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, November 10, 2005

Sorry "Jeb!" ... No Drilling

    "Jeb!" has egg on his face:
    In a victory for opponents of more oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. House leaders dropped a plan to allow oil and gas exploration closer to Florida.
    "Florida offshore drilling proposal scuttled". This after "Jeb!" and a handful of Florida GOoPer congressman had agreed to controversial language that could have put oil drilling operations closer to Florida's shoreline.
    The deal that Bush and several Florida Republicans endorsed [and is now dead] would allow oil rigs 125 miles off the Gulf Coast, beyond sight, and would permit energy companies to negotiate directly with the state Legislature to put drilling operations closer.

    The current patchwork of deals prohibits drilling within 200 miles of Tampa Bay, which has preserved an area off the Pinellas County coast called Lease Sale Area 181, a region that energy experts believe is rich in oil reserves.

    As recently as 2001, Bush staunchly opposed drilling in Area 181.
    "Offshore drilling plan ditched".

    The political winners in all this: Bill Nelson, the Jim Davis led House Dems, and Clay Shaw who recently stepped up, together with the others who joined them in opposing the compromise (tag along Mel Martinez, Congressman Connie Mack and to a lesser degree Katherine Harris and Charlie Crist).

    The biggest loser is "Jeb!" and those who prematurely hitched their wagon to that waddling lame duck, including Tom Gallagher, Tom Delay's boy Tom Feeney, Adam Putnam of Bartow, Ander Crenshaw of Jacksonville, and Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami, as well as the Orlando Sentinel editorial board.

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