the ban on Iranian oil exports to be lifted. And also stand by while Russia blackmails an entire continent, all the while keeping the place the band on America."

"We don’t have the same as difficult decision that this White House is managing the decline and putting us in tough decisions for the future." [This one is my favorite.]

"We must engage this war of radical Islam if our life depended on it. Because it does."

"This 'safe zone' would create a stem a flow of refugees… Unlike during the surge in Iraq when Petraeus and Crocker had an effective politically strategy to match the military strategy."

"In the past few years alone, I have visited Poland, Hungria, Estonia, Russia, and Georgia…"

Remember that South Carolina (‘nuff said) beauty contestant who couldn’t speak? [See video up top for a refresher.] How could McCarthy have been seriously considered Speaker of the House if he can’t speak? How can he rail against immigrants if the majority of them speak better English than he does?

Keep in mind that he would have been right behind the Vice President in the chain of succession if the President and Vice President both met an untimely demise. Might we be better off if a chimpanzee sat in the Speaker’s chair clapping a couple of cymbals together? Of course, that might have been better than Boehner, too, but, this just goes to show that if the public accepts a mediocre choice, it lowers the bar and opens the door to something even worse. The same principle applies to political extremism.

Is Kevin McCarthy a robot designed to convince us that, compared to him, Dubya could actually put a sentence together? After all Dubya’s brother is doing quite a job of convincing us that Dubya is the smarter brother.

I have a feeling that "something even worse" is what we will get for the next Speaker of the House. So, here are some of the possibilities, some of which are quite gruesome. Let’s start with Paul Ryan since he is being heavily lobbied by his fellow Repugs to take the job. By the time you read this, he may even have agreed to take the job.

Is Rep. Ryan qualified? Well, he is the ultimate pathological liar, as evidenced by his acceptance speech at the 2012 Republican convention.

His policy ideas are certainly in keeping with his party’s war on Americans. What can you say further about a twitchy little rodent man who thinks that rape is just another form of insemination? A bigger problem with Ryan is easily noted: Just look at his eyes. The man is clinically insane.

Next up: Rep. Daniel Webster of Florida is much talked about. Now, he may represent the utter kooks of his state very well, but, he is so extreme that he may even be too extreme for the majority of his party. Religious extremism is his special forte. Like so many of his party, he’s for it, believing in stoning for just about everybody. It’s often very difficult to tell Republicans from Muslim extremists and Webster is as good of an example of that as anybody in his whole nutjob party.

Could current House Majority Whip, Louisiana’s Steve Scalise be “the guy”? He’s on record as speaking to white supremacist groups and boastfully calling himself "David Duke without the baggage" so he fits the Republican ideal. Before McCarthy removed himself, Scalise was running to replace him.

Would current Speaker John Boehner be forced to un-retire? "Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in." If that starts to look like a real possibility, I suggest that those who care about his well-being, remove all handguns, prescription sedatives, and sharp objects from his reach.

As we are all aware, there is a myriad of kooks and crazies in the Republican Party. How about Rep. Louie "the bestiality guy" Gohmert or any of the other Texas crazies, like former-Rep. Steve Stockman? Is there anyone in the Republican Party who is sane enough for the job? Keep in mind that the job of herding the cats of the repug party will drive a sane man or woman to insanity if they are not there already. The job is a ticket to hell, but, it is a hell designed by the Republican Party. They embraced the teabaggers and now they are forced to deal with the results because any candidate for the job has to get the official teabag (Koch Brothers) approval. What price for a House majority?

Who else, you might ask? Rafael "Ted" Cruz has had his name floated. Keep in mind that, constitutionally, the Speaker of the House does not actually have to be a member of the current House or even a member of the party. The name of Newt Gingrich has been floated by Sean Hannity and Newtie himself. Hopefully that idea is floating face down. It worked so well the last time. Newtie probably parades around his house naked, fantasizing about leading an impeachment of another Clinton. Sorry to put that image in your mind but if you’ve read this far…

How about Michele Bachmann? Or, her hubby? Should I mention Cliven Bundy FOX’s infamous free-stuff-wanting welfare rancher and "let me tell you about the negro" guy?

How about Pat Robertson or another very popular Republican who doesn’t have much to do these days, or say, Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty wacko? That would be special!

Might Rudy Giuliani be home, sitting in front of his mirror, dreaming and waiting for the phone to ring? Megalomania is a terrible disease.

In thinking about Rudy, I am reminded that he, like most Republicans, thinks that Vlad Putin would be a much better president than President Obama. Judging by Rudy’s statements on FOX, he worships the guy, so would it surprise any shrink that Rudy might long to play bottom to Vlad’s top?

Kim Davis? Now there’s a Republican icon if there ever was one, and, she just registered with the party and even held hands with The Pope, regretful as he may now be.

Perhaps, a world class Washington dominatrix could whip the House Republicans into shape. Who’s been a very naught boy?

Somewhere, under some rock, is the next Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Lou Dobbs? Mullah Omar (who's reportedly under 6 feet of earth)? David Duke himself? Chuck Norris? Should we expect the second coming of Eric Cantor?

Damn. I wish Sam Kinison was still alive. He’d be perfect.



Maybe, they should all just bite the bullet and vote for Nancy Pelosi as a compromise candidate. She certainly has quite a bit of Republican in her, even if the current Republican party doesn’t recognize it. Oh wait. She doesn’t have a penis. Damn. Scratch that idea.

Unforeseen Consequences-- The Benghazi Committee, A Disaster For The GOP?

