Greetings from Florida

Well, it's been quite a day here in Central Florida. As you know, we were hit by a series of tornados that cut a path across our state. The devastation is pretty complete in some areas. I was about 1 mile north of the path and have been up since about 3:00 this morning following the news and then the clean up.

This afternoon I donated blood and blogged about it for our local paper. It is really sad that, in the face of such devastation, people will do nothing.

Our governor, Republican Charlie Crist, held his on-the-ground news conference in Volusia county. He was joined by Democratic US Senator Bill Nelson and Democratic Florida CFO Alex Sink plus Republican State Attorney General Bill McCollum and Rep. John Mica (FL-07) who is also a Republican.

In a decidely Democratic county, Charlie and crew delivered the most non-partisan press conference I have ever seen. He could have been in either Lake or Sumter, which are really red, but I think he wanted to send a specific message - "We are in this together."

You would think that's the way it should always be in a disaster such as this. Unfortunately, we know all too well that in the age of Bush (both of them), that has not been the case. At least today, that changed.