In a refreshing bit of theater, Lawrence O'Donnell, a host on left-leaning MSNBC, tangled with lame-duck Rep. Alan Grayson over tax rates. Lobbing a volley of friendly fire, O'Donnell asked the soon-to-be-ex-congressman who would suffer most if the Bush tax rates were not continued. Grayson, who is urging his fellow Democrats to reject the compromise reached by President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, confidently replied that upper-income earners would bear the brunt of the resulting tax increase on Jan. 1.

Count Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Posey as a fan of Space X -- the first private company to launch a spacecraft around the planets orbit. This is a great moment in commercial spaceflight, said Posey on Thursday. I offer my sincere congratulations to the Space X team, and their founder Elon Musk.What they achieved yesterday -- the successful launch and recovery of the space capsule -- is not only a significant step forward, but it is a historic achievement for a commercial firm. This bodes well for Americas future in space.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown weighed in on Thursday when it was announced that $342 million in federal funds would be headed to Florida -- instead of to Ohio and Wisconsin as was originally planned -- for high-speed rail projects.

The DREAM Act has been tabled in the Senate as key Republicans show no sign of backing it -- including U.S. Sen. George LeMieux from Florida.

No surprise here as he was the ranking member before they won the majority, but U.S. Rep. John Mica was selected by his fellow Republicans in Congress to chair the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure -- giving a Floridian the gavel over the committee overseeing highways, aviations, rail, maritime shipping and the Coast Guard, among other tasks. We must begin immediately to address the significant needs and challenges facing our nations infrastructure, and create jobs, said Mica.

Though the military won't be increasing its numbers significantly in the Sunshine State, it certainly is about to upgrade its visibility, particularly in South Florida. In a story reported Thursday in Florida Trend magazine, by year's end the whole of the U.S. Southern Command -- that's 2,300 military, civilian and contractor employees -- will move into a $402 million campus in Doral.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney weighed in on Thursday regarding the House passing the DREAM Act. Rooney voted againstthe measure which is now heading to the Senate. Immigration reform must start with securing our borders, upholding the law, and rewarding those who follow the rules, said Rooney. The DREAM Act would provide an incentive for individuals to come here illegally, undermine the rule of law, and move rule-breakers to the front of the line.

With the House sending the DREAM Act to the Senate on Wednesday, Republicans who voted against the measure continued to take aim at it after it was passed.

Some fiscal conservatives are bemoaning U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., being named chairman of the House Appropriations Committee -- but Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, a member of the committee, pledged to work with the new chair while still fighting for small government.

The DREAM Act passed the U.S. House with a close vote on Wednesday night: 216in favor and 198 against. One of the votes against came from Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, who weighed in after the vote.

At the Capitol on Wednesday, Florida TaxWatch released 125 recommendations to cut around $4 billion from the state budget -- days after the expected budget shortfall of $3-to-$3.5 billion was announced for the next fiscal year. Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, presented the report containing the recommendations to incoming Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll who accept it on behalf of incoming Gov. Rick Scott. More than 40 Floridians from the private sector, higher education and government worked six months on the report.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller was chosen on Wednesday to chair the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was selected on Wednesday to chair the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The move was widely expected as Ros-Lehtinen served as the ranking Republican. The most senior woman in the Republican congressional ranks and the first Hispanic woman ever elected to Congress, Ros-Lehtinen was born in Cuba and earned her doctorate in education at the University of Miami. First elected to Congress in 1988, she represents parts of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, including most of Miami and all of the Keys.

Jon Gruden is on the clock as the early favorite to succeed Urban Meyer at the University of Florida. Gruden, an ESPN analyst and former NFL coach, has said he was not interested in the University of Miami job in the wake of Randy Shannon's firing last month. But Gator Nation may have stronger pull. Other top prospects include a phalanx of former UF assistant coaches, including Mississippi State's Dan Mullen.

A private rocket that blasted off from Cape Canaveral Wednesday morning successfully completed its two-orbit mission around Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean three hours later. The unmanned Falcon 9 rocket, built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp., deployed a capsule that made a soft landing 500 miles west of the California-Mexico border just after 2 p.m. ET, according to USA Today. Orbiting at 186 miles above Earth, the Space X craft's successful test marks another step toward its eventual goal of supplying the International Space Station.