Former President Bill Clinton will campaign in Delray Beach for Democratic Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek on Aug. 16, bolstering Meek’s status as the Democratic Party establishment favorite in the Aug. 24 primary against billionaire Palm Beach outsider Jeff Greene.

Meek and Clinton go back to the early 1990s, when Meek was a Florida Highway Patrol trooper assigned to pick up then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton at the airport in Tallahassee while Clinton was running for president. Meek was an early backer of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid. Bill Clinton has already helped Meek with several events in the Senate race.

Clinton and Meek are scheduled to appear together at three South Florida events on Aug. 16. Doors open for the event at the Delray Community Center at 4:30 p.m. that day. The pair will then campaign in Davie and Miami.

On Aug. 18, Meek is scheduled to be “joining” President Obama at an event in Miami. Details of that event remain unclear.

The event is slated for the Delray Community Center at 50 N.W. 1st Avenue in Delray Beach. Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Democratic U.S. Rep. and Senate candidate Kendrick Meek criticized the Obama administration’s response to Israel’s decision to build 1,600 homes in a disputed area of East Jerusalem.

Vice President Joe Biden, who was visiting Israel at the time of the announcement, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have blasted the plan, straining relations with America’s strongest ally in the Middle East.

“What started off as an internal, domestic disagreement within the Israeli government has turned into an unnecessary international dispute complicated by some undiplomatic language from U.S. administration officials,” Meek said today.

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President Barack Obama tapped Palm Beach Democratic supporter and Hillary Clinton pal Elaine Schuster to represent the U.S. at the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The nomination must be approved by the U.S. Senate.

The Schusters, who also own a home in Boston, are philanthropists who have held fundraisers for Democratic candidates at their Jungle Road home. In 2007, they donated $5 million to Brandeis University’s Institute for Investigative Journalism, which was renamed after them.

In case you didn’t follow every turn of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tour of Africa this week, she appeared to equate former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s role in the 2000 presidential recount with Nigeria’s notorious history of political corruption.

“In 2000, our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of the man running for president was the governor of the state. So we have our problems too,” America’s top diplomat said.

Here’s a full account from ABC News, including this modified walk-back by a State Department spokesman: “The point she is making is that it’s about a disputed result and then the willingness of the candidates to accept a flawed result rather than, say resort to violence.”

After months sitting on the fence, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein joined the stampede of superdelegates tonight endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

As he previously had said he would, Klein, D-Boca Raton, waited for the final primary polls to close tonight in Montana and South Dakota, before announcing his choice.

“I believe that he can offer something that is different for our country and bring our country together as Democrats and Republican with a new generation of thinking and a new generation of ideas,” Klein said of Obama in a telephone interview.

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U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings of Miramar and Tim Mahoney of Palm Beach Gardens issued the following statements reacting to the Democratic National Committee’s rules decision:

Mahoney said: “I am disappointed by the DNC’s decision not to ratify the results of Florida’s primary election and seat the delegates as elected with full rights. The DNC’s decision ignores the will of Florida Democrats who went to the polls in record numbers. As we move forward, I call on my fellow Florida Democrats to work together to ensure that the general election goes smoothly in the fall and to prevent this unfortunate situation from occurring again in the future.”

Hastings, who brought suit last year with Sen. Bill Nelson in federal court challenging the party’s decision to strip Florida of all its delegates said:

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7:05 — The committee is considering the Michigan delegation. The committee just voted 19-8 to accept a compromise that would seat the entire delegation with a half-vote per delegate.

Clinton would get 34.5 votes; Obama would get 29.5 votes.

Crowd shouts: “Denver, Denver.”

Harold Ickes, a Clinton adviser, says the Clinton campaign may challenge the Michigan decision at the convention.

6:44 — Committee just voted for the motion to seat the entire delegation with a half vote each. There were 27 votes in favor. Allan Katz of Florida was not permitted to vote on the measure affecting Florida. The two committee co-chairs also could not vote.

6:38 — Ralph Dawson, an uncommitted member from New York, moves:

1. All pledged delegate positions tp be restored with one-half vote.
2. All pledged delegate positions will be allocated based on the results of the Jan. 29 primary. That means Clinton would get 52.5 delegate votes; Obama 33.5 votes, Edwards, 6.5 votes.
3. Superdelegates will also be seated at half a vote each.

Crowd shouts outrage.

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Here are Rep. Robert Wexler’s prepared remarks for today’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting:

Good morning, I am Congressman Robert Wexler. I have the privilege of representing the 19th congressional district located in Broward and Palm Beach Counties, in Florida.

