Replies

>> he is not a "token" appointee because he has won an election with 5 million people voting for him in a very big state. It's a great move. <<

Let's compare how "successful" the current GOP Senator from FL's campaign was compared to the last GOP Senator to representate that state.

U.S. SENATE - FL
Mack (R) 2,894,726 70.5%
Rodham (D) 1,210,412 29.5%

U.S. SENATE - FL
Martinez (R) 3,672,864 49%
Castor (D) 3,590,201 48%
Bradley (O) 166,642 2%

Connie Mack was Senator as recently as 2000. He got a landslide 70% of the vote WITHOUT an hispanic surname -- running against the brother of Hillary! Mel Martinez got a pathteic 49% of the vote (the majority of Floridians didn't even vote FOR him) against a political unknown and won by 1%. If not for a third party guy sucking votes from the Dem and so many Cubans voting for a fellow "latino", this guy would have been toast.

Florida is a very heavily Republican state where the Republicans have solid control over both houses of the legislature, most of the statewide offices, and put their electoral votes in the GOP column unless the Dems nominate a folksy southerner, etc., etc. It's fairly easy for any decent "R" to rack up 48%+ of the vote in a statewide election there unless their name is Katherine Harris. Mel Martinez's 1% margin of victory was lousy. If this guy had to run for Senator in a "swing state" like Iowa, he would have been crushed. Note that Michael Steele nearly matched Martinez's percentage running in the bluest of the blue states.

Although Martinez's VOTING record has been solid, he's had completely medoicre "leadership" skills in the Senate (see Trent Lott and Liddy Dole for further examples) This is the dope who actually HANDED the ENEMY a memo with the "Terry Schivo talking points" on it so the Dems could politize the issue and have it explode in the GOP's face. The ONLY reason Martinez is the exclusive club of 100 is because his last name is "Martinez" instead of "Martin". There were far more qualified and accomplished Floridian Republicans passed up in favor of Amnesty Mel. He is the pick of the "Affirmation action" wing the GOP who wants to appoint people on the basis of skin color.

There were far more qualified and accomplished Floridian Republicans passed up in favor of Amnesty Mel. He is the pick of the "Affirmation action" wing the GOP who wants to appoint people on the basis of skin color. Only a week ago the people in Wisconsin voted to knock down affirmative Action. I guess the memo to the GOP about accomplishment dictating employment OVER race hasn't sunk in yet. Evidently they no more can look past the color of one's skin then the Democrats. Whereas Conservatives don't give a damn. We just want someone competant, and that person was Steele.

Let's compare how "successful" the current GOP Senator from FL's campaign was compared to the last GOP Senator to representate that state.

U.S. SENATE - FL
Mack (R) 2,894,726 70.5%
Rodham (D) 1,210,412 29.5%

U.S. SENATE - FL
Martinez (R) 3,672,864 49%
Castor (D) 3,590,201 48%
Bradley (O) 166,642 2%

Connie Mack was Senator as recently as 2000. He got a landslide 70% of the vote WITHOUT an hispanic surname -- running against the brother of Hillary! Mel Martinez got a pathteic 49% of the vote (the majority of Floridians didn't even vote FOR him) against a political unknown and won by 1%. If not for a third party guy sucking votes from the Dem and so many Cubans voting for a fellow "latino", this guy would have been toast.

Comparing the election results of a guy who had never run for state-wide office to someone had already been serving in state-wide office. Why not look at Mack's first election to the Senate in 1988?

Connie Mack 2,051,071 50.4%
Buddy McKay 2,016,553 49.6%

Looks like Martinez did just as well as Mack did the first time he ran for the Senate.

Florida is a very heavily Republican state where the Republicans have solid control over both houses of the legislature, most of the statewide offices, and put their electoral votes in the GOP column unless the Dems nominate a folksy southerner, etc., etc. It's fairly easy for any decent "R" to rack up 48%+ of the vote in a statewide election there unless their name is Katherine Harris. Mel Martinez's 1% margin of victory was lousy. If this guy had to run for Senator in a "swing state" like Iowa, he would have been crushed. Note that Michael Steele nearly matched Martinez's percentage running in the bluest of the blue states.

Florida is not as red as you are making it out to be. Clinton won the state in 1996 and came very close to doing so in 1992. And a majority of FL voters cast ballots for liberals (Gore and Nader in 2000). Florida is a competitive state, just ask Tom Lee and Alex Sink. Steele was able to run a competitive campaign because African-American voters who usually vote Democratic crossed over. Martinez didn't get much of an ethnic crossover because Cuban-Americans already vote Republican.

He is the pick of the "Affirmation action" wing the GOP who wants to appoint people on the basis of skin color.

Because he's white?