The best spectator sport for political junkies may be watching Republicans squirm over the 2006 governor's race.

A whirlwind celebrity road show with headliner George W. Bush brought its finale to Tampa Friday afternoon.

It was part scripted play, part rock concert, packaged together to make a modern day political campaign rally.

One hint of the difficulty Bush is facing came from U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who was applauded by Bush for his support of the president's proposal. But after the event, Martinez said he supports private accounts but needs more detail before he can make a final decision.

While Bush spoke and took about a dozen questions from his [approx 1000] supporters, about 200 opponents rallied several blocks away at Curtis Hixon Park.

Protesters marched down Ashley Drive toward the Tampa Convention Center but circled back when police stopped them at Brorein Street. Some passing motorists gave thumbs up to the marchers; others [exposing the essence of the GOoPer "values voters]flashed the middle finger.

Steve Uhlfelder, torn between lobbying and serving on the state board that oversees universities, has made a decision.

Uhlfelder, 58, a Tallahassee attorney and fixture in government circles for almost 30 years, on Friday sent Gov. Jeb Bush a letter asking not to be reappointed to the Board of Governors. He cited as one factor in his decision a move by Senate President Tom Lee to ban members of that board and some other powerful state boards and commissions from lobbying lawmakers.

For the third year in a row, state Rep. Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach, is asking lawmakers to turn back the clock and ratify the U.S. Constitutional amendment that would protect women from discrimination.

With new leadership in the legislature, Gannon said she is cautiously optimistic that this year the measure will at least get a hearing.

Feminists who have spent more than 30 years pushing for the ERA's passage say if Florida acts, the measure could be well on it's way to become law — or at least the subject of heated national debate.

A state panel rejected environmentalists' pleas Thursday for more study before implementing new rules they fear may reduce or eliminate protection for some endangered animals, including manatees and bald eagles.

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.

Unger is expected to be [Jennings'] day-to-day campaign consultant, and Bradshaw is to be the campaign's overall strategic consultant.

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.

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.

tapped by the governor to introduce President Bush today at a rally in Tampa, where he will promote his plan to overhaul Social Security.

In defending the nomination of Judge Alberto Gonzales as U.S. attorney general, however, Florida's new junior senator made a statement that symbolizes over-eagerness and inexperience.

[t]he state lost 1,100 manufacturing jobs, continuing a steady slide in that category. ... In an economy too dependent on low-wage work, losing manufacturing jobs is especially painful. Manufacturers in Florida -- making everything from consumer items to construction materials to high-tech devices -- pay wages 22 percent higher than the state's average. Their production ripples through the state's economy, boosting exports, attracting investment and creating more jobs.

As President Bush visits Tampa today to promote his plan for a partial Social Security privatization, both his backers and opponents have started public campaigns on the question.
Florida, with 3.3 million Social Security recipients, second-most among states, will be a battleground in an argument that will spill out of Congress and into the general public.

A coalition of unions and a consumer action group plan a rally downtown today to protest Bush's plan and his appearance here. Organizations as diverse as labor unions and the AARP plan campaigns to oppose it.

Legislative leaders worry that Dedge's case could set a precedent, with new DNA technology pointing out the errors of an earlier age. Currently, some 98 percent of the 82,000 inmates in the state prison system have had samples of their DNA added to a state crime database.

"Wilton Dedge has been vindicated and he is now free," Senate President Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said in a statement. "He has the right to seek damages - but it must be in the context of the legislative process. To ask the Legislature to function as an investigator, judge and jury has implications that stretch far beyond this case."

Two former top advisers to the governor are telling prominent Republicans that Jeb Bush favors Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings as his successor.

Bush's former chief of staff, Sally Bradshaw, and former communications director, Karen Unger, made a flurry of calls last week to get the word out.

The governor is publicly neutral, but the aides told their former colleagues he personally supports Jennings, who is expected to face strong competition from two fellow Republicans, Attorney General Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher.

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."

memos Gonzales wrote that seemed to justify the use of torture [and] . . . Gonzales [having] called Geneva Convention protections for prisoners "quaint" and "obsolete."

has never hidden his dislike for the class size amendment or his desire for voters to one day change their minds. But he is painting himself into a corner with his budgetary gamesmanship. If class sizes can be reduced for a fraction of the cost he projected and without the tax increase he warned was necessary, then he can be accused of misleading voters. On the other hand, if the state is spending only a fraction of the money ultimately necessary to do the job right, he would be telling voters he has disregarded their wishes.

The state should not be attempting to send people to their deaths without competent legal counsel at all stages of the proceedings.

the departing head of the Department of Management Services bluntly told Convergys Corp. to fix the state-worker personnel system by spring - or Florida might pull out of Gov. Jeb Bush's biggest privatization contract.

