One can only wonder what they teach at Yale and Harvard these days. Clearly, the Ivy League schools are not doing a great job of teaching world history. So maybe Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who attended both schools, should not be blamed for basically calling the French a bunch of cowards.
During a news conference today at the University of South Florida, DeSantis began chatting about Putin and the brave citizens of Ukraine. DeSantis described Putin as an "authoritarian gas station attendant." DeSantis called Russia, "a hollowed out country" except for its energy resources. Of course, he took a moment to slam President Biden suggesting Putin attacked Ukraine, in part, because Biden pulled troops out of Afghanistan.
DeSantis, called the Ukrainian war effort "inspiring" especially the combat efforts of Ukraine's civilians. Then, DeSantis added this gem: "A lot of other places around the world they just fold the minute there is any type of adversity. I mean can you imagine if he went into France would they do anything to put up a fight? Probably not."
Matt tweeted this response: "Jesus. World War I was largely fought in France, the French Resistance was courageous and fearsome and France was one of the four occupation powers in postwar Germany. France is also, along with the US and UK, one of the three nuclear powers in NATO."
Of course, all of this begs the question - why would a Florida governor go out of his way to insult France? Especially at a time when the United States and its allies need to be united in opposition to Putin.
Florida Congressman Ted Deutch announced today that he will not seek reelection. His decision not to run is likely to set off a mad scramble, especially among Democrats in this Palm Beach/Broward district, to replace him.
Deutch, 55, was a member of the Florida Senate from 2006 to 2010. He replaced Congressman Robert Wexler who resigned in 2010.
The Palm Beach/Broward congressional district is heavily Democratic and is expected to remain so,after the Florida Legislature completes work on congressional redistricting later this month.
Here is the statement from Deutch:
"After serving the public for more than 15 years, I have decided I will not seek re-election this November. Public service was instilled in me by my father who earned a Purple Heart in the Battle of the Bulge, and it has been a tremendous privilege to serve the people of Palm Beach and Broward Counties in Congress since 2010. I am incredibly grateful to my constituents for their support and friendship.
"In my seven terms in Congress, I have worked hard and tried to find common ground. I’m proud of my work to make our communities safer from gun violence, strengthen social security and protect our most vulnerable seniors, and ensure Holocaust survivors can live in dignity. I’m proud of the many bipartisan ways we’ve come together - to provide resources for those battling eating disorders, to help seniors at risk of fraud, and to combat climate change. And in a dangerous world, I’ve worked with my colleagues to fight terrorism and rogue regimes like Iran, and to support our military and veterans, including securing recognition for heroic World War II, Korea, and Vietnam heroes who had been denied the honor they deserved.
He says nothing about the murdered Capitol Police Officer. He says nothing about the violence at the Capitol. He says nothing about the destruction. Instead, he defends them and tells them they will "have a giant voice in the future."
The responses to his tweet are equally disturbing. Sadly, I fear the violence we saw Wednesday from the Trump fringe is just the beginning and not the end.
And even as Florida's GOP members of our congressional cowered under their desks yesterday, few understand today that what they say and do has consequences.
As of this moment, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis still has not challenged Trump for inciting the riot. Video of Trump and his family and senior officials watching monitors of the crowd just before he went on stage, demonstrates just how eager they all were for the crowd to take action. And Trump, telling the crowd that he would walk with them to the Capitol (egging others to take action while hiding on the sidelines is typical of bullies), got exactly what he wanted as the rioters rampaged through the Capitol.
Did any of this convince Congressman Matt Gaetz to shut-up. No. Instead, the child-congressman took to the floor not only to falsely protest the election results, but to claim that Antifa had blended in with Trump supporters so they could attack the Capitol.
Congressman, have you no shame?
And of course, not surprisingly, some of the thugs looting, destroying, defecating the Capitol were Florida "patriots."
Thank you for being dumb enough to post your pictures on social media. The FBI, Capitol Police, and other investigators appreciate it. Your neighbors may be thrilled to know they live next to someone willing to attack our Capitol. Your employers may take note as well. And if you own a business, don't be surprised if you lose a few customers.
Where was DeSantis? Marco Rubio? Rick Scott?
This sad, after-the-fact comment from DeSantis, (the same father who used his small child in a build the wall campaign commercial), "In no way have I supported any type of lawlessness or anything like that" is spineless.
And now, a gentle reminder to the mob. You are not "patriots." You are thugs.
Real Patriots understand why the Founders established a House and Senate. It is there for disagreements to be seriously debated and compromises reached. The Founders did not envision a system in which everyone would leave happy about the results. Our leaders, and the voters who chose them, have failed miserably in living up to those ideals.
