Winner and loser of the week

Winner of the week: Charlie Crist. Raising an eye-popping $4.3-million for his Republican U.S. Senate campaign, Gov. Charlie Crist surely quelled what had been the growing buzz about the threat from Republican Marco Rubio.

Loser of the week: Carol Browner. For years Lawton Chiles' old Department of Environmental Protection Secretary has been talked about as a potential statwide candidate in Florida. But Browner stuck around Washington instead and now that she's President Obama's energy csar she looks increasingly like a conflicted creature of the beltway: Her husband lobbied for firms pushing to drill near Florida's coast, and now Republican congressman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin is questioning her transparency amid reports that Browner's people pushed auto executives to "put nothing in writing, ever," as they hammered out plans to increase fuel standards.

Jeb Bush, the future of the GOP?

In an interview with Esquire, Jeb Bush defends intellectualism and social conservativsm and manages to avoid ticking off Rush Limbaugh while lamenting his party's damaging rhetoric on immigration. Worthwhile to read the whole thing.

Here's his case against Barack Obama: It's important for people who have a different view to explain the breathtaking, dramatic expansion of government. I mean, breathtaking. Unprecedented. This year's fiscal deficit will be $1.8 trillion. It's his deficit. He owns it. $1.8 trillion. That's 12 percent of our gross national product. The scope of government will — when you add federal, state and local government on a net basis — consume at least a third of our economic activity. The deficits projected go out as far as the eye can see. President Obama says he will cut the deficit in half. Well, he'll cut it from $1.8 trillion to $900 billion — almost a trillion based on rosy GNP numbers for the next five years. The debt that will be created in his four years as president will exceed the debt that was created by all presidents before him. These are numbers that once people understand the scale of them, they'll be very concerned about. What's the alternative? The alternative is to take time-tested practices and convert them to the world we live in. Which means you're going to cut taxes and cut spending.

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Obama gives shout out to FP&L

In touting the energy bill before Congress yesterday President Obama touted clean energy as a job creater and cited Florida Power & Light's solar projects in Florida: "In Florida, three new solar projects are expected to employ 1,400 people."

GOP senator: Stimulus money for Florida turtles

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma will present a report Tuesday questioning 100 uses of federal stimulus money, including a $3.4-million tunnel underneath U.S. Highway 27 near Tallahassee to protect turtles and other forms of wildlife.

The report by Coburn, a doctor, is entitled A Second Opinion on the Stimulus. White House officials moved to debunk the report, questioning its accuracy or saying Coburn was motivated by ideology. A report noting the "turtle tunnel" is in Tuesday's L.A. Times.

Martinez liking Sotomayor

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said he's withholding judgment on the would-be Supreme Court justice until after her Senate hearings, but he sounded pretty high on Sonia Sotomayor after meeting with her Tuesday.

Martinez, the first Cuban-born member of the Senate and its only Hispanic Republican, spent 30 minutes with Sotomayor, who would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Afterward, he said he found her likable and sharp.

"I should say I am very, very impressed with her, not only her personal qualities, but her understanding of the role of the judiciary and the role of a judge," said Martinez, a lawyer.

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GOP legislators pressed on taking stimulus money

Four Pinellas County legislators found themselves explaining why they, as Republicans, voted to use President Obama's stimulus money this spring at the county GOP's monthly meeting Monday night. Sen. Dennis Jones and Reps. Jim Frishe, Ed Hooper and Peter Nehr said state cuts to education and health care would have been too drastic without accepting the stimulus money.

More on Bay Buzz

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Obama's Hispanic strategy for Florida

Former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre argues that Obama's (and maybe Alex Sink's and Kendrick Meek's) path to winning Florida again is by pushing immigration reform and the ''Puerto Rico Democracy Act":

How will Obama carry Florida in 2012? The same way he carried it in 2008 by almost 380,000 votes -- a 600,000-plus Democratic swing from Bush's 2004 victory. According to Democratic strategist and pollster Sergio Bendixen, the Obama Florida victory number included a plurality Latino vote of more than 200,000.

By 2012 there will be almost one million Puerto Ricans in Florida, all U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans are the political opposites of Cuban Americans, voting more than two-to-one Democratic. What happens if by 2012 instead of 300,000 registered Puerto Ricans, the goal of 500,000 Puerto Rican voters in Florida is met? If Florida votes for Obama in 2012, along with California, New York and the Southwest, there is little doubt who will dominate presidential politics for years: Democrats.

Sotomayor gambles in Florida

Surely this will endear Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee to Charlie Crist: A financial disclosure report released Thursday showed that on Nov. 23, Sonia Sotomayor won $8,283, hitting the jackpot at an undisclosed Florida casino while gambling with her 81-year-old mother from Margate.

Buzz's five questions for Karl Koch

The latest celebrity guest for our Five Questions series is veteran Democratic strategist Karl Koch, who weighs in on the political landscape in Florida.

Crist, Rubio react to Obama's Supreme Court pick

UPDATE: Marco Rubio decides to respond after all: "I look forward to hearing more about Judge Sotomayor and her views about the proper role of the courts and judicial activism. The role the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution, not to make law.  Given this, I am deeply concerned about Judge Sotomajor’s past comment that the courts are ‘where policy is made’ and look forward to hearing her explanation and defense of that view.

"Judge Sotomayor deserves a fair hearing and respectful treatment, but there is much in her legal background that is troubling and demands scrutiny and honest discussion. I hope that a serious examination of her record and beliefs will not be shelved or cast aside simply so Democrats can attempt to claim political credit for a ‘historic’ court nomination."

 

"I'll take a look at it," Gov. Charlie Crist said today when asked about President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court.