Former DMS Secretary Cynthia Henderson negotiated the seven-year, $278 million contract with Convergys in 2001-02. Privatizing personnel services and giving employees online access to their time sheets and files was intended to avoid the $60 million to $80 million cost of replacing the state's antiquated personnel computer system. It also eliminated about 900 state jobs.

State Health Secretary John Agwunobi pledged Wednesday to help resolve thousands of cases of possible crimes improperly handled by his agency, blaming the lax oversight on the shuffling of bureaucratic responsibility for more than a decade.

With legislative leaders vowing a review, Agwunobi spoke for the first time about an investigation that found that the Health Department largely ignored a 1992 law requiring the agency to tell prosecutors when health providers are suspected of criminal acts.

department is guilty of blatant neglect, if not worse, because most of the cases discovered during the initial investigation can no longer be prosecuted. The statute of limitations - the deadline under which criminal charges could have been brought - has run out.

North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Arkansas and Florida all have at least one Democratic senator and all went for Bush in November.

And three of the five states have Democratic senators up for reelection in 2006: Florida's Bill Nelson, Nebraska's Ben Nelson and North Dakota's Kent Conrad.

The other senators being targeted are: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both of Arkansas; Byron Dorgan of North Dakota; and Max Baucus of Montana.

"I thought the president did a fantastic job, laying out both the traditional and moral case. I think he assured senior citizens that this simply doesn't affect them," said U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo. "I think it was very persuasive. I think if we all stick to that message, it's really going to make the Democrats look foolish."

won't be required to pass on the savings to workers, although some insurers are offering checks to employees who live healthier lifestyles too.

The Department of Management Services has sent a warning letter to Convergys Corp., along with a $17 million payment for the online personnel system the company took over for the state.

- "Mark Foley (FL-16) on Crossfire";
- "Showdown: 'Private' vs 'Personal' vs 'Privatization'";
- "Social Security Flyer"; and
- "Why Tampa?"

federal agencies have acknowledged using tax dollars to pay columnists to push Bush policies, including the No Child Left Behind Act. Critics argue that using public money for media campaigns could be considered illegal.

A Florida State University center has used more than a half-million in education tax dollars to put a positive spin on President Bush's key school policies, including hiring a public relations firm to teach charter schools to be more media-savvy.

Despite conflicting studies on the success of charter schools and other alternative education programs, the School Choice Center at FSU touts them as ways to "increase student achievement, increase parental involvement, promote school improvement through constructive competition, and accomplish racial and ethnic diversity.

Since 2003, taxpayers have given the center $627,567 as part of a 5-year, $1.2 million federal grant made available through the No Child Left Behind Act, which promotes school choice as a fix for failing public schools.

The center's mission is to make parents aware of all choice programs, including traditional magnet schools, expand the number of choice schools in the state, and help them "work the media" — as was written in one of the PR firm's pamphlets.

But links on the center's Web site are almost entirely to studies and articles from conservative groups and strong school-choice proponents such as the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Education Reform and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Michael Franc, vice president for government relations at the Heritage Foundation, defended the center's use of No Child Left Behind money, saying there is a "guerrilla war" being waged between traditional public school advocates and reformers.

He compared the use of tax dollars to pay for a school choice marketing campaign to federal programs that publicize free and reduced-price lunch programs for children, or anti-smoking advertisements.

"If this is simply trying to rectify the imbalance of coverage and give a better idea of charter schools and how they work, it seems like it is OK," Franc said. "This could be a grant to get the other side of the story to the public."

The article describes the illiberal tendencies of countries with otherwise democratic forms of government and the pernicious danger that such illiberalism represents, not only to those countries themselves but also to liberal democracies in the Western mold.

Wanting to save money in the state budget, for the second consecutive year Gov. Jeb Bush is urging legislators to hold off paying for proposed nursing home staffing increases. The savings would total $64 million, said Mike Hansen, Bush's budget director.

Gov. Jeb Bush has the constitutional power to automatically restore civil rights to people who have fully completed their criminal sentences. Two powerful Republicans are urging him to end the felon-rights ban. The governor can, and should, do so as soon as possible. It's past time to end an antiquated provision that permanently bars ex-felons from voting, serving on juries and other rights despite having paid their debt to society.

Florida's government wants you to lose weight -- or stop smoking, or head to the gym -- and it wants you to be rewarded if you do, though your boss may be the one who actually benefits.

State Health Secretary John O. Agwunobi said Tuesday that 24,000 disciplinary cases investigated by the department since 1992 are being sent to prosecutors for determination of whether any criminal acts should be pursued.

