With Washington abuzz that President Barack Obama will name Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court today, a quick glance into the recent past could reveal how the vote will go -- and how Floridas two U.S. senators will vote.

Big political news from the Panhandle. Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, has dropped out of the race to take the state senate currently held by Durrell Peaden. Murzin will instead run for for a county commission seat in Escambia County.

This leaves Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, and Mike Hill, a businessman and West Point graduate, battling it out for the seat.

Well we all make mistakes and I made one in my rush to deadline. In my story on energy and the battle shaping up in the 9th House District between Rep. Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, and former Leon County Democratic chairman Rick Minor, I said, "She may be in for another tough fight in 2010 as Minor's campaign has kept up with her fundraisng efforts the last two quarters."

This should have read "kept up with her fundraising efforts two of the last three quarters."

Can you imagine Bob Dole leaving the U.S. to move to Costa Rica and, after 15 years, making a political comeback in his new home? Me either but that's kind of what is happening in South Florida as former Haitian Senate President Bernard Sansaricq, a powerful figure in Haiti in the 80s and early 90s, attempts to knock off Congressman Alcee Hastings.

Yomin Postelnik, currently running in an interesting Republican field to take the place of Rep. Ellyn Bodanoff, R-Ft. Lauderdale, in the 91st House District,has also been helping out on Sansaricq's bid.

It's all the media's fault, apparently.

Carol Dover, president and CEO of the 10,000-member Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, and others in the hospitality industry blamed an unspecified number of coastal cancellations on reports that the oil spill caused by the explosion and sinking of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig could reach Florida's shores.

"Those who are thinking about canceling your plans for your Florida vacation, please don't," she said.

Congressman Kendrick Meek is not the only candidate taking aim at Jeff Greene. Now former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, who is running against Meek and Greene in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, is also taking shots at the billionaire who made his fortune in real estate investments.

"It's appalling enough that Jeff Greene made his money off of the misfortune of hard-working Floridians," said Ferre on Thursday. "It's even more insulting that he thinks he can use his loot to buy their votes."

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and a group of key Democratic lawmakers proposed Thursday to ask voters in November to ban off-shore oil and natural gas drilling in Florida waters.

At a press conference in St. Petersburg, Democrats called on Gov. Charlie Crist to hold a special legislative session to give lawmakers a chance to add a Constitutional amendment banning the drilling to the November ballot. Sink, a Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, was joined by Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Keith Kitzgerald, D-Sarasota.

Republican Aaron Bean, a former state representative from Fernandina Beach, waged a brief campaign in the special election for the 8th district state senate last year. Bean pulled out of the race to back the eventual winner, John Thrasher.

But Bean did not fold up his campaign and is in the process of transferring his campaign over to the 5th district senate seat-currently held by Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, who is leaving due to term limits.

Saying he had been pushing the issue long before former Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox entered the race to be Floridas next commissioner of agriculture and consumer services, Rick Minton, a former state representative commented on his opposition to off shore drilling today. Minton and Maddox are both running in the Democratic primary.

Minton said that offshore drilling would damage Floridas tourist and agriculture economies with little benefits in return.

With 5,000 barrels of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico daily, empty tables and rooms might be in the future for the state's coastal restaurants and hotels. And the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association wants residents to know it.

Carol Dover, president of the 10,000-member Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, will be speaking in Pensacola on Thursday about the tourism industry's worries about the possible impact of the spill that followed the explosion of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig.