Florida Democrats over the weekend took aim at the Republican Party, arguing that the GOP -- which has dominated elections in the Sunshine State in recent years -- drew from the political fringe.
At the state party convention in Orlando, Democrat Bill Nelson, the senior U.S. senator from the Sunshine State, said Saturday he agreed with remarks Vice President Joe Biden made about the state of the Republican Party.
Ina speech to the convention on Friday night, Biden said the GOP had transformed, noting that the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls and the likes of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., did not congratulate President Barack Obama after the fall of the Gadhafi regime in Libya and the death of that strongman.
This is not your fathers Republican Party, Biden said in the speech.
Sitting down with Sunshine State News on Saturday, Nelson, who is running for a third term in 2012, said he agreed with Biden that the Republican Party has changed. Nelson pointed to the defeat of U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett in the 2010 Utah Republican convention and to the serious primary challenge facing longtime U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.
Nelson addressed the same theme in a speech at the convention later on Saturday, once again citing the examples of Bennett and Lugar.
You think about how politics has changed, Nelson said, insisting that Republicans are more concerned with playing politics than in leading the nation back to economic recovery.
Nelson said Republicans are acting irresponsibly and attempted to contrast it with the relationship between Ronald Reagan and Tip ONeil during the 1980s.
Repeating Bidens quote about this is not your fathers Republican Party, Nelson offered harsh words for current Republicans. This is a strange kind of extremist, said Nelson, who held a campaign rally with Bob Graham, the former governor and U.S. senator, on Saturday night.
Nelson was not the only Democrat to attack Republicans on Saturday as being on the political fringe.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, took aim at Gov. Rick Scott in a speech at the convention earlier on Saturday.
Wasserman Schultz attacked Scott, pointing to his low poll numbers, and called for Democrats to pink slip Rick in 2014.
The South Florida Democrat also offered a preview of the game plan Democrats will be using in 2012. Bashing Republicans as fanatics who are controlled by the tea party, Wasserman Schultz slammed Republicans standing in the way of progress more concerned about defeating President Barack Obama than creating jobs.
Wasserman Schultz also bashed former President George W. Bushs record on the economy and insisted that Obama had saved the nation from entering a depression -- despite the national unemployment rate going from 7.6 percent in January 2009, when Obama took office, to 9.1 percent in September 2011.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