The ridiculous House Benghazi committee may not have derailed Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, but it may well have wrecked Chuck Schumer's plans to win with his patsy, Patrick Murphy, in Florida, and it may yet derail Kevin McCarthy's bid for the speakership. Rachel Maddow was ahead of everyone on the story about McCarthy's unfitness for office. But now that he blabbed the truth about the true purpose of the Benghazi committee, it looks like his "solid" bid to replace John Boehner as Speaker isn't quite so solid any longer. In fact, it may be unravelling, and not just because of opposition from the far right fringes of the Republican Party.

Daniel Webster, the Freedom Caucus candidate, is generally recognized as a kook and a dangerous extremist, even by his Republican colleagues. But between Republicans who want a definitive break from Team Boehner and Republicans who realize McCarthy is too incompetent to head the House, there is a degree of desperation to find the right candidate to save the party from McCarthy's banal, schmoozy hackishness.

The NYTimes' Jennifer Steinhauer summarized the problem as McCarthy --

facing challenges from his Republican colleagues on two fronts. Many were sharply critical of his suggestion this week that a congressional committee investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, was politically motivated, and there is deep skepticism among far-right lawmakers who helped unseat Mr. Boehner and wonder if Mr. McCarthy is different enough.

Enter Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). Could the first Jewish Speaker also be the first Mormon Speaker? (Chaffetz converted from Judaism to Mormonism during his last year of college.)

Chaffetz? How'd he get into this? Wasn't it only yesterday that he was first elected as a crazy teabagger sleeping on a plastic blow-up couch in his congressional office? Well, yes, but then he cozied up to Boehner's inner circle, and now he's one of the guys...with a pinch of teabaggery.

“There has been some level of apprehension by folks you talk to in the district,” said Representative Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, “of just automatically having everyone move up the ladder. They don’t know Kevin, but there is some perception that he is just more Boehner.”

... McCarthy has until late next week-- when he will face his Republican colleagues in a secret-ballot vote in which he needs majority support to become the party’s candidate for speaker-- to regain momentum.

But that is just the first step before a vote on the House floor later this month, when he would need a majority of lawmakers in the House, 218 votes, to get the gavel. No Democrats are expected to support Mr. McCarthy, so he will need a strong showing with his own colleagues; he cannot afford to lose more than 28 of their votes. (The other top leadership jobs require a majority only within the Republican Party.)

Many conservatives seemed to be looking for a reason last week to reject Mr. McCarthy, and in an odd twist, he handed them one when he went on Fox News and spoke about the Benghazi committee headed by Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina.

“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” Mr. McCarthy told the Fox News host Sean Hannity. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable.”

Many Republicans thought that 18 months of work by Mr. Gowdy, just before Mrs. Clinton comes to Capitol Hill, had been undermined in 30 seconds of loose talk.

“Mr. McCarthy should apologize,” Mr. Chaffetz said on MSNBC. “I think it was absolutely wrong.”

The remarks set off a scramble to find a new candidate for the speaker’s post.

“I am supporting Daniel Webster 100 percent,” said Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the most conservative members of the House. “What he is promising is to push the pyramid of power down to members, and that is a very attractive thing.”

Mr. Massie added that Mr. Chaffetz had once removed another highly conservative lawmaker from a subcommittee [Mark Meadows, a kook from North Carolina] in a dispute over a procedural move on a trade measure. “That is thuggery,” he said. “It is hard to run as a reformer having kicked someone off their committee.”

...The issue for Mr. McCarthy may be less the chance of a strong challenger than the fear some members have of voting for him as pressure from conservative groups increases. Already, the Tea Party Patriots organization has said in a statement: “By broadcasting that he will only fight when he thinks he can win, he’s openly admitting that he doesn’t have what it takes to win every fight. In other words, he will continue Boehner’s failed legacy.”

Webster is just a joke, and no one thought he had any chance to beat McCarthy. He's probably going to lose his Florida seat to Bob Poe next year, and he's widely considered deranged from years of being a member of Bill Gothard's crackpot cult. Chaffetz, who mustered Tea Party psychos to beat a GOP establishment figure, mainstream incumbent Chris Cannon, to first get into Congress, is another story entirely.

McCarthy is likely to win a majority in the GOP's behind-closed-doors conclave this week, but then he still has to win a majority of the entire Congress, including Democrats (who are unlikely to be voting for any Republicans), and that looks increasingly impossible for him, especially if the far right fringe sticks together, as Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) has said they plan to.

The irony of a Chaffetz win, of course, would be that his firing of Mark Meadows from the Oversight Committee at Boehner's behest (to teach Meadows a lesson for not bowing down to Boehner) was what kicked off this whole GOP congressional civil war to begin with, with neo-fascist lunatics like Ted Cruz, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin attacking Chaffetz as a Boehner lackey.

Taliban Dan Wants To Be Speaker (Of The U.S. House Of Representatives)

Right-wing crackpot Daniel Webster (R-FL) was the first member of the extremist Freedom Caucus to say he wants Boehner's Speaker's gavel. He'll be the far right's sacrificial lamb against current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Oddly enough, both men are in electorally vulnerable districts. McCarthy's district, CA-23 has been solidly Republican and still officially boasts an R+16 PVI. Romney beat Obama there 62-36%, Obama's worst performance the state. But don't be fooled; the district is changing demographically-- and rapidly. Nearly 36% of the population is now Hispanic, a numbering growing faster than any other demographic group in the district and 30.9% of the voters are Hispanic, also a number that is growing quickly. Over half the newly eligible voters in the district are Latino, Asian and immigrants. And, unlike McCarthy, 76% of the voters in CA-23 support Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The district starts in Los Angeles County's Antelope Valley and includes the northern and western parts of Lancaster, as well as Rosamond, Mojave, California City, Taft, Maricopa and most of Bakersfield. Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta is a resident and Democrats have begged her to run against McCarthy for years.

