If Arizona Wins The Craziest State Award This Week, Is Florida A Big Stinky Number Two?

GOP split likely to turn FL-12 blue

One of the several significant upsides to Charlie Crist's bailing on the teabagger-dominated Republican primary is that it's going to devastate Florida Republicans in down-ticket races.

One unintended consequence of Crist’s decision is the impact not having Crist and Rubio driving turnout in the Primary will have on down-ballot races, including partisan races, such as state legislative primaries and county commission races, and on non-partisan races where party affiliation may not be listed, but still remains a factor.

Take a look at some of the races in Tampa Bay, now that we know Crist and Rubio won’t be pumping tens of millions in Get-Out-The-Vote operations in July and August, that will have enormous impact in the GOP primaries for Florida State House Districts 45, 47, 57 and 60 and Florida Senate District 10 and 12.

Weren’t moderate Republican candidates like Kathryn Starkey (H-45) and Irene Guy (H-47) looking for Crist to turn out the support of moderate Republicans?

Wasn’t Paul Phillps (S-10) looking for a surge from conservative voters over “liberal” Rhonda Storms?
Regardless of who would have won, there is no doubt having Crist and Rubio on the ballot would have increased turnout.  How they would have impacted turnout is still debatable; not having Crist on the ballot in August takes away a major reason for moderate Republicans to head to the polls, just as not having Rubio on the ballot takes millions of dollars out of the GOTV plan to turn out the most conservative voters.

The real impact of not having Crist and Rubio on the ballot in August (and now having at least a nominal Democratic primary for the US Senate) will be felt in the non-partisan school board and judicial races that will be decided.

Although it wasn't Ted Nugent Ginny Brown-Waite endorsed yesterday, she did wait for the very last second to announce that she wouldn't be running for re-election. It has, after all, been all down hill for the poor imbecile ever since Congress rejected her brilliant idea of getting even with France for not invading Iraq by digging up the bodies of all the American servicemen and women who died in France during World War I and II and shipping them back to America. When she prematurely announced she was going to retire a couple months ago, the Florida GOP shut her up so they could position Richard Nugent as the only candidate in the race. It's an old trick both parties-- especially in uber-corrupt states like Florida-- use to undermine any semblance of democracy. With only an hour to file, no one-- from either party (although there's a good Democratic candidate, Jim Piccillo, already running)-- but the selected GOP candidate could get into the race. That's how Florida got stuck with Kendrick Meek as a congressman, except it was he and his congresswoman mother who pulled the stunt. It's a really repulsive tactic, one that would come naturally to Republicans but should be eschewed by Democrats.

But that was hardly the only surprise as the state's close of filing came and went yesterday. In fact, the other news, is... GREAT news. No surprise on the Democratic side, which pits a reactionary Blue Dog, Lori Edwards, backed by the Inside-the-Beltway lobbyists and Sugar Lobby crook and DCCC power-monger Debbie Wasserman Schultz, against the grassroots progressive, Doug Tudor. (Please contribute what you can to Doug's campaign.) The interesting news comes on the Republican side.

Polk County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson made it a three-party race Friday for the U.S. House of Representatives District 12 seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow.


Wilkinson, elected to the commission as a Republican, is running for Congress as a member of the Tea Party. On his campaign documents, the Bartow resident said he is a member of that party and not a registered member of any other party.

He had been assumed to be running in the Republican primary against shady corporate shyster and former State Representative Dennis Ross and another fringe right sociopath, John W. Lindsey Jr. By running as a Tea Party candidate, he almost surely guarantees that Doug Tudor will win the general election. I called Doug yesterday and he felt the same way I did about it. He told us, in pretty excited terms, that he couldn't have hoped for a better Filing Day outcome:

“With today’s federal filing deadline, the field is set in Florida’s 12th Congressional district. It is one progressive-- me-- running against four conservatives. Randy Wilkinson’s surprise filing as a TEA Party candidate ensuring a three-way general election, TeamTudor has never had a more clear path to victory in November. We know we can beat Blue Dog Lori Edwards, due to our superior grassroots and activist organization. Once Randy splits the radical right vote with big-insurance lawyer Dennis Ross in November, we will elect a Progressive and representative democracy will be returned to FL-12.”