Moments ago, Trump tweeted again. He says he will not be going to the inauguration.
Meanwhile, there are posts from "patriots" threatening even more disruption during the inauguration.
Some years ago, a New York Times photographer was at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee to cover an event. As he was walking through the building he noticed a portrait hanging in the back of the coat closet. It was a portrait of a man who was once a leader of the Democratic Party. He was the nominee for president twice. He was a former governor of Illinois from a prominent political family.
Adlai Stevenson II.
Odds are that few of the folks working at the DNC remembered Stevenson.
Here is a description of him from Wikipedia:
Noted historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who served as one of his speechwriters, described Stevenson as a "great creative figure in American politics. He turned the Democratic Party around in the fifties and made JFK possible...to the United States and the world he was the voice of a reasonable, civilized, and elevated America. He brought a new generation into politics, and moved millions of people in the United States and around the world."[2] Journalist David Halberstam wrote that "Stevenson's gift to the nation was his language, elegant and well-crafted, thoughtful and calming."[3] His biographer Jean H. Baker stated that Stevenson's memory "still survives...as an expression of a different kind of politics - nobler, more issue-oriented, less compliant to the greedy ambitions of modern politicians, and less driven by public opinion polls and the media."
Stevenson was the party's presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956. He lost both times to Republican Dwight Eisenhower. He later was our United Nations Ambassador.
So how did this prominent member of the Democrat Party wind up in the coat closet at DNC headquarters?
No. Someone dear God tell me this is a joke. Have we moved April Fool's Day to August? Has the Miami Herald been sold to Area 51?
Why you might ask am I ranting? Well, let's just say the Herald made a rather unusual endorsement in the Republican Primary for 27th Congressional District - Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera. Unusual because she is Hispanic? Nope? Unusual because she is a woman? Nope.
Unusual because, well judge for yourself:
We realize that Rodriguez Aguilera is an unusual candidate. Last year, she told the Miami Herald — and several Spanish-language media outlets — that she believes in extra-terrestrials. She says when she was 7, she was taken aboard a spaceship and, throughout her life, she has communicated telepathically with the beings, which remind her of the concrete Christ in Brazil. There you have it.
“This is a non-issue,” she told the Board. We agree. Her bona fides as a former elected official, and now a businesswoman who spends time in other countries training women to run for office are solid.
Rodriguez Aguilera is a strong candidate in the race with plausible conservative ideas.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott spoke at the White House this morning at a gathering of governors hosted by President Trump.
Here is the White House transcript of Scott's remarks:
GOVERNOR SCOTT: Well, the first thing I want to do is I want to thank the President for making something happen. All of us, as governors, know, in any jobs we've had, you have to get something done. If you -- anybody that has gone through one of these -- and if you've gone to the funeral of a 14-year-old girl that her parents just loved her, you know that you have to make a change.
So what we've done in the last -- I guess, it's a little less than two weeks -- we've looked at what other governors have done. We've brought people together. I'm very appreciative of what the President has done by bringing us all together to talk about this, and also what he did last week by bringing people together because it has created momentum to make sure something happens this time, that we dont go through this and nothing happen.
So, in our state, the way I've done this is I've broken it down into three things. Number one, we're going to have school safety. No parent in our state is going to say, "I'm concerned whether my child can go to school safely." If you go to school in Florida, you're going to know that your child can come home safely. If you're a teacher, if you work at one of these schools, you're going to know you're going to come home safely. That's step one.
We're going to spend $500 million. I have two weeks left in my legislative session; I'm not waiting for the federal government. We're going to invest $500 million, and we're going to have significant law enforcement presence at every public school in our state.
Many believe that most mornings Florida Governor Rick Scott looks in the mirror and sees the Sunshine State's newest U.S. Senator. Certainly Republicans hope he is right.
Scott is their perfect candidate. He can largely pay his own way. He has won two statewide races. And most importantly, he could knock off a three-term Democrat - Bill Nelson - and perhaps help the GOP keep control of the Senate.
Those are swell reasons for the Republican Party to cheer him on but the fact is that Scott might just be miserable as a United States senator. Unless, his plan is to retire to the Senate - and he would not be the first, Scott might be better off not running.
Poor Charlie Crist. The Florida Congressman couldn't sleep a wink last night. Of course Crist's reason for not sleeping was a tad different than Frank Sinatra's song would suggest. Sinatra didn't have to worry about "Trumpcare."
So here's what Democrat Crist is sending out in an email:
I was up all night thinking about the score of Trumpcare 2.0, friend.
