Sarah Palin's going rogue in Fla

From Sarah Palin's book tour shedule:

11/24: Jacksonville, FL - Books-A-Million, 1910 Wells Road, Orange Park, 9 AM
11/24: The Villages, FL - Barnes & Noble, 1055 Old Camp Road, Lake Sumter Mkt Sq, 2:30 PM
11/24: Orlando, FL - Barnes & Noble, Colonial Plaza, 2418 East Colonial Drive, 7:30 PM

Brown-Waite sees problem for women in bruising N.Y. congressional race

The withdraw of Dede Scozzafava from a Republican House race in upstate New York left many conservatives cheering but not Florida Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite.

The Brooksville Republican -- and Albany native -- was in New York recently to help Scozzafava raise money along with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

In an interview last week, Brown-Waite said Scozzafava was being unfairly maligned and had a solid Republican record. Scozzafava ran into troubles with her base -- including Sarah Palin -- for supporting gay rights and abortion rights and was perceived as not tough enough on fiscal issues. "I resented that here was a woman whose stand is so similar to John McHue's (who resigned the seat to become President Obama's Army Secretary), and yet she's being attacked."

"For a purely selfish reason I don't want to see females in the Republican Party saying, 'Wait a minute, they're going to destroy me, they're going to distort every vote I've ever taken,' and that's really why I felt so strongly about going up there."

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What if Charlie Crist had been the VP pick, instead of Sarah Palin?

From an excerptof the new book by Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson:

Eventually, McCain narrowed his choices to six finalists. In addition to Palin, they were independent-Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman; McCain's former rival, Mitt Romney; Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg; and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal might have been a finalist had he not taken himself out of contention.

Until days before McCain's deadline, Lieberman appeared to be in the lead, although one top official later said it was never as clear-cut as that. "If you characterize this as yes or no on Lieberman and then someone else [became the top contender], that's not it at all," he said. "Was he the romantic pick? Yes."

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Palin's sudden resignation draws Greer compliment

RPOF Chairman Jim Greer, who caught heat for his critical assessment of Sarah Palin's campaign skills alongside John McCain, still managed to toss her a compliment after today's announcement she was resigning as Alaska governor.

“On behalf of the Republican Party of Florida and Republicans across the state, I would like to thank Governor Palin for her service to our Party," Greer said in a statement. "She worked tirelessly to defend Republican principles throughout her service in state and local government and demonstrated tremendous courage as a historic candidate on the Republican presidential ticket in 2008. We respect her decision and wish Governor Palin and her family the very best as she moves forward.” (AP photo)

Is Palin leaving politics or making a bold play for 2012?

Did Mel Martinez dis Palin?

Human Events, plugging an online petition drive by redstate.com to encourage Jeb Bush to run for the U.S. Senate, contends that Mel Martinez provided this anonymous quote to Politico recently: “We need someone who speaks from the center,” he says. “Sarah Palin is not the voice of our party.”

"Good riddance then that Mel is on his way out. ...  The Republican Party now has a great opportunity to choose a conservative replacement. There is one conservative who could lock up the nomination, win the contest, and be a conservative voice in Washington from Florida. His name is Jeb Bush."

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Southern Strategy outdoes itself on card

Another memorable Christmas card from Southern Strategy Group. The caption? "All the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names." Here is last year's card.

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When Charlie didn't meet Sarah

Gov. Charlie Crist has said a lot of nice things about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at this week's Republican Governors Association conference in Miami. But Crist was noticeably absent on Thursday morning when a dozen of Palin's colleagues stood behind her on stage for a brief news conference that was covered by at least 15 TV outlets and shown on several cable networks.

"The reason I wasn't there is I was working on a speech I'm giving tonight," Crist told reporters. Asked if he knew why all the other governors were asked to be on stage, Crist said: "I really don't."

A reflective Sarah Palin

Nine days after her loss as the Republican vice presidential candidate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin actually held a news conference. She answered questions for about six minutes, and then gave a rousing speech to a couple of hundred leading Republicans at a governors conference in Miami.

She said governors reject "excessive, extreme partisanship" and said the nation's 22 GOP governors are the ones to "help usher back our bedrock principles," which include low taxes, less government, free markets and fiscal responsibility.

In her 22-minute speech, Palin was funny, animated and upbeat. The crowd laughed at her remark that "I very briefly expanded my wardrobe" and gave her two standing ovations. She recalled meeting "Charlie," a young man from Florida who has Down's syndrome like her own son Trig.

"It was not our time. It was not our moment," she said, adding, "it was the honor of a lifetime to fight for what we believe in along the side of John S. McCain."

Steve Bousquet, Times Staff Writer

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Big-shot black Republican switches to Dem

Sun Sentinel: Dorsey Miller, one of the state's most prominent black Republicans, has left the Grand Old Party, returning to the Democratic Party he left 27 years ago. "It's devastating for the Republican Party in Broward County and the state," said Clarence McKee, a Broward County black Republican who serves on Gov. Charlie Crist's African American Council. "He's invaluable. It's great gain for the local Democrats. He raises money for campaigns."

Miller switched parties on Election Day. He said his switch back to the Democratic Party was made easier by the "campaign of John McCain and his selection of Sarah Palin for Vice President."

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McCain doesn't mention Crist on Leno

In his first interview since the election, Sen. John McCain went on The Tonight Show and defended his choice of Sarah Palin, calling her one of the young Republican leaders of the future.

"I really believe that Sarah Palin is amongst some, like Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, there's a group of young Republican governors and, mainly governors, but also some in the Senate, that I think are the next generation of leadership of our party. ... Our party has a lot of work to do. We just got back from the woodshed."

No Charlie? What's up with that?

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