x

x

FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
"every political insider should be reading right now."

E-Mail Florida Politics

This is our Main Page
Our Sister Site
On FaceBook
Follow us on Twitter
Our Google+ Page
Contact [E-Mail Florida Politics]
Site Feed
...and other resources

 

Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

Older posts [back to 2002]

Previous Articles by Derek Newton: Ten Things Fox on Line 1 Stem Cells are Intelligent Design Katrina Spin No Can't Win Perhaps the Most Important Race Senate Outlook The Nelson Thing Deep, Dark Secret Smart Boy Bringing Guns to a Knife Fight Playing to our Strength  

The Blog for Friday, February 04, 2005

"Jeb!" Hearts Toni

    In "Bush ramps up backing Jennings' governor bid" [The St. Pete Times broke the story yesterday], we see the seeds of a potential GOoPer circular firing squad.

    It seems lame duck "Jeb!" is "annoyed that members of his past campaigns were moving toward Attorney General Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher" in the 2006 Gov. race. After all, our "Jeb!" wants to annoint his successor, and apparently cannot believe that his courtiers might have minds of their own. So, "Jeb!" has dispatched a pair of minions to get the boys and girls back in line:
    Sally Bradshaw and Karen Unger, veterans of Bush's governor's races, began calling other members of Bush's inner circle of political advisers last week to let them know Bush is privately supporting Jennings, sources said.
    Oh yeah, Bradsaw and Unger have a personal stake in this as well:
    Unger is expected to be [Jennings'] day-to-day campaign consultant, and Bradshaw is to be the campaign's overall strategic consultant.
    In any event, the "Jeb!" defectors thus far include the following:
    Gallagher is expected to add Brett Doster to his campaign team. Doster was President Bush's Florida campaign manager last year and worked for the president in the 2000 campaign. He also worked on Jeb Bush's campaigns.

    Another Bush loyalist, Arlene DiBenigno, who worked on Bush's campaigns, is working with Crist.

    And David Johnson, the former state GOP executive director, said he expects to begin work with Gallagher when the campaign formally begins.
    And the GOoPer bigwigs ain't happy about the pressure being brought to bear from the "Jeb!" shills:
    Some of those who received calls from Bradshaw and Unger said they were surprised by the effort to rein in Bush's top advisors. And not everyone was receptive to the calls.

    "For some people, there is a lot of panic over who the next nominee is going to be," said one Bush insider. "People have to make a choice, and it's hard."

    One of those who got a call complained that Bush is saying publicly he is neutral in the race while privately working to defeat Crist and Gallagher.

    "When Bush tells people he's going to stay neutral, you take him at his word," one Gallagher supporter said.
    "[T]ake him at his word"? Whose he kidding? This is politics.

    The tribune folks also have the story today ("Bush backers call to help Jennings"), pointing out that Jennings has been
    tapped by the governor to introduce President Bush today at a rally in Tampa, where he will promote his plan to overhaul Social Security.
    Let's enjoy it while it lasts - after all, the GOoPers will soon be back goosestepping in perfect unison.

6:12 AM

<< Home