Webster is even even worse shape. When Florida's court's threw out the gerrymandered districts that gave Webster a congressional career, FL-10 (with a PVI of R+6 and which saw Romney beat Obama 54-46% became a lot bluer, a Democratic-leaning district that would be very hard for an extremist like Webster to win. (In 2012, up against a terrible candidate, DCCC-hack, DINO Val Demings, Webster scraped by 164,873 (52%) to 153,646 (48%). This year, were he to stay in FL-10, he would like have to face an actual Democrat, Bob Poe, who would in all likelihood wipe the floor with him. But it appears that Webster is moving north. Fellow crackpot Ron DeSantis (FL-06: from just south of Jacksonville, through St. Augustine, Daytona Beach nd nearly to Cape Canaveral and inland to Palatka) is giving up his nice red R+9 district in a futile attempt to win Marco Rubio's open Senate seat. The district includes John Mica's original base of support and Mica, whose district is also becoming less Republican, is going to jump into FL-06, leaving FL-07 (Deltona, Altamonte Springs, Winter Park, Maitland and Oviedo) to Webster. It isn't a safe Republican district but it is considerably safer than Webster's FL-10.

OK, that complicated situation, especially for Webster, leaves us to look at the last time Webster ran for Speaker, when he was the Tea Party candidate against Boehner on January 6 of this year. He came in 3rd. Boehner got 216 votes. Pelosi got 164 votes. And Webster got 12 votes-- Rod Blum (IA, likely to lose his seat to Pat Murphy next year), Scott Garrett (NJ), Pope Francis boycotter Paul Gosar (AZ), Koch puppet Tim Huelskamp (KS), Walter Jones (NC), racist Steve King (IA), Boehner-antagonist Mark Meadows (NC), Rich Nugent (FL), Bill Posey (FL), Scott Rigell (VA), Marlin Stutzman (IN) and... Webster himself. Other members of Ted Cruz's suicide caucus voted for Louie Gohmert, Ted Yoho, Jim Jordan, Jeff Duncan, Trey Gowdy and Kevin McCarthy (who got one vote, moderate Chris Gibson) and two senators, Rand Paul (compliments of yet another Florida nut-case, freshman Curt Clawson) and KKK Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. At the time, the over-excited Webster sent around a treatise he wrote-- which he sent around again yesterday, Widgets, Principles and Republicans, noting that he was the first Republican speaker of Florida's state House.

If a widget maker produced flawed widgets, the owners could choose to make significant alterations by offering additional colors, new packaging, and special pricing. They also could employ new marketing techniques like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Although well intentioned, none of these improvements will fix the flawed product. It is the process by which the widgets are made that is flawed.

If the process is flawed, the product will be flawed. The only way to improve the product is to fix the process.

By his own admission, the midterm election was a referendum on the President’s policies, and those policies received a strong rebuke. The American people have made their voices heard.

Does that mean that, by default, the Republicans are the answer? No; that verdict is still out.

Republican leaders from Washington and across the country have said that our GOP brand is tarnished and must be fixed. Low public approval of Congress speaks clearly of a flawed process.

The only way to improve the GOP brand and make good public policy is to fix the process.

Republicans now own the Congress and must change the way they lead. Not just a change in packaging and marketing, but a different process-- one that is focused on principle, not on power. We only have one opportunity to prove we can lead. Our opportunity is now.

A pyramid of power in a legislative body always works the same. A few people at the top of the pyramid make most of the decisions with the bulk of the members at the bottom-- unless needed. A legislative body that is founded on principle pushes down this pyramid of power and spreads out the base so every elected member becomes a player.

Power and principle cannot coexist.

Power focuses on self-preservation; principle focuses on making ideas successful. Power tends to protect itself merely to maintain its own status and control. Principle gives up power for the sake of the highest good and to create the best public policy.

Power demands to be heard; principle earns the right to be heard. Power focuses on rights; principles focus on responsibility.

One of the most significant contrasts between power and principle is how it treats policy. Power tends to view an idea based on the position, loyalty, rank, or seniority of the sponsor. Principle focuses solely on the merits of the idea itself.

The Republicans have a choice. This is it. This is our moment. We only have one opportunity to make a first impression.

Flawed widgets or solid principles; which will it be?

Taliban Dan, who thinks he's fit to be Speaker, home-schooled his 6 kids using the widely discredited Bill Gothard curriculum. The poor kids are grown up now and all unemployable & working in his air-conditioning repair shop. Webster on Gothard's demented teachings: "They are the basis for everything I do today." In the video below he brags about using Gothard's sick, corrupted rants in the political life of his district:



Webster ally and co-founder of the Liberty Caucus, Tim Huelskamp, rattled the right-wing sabers that his caucus, which had just tasted blood, can prevent anyone from being elected Speaker. He says, the Freedom Caucus will vote as a bloc and there are probably 40 radicals who will apply a litmus test for right-wing extremism. There is little doubt that had Pelosi cleaned house at the failed, incompetent and dysfunctional DCCC after their last two stupendous catastrophic cycles, the Democrats would be figuring out how big their 2017 majority would be. But she did't and they aren't. They are practically being handed back the majority of the House but Steve Israel and his bitterly anti-progressive allies would rather see Republicans back in control than see more progressives elected to the House. These are progressives running for House seats who the DCCC is either ignoring or sabotaging; think about thwarting Steve Israel and helping these Democrats win and helping make Nancy Pelosi speaker again. (Remember how good she was and how well the House functioned back when she was?)

