Congress' attempt Friday to subpoena Terri Schiavo for committee hearings showed neither sense nor sensitivity.

The last thing that the severely brain- damaged woman needs is to be hauled out of her hospice bed, transported to Washington and wheeled before a bunch of politicians who -- we hope -- would never permit this to be done to their own relatives.

"Some of us have been getting threatening phone calls and threatening e-mails, calling us very nasty names," said a weeping Sen. Nancy Argenziano, one of nine Republicans who voted Thursday to kill an amendment that other Republicans hoped to pass in time to keep Schiavo fed.

Argenziano said she respected the bill's sponsor, Sen. Daniel Webster, for "doing what he believes" but tearfully beseeched Webster and Christian conservatives who made the threats to "please respect my fundamental belief: I don't want to keep anybody from getting to heaven."

Webster, a Baptist from Winter Garden who home-schooled his six children, refused to bring his bill up for a vote Friday because he said it was "defective." But he vowed to keep it on the Senate calendar until Schiavo died, more as a tribute to her than out of an expectation of ultimate approval. ...

Lawmakers who voted against either measure, including those whose comments were put into the record in the House at Majority Leader Marco Rubio's request, will have to defend their actions to their constituents, Webster said.

That troubles some Republicans who may have opposition in the 2006 primary.

Argenziano, a Catholic from Dunnellon, and Sen. Jim King, a former Senate president who led the GOP bloc against Webster's bill, were among those demonized by abortion opponents such as the National Right to Life Committee, who hurled electronic epithets such as "Murderer!" and threatened that they would "burn in Hell."

"It's completely un-Republican," said Argenziano, who has a copy of former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman's book, It's My Party, Too, on her desk.

She blames the Christian conservative "machine" for "imposing their will on everybody else. ... There's no room for anybody that doesn't agree with them."

As sheriff of Pinellas County, Everett Rice gave Michael Schiavo a job.

As a state legislator, Rice opposed a bill that would have blocked the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.

To Rice, the two acts are unrelated. But to some people who are using the Web to try to stop Terri Schiavo's death, they are just some of the evidence of "conspiracy, collusion and coverup."

Rice, a Treasure Island Republican and one of the Legislature's newest members, finds himself a target of an Internet attack accusing him of complicity to deny care to the Pinellas Park woman.

Behind the scenes, Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Mel Martinez enlisted conservatives' help to create a formidable lobbying force to keep Terri Schiavo alive.

"A mechanism is in place that says you can't tamper with someone under subpoena," [Sen. Mel] Martinez said Friday in Orlando. "That will allow us to come up with something that will allow a federal review of the matter to make sure all of the protections afforded to criminals are also afforded to Miss Schiavo."

the fight to keep the severely brain-damaged woman alive appears certain to dominate the Capitol in coming weeks.

The Senate rejected legislation this week aimed at blocking the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, which was taken out Friday. But the measure's sponsor said he expects lawmakers will be pushed to intercede every day that Schiavo continues to live.

"The pressure will rebuild; there's no doubt about it," said Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden. "That bill will be on the calendar every day, until she passes."

The House, which approved its own Schiavo bill by more than a 2-to-1 ratio, has been deluged by 5,000 phone calls and more than 30,000 e-mails in the past few weeks, the overwhelming majority in favor of saving her.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said political pressure "will intensify rather than ebb, and that could force the Senate to act."

In the midst of the demonstrators were Ann and Timothy Miller, who had loaded their six children into a car and driven from Ohio to Florida.

"We want to show our children how prayers can be answered and how the political process works," said Ann Miller, as her kids played on a grassy field. "And we hope not to be disappointed."

The Millers home-school their children and said they have to get home by Sunday so they could tend to their farm's cows, horses and chickens.

Sen. Bill Nelson is threatening to block the Senate confirmation of a deputy Interior Department secretary unless the Bush administration continues to protect a large swath of the Gulf of Mexico off Florida from oil drilling.

He calls himself a "pickup truck-driving, gun-owning" North Florida Democrat.

He also says - I have it on tape - "I don't see anything wrong with liberalism."

Is Scott Maddox ready for prime time?

has relented and begun negotiating with federal education officials to reconsider the way Florida complies with the No Child Left Behind Act.

Martinez's vote to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge say despite the senator's claims of negotiating great concessions in exchange for his vote, Florida got crumbs.

In a statement Wednesday after the vote, Martinez announced that he "worked closely with the (Bush) administration to secure its explicit assurance that the current (oil drilling) moratorium on Florida's Gulf Coast will be extended for an additional five years through 2012."

Not quite, said Mark Ferrulo, director of Florida Public Interest Research Group, who said the Florida Republican's statement was at least inaccurate.

The drilling moratorium was already in place until 2012 through a 1998 executive order by then-President Clinton. An April 2003 letter to Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., from the Department of Interior underscores that.

"(Martinez) made it sound like he had secured a much bigger victory for Florida coasts than was actually realized," Ferrulo said. "What he was able to do is secure an expanded buffer zone outside the existing moratorium."

It means the only additional area Martinez secured from drilling until 2012 is a narrow strip of water off the Alabama coast.

