The wing nuts and wackos streaming out by the clarion call of big corporations opposed to President Obama's health care initiative remind me of every public meeting on environmental protection measures I attended in Florida, over 20 years.
When the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was proposed, treasure salvors teamed up with property rights / big landowners and the jet ski industry to mobilize anti-government fanatics. When the 8.5 Square Mile Area in western Miami-Dade County was under consideration by state government for flooding and land acquisition, the Wise Use Movement--including Big Sugar and land speculators-- stepped on the gas: turning out bilious crowds to oppose government.
Fast forward: Democrats finally mobilized broad public outrage but it took an incurious and ineffective Republican president, George W. Bush, to do it. There is a certain 'what's good for the goose is good for the gander' in the monied Republican response; mobilizing bloviators and tea baggers and birthers to prove the point.
I don't know what was on Senator Martinez' mind when he decided to retire early from political life. The economic shambles have created a forest full of dry kindling. The fire being lit by Republican strategists, whipped to a frenzy by well-paid communication consultants, threatens every American. I imagine Martinez felt-- at last-- it was time to put his family's security ahead of being burned by mobs organized by his own party.
Charlie Crist is a very ambitious politician. He has already shown his willingness to sell the state of Florida down the river by accommodating developers and special interests in order to choke off an insurgent campaign by Jeb Bush acolyte, former State House Majority leader Marco Rubio. He has extended his own velvet glove to President Obama, whose Florida victory confirmed the incipient movement of the state from Republican red to Democratic blue. Crist believes he will do a better job as fireman. He will select a successor to Mel Martinez: someone who to reinforce and speed his own campaign in 2010. Maybe it will be a master stroke of confusion: Jeb Bush who no longer consults for Lehman Brothers. In the meantime, Democrats have their own problem to solve: how to move forward through the flames despite the best efforts of President Barack Obama to be collegial, inclusive, reasonable and calm. Perhaps Democrats should consult with the few environmentalists who survived the scorching when their own party failed its tests of courage standing up to corporate America.
3 comments:
Charlie is an opportunist first and foremost. What is striking about him is how nonchalantly he reverses himself on just about any issue in order to appease who he thinks it is most important to appease at any one time.
I know most people don't enter politics because of ideals or core political beliefs, or if they do those principles often give way during the course of governing.
But Charlie seems happy to concede he never had any and never intends to acquire them any time soon.
I guess in that sense it's refreshing.
Liked everything you said, except for the last sentence--found it rather unclear. Who was burned?
Poor Mel. He is an example of the Peter Principal at work. Due to his demographics, he was an easy pick for HUD Secretary. He did not do a distinguished job. But he was brown and that helps.
In between jobs he became a partner at Akerman (I know of no person who ever saw him at work.) That gave him a financial base into which to lauch his Senate career.
Remember how embarassing he was to all of us when he was first elected. Oh my! The man simply has no judgment.
Maybe Akerman will take him back for $400k or more per year to hang out. I don't know.
But I don't know that this man has done well anywhere.
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