Backpeddling in Florida

I have to admit that I really don't like Florida Senator Bill Nelson. He has run for almost every statewide office in Florida; he flew on the space shuttle to keep funding for this program alive even after safety managers thought it should die; and, recently, he voted to secure telecom retroactive immunity. To me, he is a despised Democrat; yet, he is a Democrat.

Apparently, on Tuesday - hey, way to put yourself out there - Nelson will endorse Hillary Clinton. Nothing new with her huge lead in the polls. I think this is a typical "Nelson" move.

On Friday, Mel Martinez announced for McCain, clearly waiting until the last moment for his candidate. It's sad that I see Nelson's endorsement as no different. Say what you will, waiting until a few weekend days before an election - when all the polling data is in - is spineless.

That said, I expect no less from RNC Mel and NASA Bill.

Please, if nothing else comes of this election cycle, please, please, please - save Florida from these worthless politicians in the Senate and send us someone closer to Bob Graham.

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In Other Florida News

In fact, some of this has to do with the Presidential Primaries but it's not the single focus because a LOT of stuff has happened in Florida without listening to the Republicans wacky campaigning.

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-15) is retiring. I guess it's true there aren't a lot of Republicans left. (Did it have anything to do with the arrest of his daughter for a bar fight?) He snuck in last cycle against a weak opponent. If we can get one half as good as Suzanne Kosmas, who is running against Tom Feeney, we might make a race of it.

Here's an interesting tidbit. Weldon's House District 15 overlaps Florida House District 32. In case you don't remember, that's the district of Bob Allen of park bathroom fame who offered to give an undercover officer oral sex for $20 bucks. (That still confuses me.) He would have been positioned very strongly for a Congressional run but blew it (yes, pun intended). He must be crying his eyes out right now.

Florida Senator Mel Martinez endorsed John McCain today. That's especially bad news for the Rudy camp. I guess they couldn't get the sympathy they apparently have from Governor Charlie Crist. Speculation was that Crist would endorse Rudy for his support of a National Catastrophe Fund, but he hasn't. Even more, he's been appearing with McCain all over. Rumor has it that Crist would endorse McCain but he didn't want to embarrass Rudy.

Senator Bill Nelson voted in favor of retroactive immunity for telecoms. He's trying to add an amendment that would let a FISA court decide the issue. What? In my opinion, he's the worst Democratic politician in our State. This just seals it for me.

And, please don't get me started on the Florida/Michigan delegate thing. My vote should count - period. A week ago, everyone wanted my vote to count. Now, because Hillary's championing for her benefit, my hero wants to just say No.

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The Best Intercourse I Ever Had

Small gaffe by Florida's senior Senator, Democrat Bill Nelson. Just a little funny and maybe a bit silly. I'm feeling that way today.



Poor choice of words to be sure.

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Sudan Isolates Itself

Darfur has become this generation's Bangladesh. Now that the international community is really waking up, Sudan has decided to keep everyone out.

WASHINGTON -- The government of Sudan, under international criticism because of atrocities in Darfur, has denied Sen. Bill Nelson a visa to visit later this month."The Sudanese government clearly has reversed its long-standing position of allowing official visits and engaging in dialogue," said Nelson, D-Fla. "Preventing a U.S. senator from visiting Darfur won't stop the international community from pressuring the Sudanese to end the genocide and other atrocities."

Nelson said his rejection was the first of a U.S. lawmaker, though Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., complained last year that the Sudanese government stalled his visa application until it was too late for him to include the country on his trip to Africa.

This is just nonsense. The international community should send a strong message and the US needs to take action. I know we have problems here at home, but our compassion towards human beings should ensure that we don't continue to stand idly by, looking the other way.

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There Is Something Here

On August 30, 2006, a workgroup of US Attorneys, the Regional Law Enforcement Information Sharing WG, wrote a letter to Deputy AG Paul McNulty regarding the LiNX information sharing system between federal, regional and local law enforcement. The letter takes the position that the DOJ should be in the lead on this. The letter was written over USA John McKay’ signature and was signed by 17 other US Attorneys.