Cast in the best light, Martinez sold out Alaska's natural heritage to save ours. But the details of the deal reveal it accomplishes nothing and may actually weaken the effort to protect Florida's coast. Some deal. ...

It looks as though Martinez claimed credit for existing limits on gulf drilling and probably weakened some of those. If that is his idea of how to "secure the position of Florida's pristine beaches," then marshmallow is the new steel.

either Martinez was fooled into thinking he was getting something that he wasn't, or he's trying to fool Florida voters.

campaign to give voters final say over where new homes, shopping malls and roads are built in their communities ran into a brick wall Thursday at the state Supreme Court.

In the 4-3 decision, the high court said the proposed constitutional amendment can't go on the 2006 ballot because of ''emotional rhetoric'' in its ballot summary. But one of the sponsors said supporters may rewrite their proposal and try again.

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez said he voted to allow oil production in an Alaskan wildlife refuge Wednesday only after getting a promise from the Bush administration to extend a moratorium on drilling off Florida's shores for five more years, through 2012.

A National Wildlife Federation official called that concession "crumbs" because it offers no assurance of a long-term or permanent ban on natural gas and oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

Environmentalists say the petroleum industry and congressional supporters see the vote for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, as a step toward opening areas offshore from Florida and other coastal states.

"I share that concern, and I have worked closely with the administration to secure its explicit assurance that the current moratorium on Florida's gulf coast will be extended," Martinez, R-Fla., said in a statement from his Washington, D.C., office.

Martinez sold out the Arctic for short-term protections in Florida.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood has acknowledged that a campaign worker indicted last week was hired to help her in her 2000 race for Orlando mayor but avoided a question about whether he collected absentee ballots for her.

A state senator who is pushing a bill the towing industry wants was treated last week to a large engagement party courtesy of a lobbyist who represents tow truck drivers.

President Bush stops in Orlando and Pensacola on Friday to pitch his Social Security plan before taking his Easter Week break in Crawford, Texas.

A simmering dispute boiled over on Wednesday between Broward School Board members and local legislators over how to tax the new slot machine industry.

A legislator who wants to speed up death penalty appeals also wants to change the constitution so the Florida Supreme Court can't again strike down the changes.

Every governor has stubbed his toe on the Florida Supreme Court from time to time, but only Jeb Bush has sought revenge. That unseemly side of him is on display in his support for a constitutional amendment to strip the court of its power to control the rules of civil and criminal procedure. It is more than a turf fight. Everyone's civil rights are at stake.

The 1998 statute (chapter 104.047) grew out of an outrageous Miami election scandal in which people were openly paid for each absentee vote they delivered for a certain candidate, said former state Sen. Jack Latvala of Pinellas County. As interpreted in the Dyer case, the law could snag any paid campaign worker who has anything to do with absentee ballots. "None of us (legislators) meant that," [the bill's original sponsor in the Legislature, former state Sen. Jack] Latvala said.

The applicable law is only three sentences long. It says it is illegal for anyone to be paid for "distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, delivering, or otherwise physically possessing absentee ballots." Yet isn't that precisely what both major parties and a variety of interest groups do every election when they send out absentee ballot request forms and even deliver the marked ballots to the elections office? ...

Is it okay for volunteers to request or collect absentee ballots but not paid consultants? If so, how does that protect the sanctity of ballots?

Maybe it isn't wrong to make Dyer a test case for a vague law. But what other candidate is the state going to pursue? We'd particularly like to hear Hood's thoughts on this matter.

A comprehensive study of medical malpractice claims in Florida since 1990 shows no sharp increase in lawsuits relative to population growth and a modest increase in the size of settlements, according to two Duke University professors.

study comes on the heels of a similar report from the University of Texas that was released last week. Assembled by four law professors, the Texas study mirrored the Duke report.

"We find no evidence of the medical malpractice crisis that produced headlines over the last several years and led to legal reform in Texas and other states," the report said.

The Senate passed through its first committee a proposal somewhat more stringent than what passed the Senate last year. And passing through its final House committee prior to going to the floor was a much weaker accountability plan — to the point that Senate sponsor Jim King, R-Jacksonville, called the House plan "accountability lite."

The Hillsborough school district thinks the Life Skills Center charter school is in no shape to open, not with a $500,000 deficit looming before the first student enrolls.

The Florida Board of Education said it was wrong Tuesday, in a decision that highlights the increasing tensions between school districts, charter schools and the state.

By a 6-1 vote, the state board ordered Hillsborough educators to give the school a charter despite their concerns about its financial viability. It was nothing new; the board overrides a district's decision to deny a charter application about half the time.

And there's the rub.

Many school districts resent that the state has made them responsible for charter schools while giving them little authority to control them.

Legislative economists estimate it could cost local governments as much as $1.3-billion in its first five years.

on Tuesday called for a major rewrite of Florida's civil-litigation laws to limit class-action lawsuits, reduce companies' exposure to large jury awards and "to create a more jobs-friendly" legal system.

that could make private-school vouchers available to 350,000 public-school students and would trade strict class-size limits for higher teacher pay passed its first legislative test Tuesday.

