Lucy Morgan - "I've tried to think of something else that looks as ugly as the Florida Legislature this week. Words fail me." See "Happy to fiddle as budget consumes".
In The Meantime, Bush Is AWOL - And where is our great leader while Tallahassee - Bush's GOP run Tallahassee - is in shambles? Why he's off giving the keynote address to the NRA. This is typical of our Governor; as described last week in the Palm Beach Post: "As Tallahassee fiddles, Jeb burns airplane fuel". And as the Daytona Beach News-Journal observes today: Florida "can't afford a governor who does nothing while the House fiddles and the Senate burns"
Democrat Poised To Break King - Byrd Budget Deadlock - Irv Slosberg, a Dem representative from Boca Raton "has somehow become a savior of sorts for this Republican-controlled legislative session." Even Speaker "Byrd, . . . has nicknamed Slosberg his 'idea man'". See "Lawmaker sees balanced budget in bad drivers".
We "Can't Afford" It, But That's What We're Getting - "Florida can't afford the arrogant blindness that showers largesse on the powerful while ignoring the acute needs of Florida's children and seniors, the sick and the needy." See "Budget brink".
Probably Not What The Voters Intended - "Promising to take public education in a new direction, the Republican-dominated Florida House on Friday approved a class size reduction package that relies heavily on the use of vouchers and reduced high school graduation requirements." See "House approves bill to cut class sizes".
As Ron Littlepage puts it: ""Republicans in the House are trying to twist the class-size amendment into a rationale for making school vouchers available to just about everyone, which would pretty well be the end of the state's public school system. Oh, that's right. That's what they want."
House GOP Plan Would "Forever Cripple" Conservation Efforts - "The state House's budget pulls the plug on conservation funding in Florida. This is not a one-time cutback during a tough fiscal year. The House plan would forever cripple the state's efforts to protect natural resources from being overwhelmed by growth." See "Sabotaging Conservation Funding".
And If That Weren't Enough . . . The "House Budget Would Punish Public School Students" - "House Speaker Johnnie Byrd dismisses warnings by school superintendents that his proposed budget will force massive cuts in public school programs. He says that it's all a ruse to avoid belt-tightening and that the House budget simply requires everyone to live `within our means.'
"But such facile platitudes won't change the direct impacts his budget will have on students, teachers and parents. Here's the reality: The House budget dramatically cuts education dollars at the same time school districts must contend with mushrooming student numbers, higher insurance rates, increased pension contributions and an array of increased costs, from security to special education."
The St Pete Times puts it this way: "Here's what it would mean: fewer classroom aides, security officers, guidance counselors, nurses, textbooks and computers. School districts in every corner of Florida would be forced to cut tutoring and teacher training programs, reduce aid to students with special needs and slow school desegregation efforts. This is no way for a growing state to prepare to compete in the 21st century."
Well, That's A Relief - "The Florida Commission on Ethics ruled Thursday that legislators can join lobbying law firms, as long as they don't personally twist any arms for clients." See "Lobbying law firm adds legislator".
Foley's Achilles Heel - He's No Rick Santorum - "Mark Foley, who is running for U.S. Senate, has a great Republican voting record during all of his nine years in the House. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gives him a 95 percent rating. The American Conservative Union says he voted their way 92 percent of the time last year. The National Taxpayers Union gives him a B-minus. He's an advocate of gun ownership. He supports George W. almost all the time. Foley, R-West Palm Beach, is the perfect Republican primary candidate except for one aspect of his voting record: gay rights."
"He has a terrific record on gay rights, better than many Democrats. That could be a problem among some Republicans. Foley is a co-sponsor of the gay rights bill pending in Congress that would ban job discrimination based on sexual orientation" See "Anti-gay forces could derail Foley's Senate bid".
Apparently the Florida GOP would rather have a Rick Santorum, whose recent remarks Leonard Pitts, Jr. aptly descibed as follows: "it's only in the most charitable interpretation of his remarks that Santorum is a mere bigot. A harsher reading suggests that he is something arguably worse -- a crass opportunist, pandering to the fears and hatreds of his core constituency. He scores points in their eyes at a cost that he apparently deems minimal. Meaning the ire of an objectified and marginalized minority whose votes he had little chance of winning and whose antipathy carries no political price."
Everglades - "A move that could delay the cleanup of Florida's Everglades by a decade won preliminary approval from the Florida Senate late Friday, with few questions asked and no apparent opposition. The measure, developed with a push from the sugar industry, is on a fast track as the legislative session enters its final days." See "'Glades cleanup delay looks likely".
There is no real surprise in all of this: "Bush, who occasionally masquerades as an environmentalist, is showing his true colors again, and they aren't green."
In the meantime, the "White House enters Glades dispute". Side note: Florida's DEP secretary David Struhs' wife's brother is White House chief of staff Andrew Card (in the referenced story, Charles Lee, senior vice president of Audubon suggests that Struhs has used his influence with his wife's brother, Card, "to quell dissent at the federal level").
The DCF Firings - "Regier, who took over the embattled DCF with a vow to give workers renewed support, came off looking like a leader ready to sacrifice employees at the drop of a hat - or the mere whisper of a miffed politician." See "Unfair punishment at DCF".