850%. That's the estimate of how much insurance premiums would rise for elderly, poor people over the next decade. That's shameful. I’m incredibly disheartened that my colleagues in the House put politics over people -- and I’m going to do everything I can to stop it.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Guccifer 2.0, an alleged Russian hacker, helped Florida Republican operative Aaron Nevins during the 2016 campaign.
Nevins told WSJ that he is not convinced the Russians are involved but even if they were, it doesn’t matter to him because the agenda of the hackers seemed to match his own. “If your interests align,” he said, “never shut any doors in politics.”
Newly elected Republican Congressman Brian Mast also gets a mention in WSJ story.
The hacking spree that upended the presidential election wasn’t limited to Democratic National Committee memos and Clinton-aide emails posted on websites. The hacker also privately sent Democratic voter-turnout analyses to a Republican political operative in Florida named Aaron Nevins.
Learning that hacker “Guccifer 2.0” had tapped into a Democratic committee that helps House candidates, Mr. Nevins wrote to the hacker to say: “Feel free to send any Florida based information.”
Ten days later, Mr. Nevins received 2.5 gigabytes of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee documents, some of which he posted on a blog called HelloFLA.com that he ran using a pseudonym.
Soon after, the hacker sent a link to the blog article to Roger Stone, a longtime informal adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, along with Mr. Nevins’ analysis of the hacked data.
Mr. Nevins confirmed his exchanges after The Wall Street Journal identified him first as the operator of the HelloFLA blog and then as the recipient of the stolen DCCC data. The Journal also reviewed copies of exchanges between the hacker and Mr. Nevins. That the obscure blog had received hacked Democratic documents was previously known, but not the extent of the trove or the blogger’s identity.
“I just threw an arrow in the dark,” Mr. Nevins said in an interview, adding he set up a Dropbox account so whoever was using the Guccifer 2.0 name could send large amounts of material. Later, going through what the hacker sent as someone who “actually knows what some of these documents mean,” the GOP consultant said he “realized it was a lot more than even Guccifer knew that he had.”
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMPS ADDRESS TO A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
"Remarks as prepared for delivery"
TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and Citizens of America:
Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we are reminded of our Nation's path toward civil rights and the work that still remains. Recent threats targeting Jewish Community Centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week's shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be aNation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms.
Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice - in an unbroken chain all the way down to the present.
That torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light up the world. I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from myheart.
A new chapter of American Greatness is now beginning.
A new national pride is sweeping across our Nation.
And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp.
What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit.
Our allies will find that America is once again ready tolead.
All the nations of the world -- friend or foe -- will find that America is strong, America is proud, and America is free.
In 9 years, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding -- 250 years since the day we declared our Independence.
It will be one of the great milestones in the history of the world.
But what will America look like as we reach our 250th year? What kind of country will we leave for our children?
I will not allow the mistakes of recent decades past to define the course of our future.
On the 1960 British Pathé newsreel, the headline says "Kennedy talks strategy with Congress leaders." Palm Beach was used to its Kennedys but not like this. For the first time, this quiet island whose residents valued privacy as much as wealth, was becoming the center of world attention.
In one of his first post-election meetings, John F. Kennedy summoned his newly elected vice president, Lyndon Johnson, and congressional leaders to discuss his plans after his inauguration. It would be the first of many visits to the Kennedy home on the island of 6,000 residents by national and world leaders. The north end island Kennedy home was now the Winter White House.
Now, more than a half century later, Palm Beach is again a political spectacle. Only this time, the Winter White House could be Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. If JFK was of the Mad Men generation, Trump is a Twitter-boomer. If JFK brought youthful vigor to the island and willingness to blend, Trump stormed the island, determined to bend it to his will.
JFK brought glamour. Trump brought New York attitude and new money glitz. And while old Palm Beach may cringe, Trump is there to stay whether he wins or not.
The Kennedys arrived in Palm Beach when family patriarch Joseph Kennedy bought a home there in 1933. There were 1,700 residents. The island, like much of Florida, was segregated. But it was much more than a division of whites and blacks. It was a division of Jews and Gentiles, the extraordinarily wealthy and the lower classes.
Joe was a member of the then notoriously segregated Everglades Club which excluded minorities, Jews, and anyone who simply didn’t measure up to their elite standard.
By the time his second son was elected president, Palm Beach’s population had climbed to more than 6,000. The island remained deeply segregated and attitudes had changed little from when Joe Kennedy first bought a home there 27 years earlier.
JFK made frequent trips to Palm Beach during his presidency. One Kennedy home video, shows Kennedy playing in the family pool with his very young children Caroline and John Jr. JFK is seen tossing a ball to a pair of dogs running beside the pool.
Palm Beachers still like to see old black-and-white pictures of the First Couple going to St. Edwards Catholic Church, JFK holding press conferences, and the children at play.