It caused quite a stir and Mark Connor sent an email to Michael Elston with a cc: to Michael Scudder:

Mike: I believe McKay is way out of line here. This document was drafted-under the guise of an info sharing working for the AGAC - and it was directed to the DAG: Internal deliberations and policy recommendations should not be shared outside of the Department unless so authorized by the DAG. I don't know what McKayns motives are, but this is embarrassing and outrageous. . MAC

This letter has been pointed to as a reason for McKay’s forced resignation. Let’s look at the other members of the committee and see how they fared. A pattern emerges quickly

• John McKay - Western District Washington - Fired.
• Carol Lam - Southern District California - Fired.
• David Iglesias - New Mexico - Fired.
• Michael Heavican - Nebraska - Retired between 9/06 and 10/06.
• Debra Wong Yang -Central California - Resigned January 1, 2007 - Correction: October 2006. TPM's on this.
• Charles Larson - Northern Iowa - Retired 12/31/06.
• Paul Perez - Middle Florida - Resigned March 2007.
• Lisa Wood - Southern Georgia - Resigned between January 31 and February 9, 2007.

The remaining ten members were all (100%) Presidential appointees. Four were recently appointed. Watch this:

• Thomas Anderson - Vermont - Appointed June 2006.
• Don DeGabrielle - Southern Texas - Appointed March 2006.
• Catherine Hanaway - Eastern Missouri - Appointed April 2006.
• Chuck Rosenberg - Eastern Virginia - Appointed March 2006.

Of the remaining six, all were appointed by Bush between 2001 and 2004. USA Karin Immergut from Oregon, appointed October 2003, wrote a letter to McNulty implying that she had been tricked into signing the letter.

I really don't know if the letter has much to do with this although a 45% loss rate is pretty big, but I do see a pattern in US Attorney appointments. The purge appears to have been alive and well, ambling along because Senate confirmation was required from 2001 through 2006. Slowly, however, because they didn't really want us to see what they were up to but it was happening.

Finally, however, the damn broke with that key little revision to the Patriot Act.

As you know, I've been trying to get Senator Nelson's letter to the DOJ inquiring about this very issue but Nelson's office is moving with at a snail's pace - including using snail mail to reply.

There is something here. We are all around it but we're just not there yet.

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As the Abramoff Cookie Crumbles, So Does Feeney

Tom Feeney, waiting to be unveiled as the corrupt Delay crony, has finally gotten some decent attention for his dealings with Jack Abramoff.

As you may recall, Feeney was on the famous Scotland golf trip that cost Abramoff a cool $160,000. Just as the Dems took control of Congress, he agreed to pay back his $5,640 portion of the trip. He said he didn't know that Abramoff had paid for it.

Now, the FBI has requested information from reporters at both the St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel. A Sentinel columnist, Scott Maxwell, shared this in his blog today:

It's not every day the FBI comes asking for my notes and records. But an agent did so just last week -- wanting whatever I could give him about Tom Feeney and Jack Abramoff. He wanted e-mail, maybe notes as well, from as far back as two years ago.

You might want to read the whole thing as it has a pretty good run-down of how Feeney's then Chief of Staff, Jason Roe, handled it. Of course, he apologized to the lobbyist, not to the constituents.

Tom Feeney was a Delay man. When Delay went down and his ARMPAC money was returned by many Republican recipients, Feeney, a $10,000 man, held on to his. Maybe he knew he'd need it for legal fees.

But I wonder if this story doesn't have a US Attorney angle tied to it. Earlier, I posted on Senator Nelson's request for information on why Paul Perez, the US Attorney for the Middle District of Florida - Feeney's district, had resigned in March 2007.

The angle had to do with a letter that several of the purged attorneys had signed and Perez was among them. But the timing, especially now, makes me wonder if the US Attorney scandal hasn't claimed another. Here's what Perez had to say about his leaving:

As U.S. Attorney, “you serve at the pleasure of the President, but you know you don’t get appointed for life,” Perez told the Tampa Tribune. “I wanted to make sure I left on my own terms.” Perez is taking a job as chief compliance officer at Fidelity National Financial, a big publicly traded insurance outfit based in Jacksonville.

My emphasis added. Does it sound like Perez thought he was on the block? Did his office have anything going on Feeney/Abramoff at the time? By the way - compliance officer???

I don't know if something is here, but we have another US District with a corruption inquiry where the US Attorney in charge of the District resigned. It smells.

