Category: Florida

That fatal shooting at Tampa International Airport is another grim reminder of an all too familiar subplot.

Think back to Ruskin’s Sarah Michelle Lunde, who was strangled a couple of months back. The suspect is a registered sex offender and convicted rapist. He was familiar with the family and their residence, because he had dated the teen’s mother.

Last week a mother of three was gunned down at TIA by an ex-boyfriend. The shooter had been living with the victim until about five months prior. The man was a serial stalker and had served five years in prison – and three on probation – for unlawful restraint, violating a protective order and kidnapping.

Fortunately none of the children witnessed the slaying or were harmed by the assailant/ex-live-in boyfriend. Unfortunately, they were not a good enough reason for their mother to have exercised even minimal judgment on who she brought home.

Some Floridians were willing to cut Jeb Bush some slack when he interfered in the Terri Schiavo case. They accorded him the benefit of his own religious doubts.

He has certainly ceded that moral high ground, however, in the aftermath of that autopsy report that exonerated Michael Schiavo from any mistreatment charges. With his cynical call for yet more “closure” – asking prosecutors to go back 15 years and review the circumstances of Terri Schiavo’s collapse – he has further aired his own arrogance.

Terri Schiavo, RIP. And, no, it doesn’t mean Review In Perpetuity.

Amid the usual maelstrom of political activity that is the culmination of any legislative session, lots of stuff gets signed into law that stays under the radar for a good while. Well, here’s one you should be hearing about shortly — and coming to a traffic stop near you.

Thanks to a provision in a transportation package signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, in less than two weeks it will be illegal, essentially, for auto sound systems to out-decibel jet engines.

Technically, it means that police can start fining ($70) drivers if their sound systems are audible from 25 feet away – as opposed to the current ineffectual buffer of 100 feet.

The usual suspects – those who sell the pricey systems and those who impose them on the rest of us — are taking the usual, whiny, self-serving umbrage. They could care less that they create decibel hell for fellow motorists.

But it’s not just awful music played awfully loud; it’s also dangerous. Public safety takes a hit anytime motorists can’t hear the siren from an ambulance or a fire truck.

But mainly, it’s just really rude and ear-splittingly obnoxious. There ought to be a (viable) law. Now there is.

Forget America’s politically contorted, fairness-parsing “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy. If you can take a taxi from Cuba to Key West, you can stay.

Ever wonder what to really make of those FCAT results? Like schools that go from an F to a B? As in, what didn’t get taught so that inordinate time could be allocated teaching to a test? Or how many teachers, under the gun of “accountability,” can’t help a wink and a nod when proctoring?

Most pundits would accord Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor the early front-runner status in the District 11 congressional race to replace Jim Davis. Among the other Democratic candidates are state Senator Les Miller, child welfare advocate Scott Farrell and attorney Michael Steinberg.

And then there is Al Fox, the wildest of Democratic cards.

“I haven’t raised one penny yet,” acknowledges Fox. “No one knows what kind of candidate I will be. Including me.”

But he’s definitely in, says Fox, and he’ll make that official when he files papers after the 4th of July. Prior to that, he will have closed on a home in Tampa. He expects to begin fund-raising next month.

The 61-year-old is a long-time Washington insider who has worked as a congressional staffer, legislative assistant and lobbyist. He also owns Access Management Inc, a firm specializing in outsourcing of information systems and financial recruiting.

But Fox is best known – and vilified in some quarters — for his outspoken views advocating closer ties with Cuba. He’s the founder and president of the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation.

“I’m not a one-issue candidate,” says Fox, an Ybor City native whose mother was born in Cuba. “There are a number of priorities – the environment, our veterans, immigration, affordable health care, social security. I think the only difference between myself and the other candidates will be on Cuba. They will need an orientation on the subject; I could teach it. But I don’t intend to raise the Cuban issue unless they do with me.”

However it happens, count on Cuba being raised. Fox calls it “the one issue that nobody else has.”

