Democratic Senate nominee Kendrick Meek’s first general election ad is a clear appeal to Democrats in a three-way race that will require a mere plurality rather than a majority to win.

General election candidates — particularly Democrats this year — often play down their party affiliation. Not Meek, who identifies himself at the beginning of the ad as “the Democrat for Senate, and with three of us running, you should know what makes me different.”

The ad doesn’t mention Republican Marco Rubio or independent Charlie Crist, but includes Meek saying he’s the only candidate “who took on George Bush.”

“Bud” Chiles will officially drop out of the governor’s race tomorrow and is throwing his support behind the Democratic nominee, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.

Chiles – the son of Florida’s last Democrat governor, the late Lawton Chiles for whom he was named -could have been a spoiler in the governor’s race for Democrats who feared the independent candidate could be the Ralph Nader of Florida elections by pulling votes away from Sink. Many Democrats blamed Al Gore’s 2000 election loss to President George W. Bush on Green Party candidate Nader. Gore lost by 537 votes; Nader received 97,421.

There’s a report from the Fort Myers CBS affiliate WINK about a curious exchange last night between former President George W. Bush and former Gov. Jeb Bush. The Naples and Fort Myers newspapers don’t mention this exchange and the CBS reporter notes that the Bush’s didn’t allow cameras in the town hall event.

…the Bush brothers disagreed on the Senate race between Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist. Jeb Bush says he is officially neutral, but is disappointed in Crist’s embrace of the stimulus bill. George W. Bush joked “who the hell is Marco Rubio”…

GOP money man Al Hoffman, a developer and former finance director for the Republican National Committee, wrote a scathing letter to Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer asking him to step down.

“It is time for you to resign in order to end the excessive, irresponsible, unethical, and perhaps illegal spending that has marked your administration,” Hoffman wrote to Greer in a letter dated today.

Greer blew off Hoffman’s request after the state party executive board gave him a 25-2 vote of confidence this afternoon.

“It reminds me of a World War II United States Army general when he was asked to surrender. He wrote one word back on a piece of paper. And it was ‘nuts.’ So that’s all I have to say about the letter,” Greer said.

He said Hoffman’s out of touch and hasn’t done much in the way of fundraising for the state GOP in the past three or four years.

Maybe that’s because Hoffman was out of the country at the time.

President George W. Bush appointed Hoffman to serve as ambassador to Portugal in 2005.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush told the L.A. Times in January that he was impressed with President Obama and called the Democrat “smart, disciplined, not rash.”

But in an interview with Esquire magazine published today, Bush accuses Obama of having a “secret plan” he kept from voters in the campaign:

“He would not have gotten elected if he’d said, “My idea is to create a $1.8 trillion deficit for the next fiscal year. My idea is to spend $750 billion [the president's budget estimate puts this figure at $630 billion] over the next ten years on a government-sponsored, government-subsidized health-care policy. My idea is to create a massive cap-and-trade system [based on the idea] that CO2 is [a] pollutant and we need to tax it in a massive way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.” … Had he said what he was going to do as a candidate, [Obama] would have lost.”

Bush goes on to compare approval ratings of his brother, former President George W. Bush, and Obama.

(more…)

“I very much oppose the Bush-McCain proposal to open up Florida’s shores for drilling,” U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings said this afternoon in a statement.

“I am also not only surprised, but disappointed, in the governor. Since the people of Florida have long opposed drilling off of our pristine beaches, it is even more surprising that the so-called ‘People’s Governor,’ would take a different view.

(more…)

Palm Beach animal activist and longtime Republican National Committee member Gertrude Maxwell is slated to receive a Republican Congressional Medal of Distinction this evening at a closed reception hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Gertrude Maxwell and Gov. Crist File photo

Maxwell, 97, will be one of an undisclosed number of big donors to the NRCC who are scheduled to be honored tonight.

Tomorrow night, Maxwell is scheduled to attend the “President’s Dinner” hosted by the House and Senate GOP campaign committees in honor of President Bush.

(more…)

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, who has relentlessly pushed for impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney, says former White House press secretary Scott McClellan should be compelled to testify before a congressional committee regarding the allegations made in McClellan’s tell-all book about the Bush administration.

“The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby – and possibly Vice President Cheney – conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq,” Wexler said in a statement.

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U.S. Rep. Ron Klein wasn’t wowed by President Bush announcement today about troop deployment periods.

Klein described Bush’s Iraq plan as “calling for more
money, more time, and more sacrifice from our soldiers and their families. Yet the American people, and many of us in Congress, believe
it is time for a strategic shift when it comes to our Iraq policy.”

It’s time for the Iraqis to shoulder the cost of their country’s reconstruction, Klein said.

(more…)

As President Bush prepares to make good on his threat to veto the war spending bill with its deadlines for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Rep. Tim Mahoney was one of many Democrats calling on the House floor for him to reconsider.

Here’s what Mahoney said today on the House floor:

“Madame Speaker On Sunday, in a speech at Miami Dade College, the president said to graduating students, quote, ‘One of the great strengths of America is that the most important issues are decided by the will of the people,’ end quote.

(more…)

Since President Bush was in Florida Wednesday campaigning for
congressional candidate Vern Buchanan in Sarasota, and Laura Bush will be in town
Friday for Clay Shaw, Katherine Harris was asked whether it was frustrating for her to see the two of them
constantly campaigning for other Republican candidates, but not for her.

“Not at all,” Harris said. “We’re running our own race. I’ve never asked the president to campaign with me. I never ever wanted to look like it was beholden
for simply doing my job in election 2000.”

As Florida’s secretary of state in 2000, Harris ruled that George W. Bush had won the state’s electoral votes — and, thus, the presidency. But the White House and Gov. Jeb Bush have been noticeably unenthusiastic about Harris’ Senate campaign.

As President Bush headed to Florida today, White House spokesman Tony Snow – back in Washington – was asked by reporters if the president’s upcoming busy schedule of campaign trips would include any on behalf of Florida GOP Senate candidate Katherine Harris.

Snow was non-committal at best, saying, “Uh, he will be campaigning in Florida.”

- From the Cox Washington Bureau’s Ken Herman

It looked like Katherine Harris was going to miss Thursday’s rally in Orlando with President Bush and Charlie Crist.

Harris’ schedule showed her participating in votes in Washington Thursday and then attending the River City Republican Club in Atlantic Beach, near Jacksonville, around the same time as the evening rally.

That prompted reporters Tuesday to question Crist and Jeb Bush about why Harris wasn’t going to be there.

(more…)

Gov. Jeb Bush was one of about a half-dozen governors participating in a discussion about the line item veto with President Bush in the White House Roosevelt Room when they were briefed on the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The governor said the president presented the information in a “matter-of-fact tone” and “wasn’t celebrating.”

“I didn’t get the sense that this was a time of celebration for the president,” the governor said. “Whenever I’ve talked to him or heard him speak, more importantly, about Iraq there is just a sense of purpose and resolve that is awe-inspiring.”

When the governors broke into spontaneous applause, the president said something along the lines of “thank the troops, don’t thank me,” his brother said, noting that it was not a direct quote.

Jeb’s reaction? “This is certainly great news.”