Orlando 'Slantinel' News Columnists Regurgitate Democratic Pablum

When did Scott Maxwell land on the Democratic Party payroll? The Orlando Sentinel columnist checked Marco Rubio's "baggage" and purportedly found it loaded with political time bombs just waiting to be detonated by Democratic spinmeisters.

Maxwell's bill of Rubio's infractions and his media strategy for attacking the Republican Senate candidate read like Democratic Party talking points. Maxwell's piece looked particularly weak as it appeared below a real Sentinel news story -- about a GOP audit pointing to rival Charlie Crist's role in the state party's financial meltdown.

Memo to Maxwell: If Rubio has "baggage," it's a Gucci man bag. Crist is hauling a stinky streamer trunk.

On the same page, Mike Thomas took a similarly partisan bent, attacking the Republican Legislature for practicing "chaos theory" on the class-size reduction issue.

Nice headline, but the facts suggest otherwise. Even Thomas acknowledged the reality when he noted that the Florida Education Association is the No. 1 opponent to flexing rigid and costly class-size formulas.

Fact is, Floridians voted for the class-size program and they should have the right to reconsider its skyrocketing expenses. The Legislature gives voters that chance on Nov. 2, assuming the courts don't cave to the FEA.

Had lawmakers unilaterally changed the class-size law, you can bet Crist and his pals at the teachers union would have milked that for all it's worth. What would the Slantinel scribes have said then?