Posted on 11/09/2010 8:09:50 AM PST by Crichton
WASHINGTON — Florida Republicans walked away from last Tuesday's election in control of every major statewide office save one — the U.S. Senate seat of Democrat Bill Nelson. And if the GOP gets its way, that final stronghold will fall when Nelson runs for re-election in 2012.
Several Republicans have hinted that they might challenge the two-term senator, including incoming state Senate President Mike Haridopolos of Merritt Island and U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, whose temporary appointment ends in January when senator-elect Marco Rubio is sworn in.
....
Beyond LeMieux and Haridopolos, other potential GOP candidates include U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan of Sarasota, Connie Mack of Fort Myers and Tom Rooney of Tequesta.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.orlandosentinel.com ...
Notably absent names, for good or ill: Jeb Bush, Jennifer Carroll, Bill McCollum, Tom Gallagher.
If Connie Mack IV wanted to run for Senate he should have chosen to live in the state full time, instead of 70% in Washington and 15% in California with his wife, US Rep. Mary Bono Mack.
Virtually any Republican in Florida with a pulse could beat Nelson in ‘12... except McCollum and KH.
I think Nelson will retire and not run for reelection. He knows trying get reelected with Obama at the top of the ticket in 2012 will be almost impossible. I think there will be several Democrat Senators retiring in 2012 either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Are ANY of these guys NOT flaming RINOs? Vern Buchanan? LePeux? Connie friggin’ Mack??!!!???
Are these choices just designed to make Jeb Bush look better?
No more Bush family! ever!!!!
Jeb was the best governor we’ve ever had in this state. He is strongly pro-life, anti-tax, and would be a reliable conservative voice in Washington. He is not his brother or his father. If you could support Marco Rubio, there’s nothing in Jeb’s record to suggest he would be any less conservative than Rubio. I thought this was interesting:
The media seem fascinated these days asking Republicans if they would endorse Sarah Palin for President in 2012.
When CNN’s John King asked that question of former Florida governor Jeb Bush Friday, he didn’t bat an eye :
JOHN KING, HOST: We always reach out to our friends on Twitter and Facebook while we’re having big guests on the program and we told them you were coming on to the program. Here’s what one of our Facebook fans, Kyle Hunter, asked me to ask. Would he endorse Palin for president if he does not run himself?
JEB BUSH, FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: A, I’m not running and if Sarah Palin’s the nominee and if she’s running against Barack Obama, you betcha.
KING: Do you see right now, you say you’re not running, I take your word for that too. When you look around do you see a kind of Republican, I know you don’t want to get into the names just right now, but a kind of Republican that you think this is the profile we want to run up against Barack Obama in 2012?
BUSH: Big and bold and aspirational that has a positive agenda that will compare, I think, favorably to that of the president’s. We can’t as Republicans, we can’t just be against the president’s proposals, we have to offer up compelling alternatives that are 21st century oriented that deal with these huge problems that we faced across the board of the policy world.
I just think there’s a yearning for that and many of the gubernatorial candidates and soon to be governors will be acting on that and I think that’s going to encourage all of our candidates to be bigger and bolder and more aspirational.
Jeb is a vote for amnesty.
Connie Mack the IV is a POS RINO/DIABLO who supports open-borders and opposed AZ law.
His grandpa was best known for rigging baseball games with Scott Rothstein the ponzi king’s grandpa.
FL does not need frat boy RINOs like Connie Mack.
LeMieux seemed good but NumbersUSA.com that ranks politicians on illegal immigration gives him lousy marks - like that jerk Connie Mack.
I wonder if Crist will run. And if he does will McCain endorse him?
So there’s an issue you disagree with him on. That issue will never come up if we have firm Republican control of the Senate, and of all the issues facing our country, that is not the most important one (though I agree with you on that issue and not with Jeb). Jeb is reliably conservative on the VAST majority of issues he would face as a senator. His stance on immigration is somewhat understandable given his Mexican wife and his broad support among Cuban and other Latino voters in Florida.
Heritage research has concluded that the cost of amnesty alone would be $2.6 trillion. And the number of additional LEGAL immigrants who would join those who were the recipients of amnesty through chain migration, i.e., family reunification, would approach 70 million over a 20-year period, assuming there are only 12 million illegal aliens. We cannot assimilate such numbers. An amnesty would destroy the United States of America with the stroke of a pen. Amnesty is forever.
They are both open borders Repubs (Jeb & Rubio - ditto Connie Mack). FL is infested with RINOs like Texas.
Let’s add Adam Hasner to the list.
(Too good not to copy)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2619111/posts?page=50#50
A fool is someone who will believe a lie irrespective of the fact that all the evidence points to it being a lie. Marco Rubio is, and has consistently been, against open borders and against amnesty for illegal aliens. Some FReepers started defaming Rubio because, when AZ first approved its anti-illegal-immigration law, Rubio stated that, based on press accounts of the law, he was concerned that cops may be stopping people walking down the street or going to church to verify their ID, and he didn’t like the notion of legal immigrants or naturalized citizens having to show their papers on a daily basis for no reason. This was a common concern with the original law (especially among those who had read media coverage of it but not the law itself), and the AZ legislature sought to allay such concerns by amending the law (less than a week after passing the original law) to specify that only when a police officer stopped a person for an infraction would he seek to verify his immigration status. Gov. Brewer signed the amendment into law, and Marco Rubio immediately endorsed the AZ law now that it had been clarified.
So Rubio has consistently opposed open borders and amnest for illegal aliens, and supports the AZ anti-illegal-immigration, yet you choose to believe lies from those who risibly claim that Rubio is pro-illegal immigration based on the false syllogism that since Marco Rubio and Mel Martinez are both Cuban-American (Rubio being a U.S. citizen from birth, while Martinez is a naturalized citizen), and Martinez supported President Bush’s guest-worker proposal that included illegal-alien-amnesty components, then it follows that Rubio must favor amnesty and open borders. Well, the fact that John McCain is a WASP and supported amnesty while Sarah Palin is a WASP is not enough to convince me that Sarah Palin supports amnesty; but then again, I understand the difference between rational thought and a false syllogism.
If you choose to have preconceived notions about Cuban-Americans, go right ahead—you have the right to your bigotry. But when you ignore the facts surrounding a particular Cuban-American conservative Republican who has been very clear on his views on amnesty and open borders, choosing instead to continue to lie about him based on your prejudices against his ancestry, you cross the line between prejudice and defamation.
You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.
All valid information, but it’s not immigration that’s causing it. It’s the entitlements.
Then I take it you are in favor of Amnesty... because jeb certainly is... 100% for it.
LLS
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