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."

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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.

 

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The Blog for Thursday, February 03, 2005

When You've Got Nothing to Say . . .

    . . . say it in a language the Senate stenographer, and presumably most of your fellow Senators, can't understand:
    Florida Sen. Mel Martinez broke a Senate tradition Wednesday when he delivered part of his first floor speech in Spanish.

    In his eight-minute address, Martinez spoke in support of his fellow Hispanic American, Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's nominee to be attorney general.

    When Martinez broke into Spanish before uncomprehending colleagues, followed by his own English translation, the stunned Senate stenographer looked up quizzically and just typed: "speaking Spanish."
    "Martinez addresses senators in Spanish". The show boating empty suit, not known as a brilliant jurist, apparently declined to defend
    memos Gonzales wrote that seemed to justify the use of torture [and] . . . Gonzales [having] called Geneva Convention protections for prisoners "quaint" and "obsolete."
    "Martinez defends Gonzales for attorney general".

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