Boehner Makes Another Move Against His Republican Tormentors As Gerrymandered GOP Congressional Maps In Florida And Virginia Face Court-Mandated Redistricting

As we saw last month, Boehner is working, albeit covertly, with the Chamber of Commerce to rid his caucus of "uncooperative" Republicans-- libertarians like Amash and extremists like Cantor-killer Dave Brat. They want to send a message to the members of the Freedom Caucus that their careers are in jeopardy if they don't fall in line behind the GOP Establishment. This week, Jack Fitzpatrick, writing for the National Journal, pointed out that it might not be a mere coincidence that Boehner's Republican enemies are the ones most likely to lose their seats when court-mandated redrawing of gerrymandered districts goes into effect.

Three Republicans most likely to be drawn out of safe districts before the 2016 election are Boehner enemies Daniel Webster (R-FL), Dave Brat (R-VA) and Mark Meadows (R-NC).

Florida's and Virginia's legislatures are in special sessions to redraw their maps after court decisions, and the Florida lawmakers have specific instructions not to take politics into consideration. Meanwhile, the North Carolina Supreme Court is still preparing to hear arguments in a gerrymandering lawsuit. But already, there have been enough signs to scare anti-establishment conservatives.

In Florida's new draft congressional map, Webster's district absorbs thousands of Democratic voters and turns into a majority-minority seat; Webster, who ran for speaker against Boehner in 2015, told legislators that the new district would be "impossible to win." Many Republicans in Virginia would like to do the same to Brat's district as they prepare a court-ordered redistricting little more than a year after Brat defeated ex-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary. (Brat also voted against Boehner for speaker this winter.) And in North Carolina, the GOP congressional delegation is packed with members who have experience and connections in the state legislature that may redraw their map-- advantages that Meadows, who recently filed a motion to remove Boehner from power, does not have.

"These conservative members should definitely assume that they are enemy No. 1 on the list," said Daniel Horowitz, senior editor of the Conservative Review. "If you're going to redraw the maps, who's going to be your first priority? … If the establishment could kill two birds with one stone-- comply with the courts and pick off a conservative-- they would absolutely take that opportunity."

...In Virginia, a court directed lawmakers to shift African-American voters out of Rep. Bobby Scott's heavily Democratic district, leaving the neighboring Brat as an appealing target.

"If they could take it out on Brat, they could," said Quentin Kidd, director for Christopher Newport University's center for public policy. Kidd cited "a deep-seated frustration that Brat knocked off Cantor." Plus, he added, Brat has no high-profile defenders in the state legislature.

Ironically, Brat's saving grace could end up being Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who can sign or veto whatever plan the legislature approves. Pushing extra Democrats from Scott's district into Brat's would be the least-beneficial option for Democrats, Kidd said. Rather, Democrats see an opportunity to push potential swing seats belonging to Reps. Scott Rigell and Randy Forbes in their direction.

Rigell and Forbes are Boehner allies, and the Republican Establishment will do whatever it can to shore up their gerrymandered districts-- and if they can rid Congress of Brat, so much the better, even if it means one less Republican and one more Democrat in the House.

This is the map the Florida House came up with

Yesterday the Florida House voted 76-35 for a new map of the state’s congressional districts, one that would end the political career of extremist imbecile Daniel Webster and push right-wing Blue Dog Gwen Graham into the 2018 gubernatorial race (where she'll likely face Marco Rubio). The other incumbents most likely to lose their seats are Carlos Curbelo, David Jolly (who's trying to run for the Senate to avoid that fate) and John Mica, all Republicans. (Mica will probably face Bill Phillips, the toughest opponent who's taken him on in his long, long career, a horrible prospect for Mica in a district that doesn't include his strongholds in Volusia County.) 

The House map isn't the same as the map the Florida Senate came up with. The two GOP-controlled chambers have until Friday to reach an agreement. Or else...

Or else what? The best idea would be what just happened in Virginia. The partisan hacks in the legislature couldn't work it out and a panel of federal judges is going to draw up nonpartisan district lines-- regardless of whose toes get stepped on. I hope the judges upset the careers of every member of the state's congressional delegation so that they have to go to the voters and account for themselves and ask for the cushy job back.

A public hearing on redistricting ended abruptly Monday when the House Privileges and Elections Committee chairman, Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, refused to take further testimony after announcing that the Senate had adjourned the special legislative session hours after it began.

Cole interrupted Diana Egozcue, president of Virginia NOW and the sixth of 19 scheduled speakers, with the announcement, “We’re no longer in session, so we can no longer take your testimony.”

House Republican leaders appeared shell-shocked by the Senate maneuver, which ensures the General Assembly will not meet a Sept. 1 deadline imposed by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to fix unconstitutional defects in the redistricting plan that then-Gov. Bob McDonnell signed in January 2012.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe issued a statement that explicitly kicked the issue back to the courts and declared, “The opportunity for a legislative remedy has ended.”

McAuliffe said he was going to send a letter to the courts. “They need to get this redistricting done,” he said in a meeting with reporters outside the Executive Mansion.

So, the court will assume the task of drawing new districts to reduce what it found to be unconstitutional gerrymandering to pack black voters into the 3rd Congressional District and reduce their influence in other districts.

...Advocates for nonpartisan, independent redistricting said the dramatic breakdown proves their point.

“This is emblematic of what’s wrong with the system,” said Dale Eisman, senior researcher at Common Cause.

“They run the process as a closed shop,” Eisman said.

Anna Scholl, executive director of ProgressVA, called it “particularly egregious that they called off the hearing and sent everyone home.”

