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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
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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.

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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, April 07, 2005

Innocent Dupe or Empty Suit, or Both?

    Today's news - "Martinez aide wrote memo on Schiavo" - is really yesterday's news with Mel.

    'Ole Mel keeps getting into trouble, yet skates by by blaming others. Mel, is he a poor, innocent dupe, an empty suit, or both?. Consider:

    1. Campaign Contributions: Back in 2002, Builder groups were accused of wrongfully funneling money to candidates, including Martinez. Mel was out of the loop.

    2. Ezzie Thomas: Martinez had Ezzie Thomas work for his local campaign, like Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. Dyer was indicted; Mel was promoted to Washington. Martinez has been strangely silent as to his dealings with Thomas. Let me guess: Mel had no idea what Ezie was doing.

    3. Senate Race Embarassment: In the GOP Senate race primary, "Martinez took his campaign into the gutter with hateful and dishonest attacks", resulting in this now familiar editorial. There, the St Pete Times observed that "If Martinez failed to review the ads before they were sent out under his name, he was irresponsible. If he knew what was in the ads and is now trying to distance himself, he is being dishonest."

    4. Politization of Schiavo Memo: Today's story has a familiar ring to it:
    The strategy memo outlining how Republicans could gain political capital by intervening in the Terri Schiavo case was written by Florida Sen. Mel Martinez's legal counsel, who abruptly left his job Wednesday.

    Martinez, a freshman senator from Orlando who was the leading sponsor of the Schiavo bill that Congress passed in an extraordinary session on Palm Sunday, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo that created a furor on Capitol Hill.
    The clincher:
    "This is not a document that would have been approved in this office for circulation under any circumstances," Martinez said Wednesday night. "The person responsible for drafting and circulating this document has tendered their resignation, and I have accepted it. This type of behavior and sentiment will not be tolerated in my office.
    We've heard this before, Mel.

    Curious that Mel never seems to know what's going on. Perhaps our Mel is simply an innocent dupe in all these things, or maybe he is just an empty suit, entirely without substance; I suspect he is a bit of both.

    In any event, it seems Slate's Tim Noah got it right back in late 2003, in"Bush's Mr. Cellophane". Noah observed that when Martinez left HUD to run for the Senate seat vacated by Bob Graham, Dubya held a press conference wherein:
    Bush did not mention any programs that Martinez created or administered during the three years he was parked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That was entirely appropriate, since Martinez didn't do anything worth remembering.
    This reminded Noah of the lines "Mr. Cellophane" from the musicial Chicago:
    'Cause you can look right through me,
    Walk right by me
    And never know I'm there …
    That's our Mel, not quite there; never quite knowing what is happening around him.

    More at FlaBlog, Florida News, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Interstate4Jamming.

    Note: How long before the Orlando Sentinel's Myriam Marquez pens a column praising Mel for his conduct in this latest scandal?

    Update: "Martinez Blamed His Staff for Calling U.S. Marshalls 'Armed Thugs.' Asked about a comment in a Martinez campaign press release calling the federal agents who seized Elian Gonzalez 'armed thugs,' Martinez denied responsibility. Martinez said, 'I never said that. It was put out by someone in the office and immediately withdrawn as we saw what had happened…It's someone who was writing for the campaign and it's inappropriate that they should use the words. I would never have used them and I was in public life when that event took place and I never used language like that.' [Miami Herald, 9/25/04; CNN Inside Politics, 9/28/04]"

8:17 AM

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