Columns

WASHINGTON -- Forget E.F. Hutton. It's P.F. (Pope Francis) these days who, when he talks, people listen.

With 2015 just getting under way, the buzz of political activity makes it seem almost as if we are already in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Gov. Rick Scott has managed to trump the liberal lobby for Big Education by proposing a record funding level for the public schools next year.

With the election of state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, party operatives and consultants are still reeling from his surprise victory over the candidate favored by Gov. Rick Scott and Senate President Andy Gardiner, Leslie Jennings Dougher.

WASHINGTON -- After his third loss, in 1908, as the Democratic presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan enjoyed telling the story of the drunk who three times tried to enter a private club. After being tossed out into the street a third time, the drunk said: "They can't fool me. Those fellows don't want me in there!"

WASHINGTON -- On Sunday, at the great Paris rally, the whole world was Charlie. By Tuesday, the veneer of solidarity was exposed as tissue thin. It began dissolving as soon as the real, remaining Charlie Hebdo put out its post-massacre issue featuring a Muhammad cover that, as The New York Times put it, "reignited the debate pitting free speech against religious sensitivities."

"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it."That maxim of Voltaire was among those most invoked by the marching millions in Sunday's mammoth "Je Suis Charlie" rally in Paris.

WASHINGTON -- Not since the multiplication of the loaves and fishes near the Sea of Galilee has there been creativity as miraculous as that of the Keystone XL Pipeline. It has not yet been built but already is perhaps the most constructive infrastructure project since the Interstate Highway System. It has accomplished an astonishing trifecta:

WASHINGTON -- If we can be serious for a moment: The president made an error in judgment by not sending someone with a higher profile than our ambassador to join world leaders Sunday at a solidarity rally in Paris.

There are likely to be many surprises in a race for the Republican presidential nomination that has something like 20 plausible potential candidates. The first of those surprises came in the last hours before New Year's when Jeb Bush announced he was setting up an exploratory committee to consider running for president.

We are now beginning a new year and, for many Floridians, that signifies a fresh start. We have recovered and recharged from the busy holiday season and, hopefully, we are more optimistic and finding ourselves open to new possibilities, strategies and aspirations.

Ask anyone under 40 to identify Paul McCartney or "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and the odds are you'll get a blank look in return. Ask someone under 30 to describe the Soviet menace and you may well get the same response. The first one is harmless ignorance, and some might argue the second one is as well. After all, it's over and we won, right?

The massacre in Paris of the staff of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was an act of terrorism, but also a successful act of war in the clash of civilizations between Islamism and the West.

Nine months from now, Republican candidates for president will meet on the stage of the Reagan Presidential Library (with the old Air Force One providing great visuals) for the first debate of the 2016 race. It seems likely that among those in attendance will be at least four -- Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush -- who support (or once supported) the Common Core. Republicans are about to find out what's been percolating among the grass roots. Properly undertaken, a debate about Common Core could be healthy for the party and the country. Or it could be an unholy squabble over rumors and bogeymen. We'll see.

WASHINGTON -- We know, because they often say so, that those who think catastrophic global warming is probable and perhaps imminent are exemplary empiricists. They say those who disagree with them are "climate change deniers" disrespectful of science.