FL-12 now moves up the rank to one of the best opportunities for a red seat turning blue. Again, please help make sure it's actually BLUE by helping Doug win his primary against a corporately-owned Blue Dog who has the same positions as the Republicans... though just on the important things. You can contribute to Doug's campaign here at the Blue America '10 page. And, in fact, every person who donates at least $25 in the next 24 hours will have his or her name put into a hat, from which one winner will be drawn. Winner? Winner? What's the prize? Ah... glad you asked. Remember, before I became a blogger I was the president of Reprise Records and one of our awesomest artists was Neil Young. The "winner" gets a rare, numbered VERY limited edition full color Neil Young print that has never been offered for sale. If you know a Neil Young fan, this is the ultimate gift.

Jim DeMint's Lonely Battle Against Unemployment Insurance And His Crusade To Further Shrink The GOP Pup Tent

If anyone still doubts the teeny weeny Republican pup tent is now basically housing a mental ward for the criminally insane, you're not paying attention. Yesterday the teabaggers' chief spokesman in the U.S. Senate, radical right South Carolina secessionist Jim DeMint, made a spectacle out of himself twice-- before sundown. At noon Harry Reid decided it was time to shut down the mean-spirited Republican filibuster of H.R. 3548, the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act. Embarrassed by their own efforts to screw thousands of American workers left without a means to support themselves and feed their families, every single Republican but one bucked and voted for cloture. Even the worst hard core obstructionists who oppose everything-- like Vitter, Burr, Coburn, Inhofe and Sessions-- couldn't justify this outrageous, destructive behavior. Yes, and the one vote to oppose extending unemployment insurance belonged to Jim DeMint, who own state is one of the hardest hit by unemployment of any in the country.

He then rushed from the Senate floor to announce to California Republican voters-- in time to mess up the news cycle of failed corporate hack Carly Fiorina as she announced her bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate-- that he had found a teabagger to support. Recall that it was DeMint who first started the right-wing derailment of Charlie Crist's placid march to the Senate several months ago, when he endorsed a little known right-wing extremist, Marco Rubio. DeMint was also one of the Republicans to destroy the GOP's chance to hold onto the NY-23 House seat by driving the popular Republican candidate out of the race and getting behind a hapless, clueless extremist from another district who lost a seat that the GOP had held onto since before John McCain was riding his burro around his native Panama.

But just when DeMint goes into out-of-control mode, his teabagger colleagues are threatening to burn down the whole Republican Establishment if they don't get their way-- one popular teabagger site declared NY-23 "a huge victory for the conservative base... I made it very clear from the very beginning that the goal all along was not to see Hoffman win, but see Scozzafava lose." So how does the besieged GOP Establishment react? They're all hiding under their beds shivering with fear.

With Republicans grappling with the fallout of an intra-party battle that may have cost them a House seat, the head of the Senate Republican campaign effort is making a pledge that may ease some of the anger being directed at the party establishment.

"We will not spend money in a contested primary," Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the NRSC, told ABC News in a telephone interview today.

There's no incentive for us to weigh in," said Cornyn (R-TX). "We have to look at our resources... We're not going to throw money into a [primary] race leading up to the election."

Cornyn said his pledge extends to races for open Senate seats-- not incumbents who may face primaries next year. The NRSC so far has endorsed candidates in 4 open Senate seats-- Florida, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Cornyn's commitment is most immediately relevant in Florida, where the NRSC's candidate, Gov. Charlie Crist, is facing an aggressive challenge on his right..."

So just as the Club For Growth is contemplating endorsing Rubio, the NRSC, which lured Crist into the race with promises of total support, is abandoning him, further damaging his already crashing chances to win the nomination and hold the seat for the Republicans.

And speaking of Florida, Ginny Brown-Waite is generally considered a far right loon and a crackpot on a level with Virginia Foxx, Mean Jean Schmidt, Patrick McHenry and Michele Bachmann. She even broke with the Florida Republican Party and endorsed extremist Mario Rubio against Gov. Charlie Crist. So you'd think the teabaggers would love her, right? Wrong. She endorsed Dede Scozzafava too and that is the new standard for purism apparently. A psychotic teabagger, Jason Sager, is sliming her and giving her a primary challenge. I hope an electable progressive Democrat who doesn't live at home with his mother jumps into this race.