The move follows a report released last week by the Department of Health's inspector general that found the department apparently failed to formally refer to prosecutors cases in which doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health practitioners may have committed criminal acts.

rich prose in the Times piece, however, is reserved for Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R), who's keeping up her performance art routine as the fairer-sex Hamlet of west-central Florida, agonizing -- to paraphrase the Times -- over whether to 'tis nobler to serve the interests of thy constituents or "allegiance to the Republican agenda."

We keep hearing that Brown-Waite is stiffing constituents who are trying to find out where she stands on phasing out Social Security. So, as in the case of Montana, we have to ask: will Brown-Waite be travelling or appearing with the president in Florida?

Will she be endorsing his phase-out plan?

The dispute hinges on a single sentence in our state Constitution. Article I, Section 3 states that "no revenue of the state" can be used "directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."

State Sen. Rod Smith opened his campaign for governor Monday, saying that as a moderate, North Florida Democrat, he can win back voters abandoning the party in droves.

The state's largest private school system said Monday it probably won't participate in Florida's new prekindergarten program unless the Legislature makes major changes in the law.

Welfare officials have finally acknowledged what advocates and some lawmakers have known for years: Too many Florida foster children are being doped up on unnecessary, and dangerous, psychotropic drugs. With the facts no longer in dispute, perhaps now state leaders can get down to the business of finding and funding a comprehensive solution.

Rocked by scandals and shoddy results, Gov. Jeb Bush's drive to turn over many state services and millions of taxpayer dollars to private companies appears certain to be slowed by the state's newly minted Republican leaders.

House Speaker Allan Bense of Panama City and Senate President Tom Lee of Brandon say they will put the brakes on privatization efforts this year, a sudden shift away from what has been a cornerstone of Florida government since Bush took office six years ago.

State employment figures show that Gov. Jeb Bush has presided over the lowest job-creation rate of any governor since 1970, appearing to call into question his claim that his tax cuts have created new jobs.

A sweeping overhaul of Florida's 20-year-old growth management plan is headed back to the drawing board.

The 172-page House bill that began circulating this month would have returned oversight of local land-use plans to 11 regional planning councils.

That power was stripped away about a decade ago after developers complained the councils had become too antigrowth, said Laura Jacobs, who has worked on growth issues as a House staff attorney and a lobbyist for developers and local governments.

"Now developers are saying, 'What's going to prevent that from happening again?'" she said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has opened a dialogue among competing Democratic candidates for statewide office to fend off in-fighting and avoid damage to his own campaign.

Gov. Jeb Bush didn't mince words last year when the Florida Legislature slashed $38 million from his request to fund a program that helped reduce teen smoking. "There's no other way to say it," he remarked. "Going from 39 million to 1 million is obliteration."

Apparently the governor is resigned to accepting near-obliteration. This year, he's asking lawmakers for $4 million. The money comes from the proceeds of the state's 1998 settlement of lawsuits against the tobacco industry.

Bush's request is $11 million less than the compromise figure he offered in the final days of last year's session; $36 million less than what state health officials say is necessary to sustain the effort; $66 million less than the annual appropriation the program received at its start in 1998; and $74 million less than the amount recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Anthony Schembri called some Tallahassee business experts together last week for what he frankly admitted might well be a waste of his time and theirs.

The businessmen suggested making juvenile incarceration unpleasant. Hotels, for instance, offer good beds, food, entertainment and personal service. Thus, doing the opposite would drive guests away.

U.S. Reps. Ginny Brown Waite of Spring Hill and Tom Feeney of Oviedo said Bush's proposals to let employees invest part of their Social Security taxes into private investment accounts should be a winner for GOP candidates. They said the Democrats are trying to mobilize their base of retirees by claiming that adding private accounts would jeopardize existing Social Security benefits.

"Shame on them for scaring our seniors," said Brown Waite, whose north-central district includes tens of thousands of retirees.

Feeney noted that, in the sixth year of a presidency, an incumbent's party usually loses congressional seats. He said Social Security could be a mobilizing issue for young voters if GOP members get their message out.

"We don't want to just become caretakers. We're willing to take some risks," he said. "The Democrats are demagoguing on an issue that every young person knows is in their interests."

Ginny keeps forgetting to answer the question on the table. She tells voters she won't cut benefits for current or near-retirees. But she never remembers to answer the question on the table: Does she support carving private accounts out of Social Security?

"I'm against privatization. I'm against cutting benefits to retirees," she [Brown Waite] told the Times. Then, she added, "We do have to look at the long term fiscal stability of Social Security."

In other words, Brown-Waite is relying on the misleading dodge that phasing-out a portion of Social Security and replacing it with private accounts does not equal "privatization". So what she's doing is far closer to 'lying' than anything in the recorded telephone message.

has collected nearly 7,000 financial disclosure statements submitted last year in Florida and the 46 other states that require disclosure.