“It doesn’t say much for the process or public input to pull the plug,” Scholl said. “They are treating this as a political game of one-upping each other and not as a transparent process that respects the voters.”

...The Republican plan was to make the least number of changes necessary to make the 3rd District comply with the court’s order to find a solution that did not pack minority voters into one district to dilute their influence in others.

The criteria the joint committee adopted would have left decisions on redistricting to the General Assembly as “elected representatives of the people,” which advocates said is the problem with the system now.

“The process of redistricting shouldn’t be about getting or keeping power for one political part or the other,” said Geneva Perry, a Williamsburg resident in the 1st District, which could be affected by changes in the 3rd District, which extends from Richmond to Norfolk.

Like we said above, Boehner was covertly intervening in the process to make sure lots of Democratic voters (African Americans) from VA-03 (Bobby Scott's district) were moved into his nemesis Dave Brat's district (VA-07) and kept out of VA-02 and VA-04, represented, respectively, by Boehner allies Scott Rigell and Randy Forbes. Boehner is already celebrating the almost certain departure from Congress of Daniel Webster from FL-10. Here's a chunk of Virgina most effected by the court ruling:

Is Florida Really The Most Corrupt State In America?

The superficial, court-ordered redistricting in Florida only scratches the surface of the prevalent culture of political corruption that permeates the state's two political parties. The judgment does not attempt to deals ith anything but two tiny and blatant cases of grotesque gerrymandering-- and that was all the state legislature dealt with. Even if the new plan goes into effect in 2016, Florida will still be one of the most unfairly gerrymandered states in the Union-- despite the overwhelming passage of a citizens' initiative to put an end to the practice. But even the tiny ameliorative effort agreed to by the legislature is being challenged by corrupt Republican political hack Daniel "Taliban Dan" Webster.

Webster is busy raising money for a court challenge. No one has contributed yet, but Taliban Dan has filed the Daniel Webster Legal Expense Trust with the House Ethics Committee and plans to use it to solicit money from crooked lobbyists and other special interests who have already maxed out to his reelection campaign. Webster, a crackpot religious fanatic and follower of cult leader and child rapist Bill Gothard, has managed to amass one of the most reactionary/anti-family voting records of any Member of Congress. Webster on Gothard's demented teachings: "They are the basis for everything I do today." He brags about using Gothard's sick, corrupted rants in the political life of his central Florida district:



Webster, like many Florida Republican legislators, has been violently anti-LGBT throughout his miserable career. On February 28, 2013, for example, he voted for the failed amendment to strip protections for American Indians, immigrants, and members of the LGBT community from an anti-domestic violence bill. It failed because 60 Republicans joined the Democrats to defeat it, 257-166, including conservative Floridians Ted Yoho, Ron DeSantis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Trey Radel. Two years earlier he had worked frantically to prevent gay men and women volunteers from serving in the military and has voted against every attempt to allow members of the LGBT community to get married. He's a sick cookie-- and he isn't evolving, not even at the snail's pace other Florida Republicans are finally adopting. Just yesterday, the Miami Herald in covering the GOP primary debate for FL-26, pointed out that Republican candidates are not taking the kinds of vicious anti-LGBT stands that Old Testament authoritarians like Webster are clinging to. In fact, other GOP candidates have also been lightening up a bit on Global Warming, another agenda item that finds Taliban Dan off muttering to himself and to a shrinking band of fringe lunatics in crazy-land.

Questions on sea-level rise, immigration and gay marriage revealed divisions among the four contenders who taped Facing South Florida, which will air Sunday on Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS 4. A fifth candidate, ex-Congressman David Rivera, declined to attend.

By the end of the taping, Carlos Curbelo, Ed MacDougall, Joe Martinez and Lorenzo Palomares-Starbuck had agreed on plenty. But there was dissent in the very first question from investigative reporter Jim DeFede, who asked if all the candidates vying to represent Westchester to Key West would concur that-- whatever the cause-- seas are rising.

Yes, said the candidates-- except for one.

“I’m not exactly sure,” said Martinez, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner. “I’m not a scientist, Jim.”

…On gay marriage, it was again Martinez who differed with his three rivals. MacDougall, Curbelo and Palomares-Starbuck said they support making marriages among same-sex couples legal.

“It’s the right thing to do,” MacDougall said.

Martinez, however, said the question should be left up to states-- and if Florida voters were asked to repeal the state’s gay-marriage ban, he would vote no, Martinez added after the show’s taping. He does support civil unions and benefits for same-sex partners, he said.

A federal judge in Tallahassee ruled Thursday that Florida’s gay-marriage ban is unconstitutional, though he stayed his own order pending appeals.

Reform-minded citizens in every state like to brag that their state is the most corrupt: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois, Texas, New York, California, all have good cases that can be made on their behalf. But some say that Florida already has it sewn up. We're talking about a state that elected the most overtly corrupt governor in modern history after he had plead the Fifth Amendment 75 times and was then fined $1.7 Billion for running the biggest Medicare fraud scheme in history. This guy:



But Rick Scott isn't the root of Florida's endless epidemic of political corruption. One of the worst symptoms is the toxic role Big Sugar plays-- not just with slimy Republicans like Scott, but with just as slimy Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democrats' go-to shill for the Fanjul sugar empire. This week Eye On Miami singled out Florida Republicans for their shocking corruption in relation to Big Sugar.

The excellent investigative report by the Tampa Bay Times, exposing links between Florida's top GOP politicians-- including Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislative leadership-- Big Sugar and high cost, free hunting trips to the King Ranch in Texas show the extent to which the party of the "free market" freely undermines the ideals of its base: sugar is one of the most heavily protected industrial crops in America, enjoying vast subsidies including illegal (according to the Florida Constitution) subsidies for the costs of Everglades cleanup.

