At a time when more than 13.9 million Americans are out of work and millions more have quit looking, the craven geniuses in Washington, D.C., have a brilliant two-prong solution: import more immigrant workers and block the deportation of illegal aliens already here.

It's a poor economic plan, and not much of a re-election strategy unless Democrats can get those folks registered to vote. But the president and his handmaidens in Congress are pushing ahead.

Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann say they're skipping the Florida straw vote, but it looks like their names will be on the Sept. 24 poll ballot anyway.

According to the host Republican Party of Florida, all candidates participating in the scheduled Sept. 22 Fox News debate at the Presidency 5 summit will probably be listed on the straw ballot occurring two days later.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign says she does not plan to participate in Florida's Presidency 5 straw poll next month -- dealing another blow to the state Republican Party's quadrennial event.

"Congresswoman Bachmann is working hard with a focus on the 2012 caucuses and primaries. There are no plans for her to take part in any other straw polls, including the Florida poll," Doug Sachtleben, a spokesman for the Minnesota lawmaker, said in an e-mail to Sunshine State News Tuesday.

Florida's Presidency 5 straw poll looms ever-larger now that Rick Perry is in the race and Tim Pawlenty is out.

Pawlenty figured to make a strong showing in the Sept. 24 poll of 3,500 GOP delegates in Orlando. The former Minnesota governor had lined up support from top Sunshine State politicos, including the next three speakers of the Florida House, former Jeb Bush staffer and money man Phil Handy, and omnipresent political guru Justin Sayfie.

But when Pawlenty bowed out after finishing a distant third in the Iowa straw poll, the P5 field opened up.

No matter what happens in Wisconsin's next round of recall elections on Tuesday, Republicans will maintain control of that state's Legislature.