Now, back to DeMint and his teabagging in the Senate. Yesterday while trying to stir up some interest in DeVore, DeMint "explicitly suggested his endorsement was a shot 'against' GOP leaders."

DeMint explained his endorsement of the conservative candidate, Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, by citing “Chuck’s willingness to stand up against his own party leaders.”

Emphasis mine. Fiorina is the choice of Republican Party leaders, and newly emboldened conservatives-- backed now by DeMint-- are hoping to turn Fiorina into their next casualty, a la Dede Scozzafava.

“We need to shake up the Republican Party,” DeMint added. He also used some suggestive language to suggest that DeVore would be a reliable foe of the GOP establishment: “He’s gonna join the country, and not the club.”

That’s pretty strong stuff, particularly in the context of the Doug Hoffman debacle. DeMint is not just saying his pick is the better candidate or that he is truer to Republican principles. He’s essentially endorsing the Palin/tea party brigade’s explicit, open warfare on the GOP leadership and establishment.

Another GOP Straw Poll, Another Defeat For Charlie Crist

Florida's Hernando County, a poor (median income- $32,572), very white rural area north of Tampa-- economically dominated by WalMart and limestone mining-- is the latest to deal Charlie Crist a stunning blow. Last week Marco Rubio won the local Republican Party's official straw poll-- by 46-0! Rubio, a right-wing extremist, is just kicking Crist's ass up Florida's Atlantic Coast, across the Panhandle (especially across the Panhandle) and down the state's economically hard-hit Gulf Coast. Despite polls that show Crist untouchably ahead for both the primary and the general election, Republican Party activists just have no faith in him, no interest in him-- and they just love the teabagging Rubio. This is especially true in the counties time left behind.

[Andy] Tuck is party chairman in rural, conservative Highlands County. In July, his party executive committee held a straw vote between Crist and his primary opponent, Marco Rubio.

Rubio won 75-1.

Republican activists everywhere in the state are rebelling against the conventional wisdom that Crist has it all sewn up. Many agree with Andy Tuck's assessment that the Republican primary may be tougher for Crist than appears on the surface. "He is not the conservative Republican he needs to be to win this race."

But the Tallahassee GOP Establishment collectively chuckles and scoffs at the grassroots nuts in the little rural counties like Hernando, Gilchrist, Pasco and Highlands. One Crist backer, state Senator Mike Fascano, sneered contemptuously at Rubio's victories. "I haven't been to a Republican executive committee meeting in years, and many other elected Republicans in Pasco haven't either," he said. "The silent majority doesn't go to party meetings or read blogs." He and other supporters of the governor point to their own polling data that shows Crist with a 67% approval rating among Republican voters statewide and chalk up Rubio's wins to a bunch of wild-eyed extremist meth freaks listening to too much Limbaugh and watching too much Glenn Beck.

But those extremist meth freaks are the base of the GOP in the 5th Congressional District-- which has more people on Social Security and welfare than any other district in the U.S.-- and the district's congresswoman, a bizarre extremist but not a meth freak herself, Ginny Brown-Waite, has actually endorsed Rubio against Crist, as did Congressman Jeff Miller, the furthest right of the Florida congressional delegation, Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush Jr., purportedly out of prison now, and the most far right member of the U.S. Senate, SC secessionist Jim DeMint.

Brown-Waite, who isn't on drugs, explained why she decided to endorse Rubio even while the 3 far right Cuban-American congressmembers from Miami-Dade signed on to the Crist team:

Originally, I had not planned to endorse in this race, but as the challenges facing our nation and Florida grow more severe, times demand someone willing to make hard choices. Washington needs leaders with solid conservative beliefs and the courage to do the right thing. Marco Rubio does not try to be all things to all people. Like me, what you see is what you get. Marco Rubio is the consistent, principled conservative we need to provide a check and balance on the Obama-Reid agenda.

More bad news coming Crist's way:

• Pinellas County Republicans will hold a straw poll, likely in December. Coming in Crist's home county, it will have huge symbolic significance.

• In Volusia County, the party executive committee voted last month to censure Crist for choosing Democrats for appointive offices and also for supporting the president's stimulus program.

• A censure move in Palm Beach County failed in a tie; party leaders staved it off by promising a straw vote in October.