§ 104.43. Grand juries; special investigation

The grand jury in any circuit shall, upon the request of any candidate or qualified voter, make a special investigation when it convenes during a campaign preceding any election day to determine whether there is any violation of the provisions of this code, and shall return indictments when sufficient ground is found.

The Senate is likely to vote on President George W. Bush's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge soon, and Florida's Sen. Mel Martinez could well end up being the deciding vote.

If Martinez rubber-stamps the president here, Floridians will have cause for great alarm.

Secretary of State Glenda Hood said Tuesday that she hired a now-indicted campaign worker for "voter outreach" during her 2000 Orlando mayoral bid but sidestepped questions about whether he collected absentee ballots.

State environmental regulators applauded the mercury rule the Environmental Protection Agency launched Tuesday while those in the environmental community said it's bad news for Florida and the nation.

The state is moving forward with controversial plans to build toll lanes down the center of Interstate 4 as a way to ease the bumper-to-bumper traffic that plagues Central Florida's most-hated road.

program is in a nosedive, and legislators should ask why.

Enrollment dropped by 100,000 in the past year. Since 2003, the state went from having a waiting list of more than 90,000 children to the possibility of leaving nearly $150 million in budgeted funding unspent because there aren't enough children enrolled. Those numbers include children's Medicaid and Healthy Kids, a popular program that allows low-income working parents to purchase health insurance for their children at affordable rates.

With a growing health insurance crisis in Florida, it's highly unlikely all these children suddenly found health insurance elsewhere. The more probable explanation is that they are uninsured. This means they're likely to be missing routine checkups, vaccinations and other care meant to keep them healthy.

The Pasco County Democrats
Cordially Request Your Presence at the
2005 Unity Gala & Welcome Reception

Special Guests to Include
U.S. Representative Jim Davis and Florida State Senator Rod Smith

also

Former U.S. Representative Karen Thurman

When:

March 19, 2005
Reception: 6:00 PM
Banquet: 7:15 PM
Entertainment and Presentations: 8:00 P.M.

Location:
Madison Square
4051 Madison Avenue
New Port Richey, FL 34655

Tickets:
$50.00 per person for the Dinner
(MUST RSVP BY 3/16/05)

$25.00 per person for the Speakers / Entertainment Only
(RSVP 3/18/05)

Meal entrees include choice of Chicken, Beef, or Fish

Please call 727-817-0950 to reserve your ticket.

- Slade said [Jeb] Bush "does not have the maturity ... and wisdom" to be president, and

- that Bush's administration has been marked by a "dictatorial" style and reluctance to take advice.

- Jeb Bush and his brother President Bush "are arrogant as hell."

Women knelt in prayer and raised their hands to the sky during a rally Sunday set up to urge state legislators and other officials to prevent Friday's court-ordered removal of the feeding tube keeping Terri Schiavo alive.

The Florida Legislature is on the verge of approving a bill that could turn streets into free-fire zones, enabling people to pull out guns and blast away whenever they feel threatened.

this state's Legislature give[] the NRA whatever it wants. That was evident [in 2004] when lawmakers approved (and Gov. Jeb Bush signed) a pair of bills that gave a get-out-of-jail-free card to polluting gun ranges while threatening police officers with jail for keeping records of pawned guns.

What's next? A law making gun ownership mandatory?

He may not be running for president anytime soon, but Jeb[!] Bush proved again last week that he remains a powerful force at the Florida ballot box.

In a Feb. 17 letter to the Christian Coalition, Bush wrote: "I have consistently opposed efforts to expand or increase gambling in Florida because it has a negative impact on the social fabric and economic health of our state."

If there were a jackpot for hypocrisy, the governor would win it.

Because Bush has presided over the growth of the biggest and worst sucker's bet of all: the Florida Lottery.

When Bush took office in January 1999, the Florida Lottery held one weekly Lotto game and five Fantasy 5 drawings a week.

Under his watch, the Lottery has expanded to two weekly Lotto games and a Fantasy 5 drawing every night. It also has added two weekly Megaball drawings. Then there are the nightly Play 4 and Cash 3 games, which pay winning bettors only half of what the odds truly are.

Four years after officials vowed to protect the state's 700 springs with taxpayer dollars, a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers have introduced legislation that could significantly limit development near Florida's largest springs.

The bills, which include language that would place caps on pollution and require local governments to protect recharge areas, stem from work completed by the Silver Springs Working Group, formed in 1998 to improve the quantity of the Marion County tourist attraction.

Legal and legislative experts agree passage will be difficult, given the large land areas that drain into most first and second magnitude springs. As written, the laws could dramatically alter future growth and place greater restrictions on some agricultural practices.

Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings denied a report Saturday that she is planning to announce later this week that she won't run for governor.

One brother, Mario Diaz Balart, a fast-thinking, smooth-talking man with street smarts, looks more South Beach than Capitol Hill. His older brother, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, is a methodical lawyer who wears dark suits, cap-toe shoes and an old-school politician's smile.