The Florida First Amendment Foundation luncheon today attracted a healthy turnout of political leaders and journalists. Notably absent: Gov. Charlie Crist, who is a two-time winner of the foundation's Pete Weitzel Friend of the First Amendment Award, and Attorney General Bill McCollum.
Keynote speakers were Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and CFO Alex Sink, a Democrat, both of whom are candidates for governor. Most members of the House and Senate leadership were in attendance.
Comments are now closed.
After the Florida Legislature gets through this session, and does whatever it must to fill a $3 billion budget gap, what then?
Lawmakers may congratulate themselves on not raising taxes, but several big initiatives will be left undone or unrealized.
Sen. George LeMieux broke ranks with Gov. Charlie Crist, saying he would not have voted for the Stimulus package, "now that we see how little of that money has stimulated the economy."
In John Kerry-esque fashion, the man Crist appointed to fill Mel Martinez's seat said he was for the Stimulus before he was against it.
Comments are now closed.
The political commentariat doesn't know what to make of those thousands of Americans who have spontaneously thronged to tea parties and town hall meetings to oppose the big government programs of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders.
[Friday] night I sat amongst 1,300 dedicated Republicans and listened to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin address the Orange County Republicans' Lincoln Day Dinner.
Questions on port issues, employment and taxes dominated Gov. Charlie Crists town hall meeting Friday at Florida State College at Jacksonvilles South Campus.
Though the governor came to Jacksonville to talk about legislation, he also faced questions about his U.S. Senate campaign.
Im not concerned with the polls, Crist said, when asked about recent polls released by Public Policy Polling and Insider Advantage/Florida Times Union showing him losing to former House Speaker Marco Rubio by more than 30 percentage points.
Though Bush 41 and Bush 43 often disagreed, one issue did unite them both with Bill Clinton: protectionism.
Globalists all, they rejected any federal measure to protect America's industrial base, economic independence or the wages of U.S. workers.
Together they rammed through NAFTA, brought America under the World Trade Organization, abolished tariffs and granted Chinese-made goods unrestricted access to the immense U.S. market.