Five years before Donald Trump arrived in Palm Beach, attorney Allen DeWeese had been arrested by Palm Beach Police for jogging shirtless. The town council had passed an ordinance declaring jogging shirtless to be indecent exposure. Violators faced up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.
In court, the town argued that it had a right “to protect the beholder of unsightly displays.” A judge tossed out the arrest calling the ordinance not only unconstitutional but “silly.”
Palm Beach may have lost the case but not its belief that every aspect of living on the island must be regulated. From the height of a resident’s hedges to the types of companies allowed to do business there, the town is ever alert for the smallest infraction.
New businesses are suspect. They must prove that most of their customers will be people who live there. Some fought the opening of a Starbucks fearing that it would attract outsiders.
When Trump arrived in 1985, islanders soon found out he would have little regard for the town’s many rules and regulations.
This new campaign ad for Jeb Bush comes from Right to Rise PAC, run by one of Bush's top advisers, Mike Murphy.
The ad begins with a shot of President Obama and Hillary Clinton appearing to be on the steps of Air Force One. The video quickly shifts to Bush saying "We need to disrupt the old order in Washington, D.C."
Bush appears in the ad speaking to a "town hall" gathering in what Donald Trump might call a "high energy" fashion.
The "old order" theme is interesting for Bush considering his family history. From his grandfather who was a U.S. Senator to his father who held several political offices before becoming vice president and then president to his brother George W., the Bush family has been part of Washington for most of the past 60 years.
Sen. Prescott Bush held office from 1952 to 1963.
George H.W. Bush was a congressman from 1967 to 1971, U.N. Ambassador 71-73, RNC chairman, 73-74, Chief of Liaison Office in China, 74-75, CIA director, 76-77, Vice President 81-89, President 89-93.
George W. Bush was president 2001 to 2009.
There are not a lot of gaps there in the Bush's family time spent involved in Washington politics.
Apparently, the definition of "old order" is just the last eight years.
One wonders if Bush would be better off embracing the family's Washington legacy than pretending he's not part of it while dearly trying to extend it.
At least one prominent federal budget expert believes that there is a strong chance that the debate over federal funding for Planned Parenthood could lead to a government shutdown.
Stan Collender, a frequently sought speaker on federal budget issues, frequently appears on Bloomberg TV and writes a column for Forbes. He is also a friend of Crowley Political Report.
Collender, who carefully monitors congressional action on the budget, believes that the outcry over videos showing Planned Parenthood officials talking about the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses. The undercover video was shot undercover by an anti-abortion group. Planned Parenthood claims the videos are heavily edited.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who previously voted for federal funding for fetal tissue research, announced that the Senate would take up a bill to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Florida Democratic Congresswoman Lois Frankel defended Planned Parenthood calling the GOP plans to cut funding, “another insidious effort by extremists . . .which would result in blocking millions of women from accessing critical and lifesaving healthcare.”
Collender says this kind of sharp divide could lead to a government shutdown.
Collender writes:
In the past that line-in-the-sand issue has been budget-related: the national debt, the federal deficit and taxes. This time it’s the new GOP push to defund Planned Parenthood – a highly emotional social issue that has quickly become a political litmus test for Republicans.
Jeb Bush returned to Tallahassee today to use the town where he spent eight years as governor as a backdrop for his 2016 presidential campaign. The Republican candidate suggested that Washington is place that badly needs his Sunshine State solutions.
It is a speech that is odd in the way it condemns Washington culture - one that has had a Bush in the White House as either Veep or President for 20 of the last years.
Here are his prepared remarks:
“Thank you very much. It’s good to be back in Tallahassee, and great to be back with so many old friends.
"We’re in the early days of a long campaign. I’m making my case to voters all across the country, and I’m happy to tell you the signs are good.
"People are ready to choose a new president. Among Republicans, they’ve got plenty of choices. They want to know, not just what we believe, but what we have accomplished – and for me that story begins right here in Tallahassee.
"In my eight years in office we didn’t just mark time, we filled those years with hard work and real reform.
"It wasn’t always a smooth path. In fact, we used to call this city ‘Mount Tallahassee’ because it was so remote from the people, so caught up in the settled ways of a comfortable establishment. I was a governor who refused to go along with that establishment. I wasn’t a member of the club, and that made all the difference.
"Should I win this election, you will not find me deferring to the settled ways of ‘Mount Washington,’ either. The overspending, the overreaching, the arrogance, and the sheer incompetence in that city – these problems have been with us so long that they are sometimes accepted as facts of life. But a president should never accept them, and I will not. We need a president willing to challenge the whole culture in our nation’s capital – and I mean to do it.