Sugar's true cost to taxpayers, and the context of U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystal's flagrant entertainments of elected officials, isn't the Everglades and measures to shift cleanup costs to taxpayers-- it is public health and strategies to prevent Big Sugar from becoming the next Big Tobacco.

"Drastic Measures," in the Financial Times (April 25, 2014): notes the reach of Big Sugar, but also details a dramatic shift in health care priorities that is putting the first significant, coordinated pressure on sugar consumption. Earlier this year the World Health Organization reduced the recommended daily sugar intake by half, to the equivalent of six teaspoons of sugar a day.

"The amount of scientific research linking sugar intake with obesity has increased. And governments are waking up to the rising costs of illnesses such as diabetes and cancer that have increased alongside obesity. "The discussion of sugar linked to dietary concerns has been has been gathering momentum," says Stefano Natella of Credit Suisse. "The related global healthcare costs are at an all-time high--the bill is $500 billion or over 10 percent of global healthcare spending-- as are obesity and diabetes levels."

While Republican members of Congress ranted and raved about the costs of the Affordable Health Care Act, none also complained about the toll on consumers' health through excess consumption of sugar.

Democrats have also been loathe to tie the costs of Big Sugar to the domestic health care emergency, because of the enormous impact of campaign contributions to members of Congress and state legislatures where sugar is grown. When Michele Obama tried to move her popular "Get Moving" campaign towards the sugar problem, she was warned off by White House policy makers.

It is not just Florida, but Florida is the state where the lockdown by Big Sugar of the Florida legislature and Governor's Office is a given. The entire governmental investment for Everglades restoration, spending billions and hundreds of thousands of man hours in the multi-decadal effort, is a work-around of Big Sugar.

Cynical industry manipulation of public processes, with billionaires at their joysticks -- is crippling government agencies and forced Congress through the Farm Bill and state legislatures through lax regulations to keep intact taxpayer backed programs that form the backbone of protectionist trade policies.

So why haven't environmentalists decried Big Sugar as the same kind of destroyer as Big Tobacco? It's time.

"Sugar has become the new tobacco," says Simon Capewell, professor of clinical epidemiology at Liverpool University, one of the founders of Action on Sugar, a UK campaign group formed in January. "Everywhere, sugary drinks and junk foods are pressed on unsuspecting parents and children by a cynical industry focused on profit not health."

A secondary impact for bribe-hungry conservatives is that sugar rots the brains of people who over-use it, which explains why non-millionaires vote for Republicans and for deceitful politicians from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Florida Democrats Beware: Val Demings Is Your Queen of Hearts

Last we ran into Steve Israel-Debbie Wasserman Schultz creation Val Demings, she had just lost a congressional race against weak Republican incumbent Daniel Webster in a much touted race. Although the DCCC and its allies made sure she had far more money than Webster, he beat her 52-48%, even beating her in Orange County. She spent $1,932,580 to Webster's $1,498,872 but outside big money groups spent another $4.6 million on her behalf (against $1.2 million GOP groups spent on Webster). She lost anyway, a weak, inauthentic, incoherent candidate with no ability to come up with a compelling or cohesive message. Just another cog in the failed Steve Israel cycle that petered out even while the DSCC was winning Senate seats everywhere and while President Obama was racking up another outstanding win against Republicans. Israel's weak recruits, like Deming, lost all over the country. And now he and Wasserman Schultz want another go at it-- and, yes, with Demings again!

As most Floridians know, especially those in the I-4 corridor who were merely weeks away from defeating a crooked Republican mayor and vesting Orange County as the crown jewel of progressive politics in Florida, the once hopeful Orange County mayoral campaign has been dashed to pieces. Left holding the empty bag and Democratic broken hearts, hundreds of thousands of middle class families will go unrepresented in the 2014 county mayoral campaign because of one person: yes, that same Val Demings. And don’t be fooled, her failures and legally questionable actions extend beyond the county mayor’s race and will not be forgotten anytime soon.

When Val dropped out of the race this past May, she abruptly abandoned the dream so effortlessly laid out for her by years of incumbent Republican scandals, controversies, and sunshine law violations surrounding current, and now almost assuredly future, Republican Orange County mayor Teresa Jacobs.

Let’s think for a minute about what that means for the heart of the I-4 corridor, arguably the epicenter of a swinging pendulum whose quick deviances in any given direction have statewide and national consequences-- the epicenter that for the past couple years has been swinging more left as progressives have come together, built an infrastructure and steadily made gains.

First of all, Teresa Jacobs is a lock-step Republican who would like nothing more than to see another 4 years of tyranny under Governor Rick Scott, who you may remember from such roles as former, corrupt CEO who committed the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history, or current Republican extremist governor who rejects billions in federal funding for public transit, cuts $1.3 billion from public schools, and leaves millions of middle class families in the medicaid gap uninsured, underpaid, and well, underwhelmed. When Val Demings abandoned the county mayor’s race she not only chose the inconvenient timing of doing so after the petition qualifying deadline ended (leaving no room for a replacement challenger to Jacobs), but also immediately greenlighted a half a million dollars to Republican Mayor Teresa Jacobs’ pro-Rick Scott campaign in the heart of the I-4 corridor. That’s one giant pendulum thrust to the right, folks.

Now that the Teresa Jacobs reelection campaign coffers have been so wonderfully freed up by the lack of an opponent, she has an unencumbered $500,000 campaign chest to use for the reelection of Rick Scott (you might also remember him from such roles as cutting 3% from every teacher, firefighter and public employees’ take home pay, and signing the statewide preemption of Earned Sick Time for working middle class Floridians before jetting off to France). Some say if tilt your ear toward the wind you can almost hear the hundreds of thousands of dollars shoveled like coal into the fires of Rick Scott’s reelection machine.

