A python posse armed with clubs and machetes will start combing the Everglades for the supersized serpents this weekend.

Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the python bounty hunt Wednesday at the urging of two Florida congressmen who were in an uproar after one of the exotic snakes strangled a 2-year-old girl July 1 near Ocala.

That python was a pet and didn’t live in the Everglades. But the case called new attention to the plague of the oversized reptiles that have spread throughout South Florida’s marshes, gobbling wading birds and posing a danger to native wildlife.

Estimates of the python population in the Everglades range between 10,000 and 150,000. They can reach up to 20 feet in length and have long, curved teeth, along with the ability to squeeze their prey to death.

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U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney has filed a bill to blacklist Burmese pythons and other unwelcome animal immigrants from entering the country.

The Tequesta Republican has joined the movement, led by Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, to rid the River of Grass of the perilous pests after a pet python strangled to death a two-year-old Florida girl.

About 150,000 pythons, not native to Florida, have taken up residence in the Everglades, threatening other endangered wildlife there, including Florida panthers and wood storks.

Rooney’s backing two bills to crack down on bringing invasive animals into the country.

One McCarthy-esque proposal would create a black list of nonnative species would create a black list of nonnative species barred from being brought into the United States and a green list of creatures that would be welcome.
The other would add Burmese pythons to the list of dangerous animals, similar to a measure Nelson filed several months ago.

Rooney’s hunting proposal is similar to a Nelson made today asking U.S. Department of the Interior Ken Salazar to approve a python-killing season in the ‘Glades to rid the national treasure of the invaders.

Read Rooney’s press release here.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is asking federal officials for a posse.

A python posse, that is.

Nelson sent a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking him to approve a python-kill because the slithering beasts are taking over the River of Grass.

Nelson earlier this year introduced a bill to ban imports of Burmese pythons and classifying them as “injurious animals.”

Two weeks ago, a pet python strangled to death a two-year-old Florida girl, creating an uproar about the invasive predators.

Officials “need to get a grip on pythons invading America’s Everglades,” Nelson wrote.

“They are threatening endangered wildlife there – and, Lord forbid, a visitor in the Everglades ever encounters one,” he wrote.

Nelson’s proposing an organized hunt to diminish the ever-growing python population in the ‘Glades. The posse could consist of park rangers or deputies and volunteers, Nelson suggested.

Read Nelson’s letter after the jump.

Fatal python attack

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U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is backing President Barack Obama’s efforts to stop oil “speculators” from driving up gas prices but doesn’t want him to stop there.

Federal regulators are considering curbing the sales of energy futures by investors and are trying to shed light on swapping of contracts outside by hedge fund managers and traders.

The administration should go further and return the law to pre-Enron era that left a “loophole,” Nelson wrote to in a letter to Obama today.

“We shouldn’t be allowing profiteers to flip oil contracts like condominiums,” he wrote.

Nelson’s filed a bill to close the loophole and require that all energy futures be traded on regulated exchanges like the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Floridians so far have received less federal stimulus money than any of their fellow Americans, despite an unemployment rate here that ranks among the highest in the country and a budget crisis that few states can match.

“It just shows how inept Florida’s government officials are,” Florida TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said. “Relying on Washington has always been a bad deal for Florida.”

Florida has received more total dollars than all but three other states from a stimulus pot of about $198 billion so far for infrastructure projects and social services, according to figures reported this week by The Wall Street Journal.¹ That total includes money Congress left for states to divide among themselves and other dollars that federal departments have already disbursed.

But Florida received just $505 per person, which ranks last among the 50 states, all U.S. territories combined and Washington, D.C., according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the Journal’s data.

The numbers raise significant questions about the stimulus program, which President Obama said during a February stop in Fort Myers would help curtail the state’s rising unemployment rate.²

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1. Wall Street Journal, 06/30/09: Stimulus Spending, Breakdown by State
2. Remarks of President Obama, 02/10/09, Fort Myers.

The Atlantic Monthly included Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in its top 30 Washington insider Twitter-ers.

Nelson – who lists his obsessions as The Everglades, the stimulus bill and alternative energy – is among the handful of politicians on the list, comprised mainly of journalists.

Here’s some of Nelson’s typical Tweets:

- I can’t believe some Florida lawmakers might actually be serious about allowing oil drilling within ten miles offshore.

- White House tells me the president will fly all nine remaining shuttle missions – even if it means flying the shuttle an extra year.

- Whoa, Arlen Specter is switching to Democratic Party after three decades in GOP

Other notables on the list include Newt Gingrich (Obsessions: lowering taxes, his new self-help book restaurants in suburban Virginia); U.S. Senator and losing GOP presidential candidate John McCain (Earmarks, war movies, Arizona Diamondbacks); his daughter, Meghan (Typical Tweet: Why is Newt Gingrich on my news crawl this morning? Last time he was interesting I hadn’t hit puberty yet…).

Follow Nelson at: http://twitter.com/senbillnelson.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, left, announced today he will visit the Everglades on Thursday with Gov. Charlie Crist, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Interior Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland.

The group will receive a briefing on invasive species control, make an airboat tour of Alligator Bay and hold a media availability at Mile Marker 41 of Alligator Alley.

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And don’t forget to click here and check out The Forum today and see recommendations for Crist’s speech from top Tallahassee lobbyist Brian Ballard, President Obama’s Florida campaign director Steve Schale, former RPOF director David Johnson and others.

UPDATE: You can check out the governor’s speech here at Channel 20′s site or here on WFSU’s simulcast. You’ll need to download RealPlayer software to watch it if you don’t have that already.

