Today’s Herald column: Rubio can’t have it both ways
Marco Rubio: talking right wing, hiding from the consequences?
The upshot of my column today: Senate candidate Marco Rubio has up to now, gotten away with pandering to the hard right in his rhetoric, without having to confront the real-life consequences of the conservative ideology…
And then, along came Jim Bunning. Read more
Latest Herald column: ‘yawn of a new era’
Florida candidates Alex Sink and Kendrick Meek
You’ve got to hand it to the Herald editors. They come up with some killer headlines…
So over the last few weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to politically active Democrats, to get a sense of how people are feeling about the campaigns. The results weren’t great for either of the major candidates (I didn’t get into the A.G. and other races,) but they weren’t catastrophic either (except if Camp Kendrick ever wants any help from the Daily Kos.) Read more
Shameless self-promotion: the Herald page
Peep the new Miami Herald page. A new column will be up tomorrow (Thursday) on the 2010 race and how the Democratic base is vibing with the major campaigns.
Latest Herald column: Rubio becomes the last, best hope of the tea party
My latest Herald column is up and running. A clip:
Florida has become the Holy Grail for the tea-party movement, which has entered into a kind of shotgun marriage with the Republican Party.
Republicans clearly see the tea partyers as an extension of their base, and indeed, tea-party rage against the Obama administration is having a motivating effect on Republicans and conservative independents. Yet the Grand Olds don’t seem eager to be taken over by the wild and woolly caravan loaded with everything from anti-tax Ron Paulites and Sarah Palinites to birthers, John Birch Society types and a rather uncomfortable smattering of racially charged, misspelled-sign-wielding screamers.
None of the recently successful statewide Republican candidates — in Massachusetts, New Jersey or Virginia — has touted the tea party (or the Republican Party, for that matter) in their victories, and all ran as moderates. Sen.-elect Scott Brown, crowned by the media as the ultimate tea-party conquistador, dismissed the notion in an interview with Barbara Walters.
The tea parties have yet to score a legislative win on their own merits. Their candidate in New York, Doug Hoffman, who vowed to reject the federal dollars that keep the district alive, was defeated last November, handing a House seat that had been Republican since the Ice Age over to the Democrats. On Tuesday, tea-party candidates in Illinois failed to topple so-called “RINO” Mark Kirk, who soundly defeated all comers in the Republican primary.
That leaves Florida’s former House Speaker, Marco Rubio, as the biggest tea-party star (besides Palin). And even he has kept some distance, demurring in a New York Times Magazine interview over whether he could be the “first senator from the Tea Party.”
Why the wariness? Well, tea partyers have developed something of an image problem, and can come across as an angry, monochromatic mob, depicting President Obama as a “witch doctor” or Hitler, calling for “revolution” and for “burying Obamacare with Ted Kennedy.”
Read the rest here. The column runs every other Thursday.
New Miami Herald column: Dunn deal
I’ve got an extra column in the Herald this week, focusing on the deal the Miami commissioners extracted from their newly appointed colleague, Rev. Richard Dunn. Read it here.
Shameless self-promotion: my new gig
I’ll be writing a twice monthly column for the Miami Herald, mainly about my favorite subject: politics. The first column can be found here, and covers one of my new favorite subjects: the ongoing soap opera that is Michelle Spence-Jones. Check for the column every other Thursday!
False promises, fallen leaders
The wonderful Audra Burch does it again, with the help of Charles Rabin. The two supply a lengthy, well-written essay on the un-ending plight of Miami’s District 5, especially good for those seeking a background on this ongoing tragedy. Enjoy it before the Herald archives it and pulls it off the site.
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