The bottom line on the Sunshine State's bottom line?

Well, the wealthiest lawmaker in the state House and, indeed, the whole Legislature, is Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, whose $35.7 million net worth is derived chiefly from his securities holdings.

Not surprisingly, the low-key Domino -- who is angling to become House speaker in 2008 -- lists his profession as investment manager.

One election cycle just ended, but lobbyists say a member of the House leadership is soliciting donations of as much as $25,000 to replenish the Republican bank account in advance of the next election cycle.

In short, meddling by state politicians in Florida's universities is not new. But it reached its all-time peak in 1999, when FSU alumni in the Legislature demanded a medical school, and the university board (now called the Board of Regents) refused.

The response: The Legislature simply abolished the Board of Regents. But Florida's voters rebelled, and in 2002 voted to create a new, independent state Board of Governors. This one can't be abolished.

That track record is why this past week's decision by that young Board of Governors to reject a chiropractic school at FSU, even though the Legislature wanted it, was billed as such a historic moment.

And sure, historic it was.

It is possible, of course, that Florida Gov. John Ellis Bush, who calls himself Jeb, is a victim of a genetic malfunction and thus has been deprived by nature of a lust for power that has characterized his ancestors for four generations. ...

The Bushes have a remarkable, and profitable, family characteristic. They present themselves as open and likable personalities, the kind of guys you'd like next door. And they operate like gut fighters.

The public record would suggest that if you don't think they've got their collective eyes on the ultimate political prize for Jeb, you probably believe in Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. I saw, and covered, what George H.W. Bush did to Michael Dukakis in 1988 in one of the dirtiest presidential election races of modern times, the infamous "Willie Horton" campaign. It was a campaign of calculated racism - which of course was denied.

And consider this about older brother George W. In 2000 he lost the popular vote by about half a million, and was awarded the White House only because of the disgraceful, anachronistic Electoral College - with generous help from family pal Katherine Harris and a politicized U.S. Supreme Court. A gracious and logical response to this undeserved good fortune would have been to support some kind of middle-road government to honor the message delivered by the voters.

Forget it. What we got was a more conservative agenda than even Ronald Reagan aspired to, a war to protect us against nonexistent weapons of mass destruction and a president who now, in his hubris, claims a mandate. Fifty-one percent is not a mandate.

The word for this kind of behavior is opportunism. We are dealing with a family in which opportunism has been the name of the game. And right now it is fair conjecture that opportunity will knock one day for Jeb Bush.

It doesn't seem to matter much whether Florida's economy is struggling or sailing. Or whether there's a board to oversee the entire State University System, individual boards of trustees at each school, or both. Or even whether champions of business tout universities as pumps that prime the state's economic engine.

Florida's public universities just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to financial support from the public they serve.

Today, about 30 percent of all black men in Florida cannot vote because they have committed felonies, according to the ACLU.

Chris Card, one of the architects of Florida's child-welfare privatization program, stepped down days before the release of a state report questioning his handling of agency contracts and equipment and his acceptance of free tickets to sports events.

A report released Friday by the Department of Children & Families' inspector general criticized Card for poor decisions that may have cost taxpayers at least $80,000.

Possible criminal violations have been referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and a two-year audit of telecommunications contracts has been recommended.

Card, a confidante of Gov. Jeb Bush and a member of his transition team for both terms, resigned his $170,000-a-year job Tuesday effective immediately as director of Hillsborough Kids Inc., which oversees foster care and adoptions for DCF in the Tampa area.

"The best thing you can do in that situation is let them have their way," said Slade, head of the Florida GOP from 1993 to 1999. "And she [Jordan] was very cooperative in that regard."

Confusing, inaccurate or nonexistent information, computer problems and just plain old human error are likely to blame for thousands of Palm Beach County voters' failing to receive absentee ballots they requested in November's presidential election.

Allison DeFoor, vice chairman of the state party, said Republicans need more black voters in 2006. Johnny Hunter of Sarasota, chairman of the Florida Federation of Black Republicans, said his group is forming chapters in high schools and colleges, trying to reach young voters before they become Democrats.

"The president got 13 percent of the black vote last year," said DeFoor. "If we could get that up to 20 percent, the Democrats are dead."

Bush told Republicans on Saturday that Iraq might not be having elections today if thousands of Floridians had not volunteered to help his brother keep the White House.

In an apparent first for Florida, the University of Florida recently hired a full-time advocate for gay students, faculty and staff.

The job is hardly common in academia, even more rare in the South. And it illustrates a long arc of cultural change at Florida's flagship public university, once the center of a state-sponsored effort to drive gay professors and students off college campuses.