Our Florida Democratic voters are frustrated by the decisions that have been made that diminished our primary and we must address this frustration and reconcile with them today to improve the climate for Democrats in Florida.

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U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, co-chairman of Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign in Florida, will represent the senator at Saturday’s meeting of the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee.

State Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa will speak on behalf of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Wexler, a Democrat from Delray Beach, said Obama is committed to making sure Florida is represented at the Democratic National Convention this summer and wants to reach a “consensus so that the Democratic Party can move forward in a unified position.”

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It sure was nice of Bill Clinton to send me a personal e-mail. It’s not often a former president shows up in my in-box.

Of course, he wanted money. Not for himself, mind you. It’s for Hillary. The picture at left was in the e-mail.

And like the chums we are, he said, “The people who count Hillary out of this race don’t know her the way you and I do.”

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Members of the Democratic Black Caucus of Broward County are planning to hold a news conference next month to demand that U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings switch his presidential endorsement from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

“He needs to address this issue,” said Alan Brown, president of the Democratic Black Caucus of Broward County. “It’s a hot button. It’s a powder keg here in Broward County.”

Brown said voters in Hastings’ district are angry that Hastings endorsed Clinton without explaining his reasoning or listening to the views of his constituents, a majority of whom support Obama.

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Florida Democrats in Congress are trying to set up a meeting with Democratic National Committee leaders to try to resolve the impasse over the seating of the state’s 210 pledged delegates and 28 superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention.

The lawmakers are also trying “to bring in the Clinton and Obama camps who ultimately are the people who may be able to help resolve the matter, if they are of the mind to do so and all of that is iffy,” said U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar, who is committed to Clinton.

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The next Republican presidential candidate will need to carry roughly 50 percent of the Hispanic vote in order to be elected in November, U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez said Wednesday.

Martinez, the only Cuban-born member of the U.S. Senate and one of three Hispanic members of the body, told a luncheon audience of the Latino Leaders Network that the Hispanic vote already has played a crucial role in this year’s presidential contest and could help determine the outcome.

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Bill Nelson today rejected a proposal by DNC Chairman Howard Dean that Florida have new caucuses to select convention delegates in conformity with Democratic Party rules.

“You can’t undo an election with a caucus,” Nelson said in a speech to the U.S. Senate, “and especially you can’t undo and election where 1.7 million Florida Democrats have gone to vote in a secret ballot and replace it with a caucus that maybe 50,000 people would show up. It’s a basic underpinning of our democracy, and it is a basic underpinning of a constitutional right to vote and to have that vote counted.”

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Bill Nelson is scheduled to endorse Hillary Rodham Clinton after tomorrow’s primary, according to the Associated Press.

“For too many years, too many Americans have been invisible to their own government. In this primary, some even tried to silence our state,” Nelson said in remarks obtained by the AP. “Hillary Clinton will never let that happen. Hillary will be a president who will take the voice of all Americans — and all Floridians — to the White House.”

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A day after asking the presidential candidates of both parties whether they would support the national catastrophe insurance bill that passed the House last year, U.S. Rep. Ron Klein said he’s received responses from Democratic candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama that they do.

“I am very pleased that Sen, Clinton and Sen, Obama have lent their support to the Homeowners’ Defense Act,” Klein said in a staement.

“By passing legislation in the House of Representatives, and elevating the issue to the national level, we are making unprecedented progress towards alleviating the insurance burden of homeowners.”

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Asked about spending money to go to Mars, Mike Huckabee said he would depend on NASA to guide him on the future of the space program. And he said he would spend more money on space.

One mission: “I’ve got a few suggestions and maybe Hillary can be on the first rocket to Mars.”

Maybe it’s all the transplanted New Yorkers. Floridians increasingly favor Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of the Big Apple, above all candidates, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

Paired against Democratic frontrunners, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards, Giuliani leads each 50 percent to 40 percent. This is the first time Giuliani has reached a double-digit lead over Clinton and Edwards.

Floridians favor Giuliani over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 52 percent to 36 percent.

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A new national CNN poll has surprisingly bad numbers for Jeb Bush.

Here’s excerpts from CNN’s report:

With the presidential election more than two years away, a CNN poll released Monday suggests that nearly half of Americans would “definitely not vote for” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Among the Republicans, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani fared better than the Democrats, and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush fared worse.

Only 30 percent said they would “definitely not vote for” Giuliani; 34 percent said that of McCain.

As for Bush, brother of the current president, 63 percent said there was no way he would get their vote. The younger Bush has denied interest in running for president in 2008.

Read more here.