But as much as I blame the candidates, I have to blame the party too. Have Republicans absorbed how much trouble their party is in? To the (limited) extent that we do, we tend to to attribute everything to Iraq — as if Katrina, the Schiavo affair, corruption in Congress, and the intensifying irrelevance of our domestic-policy agenda did not exist. And so we demand from our candidates ever more fervent declarations of fealty to an ideology that interests an ever dwindling proportion of the public.
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It's disappointing that former state Sen. Nancy Argenziano's legislative obituary, as chronicled in newspapers around the state recently, was highlighted by the manure she once sent a lobbyist. That now infamous bow-topped, 25-pound box of cow dung is part of the Florida Legislature's lore, as well as the Argenziano legend in Tallahassee, and her delivering it might best capture, for better or worse, the colorful Dunnellon Republican's brash, blunt-spoken and often combative soul.
~Snip~
She battled phone companies and voted against record-setting rate hikes, and opposed efforts to shift funds for Alzheimer's care and prescription drugs for the elderly; she was critical of Gov. Jeb Bush's privatization efforts and successfully fought for a law that requires greater legislative oversight of such contracts; she helped defeat the state's attempt to interfere in the Terri Schiavo controversy; she joined a handful of GOP senators in torpedoing two of Bush's key education initiatives, vouchers and repealing the classroom-size amendment.
A rebel, with causes, moves on
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He’s from Canada and after reading the whole column, I’m not sure what he’s thinking or what he wants. My best guess — it is no better than a guess — is that Frum, too, would have sided with Michael Schiavo murdering his wife. I hear no hint of a kinder view here. Repeat, that’s a guess. This column was a waste of space. That’s not a guess.