Orlando has one of most vibrant progressive movements in the state and in one fell swoop “Quitter” Val Demings turned that pendulum into a right-wing wrecking ball that turned years of Democratic gains to crumbles. Republicans are the 3rd registered party in the county behind Democrats (#1) and NPA/Other (#2), Democrats outperformed Republicans in absentee votes in 2012, an advantage once exclusively held by the GOP,  and Democrats in central Florida held the line in 2012 for a statewide win for Obama., 274,227 (59%) to 189,057 (40%). Bill Nelson did even better in Orange County that day, beating Connie Mack 282,638 (63%) to 153,669 (35%).

That has all been in vain as Val Demings handed over a huge win to the Republican party by flippantly dropping out of the race with no regard to the consequences for middle class Floridians and the progressive movement activists have fought so hard to build in the I-4 corridor. Cue the Teresa Jacobs/Rick Scott campaign ad about "protecting seniors" and "funding public education." It’s amazing what an extra half a million dollars can do for a governor’s race these days.

For the better part of this year, progressives laid in wait with baited breath for when the leader Val Demings would rise out of the smolder with a clear vision, a path to victory, fire in her belly and the taste of Republican defeat in her mouth. Little did we know, that "coming soon" campaign platform would never come. Point blank, Val Demings ran a weak, aimless campaign because she had no clear message, no clear vision, and no fight. Vanity and the cult of personality replaced campaign rhetoric on the trail as Florida Democrats sat in stiff chairs at stiff events wondering when the self promotional elevator speech would end and the real campaigning would begin.

One glaring reason for the lack of a strong platform and commitment in Val’s campaign was that from day one she was over-consulted by out-of touch, out of state operators and Beltway insiders-- who don't know the first thing about Orange County.

Those Beltway (and Weston) insiders are now trying to tell Central Florida that Val should be their next congresswoman despite the fact that their choice abruptly abandoned the race, the people, the Democratic party and maybe the most politically damaging of all, her donors. Val Demings raised over $240,000 from local Democrats and then made it disappear. Perhaps it is lining the pockets of those very insiders, perhaps it has all been spent, or maybe the campaign cash has been stuffed under a mattress as a rainy day fund for the next race. The fact of the matter is that Val Demings hasn’t given any real explanation or clear answer on how much money remains in her campaign account, besides a text to an Orlando Sentinel reporter that she is, “not sure what the final number looks like yet,” and "I am still paying bills and conducting research to make sure the funds go where there is a significant and immediate need." What we have heard however, from several institutional donors, is that some of the money has been returned, while other requests from donors have been ignored. Cherry-picking who to return campaign donations to is legally questionable at best, and Demings is currently operating outside of the transparency of public records and possibly finance laws. Let’s not forget her hypocrisy in refusing to address where and how much campaign money she still has and what she intends to do with it, when she herself tried to attack Teresa Jacobs for returning questionable donations from her own campaign.

Val Demings has an unknown amount of money hidden somewhere and now she’s campaign shopping again; on your dime, central Florida donors. The question, or rather the implied, “this is a very, very bad, potentially illegal idea” is whether or not she is trying to move those campaign funds over to a Congressional race in the light of the recent court ruling that invalidates Congressional Districts 5 and 10.

Demings has long pined for a Congressional seat, running and losing in 2012 against incumbent Dan Webster. She toyed with the idea early on in 2014 as she made national self promotional tours to an audience arguably larger than one for a local county mayor’s race. What has been circulating very recently, as recently as the congressional map ruling, is that her former (and possibly current) finance director is holed away somewhere making calls to certain donors, keeping certain piles of cash in escrow. What central Florida voters and donors, and I’m sure an ethics board, would like to know is who is funding this shadowy semblance of a congressional campaign in the making? Donors should be wary about someone who might get hit with an ethics violation for a supposed "staffer" illegally shoring up for a congressional campaign using money not intended for one.

There has also been notable speculation that Demings is holding out to be Charlie Crist’s Lieutenant Governor pick. Is it the LG position that Val wants or a Congressional seat, and can middle class families afford to wait until she makes a decision? For all we know she's sitting back waiting for the best offer, much like she laid in limbo during her mayoral campaign waiting for a better deal while Central Florida progressives were led down a dark hole. [Update: yesterday, Charlie Crist, no fool, put the kibosh on the Demings speculation and decided on progressive Annette Taddeo as his running mate. Smart move-- but that makes it even more likely that Demings will give a half-assed try to win the FL-10 congressional seat again and waste everyone's time and money.] One thing we have all learned, is that Val Demings has a price and will leave progressives and Florida’s middle class in the dust for the shiniest penny dangled in front of her-- most likely the one in which she can stare at her own reflection. She is not committed to the job at hand, much like she wasn’t committed to the county mayor’s race. Val Demings just wants to see Val Demings elected, with no real commitment to doing the job for the people who need a voice in Orange County... err, State of Florida... err, Congress. (See what I mean?)

Progressives are devastated and angry at Demings for abandoning her post as the progressive guardian of the crown jewel that is central Florida. The heart of the I-4 corridor has been ripped out, there are a lot of tears in Orange County that will come back to haunt her no matter which race she enters. Demings is the Queen of Hearts who doesn’t care if central Florida, and the future of the Democratic Party, disappears down a rabbit hole.

