U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek held a roundtable with the Capitol press corps this morning and came out swinging at Gov. Charlie Crist.

Meek, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, slammed Crist, a Republican who’s losing traction in a GOP primary against former House Speaker Marco Rubio, for his turn-around on abortion and his failed health care program that has been ignored by uninsured Floridians.

“Overall I think the governor’s a very nice person,” Meek, a former state legislator who is in his fourth term in Congress, began. “I don’t think he’s prepared to lead this state in the United States Senate. One, he doesn’t like to make a decision. Two, he’s very vague. And three, I believe he’s more politician than leader.”

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Both stances put Craft in opposition to freshman U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, whom Craft hopes to unseat in 2010. They also put Craft, who’s running as a moderate in Republican-leaning District 16, at odds with many centrist Democrats in the House.

The health care bill passed on a 220-to-215 vote, with 39 Democrats breaking with House leadership and President Obama to oppose the bill.

The abortion amendment, offered by U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., passed on a 240-to-194 vote, with 64 Democrats joining the entire Republican caucus in support.

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Klein

Klein’s office said about 6,460 people listened in. Seventeen people asked questions during the 70-minute teleconference.

Click here to read an article on the event.

More detailed excerpts are available after the jump….

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RPOF Chairman Jim Greer stood by his assertion that President Barack Obama’s health care reforms could lead to “forced, taxpayer-funded abortions.”

Greer held a roundtable with reporters at GOP headquarters this morning, covering a range of issues including the hijinks at town hall meetings throughout the country, including one in Tampa that erupted in physical violence.

Opponents of Obama’s health care package claim that the changes would create “death panels” that would pull the plug on Grandma to save government spending.

“I don’t like the term death panels,” Greer said.

But, he added, “I do believe that trying to pass legislation such as this will provide opportunity for certain types of medical procedures that in some cases Americans would not be aware of or in most cases Americans would not want taxpayer funds to help facilitate.”

The chairman was apparently referring to abortions. Greer yesterday circulated a memo questioning the health care bill and whether it would “work to systematically ‘increase birth intervals between pregnancies,’ opening the very real probability of forced, tax-payer funded abortions.”

He stood by his characterization of the bill this morning.

“If the procedure is financed by taxpayer funds, then in fact the word forced or mandated would be appropriate,” Greer said.

The portion of the bill Greer refers to deals with home visitation services.

The full text follows:

“The term ‘nurse home visitation services’ means home visits by trained nurses to families with a first-time pregnant woman, or a child (under 2 years of age), who is eligible for medical assistance under this title, but only, to the extent determined by the Secretary based upon evidence, that such services are effective in one or more of the following:
(1) Improving maternal or child health and pregnancy outcomes or increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.”

Greer decried the outbursts at town hall meetings but blamed Democrats for spinning the events and not being able to answer questions about the health care bill.

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A proposal to require a woman view an ultrasound before receiving an abortion cleared its first House committee today on a partisan vote, but bipartisan opposition in the Senate may once again doom the measure.

The same bill last year died on a fairly dramatic 20-20 tie vote on the Senate floor when seven Republicans voted with nearly every Democrat to defeat the measure. This year, two of those Republicans did not return to the legislature due to term limits.

But the bill may not make it to the Senate floor this year. It’s first stop in that chamber is the Health Regulation Committee, which includes Sens. Dennis Jones of Seminole and Mike Bennett of Bradenton. Both Republicans voted against the bill last year, which means if the committee members vote the same way as last year the bill dies on a 5-3 vote.

“We’ve got some work to do,” said Sen. Andy Gardiner, an Orlando Republican sponsoring the Senate version (SB 1857)

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