With a recent poll from Fox News showing his bid for the Republican presidential nomination garnering less than 1 percent, former Louisiana Gov. Charles Buddy Roemer went on the attack on Thursday, blasting the leadership of President Barack Obama.

The president's policies are truly meandering through the wilderness, said Roemer on Thursday. The time is now for a true American leader, not the administration that most people are having buyer's remorse over."

An early morning hearing for the lawsuit brought against Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature for requiring state employees and other local government workers to contribute 3 percent of their salary to their retirement plans has been delayed until the afternoon.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis is the grandson of Greek immigrants and serves as a co-chairman of the Hellenic Caucus in Congress. But looking at the collapse of the Greek economy and recent actions of that European nations government, Bilirakis said there was a lesson here that the U.S. should heed.

Sen. Don Gaetz, unofficially tapped to be the next Florida Senate president after Mike Haridopolos' term expires in 2012, will get the official title of Senate president-designate during a ceremony scheduled for Sept. 19 at the Capitol.

Gaetz is one of the most powerful Republican leaders in the Senate, and chairs the Redistricting Committee.

A poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, showed Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson ahead of three leading Republican candidates who remain mostly unknown.

With Republicans beginning a push for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida joined his GOP colleagues in backing the idea on Wednesday.

Washingtons massive spending and fiscal mismanagement has gone on long enough, and it is time for a balanced budget amendment to be enshrined in our Constitution, said Rubio. Our unsustainable debt and ever-rising deficits are not victimless practices -- they cause uncertainty that is actively killing jobs and threatening to leave future generations stuck with the bill.

Gov. Rick Scott's poll numbers are in the basement, leaving some Republicans to get skittish about how he might affect the 2012 elections, but so far he doesn't have to worry about a primary challenge in 2014 when his current term runs out.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, thought by some to be the next likely Republican gubernatorial candidate after Scott's run is over, played down the notion that he would attempt to unseat Scott in 2014.

The Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit alleging Gov. Rick Scott overstepped his constitutional authority in issuing an executive order halting new agency rules from being finalized until they had his approval.

Floridians who will spend their Independence Day weekend glued to the television may come across a new ad from Priorities USA Action, a PAC backing Democrats, which is running ads responding to Karl Roves American Crossroads PAC launching ads against President Barack Obama. The ads will be running in Florida as well as Colorado, Iowa and Virginia, and they hammer Republicans on Medicare, education, and accuse the GOP of trying to tear down the middle class.

Mike McCalister, a businessman and retired Army officer, made it official on Wednesday by formally entering the Republican primary contest to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012. McCalister, who took more than 10 percent when he ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, was widely expected to enter the race and had been hitting the Sunshine State for months.