Also, Dara Kam will be using Twitter throughout tonight’s speech, so you can follow along with her here.

Sen. Bill Nelson told Florida’s Democratic delegates Tuesday that Barack Obama and his campaign team is paying attention to local politicians on how to win the Sunshine State.

“Florida of today is not the Florida of yesterday,” Nelson said at the delegation’s convention breakfast. “I’m here to tell you that Barack has listened and his campaign has listened.”

For example, Nelson said, he told the Illinois senator how important the “swath across central Florida” is in statewide elections. So Obama made his first campaign trip from St. Petersburg across the I-4 corridor and ended up in Titusville.

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Two days after a news story in which U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s relationship with the House Democratic congressional members was questioned, U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens, issued the following statement:

“I was in the meeting between Florida’s congressional delegation and Senator Nelson, to resolve the Florida primary crisis. I appreciate Senator Nelson’s and Congressman Hastings’ leadership in resolving this matter in the best interest of Florida Democrats. The senator has kept me apprised on his efforts to resolve this matter and has always represented the best interests of the people of Florida.”

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings raised the stakes in the standoff with the Democratic National Committee.

Here’s what the two men had to say after filing a lawsuit over the right of Florida Democrats to have their votes and delegates counted in the Jan. 29 primary.

Having blistered the Democratic National Committee for its decision to punish Florida for holding its primary too early, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson hopes rank-and-file Democrats will do the same. Florida’s top Democrat on Wednesday sent an e-mail out to 12,000 supporters, asking them to sign onto a petition demanding that DNC leaders permit Florida’s Jan. 29 primary to officially count toward the selection of the party’s presidential nominee.

“We as Floridians have a right to vote, and to have that vote count, and there is no debating that. By moving our presidential primary to January 29, we are trying to have a real chance to participate in the nomination process,” the petition reads.

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Or so wonders Sen. Bill Nelson and 15 other Florida and Michigan members of Congress in a letter to Democratic Committee Chairman Howard Dean, asking if New Hampshire will have all its delegates stripped for moving its primary forward from the DNC-approved Jan. 22 date.

“We are proud Democrats, insisting on fairness, and we will fight the selective enforcement of our party’s Delegate Selection Rules. We need your answer to these critical questions by no later than September 17,” states the letter dated Tuesday.

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UPDATE: While Bill Nelson has started laying groundwork for a possible lawsuit regarding the DNC sanction, he is not planning any announcement today on that issue. Instead, he is filing a bill that would formalize a system of regional primaries for the 2012 presidential election.

Nelson did, though, lobby against holding the meeting Friday, arguing that it was premature and too early to put a caucus plan on the table.

State Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said that state chairwoman Karen Thurman “took his opinion into account.”

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Bipartisanship. Friendship. Cooperation.

They were the watch-words this morning as Gov.-elect Charlie Crist came calling on Sen. Bill Nelson. It was the first time the two had met since last month’s election.

Despite their partisan differences, Florida’s top elected Democratic and Republican officials pledged to work closely on issues such as off-shore drilling, a national catastrophic insurance program and a federal tax break for Floridians.

“People are tired of partisan bickering,” Nelson said. “They want it to stop. What people want is performance instead of partisanship. That is the nature of this gathering, right here, right now.”

Crist called Nelson a “great public servant” and said, “one of the things we learned from this election is that people want all of us to work together.”

Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Katherine Harris attacked each other’s credibility and records Wednesday in a statewide television debate that saw them largely agreeing on Iraq but differing widely on domestic issues.

Read the complete story here.

Katherine Harris may have a new job next year if she loses the U.S. Senate race: author.

Harris autographs a copy of her book Center of the Storm at an Orlando campaign event.

Harris told The Washington Post that she’s writing a book about her Senate campaign and will expose those she says have wronged her: the press who have been unfair to her; campaign aides who have colluded with Bill Nelson; and the GOP elite who’ve cold-shouldered her campaign.

Harris campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Marks would not comment about the book.

“The Harris campaign is completely focused on the issues that matter to Floridians,” Marks told Palm Beach Post reporter Deana Poole, mentioning cutting taxes, reducing government spending and denying amnesty to illegal immigrants.

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Jim Davis got a boost from Bill Nelson Thursday night at a $500-a-person fundraiser for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

Nelson and Davis, along with their wives, Grace and Peggy, appeared together Thursday night at the home of Tampa attorney Tom Scarritt, and his wife, Linda.

“This is a turning point,” Nelson told about 75 people. “I specifically came here tonight because this man is the man we need to lead our state for the next eight years.”

Meanwhile, in neighboring Polk County, Katherine Harris had a surprise visitor at a small rally in Bartow, the town where she grew up.

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Katherine Harris says she’s looking forward to Monday night’s public television debate to get her message to the people without it being filtered by the media.

After speaking to several hundred State Farm associates in Winter Haven, Harris said she believes Bill Nelson “has been very much protected by the liberal media.”

Harris said the media have not published the same types of in-depth analyses of Nelson’s “voting record or his lack of accomplishments” as they have in covering her.

Bill Nelson picked up editorial endorsements from three Florida daily newspapers this weekend, bringing his total to 10. So far, Katherine Harris has not received any endorsements in the U.S. Senate general election.

The latest three papers to back Nelson were the Tampa Tribune, St. Petersburg Times, and Gainesville Sun.

Other paper endorsements came from the Palm Beach Post, Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fort Pierce Tribune, Port St. Lucie News, Stuart News, Vero Beach Press Journal and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.