Columns

With the party united, the odds are now at least even that the GOP will not only hold the House but also capture the Senate in November.But before traditional conservatives cheer that prospect, they might take a closer look at the foreign policy that a Republican Senate would seek to impose upon the nation.

In Florida, historians generally agree that the 1960 Census -- and the subsequent legislatively proposed reapportionment plans crafted during the decade -- paved the way for the most significant governance change in state history.

In the last several weeks, I've heard people confidently declare that the 70 percent of Jewish-Americans who voted for Obama are finally sorry. I'm skeptical, but even if they are, they're probably telling themselves that Hillary Clinton would be a better friend to the Jewish state than the current president.

Last week, Nancy Smith of Sunshine State News wrote a piece regarding an IRS complaint filed by an individual against Annette Taddeo, running mate of Charlie Crist; Juan Cuba, executive director of the Miami-Dade DEC; and 537 Consulting LLC, a company formed by Juan Cuba and Rachel Johnson, designed to pay Miami-Dade DEC workers, including Juan Cuba, as independent contractors.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- "Are you kidding?" This is Monica Wehby's amiable response to people who wonder whether she will be able to bear the pressures of office if she wins her race as a Republican Senate candidate. For 17 of her 52 years she has been a pediatric neurosurgeon, holding in steady hands sharp steel and the fate of children's brains. She probably can cope with the strains of legislative life.

WASHINGTON -- The president's demeanor is worrying a lot of people. From the immigration crisis on the Mexican border to the Islamic State rising in Mesopotamia, Barack Obama seems totally detached. When he does interrupt his endless rounds of golf, fundraising and photo ops, it's for some affectless, mechanical, almost forced public statement.

Apparently, if you speak out about things in the Florida Democratic Party, you have to be working for Rick Scott, or some other Republican group.

Anyone who thinks the cultural left is going to stop its political correctness with the Washington Redskins isn't reading USA Today. On the top of their Sports front page on July 22, the paper reported on activists taking a stand against "redface," championing a group called Eradicating Offensive Indian Mascotry.

MENLO PARK, Calif. -- Fifty Julys ago, up the road near San Francisco, in the unfortunately named Cow Palace, the Republican National Convention gave its presidential nomination to Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, who knew he would lose: Americans were not going to have a third president in 14 months. Besides, his don't-fence-me-in libertarian conservatism was ahead of its time. His agenda, however, was to change his party's national brand.

The campaign for speaker of the Florida House of Representatives for the 1978-'80 term was more closely watched than normal.

In a recent confrontation between protesters against the illegal flood of unaccompanied children into the United States and counterprotests by some Hispanic group, one man from the latter group said angrily, "We are as good as you are!"

Now that the story about a suspect contract Annette Taddeo, as chair of the Miami-Dade DEC, made with her executive director, Juan Cuba, is out, and while the likes of Pam Bondi, and whoever else, is looking into said contract (as well she should), I have a rather pressing question.

"Why do you think President Obama's job rating is falling, even though the economy is recovering?" the interviewer asked.It's a fair question, even though the economy declined 2.9 percent in the first quarter, even though most jobs created in June were part-time, and even though labor force participation remains low.

Liberal megadonor Tom Steyer, failing to raise any significant outside money for his global warming super-PAC, turned to one of his San Francisco neighbors for a million-dollar check. It was Herb Sandler, the subprime mortgage lender at the heart of the housing crisis, and like Steyer a huge hypocrite.

An election is coming. The indicator is not the number of robins or the actions of a groundhog, but the fact that liberals are dealing race cards right and left.