• In Broward County, party leaders held off a straw vote by promising personal appearances by Crist and Rubio.

Broward Chairman Chip Lamarca said he thinks Crist would win a straw vote in his county, but Palm Beach Chairman Sid Dinerstein expects Rubio to win his easily.

Rubio has been forcing Crist to move further and further away from the mainstream and into wacky Republican territory. Don't expect to see Crist screaming "Liar, you were born in Indonesia" at Obama in public anytime soon, but he has reversed himself on climate change and offshore drilling, smart moves in a GOP primary but not good for a general election where Democrats, independents and moderates will decide who the next U.S. senator will be. The Democrats, who have an extremely weak candidate in Kendrick Meek, know the only way they can win the seat is if Rubio is the Republican nominee.


UPDATE: While Florida Republicans Devour Each Other Politically...

The state spirals down economically. In the still out-of-control foreclosure debacle, 6 out of the nation's 10 hardest-hit congressional districts are in Florida, including FL-05, where Rubio is picking up so much support (including batty Congressmember Ginny Brown-Waite). Worst hit in the whole country, though, is FL-14 (Ft. Myers), the district represented by Connie Mack. And on the health insurance front, the number of uninsured Floridians has jumped from 2.8 million to 3.6 million while one Bush was in DC and another was in Tallahassee. The portion of workers in Florida without insurance has increased from 20.9% in 2001 to 24.5% in 2008. Today Vice President Biden met with state Insurance commissioners and spoke about the burden of health insurance premium increases on Florida families. Only Texas has a worse rate of uninsured than Florida, and Mario Diaz-Balart's and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's districts are worse than anything in Teaxs-- with about a third of their constituents under 65 having no health coverage whatsoever.

Health insurance premiums for American families continue to skyrocket. In the past year, the national average annual family premium for employer-sponsored health insurance rose to $13,375 in 2009-- a shocking 5.5 percent increase during a recession when inflation actually fell by 0.7 percent.
 
"The status quo of rising premiums is simply unsustainable," said Vice President Biden, "for families, for businesses, for state budgets, and for our national economy."
 
In every state, premiums have increased far faster than wages and are consuming increased portions of family budgets. The White House's analysis found that families’ premiums in Florida went up 121 percent, outpacing wage growth of just 43 percent.

Neither Crist nor Rubio has anything constructive to say to address the health care crisis in Florida. But of course each is putting all his energy into destroying the other politically.

Florida Democrats Ready To Run Another Republican For Congress

A knowledgeable and witty friend of mine is going to start blogging soon. He asked me what I thought of his idea of encouraging readers to write in with tales about the worst state Democratic Party and the worst state Republican Party. I suggested he find the right readers first but also told him he probably doesn't have to look too far for the worst state Democratic Party since Florida was sitting out there in the glaring sunlight. What a miserable state party that one is! Karen Thurman, the state party chair is, according to Howard Dean, an excellent leader. She was mayor of Dunnellon and then served in the state Senate for a decade before being elected to a newly created congressional district in 1992. When the GOP re-gerrymandered the district to get rid of her-- after 10 years in Congress-- she was replaced by Ginny Brown-Waite a pathetic backbencher and clueless rubber stamp best known for demanding that all American soldiers buried in France be disinterred and shipped home because France wouldn't hop on board the Bush Express to Nowhere in Iraq.

We've watched as the Florida Democratic Party has botched election after election while patting themselves on the back for being around when something positive happens-- like Obama winning the state or Alan Grayson winning the Orlando congressional seat-- that has little or nothing to do with their efforts. The state party is worthless, at best, perhaps even a hindrance to electing Democrats. They should change the name to the Florida Blue Dogs and let some real Democrats start an actual Democratic Party that fights for Democratic values and principles. A low point was when the state party got behind Republican Tim Mahoney as the candidate to run against Republican Mark Foley. Thurman helped Rahm Emanuel shove Democrat Dave Lutrin out of the race to make way for the wealthy Mahoney who was able to take advantage of Foley's sexual ethics and win the seat-- only to lose it 2 years later because of his own sexual ethics-- and a repulsively Republican voting record.