That’s because Fox is defined by neither of the standard positions: that of the ideological hard liners or the pragmatists-playing-it-safe crowd. The latter find humanitarian fault with the Bush Administration’s screw tightening on Cuban family visitations and remittances but are still supportive of the long-running economic embargo, per se.

“Where’s the logic in saying that it’s inhumane to support a policy that limits family visits to once every three years,” asks Fox, “but it’s not inhumane to limit it to once a year? That’s still wrong.

“The embargo is a relic of the Cold War,” points out Fox. “It costs us buckets of money. The day the embargo is lifted, the port of Tampa gets $200 million. My position is what’s best for America. Not what’s best for Cuba – what’s best for America. And I have a lot of support for this position — in Tampa and Miami – by people who just can’t (publicly) say so.”

Moreover, adds Fox, the Cuban government actually wants to help America on terrorism and drug interdiction. And how does he know that?

He’s been to Cuba dozens of times, typically with government officials and businessmen in tow. Audiences with Fidel Castro often result, where such subjects have been broached, explains Fox.

The most recent Fox foray to Havana – in the company of retired Marine Lt. General Michael DeLong, former deputy to Gen. Tommy Franks — was three weeks ago. Fox said he was taken aback by the obvious level of Chinese involvement on the island. He again spent time with Castro.

“Despite what you might hear, he’s in excellent health,” reports Fox. “He wants to have friendly relations with us. He doesn’t want to die without knowing the final chapter of the story.

“I support sitting down with the Cuban government as it is,” states Fox. “It’s a sovereign country, and we don’t have to like it. For that matter, I don’t like North Korea or Saudi Arabia.

“There are people waiting for someone to step out on this issue.”

But, of course, someone will have to raise it first.

It’s called the Congressional Cuba Democracy Caucus. It’s a bi-partisan mix of seven senators and 18 representatives who have, among other priorities, recently underscored their support for the Cuban embargo and stressed their stonewalling of any efforts to permit American tourists to visit and spend money in Cuba.

FYI: The CCDC Florida contingent consists of Senators Mel Martinez (R) and Bill Nelson (D) and Representatives Allen Boyd (D), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R), Mario Diaz-Balart (R), Tom Feeney (R), Connie Mack (R), Kendrick Meek (D), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D).

If the Kathy Castor master political plan succeeds, she will leave her Hillsborough County District 1 Commission seat in November of 2006 and assume the District 11 congressional one being vacated by Jim Davis soon after the holidays. The early money for the safe Democratic seat is on Castor to make the seamless segue to Congress.

But that is then; this is now. Castor, 38, still chairs the Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission; she still fights the good fight on behalf of lobbyist disclosures; and she still seems way too normal to be part of any group that also includes Brian Blair and Ronda Storms.

Additionally, Castor sees a loose end that she doesn’t want unraveling on her watch. She would like to correct the record for anyone who thinks the county’s indigent health care program – funded by a half-cent sales tax — is in “crisis.” Or that it’s in need of an emergency-room fiscal operation.

“The plan has worked well,” Castor points out. “The county has done a good job negotiating reimbursement rates.” Indeed, the program is generally accorded plaudits for its managed-care approach and emphasis on preventive care.

The award-winning plan for the working poor, which was created in 1991, needs a scalpel – not a sledgehammer — says Castor, as it confronts a $6 million deficit on a $98 million budget. Treatment, emphasizes Castor, need not include service cuts. Nor are “enrollment gimmicks,” such as three felonious strikes or smokers butt out, any kind of viable prescription.

“I am concerned that our original goal of thoughtful improvement of the Health Care Plan has been mischaracterized as a need for radical restructuring due to a crisis,” noted Castor in a recent memo to fellow commissioner Mark Sharpe. Sharpe is chairing the 12-member Hillsborough County HealthCare Program Study Committee.

“I don’t know what you get by feuding or attacking,” she notes in a subsequent interview – in obvious reference to the unseemly Brian Blair-Pat Bean contretemps over privatization. “You really don’t see that between the professional staffers.”