UPDATE: I called the US Attorney's Office in Orlando to ask if they were a part of the investigation into Feeney or whether the FBI was initiating it on its own. They indicated that it could be either but that it would be inappropriate to comment. But, they did want to know whether I had any relevant paperwork or information.

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Attorney Purge - the LiNX Angle

Yesterday, Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D) sent a letter to Paul McNulty at the DOJ questioning the department's commitment on the LiNX program that requires shared information about crime and terrorism between federal, regional and local law enforcement agencies. He also wonders whether it plays a factor in the US Attorney purge.

One of the things that has surfaced recently was a letter sent to the DOJ by fired US Attorney Jim McKay.

McKay had sent a four-page letter to McNulty on Aug. 31 regarding the LInX
system. The letter, which was co-signed by 16 other U.S. Attorneys, strongly
called for the Justice Department to overcome delays in approving funding for
LInX, and in cementing partnerships with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

Interesting to note that 3 of the 17 are among the 8 "purged" and at least one other, Tampa area US Attorney Paul Perez, has quit. If the letter was not a primary reason for his termination, you can bet it was another nail in his coffin.

The letter inspired a sharp response from Justice Department official Mark Connor in an e-mail to Michael Elston and Michael Scudder, who worked for McNulty. "I believe McKay is way out of line here," Connor wrote. "I don't know what McKay's motives are, but this is embarrassing and outrageous."

Initial news reports and McKay himself denied that this had anything to do with his termination but clearly Senator Nelson thinks something is up.

More later.

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Florida Is On The Paper Trail

Today, Senator Bill Nelson filled a bill in the Senate to require, nationwide, that voting machines produce a paper record for every vote cast. The press release notes that this is a companion bill to one introduced in the House by Rep. Rush Holt with one significant difference:

It also would ban conflicts of interest on the part of state election czars who
would be banned from working for others' campaigns. In 2000, then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris oversaw Florida's recount while also serving as a top campaign official for GOP candidate George W. Bush.

This is critically important and should be included in the House bill. Once passed, I believe Nelson's version will be closer to the one that comes out of conference.

This is on the heels of a more comprehensive program introduced for the state of Florida by new Republican governor, Charlie Crist.

What! Florida is introducing election reform that is more comprehensive than just requiring a paper trail? The answer is "Yes."

Governor Crist not only proposes a paper trail for every vote but also a required switch away from touch screen voting to optical scanners for all but the disabled. And, the touch screen machines will have to be retro-fitted with a printer to make a paper record.

The most important aspect of his proposal: He includes 100% of the funding necessary in his newly proposed budget. No county - my reddest of red included - can use the usual excuse that the State is mandating things but isn't providing money so they can't do it. Genius, I tell you.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board loves the idea and thinks it should be a national mandate.

Oh my god! Dante must have been right about the 9th circle of Hell. It must be frozen for the Sentinel and I to be in agreement over politics again.

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Does Bill Nelson Support the McCain Doctrine?

I haven't been paying as much attention as I should to Florida's US Senators so I missed this - Bill Nelson's press release on the Surge.

He supports the non-binding resolution, opposes cutting off funding and then he says this:

Nelson said today he’ll oppose efforts to cut off funding. “I’ll do what I think
is right to support our troops, though I don’t support the president’s plan to
add 20,000 more in Iraq,” said Nelson, who is a member of the Senate’s Armed
Services, Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. “That’s not enough
troops – not without a political solution to the sectarian violence that the
Maliki government has been unable to achieve.”

(my emphasis added)

So, is it that he doesn't support the plan to add troops or he doesn't support it because 20,000 isn't enough? It's very craftily worded, but he voted for the war and he has yet to call for a redeployment or draw-down.

In fact, after he went to Syria in December 2006, this is what he had to say:

At a news conference this morning, Bush said he will consult with top generals
before deciding whether to increase troop strength. An announcement is expected
after the holidays.

and this:

Nelson said he believes the United States has about 12 months to help facilitate
a political solution to the sectarian violence in Iraq, or it will be too late.

These all sound like the hedges and excuses that Republicans are using, not words I'd expect from my Democratic Senator.

I've sent a letter via email. I'll let you know of the response.

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