No one ever lost an election or a vote in the Legislature overestimating Mike Fasano's charm. Whatever other skills the veteran lawmaker and current state senator brings to a political showdown, he packs them in a velvet glove. ...more

November 25, 2009

In the Republican primary for Florida agriculture commissioner, U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow seems like a natural.But state Sen. Carey Baker of Eustis intends to put up a fight against Putnam in the primary. Claiming the role of the true conservative in the race, he hopes to turn the race into the kind of ideological battle that's becoming common in the Republican Party. ...more

November 23, 2009

Times are quite a bit different today than they were in February when President Barack Obama was in Fort Myers campaigning for the passage of the $787 billion "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." ...more

November 22, 2009

In another political blow to Gov. Charlie Crist, dissension in the state Republican Party broke open Thursday as a group of party officials demanded an "emergency" meeting to discuss party problems, apparently including grievances against Chairman Jim Greer. ...more

November 13, 2009

What's with Charlie Crist? The self-styled "people's governor," one of Florida's most popular political figures and certainly one of its most likeable, seems to have lost his touch. ...more

November 13, 2009

For those who spent Saturday night watching the news as the votes for the House of Representative's health care reform bill came in, the announcement could have felt like a great victory or a complete disappointment. ...more

November 10, 2009

I support reform of America's health care system and request your support of legislation working its way through the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The time for action has come. Please do the right thing and help provide true health care reform to benefit those who sent you to Washington, D.C. ...more

November 9, 2009

There may soon be a refreshing addition to the nation's presidential historic sites: Billy Carter's gas station in Plains, Ga. ...more

November 8, 2009

We've given Gov. Charlie Crist grief for pledging during the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary that he would govern along the conservative lines of the man he was seeking to replace, Jeb Bush, and then lurching to the left after he was elected. His enthusiastic backing of the Legislature's decision to have the state, in effect, take over the property insurance industry in Florida was one example of un-Jeb-ish behavior. Another was the governor's backing of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program. The media has been referring to that support for months without a peep of protest from Crist - until Wednesday. ...more

November 7, 2009

On Oct. 21, 13 of the nation's leading professional agricultural, biological, chemical and geological organizations sent a joint letter to the U.S. Senate urging it to adopt policies that would limit U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. "Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the primary driver," they wrote. ...more

November 7, 2009