In 2006 we also watched Thurman and her organization sit on its hands and watch Brown Waite sail to another re-election in her old district. The 5th may seem too challenging for Thurman because she lost it herself but it's been ripe for a Democratic takeover for some time. Unfortunately, the state party is even more moribund between Levy and Pasco counties than in most of Florida. When Thurman first gave the seat up (in 2002) Brown-Waite won with 48% (as opposed to Thurman's 46%). Brown-Waite has never had a tough race since. In 2004 she was re-elected with 66% and two years later she faced a vanity candidate, John Russell, who managed to beat a real candidate, Rick Penberthy is a primary and then took 40% of the vote. In 2008 Russell was the candidate again and Brown Wait beat him by a slightly bigger margin. I'm sure she appreciates the softball pitches. And it looks like she's about to get another.

Yes, it worked out so well with Mahoney that the Florida Democrats look like they're about to get behind another "reformed" Republican. This morning CQPolitics reported that Jim Piccillo, a lifelong Republican, who stumbled into a NY Times story about Republicans-for-Obama, is going to run against Brown-Waite next year.

He doesn't have a website yet-- at least not one I could find, but he is tweeting away-- about an Easter egg hunt with Kendrick Meek? Ready for prime time?

NOW ONLY ONE DEMOCRAT OPPOSES HEALTH CARE FOR CHILDREN

STOP! Is that sick baby an illegal or too rich?

Earlier we mentioned the House leadership was bringing up S-CHIP again. They did. And it passed again-- with 43 Republicans joining all but one Democrat. We'll get to that in a second. But first I want to share with you some of the responses from our GOP congressmember who refused to vote for children's health care. Please bear in mind that all of their families are covered by far more sumptuous healthcare (at taxpayer expense):

First from the scumbag whose concern for the welfare of children made him cover-up his colleague Mark Foley's serial molestation of underage male pages for years so as not to endanger a GOP-held seat in Florida: Tom Reynolds, one of the most vile and despicable creatures to crawl around the halls of the Capitol-- "The bill puts lipstick on a sow. Today is raw politics-- trotting out a vote just for the sake of a vote." If you'd like to help put an end to the disgrace of this pile of vomit's career, the name of his opponent is Jon Powers, someone who very much cares about children and, in fact, started an organization to care for war orphans after returning from the war in Iraq. Please consider helping him at his Blue America page.

Last year we mentioned that rubber stamp Republican Ginny Brown-Waite was certifiably insane after she demanded that the U.S. dig up all the bodies of American fighting men buried in France and return them home. Her embarrassed Republican colleagues just ignored her. Her consciously false reason for voting again children's health care today was because she said it will be a "magnet for illegal aliens." As she is-- assuming she is vaguely literate-- aware, the bill specifically excludes undocumented immigrants in order to address Republican xenophobic hysteria. But she voted no anyway-- and then lied about it to her constituents.

But no deception rises to the level of Michigan crook Mike Rogers. In a convoluted excuse for his anti-family vote he "said that rich children could still qualify for benefits because states, in determining eligibility, could ignore or disregard part of a family’s income." Mike Rogers, whose entire career has been one championing the prerogatives of the rich and powerful over ordinary Americans, whose entire career has been 100% dedicated to serving, slavishly, special interests-- basically his campaign contributors, is afraid states will bend the rules to cater to the children of the rich? Give me a break! Does anyone listen to this stuff with a straight face?

And of course Georgia's Tom Price (KKK) is still whining that it's a "massive tax increase" because it would increase the cost of cigarettes. Another blatant liar: Pete Sessions (R-TX) "said that under the new bill, as under the original, two million people would lose private health insurance coverage and enroll in the expanded government program." These people have no shame whatsoever. The bill will be vetoed by Bush again and his veto will be sustained again.

Reactionary Mississippi "Democrat" Gene Taylor, voted for the bill today. He had been one of the two to vote to sustain Bush's veto last week. So of the 5 Democratic reactionaries who voted against children's health care-- Taylor, Baron Hill (IN), Mike McIntyre (NC), Bob Etheridge (NC) and the execrable Jim Marshall (GA)-- only the execrable Jim Marshall is still standing with the Republicans. He's still on the DCCC Front Line page as well, so that Democrats contributing to that organization can fund a candidate who votes against all Democratic principals and values-- and for endless war in Iraq.