What she would like to see is more of a focus on “intelligent disease management, low-cost pharmacies and a stable cash flow over the long term.”

Speaking of cash, the county is expected to save as much as $5 million next year as Medicare seniors avail themselves of prescription drug coverage from the federal plan. Moreover, removing part of Hillsborough’s Medicaid budget from the indigent plan would be a saving of some $10 million.

Privatization, however, “makes no sense,” underscores Castor.

While she’s not likely to juxtapose Blair as the Commission’s “Killer C,” Castor has drawn a line in the health care ring against any privatization “scheme” that could “possibly reward an industry for political support,” she wrote in the Sharpe memo.

“This push has everything to do with private companies attempting to raid our Trust Fund for their own profit,” added Castor, “and, thus, diminish the quality health care we provide to our residents. Please do not allow this to happen!”

Not every county-level issue translates well into a congressional campaign. But health care certainly does – and “privatization” has its own political resonance.The campaign – whether for lowest cost pharmaceutical pricing or Congress – is on.

Don’t be surprised if ex-banker Alex Sink, the high-profile wife of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, makes a run at Chief Financial Officer. Current CFO Tom Gallagher is considered a likely contender for the Republican nomination for governor next year.

It’s been a rule of thumb since the Nixon administration. If you’re a politician, you don’t want to be associated with anything that includes the “gate” affix.

Now we have “Memo-gate.” It’s a label currently adhering to the embattled Mel Martinez like a senatorial “kick me” sign. The notorious memo is the one written – seemingly unbeknownst to Martinez — by his legal counsel that somehow wound up in Martinez’s pocket before he mistakenly passed it along — for whatever ostensible reason — to Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. It was about how political hay could be made of the Terri Schiavo case at the expense of Democrats – especially Florida Sen. Bill Nelson.

In answer to reporters’ questions after a recent USF appearance, Martinez responded with the guilt-lite, passive-voiced “mistakes were made.” But he certainly “regrets” it; and is, to be sure, “moving on.” The gated memo was some kind of an oversight-challenged staff screw-up, says the rookie senator, but he takes “full responsibility” for it. Moreover, he’s “learning from it.”

Alas, we’ve heard these refrains before – after the “armed thugs” reference to law officers in the Elian Gonzalez case that turned up in a 2004 campaign press release and last year’s political ad that linked primary opponent Bill McCollum with the “radical homosexual agenda.”

Many who knew Martinez back in his days as Orange County chairman remember him as a nice enough person who often looked out for the little guy. They may concede he delegated too much, but he wasn’t someone who, for whatever reasons, you would expect to be associated with cheap-shot campaign expedience.

And that includes, lest we forget, his senatorial campaign’s distorting of Betty Castor’s record at the University of South Florida. In the context of post-9/11 revisionism, Martinez characterized her as soft-on-terrorism, because the former USF president was stuck with the uncharged, unindicted tenured powder keg, Sami Al-Arian.

Probably the most illuminating insight into the Martinez M.O. was provided by a prominent political consultant, who was hopeful of doing work for Martinez during his senate campaign. He was told in no uncertain terms that the White House would be handling this one, thank you.

The White House wanted its former secretary of housing and urban development, a conservative Cuban with a Hollywood immigrant story, to make the run and would pull the appropriate strings. King-maker Karl Rove anointed Martinez as the one to put the seat being vacated by Bob Graham back into the GOP column. There would be no lack of right-wing ideologues, including the Heritage Foundation, to help with staffing needs.

While Rove had pulled a fast one, Martinez had pulled a Faust one. He sold his soul for political opportunity. The devil would be in the details – including an even tighter squeeze on those remaining in his native Cuba.

Call it Pander-gate.

And don’t expect much to change during the president’s second term – except that Martinez will get some public relations’ help to put a better spin on doing his puppet master’s bidding. It will no longer be so amateurish. And maybe he can champion an issue that will actually benefit this state.

After that, there’s re-election. He now knows what works.