As the state's Democrats huddle within sight of the Magic Kingdom for their annual convention this weekend, the promise of a fairy tale return to power is the buzz of the faithful.

Again.

It's been a dismal decade for Florida Democrats, who in the past 10 years have lost the governor's seat, all of the Cabinet and control of the state House and Senate, where they are now outnumbered 2-to-1.

The bottom came last year when the state not only failed to avenge the narrow victory by President George W. Bush in the historic 2000 election but also lost the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring party legend Bob Graham.

For some Democrats, optimism is bred by the reality that up is the only way to go.

contains a gaping loophole, "one big enough to drive a Mack truck through," said Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Dania Beach.

Observers speculated it would be only a matter of time before lawmakers and lobbyists learned to use the growing number of soft-money fundraising committees, and the practice of moving money through political parties, to allow lobbyists to continue currying favor with lawmakers.

For example, a lawmaker dining with a lobbyist could pick up the dinner tab but then accept a check to one of the lawmaker's fundraising accounts that can accept unlimited donations. The lawmaker could then reimburse himself.

"It's such a farce," said Keith Arnold, a former Democratic lawmaker from Fort Myers who lobbies for a hospice group and local governments. "This is window-dressing at its best. It's pandering to the press and public."

Mike Mahoney, a venture capitalist who lives in rural Highlands County, says he's going after Foley. Even though Foley has the power of incumbency, Mahoney said he is more than ready to take Foley on. ...

Showing that Mahoney isn't just a token candidate, as Foley has mostly face in his re-elections, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was in the district last week promoting him. Rahm Emanuel has donated money to Mahoney already through a political action committee he runs.

Washington insiders classify the district as a solid Republican district, but Mahoney said when the district sees Foley's voting record they may look for change. ...

This continues a growing trend in Florida. Even in districts where Republicans are favored, Democrats are putting forth stronger candidates than they have in the past.

"It sends a very bad message," Karen Thurman, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, said of Cobb's appointment. "She has no experience with elections and her background is with the party. She's a political appointment." ...

Federal records show Chuck Cobb has contributed $130,000 to Republicans over the past three years, including $75,000 to the Republican National Committee.

Nearly five years after the U.S. Supreme Court halted Florida's 2000 presidential recount over concerns about inconsistent standards, lawyers argued over the meaning of the Bush vs. Gore decision Wednesday in another recount dispute.

A three-judge federal appeals panel listened to Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's claims that the paperless electronic voting systems used in 15 Florida counties violate the constitutional equal-protection rights of voters because they don't allow manual recounts, which are possible in the 52 Florida counties where paper ballots are read by optical scanners.

Like his brother's Christmas cards, Gov. Jeb Bush's holiday card skirts the word Christmas, instead wishing its recipients "every happiness for this season and throughout the coming year."

The card, paid for by the Republican Party of Florida, features a Belleview 10th grader's depiction of children 'watering and nurturing the 'tree of peace."

It came as a bit of a letdown to Orlando's Matt Staver, president of the Liberty Counsel, which is among the religious groups seeking to put the "Merry Christmas" back into Christmas.

"I certainly am disappointed that the president and the governor can't acknowledge the national holiday that we're celebrating,'' Staver said. ``Just to generalize the holiday is a little distressing."

Doctors and safety-net hospital groups raised concerns Monday that the broad Medicaid reforms advocated by Gov. Jeb Bush could do more to discourage health-care competition than create it. ...

Bush and Republican legislators want to give most of Florida's 2.2 million Medicaid enrollees to managed care providers to improve access to specialty networks and contain the program's spiraling $15 billion cost.

Turning the heat up a notch in the Republican gubernatorial campaign, Tom Gallagher's campaign on Monday chastised Charlie Crist as inconsistent and ambiguous about expanded gambling in Florida.

"Once again Charlie Crist is taking multiple and contradictory positions on an issue important to Republican voters," Gallagher campaign spokesman Albert Martinez said of Crist's stance on whether a constitutional amendment allowing slot machines in Broward County should be repealed.

