Columns

Republican agriculture commissioner candidate Matt Caldwell sure got my attention Friday when he told "hate group" Bullsugar.org what they could do with their "candidate questionnaire."

The technical meaning of draining a swamp is to keep mosquito populations low to combat malaria and removing dangerous reptiles. Draining the swamp is an appropriate metaphor for Washington D.C. and state capitols.

A year before a crazed shooter massacred five newsroom workers at the Annapolis Capital Gazette on June 28, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn mused publicly about gunning down journalists.

As President Trump prepares to announce his replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Democrats are desperate to block the president's nominee -- but are powerless to so. They have no one to blame but themselves. Let's take a moment to recall the sordid 15-year history of Democratic miscalculations that brought them to this point.

If Bill Nelson didn't know he was in trouble before, he did when his campaign added up the depressing figures coming to light involving Hispanic voter preferences. Especially those reported this week in the National Journal.  

It's just a little story and I might not have felt the need to tell it if any of the mainstream media who witnessed it had written about it or filmed it -- if for no other reason than to balance their liberal-biased stories about last week's Sunshine Summit.

Democrats have a new theory for how they can win back Congress and the White House. Just like "soccer moms" helped put Bill Clinton in the Oval Office in 1996, and "NASCAR dads" helped George W. Bush win in 2004, Donald Trump, the theory goes, was elected because of "#NeverHillary" voters who didn't particularly like him but despised her. Axios reports that Democrats are targeting the "20% of Trump's voters [who] told exit pollsters they didn't like him" hoping these reluctant Trump voters will help power a "blue wave" in the 2018 midterms and defeat President Trump in 2020.

James Monroe, the Founding Father who had the most impact on Florida, died on July 4, 1831, the 55th anniversary of the country he spent decades service as a young officer in George Washington’s army until his two terms as our fifth president. A strange coincidence but one that was overshadowed by the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence they played a large role in creating. 

Time and again national pollsters insist on reporting how NRA members and other gun owners feel about gun control.  Don’t believe a word of it.  

This past weekend Florida Democrats convened at the Hollywood Diplomat for their big-ticket fundraiser.

The Florida Democratic Party is going all-in on marginalization of its progressive wing, risking its only statewide officeholder, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, any chance of recapturing the governorship, and pickup opportunities in the Florida Legislature.

It was far too easy to assume the worst -- that the inevitable, finally, had come to pass.

For those conservatives who voted for Donald Trump because of the Supreme Court, congratulations: You've been vindicated.

Increasingly as a society, we seem to descend into the dark maelstrom of incivility. Civil discourse has coarsened to the extent we grow concerned that common understanding of complex and vexing societal issues becomes impossible.