WEST PALM BEACH — Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley and former GOP activist and bond underwriter Kevin McCarty are making their first post-scandal Forum Club appearances at today’s sold-out luncheon speech by Mitt Romney.

Foley, once a Forum Club regular, hasn’t been back since he resigned in a 2006 Internet sex scandal.

“People have been begging me to come back to the Forum Club,” Foley said as he worked the Kravis Center ballroom before the lunch.

McCarty was released in January after serving eight months in federal prison for failing to report wife Mary McCarty’s honest services fraud as a Palm Beach County commissioner. She’s serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence. Kevin McCarty declined to comment.

Holder

Toward that end, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s lunchtime speech today to the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches is expected to lay out an administration initiative to “prevent, prosecute, and punish financial fraud.”

After the massive Ponzi schemes of South Floridians Bernie Madoff and Scott Rothstein, West Palm Beach is a natural backdrop for Holder’s announcement.

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U.S. Sen. George LeMieux ruled out a run for attorney general next year but was less definitive when asked today about challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012.

Republican LeMieux was interested in the AG race before Gov. Charlie Crist appointed him to serve the final 16 months of former Sen. Mel Martinez’s Senate term. LeMieux has said he won’t run for a full Senate term next year when Crist seeks the seat.

In response to an audience question at today’s Forum Club of the Palm Beaches lunch, LeMieux said he can’t serve in the Senate and run for AG.

“This is the most important time in American history for Florida to have two senators. So as much as I would like to be attorney general — it’s a wonderful position, I was the deputy attorney general (when Crist was AG) — I don’t think I can do both.”

He continued: “As for 2012, the future will take care of itself. I’ve got to do the job I’m doing now and hopefully the best job I can and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do…We’ll make whatever decisions we can for the family after my time is over.”

Romney

LeMieux

Forum Club lunches are held at the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. Public tickets for LeMieux’s speech are $55 and must be purchased in advance by calling the Forum Club at (561) 304-0570.

The event will be at the Cohen Pavilion at the Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Public tickets are $55 and may be purchased at the event. The buffet begins at 11:30 a.m.

Other Forum Club speakers confirmed so far: Ted Kennedy biographer Peter S. Canellos on Oct. 23, National Urban League CEO Mark Morial on Dec. 15, U.S. Attorney Gen. Eric Holder on Jan. 8 and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Jan. 28.

Petraeus with Air Force Junior ROTC cadets from Lake Worth High School

Gen. David Petraeus stopped mid-anecdote to give a remarkably detailed shout-out during his speech at today’s Forum Club of the Palm Beaches luncheon:

“This country can never have too many Airborne, Air Assault, Pathfinder, Ranger-qualified infantry non-commissioned officers like that man right there,” Petraeus said, singling out retired Army Drill Sgt. Kurt Denmon of Boynton Beach in a crowd of 760.

The two haven’t met. But Denmon, a Desert Storm combat vet who teaches in the ROTC program at Florida Atlantic University, wasn’t surprised that Petraeus sized him up by looking at the various patches and badges on his Class A uniform.

“We can look at our uniforms and we can describe our careers,” Denmon said.