Gallagher's shot at Crist came on the opening day of a five-day special session in which lawmakers are supposed to write rules to implement a voter initiative that passed last year allowing slots in Broward. Gallagher casts himself as the true social conservative in the race and his campaign depicts Crist as a frequent waffler.

John Thrasher, a close Bush ally and House Speaker in 1999 and 2000, said the average Floridian won't appreciate the trickle-down effects of the tax cuts.

"The average person is not going to go back and do the economic theories to understand that cutting taxes across the board for businesses is going to help the economy continue in a positive direction," he said.

University of Massachusetts economists rates Florida 49th in job quality. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the state ranks 47th for its percentage of residents with health coverage and 49th in pension coverage. Those low-paying jobs are dangerous, too. Only California had more workers die on the job last year.

Florida's job growth rate of 3.3 percent is more than double the national average but it also reflects Florida's status as a haven for cheap labor and employers who exploit workers ....

Medicaid and slots are the only sanctioned subjects of this week's special session of the Legislature, but other issues could make it onto the agenda.

Compensation for a wrongly convicted Brevard County man, new ethics rules for lobbyists and additional judges for Southwest Florida are likely to be taken up.

If legislators pass the biggest overhaul of Medicaid in the state's history this week, part of their vote - at least as matters stand now - will have to be based on faith.

The key change proposed for the Florida Medicaid system is to switch from an open-ended payment system to one where the state will pay managed-care organizations a predetermined, capped premium for each beneficiary.

But the state's Agency for Health Care Administration, which has been working on Gov. Jeb Bush's reform proposal for more than a year, still has not calculated just what those premiums will be.

And it doesn't expect to before the end of the special session called for this week in large part to pass the Medicaid reform.

Not surprisingly, many administrative details are uncertain as Florida prepares an unprecedented change to its Medicaid program starting July 1. But when the Legislature meets today in a special session to enact the first stages of Medicaid privatization, it will not have the key factor: the budget. ...

Senators have approached the change with appropriate caution. The uncertainty in the proposal has stoked fears among patients, and the absence of crucial financial details does not inspire confidence that the change will benefit beneficiaries - or even significantly help the state's bottom line. It's no wonder that lawmakers can't convince Floridians that the coming Medicaid changes are good. They have yet to be convinced themselves.

County officials face a Jan. 1 deadline to buy handicapped-accessible voting machines. They can opt for touch-screen equipment manufactured by Diebold (the same company that makes the elections equipment the county already owns) but that don't produce paper ballots. Or they can scrap the entire system and turn to a Diebold competitor, Election Systems & Software.

Bad faith on the part of state officials seems to be forcing the county toward the second, more expensive purchase -- the option Council Chairman Frank Bruno already advocates. Council members have a right to be furious at state election officials' reluctance to certify more reliable machines.

There's a case to be made for defying federal and state mandates and taking the matter to court. The county stands to lose $700,000 in federal money if it doesn't meet the deadline set by the Help America Vote Act, but it's less than the county would spend to buy any handicapped-accessible system. The next election will be nine and a half months away by the time the council meets to discuss elections equipment, so there's time -- just barely -- to seek an injunction forcing the state to approve a paper-ballot system.

Mike Fasano of New Port Richey is as loyal a Republican as they come, but when he looks at Florida's political landscape next year, he can't help but worry about how voters will view the party running state government.

"Absolutely I'm concerned," Fasano said in a TV interview airing today. "Consumers, all of us, will be paying an extra $16 almost each month on our electric bill. Telephone rates will rise by 20 to 25 percent this month. ... They have carte blanche now ... to raise rates. Homeowner premiums are going through the roof. It's not a Republican issue, and it's not a Democratic issue. It's a state government issue to get this under control."

Fasano even suggested voters take a hard look at state lawmakers who backed a controversial 2003 bill that is raising local telephone rates for millions of Floridians.

[w]hen the private, nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research examined California's switch to Medicaid HMOs, it found the change brought "a substantial increase in government spending but no observable improvement in health outcomes, thus apparently reducing the efficiency of this large government program." That "cast doubt on the hypothesis that HMO contracting has reduced the strain on government budgets."