Judge Throws Out Unconstitutional Florida Republican Gerrymandering Of Congressional Districts

There was a virtual earthquake in Florida politics Thursday when Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis threw out Florida's congressional map. The grubby Florida legislature has a long and sordid history of gerrymandering the state to create congressional districts for themselves and their allies and this has featured collusion from both parties, so not just slime-ball former Republican legislators like Ander Crenshaw, Daniel Webster, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Adam Putnam and Lincoln Diaz-Balart who created congressional districts for themselves but equally sleazy and corrupt Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In fact, Wasserman Schultz, was so eager to create an all-Jewish district she felt she would be safe in forever that she was key in approving a shocking gerrymander that gave the Republicans far more seats than their numbers would have ever predicted. The 112th Congress had 19 Republicans and just 6 Democrats. Today, a slightly less gerrymandered map gives the 113th Congress 17 Republicans and 10 Democrats. The current party registration for Florida is:

• Democrats- 4,781,978 (40.1%)
• Republicans- 4,245,991 (35.6%)
• Independents and others- 2,906,477 (24.4%)

The simplest and most straight-forward model based on those numbers would predict 14 Democrats and 13 Republicans-- not 17 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

Florida voters, sickened by their gross careerist political opportunists on both sides of the aisle passed the Fair District amendments in 2010, Amendment 5 for the legislature and Amendment 6 for Congress. This was the ballot summary for Amendment 6: "Congressional districts or districting plans may not be drawn to favor or disfavor an incumbent or political party. Districts shall not be drawn to deny racial or language minorities the equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect representatives of their choice. Districts must be contiguous. Unless otherwise required, districts must be compact, as equal in population as feasible, and where feasible must make use of existing city, county and geographical boundaries." And the first argument in favor was that it would "prevent incumbents from redrawing district lines to insure their seat is safe." It passed with an overwhelming 62.9% of votes cast-- a landslide. But career politicians challenged it in court-- and lost.

You can read Judge Lewis' entire ruling here. The case decided Thursday was brought by the League of Women Voters, the principle sponsor of the Fair District amendments and it is likely to be appealed by the career politicians again-- who will use taxpayer money for a long and expensive battle-- and will make it to the Florida Supreme Court, if not the U.S. Supreme Court. He found that putting downtown Orlando into Webster’s district violated compactness and extending Corrine Brown's district from Jacksonville to Orlando also violates compactness and that's a real problem for Republicans. If the current decision stands, then 100,000 African-American voters west of downtown Orlando could drop drop into either Webster’s district or Mica’s district or Grayson's district. 100,000 African-American voters in either Mica's district or Webster's district would be the end of the line for those two and the end of any shot of the Republicans ever winning back those districts. If they put those voters into Grayson's district, Mica, Webster or Posey are going to wind up with a lot of Puerto Rican voters from FL-09 are are traditional Democratic voters. It would force Mica and Webster into retirement and would make Posey's district a swing district that a talented Democrat could win from him.

Lewis rejected challenges to districts in South Florida and Tampa Bay, but said that District 5, held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, and District 10, held by Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Webster of Winter Park "will need to be redrawn, as will any other districts affected thereby."

The judge agreed with the coalition's prime argument: that Republican legislators and staffers collaborated with political consultants to create "a shadow redistricting process" that protected incumbents and the GOP.

…The 13-day trial lifted the veil on the once-a-decade process of redrawing political boundaries and was rife with political intrigue that involved numerous side lawsuits, a closed hearing to keep the testimony of GOP consultant Pat Bainter off the public record, and closing briefs filled with redacted references to Bainter's documents… Lewis said political consultants "made a mockery of the Legislature's transparent and open process of redistricting" while "going to great lengths to conceal from the public their plan and their participation in it."

"They were successful in their efforts to influence the redistricting process and the congressional plan under review here," he wrote. "And they might have successfully concealed their scheme and their actions from the public had it not been for the Plaintiffs' determined efforts to uncover it in this case."

He concluded that the circumstantial evidence proved that the political operatives "managed to find other avenues… to infiltrate and influence the Legislature."

Lewis drew no conclusions that House Speaker Will Weatherford, former House Speaker Dean Cannon and Senate President Don Gaetz were aware of the scheme, but he raised doubts that they were not in some way complicit. The judge detailed the involvement of Cannon's aide, Kirk Pepper, and repeated evidence that came out at trial about Pepper forwarding draft maps to GOP operative Marc Reichelderfer.

Lewis also noted that legislative leaders and the political operatives destroyed almost all of their emails and other documents related to redistricting and concluded that the circumstantial evidence surrounding all of those developments, and the evidence that the consultants attempted to influence the same districts he has found problematic, proved the GOP operatives were trying to influence the process.

It still isn't clear if the districts will have to be redrawn in time for the elections in November-- although no one I've talked to in Florida thinks that's a realistic outcome. Remember, Corrine Brown's 5th district has a D+21 PVI and snakes through the northern and central part of the state gobbling up Democratic voters to make FL-06 (Ron DeSantis- R+9), FL-07 (John Mica- R+4) , FL-10 (Daniel Webster- R+6) and FL-11 (Richard Nugent- R+11) all safer for Republicans by making their districts much whiter and more reactionary. Webster, who only managed to survive by the skin of his teeth in 2012-- 164,873 (52%) to 153,646 (48%) against a very weak Democratic opponent, Val Demings-- only managed a 50/50 tie in massive Orange County which will be the core of the new district and which will make FL-10 an easier target for Democrats without Lake County, Webster's bastion. If the Democrats run popular former state legislator Scott Randolph, Webster might as well retire. Randolph was reelected to his Orange County-based seat with 73% and 60%.

Taliban Dan is losing his unfairly drawn safe red seat