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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 Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Supreme Court Justice Mel?

    This is not a joke:
    U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid suggested on Tuesday that four of his Republican colleagues be considered by President Bush if a vacancy occurs on the U.S. Supreme Court.

    Seeking a possible consensus nominee, Reid recommended Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mel Martinez of Florida, Mike DeWine of Ohio and Mike Crapo of Idaho.

    Reid described them all as bright and able lawyers who would be strong additions to the nation's highest court.
    "Reid's SCOTUS recommendations". And here's a very mean reader comment about this story (as it relates to Mel) from dKos:
    I suspect that he's on the wrong side of the bell curve of all of the members of the FL Bar in terms of overall ability. Only 1 SC nominee that I'm aware of came from FL, the legendary Harold Carswell in 1969 or 1970. When Carswell's overall mediocrity was noted in Senate debate on his nomination, Roman Hruska of NE commented that mediocre people deserve representation, too. Martinez would clearly fit in the Carswell tradition.

    It's still an embarrassment to think that Betty Castor lost to this guy. I understand what Reid's trying to do, and I know that Martinez doesn't stand a chance of getting nominated, but he has absolutely no business being on the SC.
    "Martinez is a tool". Another dKos comment: From a purely political perspective, and
    [a]ssuming that Martinez is conservative enough to please the conservative base, it wouldn't neccessarily be bad positioning for Bush to nominate someone he knows will get confirmed without a fight, especially if he is making more than one appointment, and is nominating someone extremely controversial for the other seat. First, Bush will appear to be willing to work with the Dems, which makes it harder for us to oppose his other nominee. Second, Martinez is conservative but not too radical, so he would be confirmed. Third, once confirmed, Jeb Bush gets to appoint Martinez's replacement in the Senate. This would allow the Florida GOP to avoid a potentially damaging 2006 primary. Jeb could appoint Katherine Harris to the Senate, which would leave only Florida House Speaker Allan Bense (Bush's preferred candidate) for the 2006 race agianst Bill Nelson. Or the other way around.
    "Mel Martinez".

8:51 PM

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