Secretary of Explaining Stuff Bill Clinton stumps for Obama in Miami

The Secretary of Explaining Stuff came to Miami on Tuesday – and he lived up to the new nickname given him by President Barack Obama.

From Medicare to education policy to the national debt, former President Bill Clinton held forth at Florida International University for a 40-minute speech that praised Obama and criticized Republican policy.

 “The test is not whether you think everything’s hunky-dory – if that were the test, the president would vote against himself,” Clinton said. “He knows everything’s not hunky-dory. He knows how bad some people are hurting… The test is whether he’s taking us in the right direction – and the answer then is yes.”

In many ways, the speech was a reprise of the nationally watched speech Clinton gave last week at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in which he presented a point-by-point rebuttal to the case Republicans had made at their own convention in Tampa a week earlier.

“I believe with all my heart that a society that basically says, ‘You’re on your own’ is never going to be as successful in a highly competitive and interdependent world as a society that says, ‘We don’t have a person to waste,’” he said. “We’re all in this together.”

Obama nicknamed Clinton the “Secretary of Explaining Stuff” during a Saturday event in St. Petersburg.

“Somebody sent out a tweet, ‘He needs to be made Secretary of Explaining Stuff.’ I like that!” Obama said, “I have to admit, it didn’t say ‘stuff.’ ”

Clinton explained away on Tuesday in Miami, while Republican Mitt Romney's campaign was largely silent, saying the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks shouldn’t be about politics. Both Obama and Romney pulled negative ads during a one-day 9/11 truce.

Supreme Court says school funding lawsuit deserves trial

A lawsuit that accuses the state of failing to properly fund and operate quality schools deserves its day in court, the Florida Supreme Court ruled today.

Citizens for Strong Schools first filed the suit in 2009 in Leon County's Circuit Court, but the state and Legislature complained that the issue was not fit for a trial because it hinges on broad issues of school funding and education policy. In November, the First District Court of Appeals narrowly ruled against the state, which then appealed to the high court in February.

Today, the Supreme Court said it should "decline to exercise jurisdiction"  and dismissed the case. That means the plaintiffs, which includes non-profit groups and parents of public school students, can move forward with seeking a trial.

Defendents include outgoing Senate President Mike Haridopolos, outgoing House Speaker Dean Cannon, former Education Commissioner Eric Smith, and the state Board of Education. The Florida School Boards Association, Florida Association of District School Superintendents, Florida Education Association, and Florida Association of School Administrators, as well as the teachers union and school board in Sarasota County, joined in to support the plaintiffs.

In court, Florida Republicans oppose more early voting days

Florida's fight over early voting is moving to a new venue -- a courtroom in Jacksonville.

Eight weeks before Election Day, as the state seeks federal approval of its new eight-day, 96-hour early voting timetable, U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, wants a federal judge to return early voting to its old 14-day schedule. That, Brown argues in court papers, would allow African-American churches to mobilize black voters on the Sunday that immediately precedes the election.

The new schedule, approved by a Republican Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott, requires early voting on the Sunday that falls nine days before the election, but prohibits it on the Sunday that falls closest to the election.   

In response to Brown's lawsuit, leaders of three county Republican parties in Florida have filed statements with the court opposing expansion of early voting beyond eight days, saying it would disrupt their get-out-the-vote efforts. The GOP leaders --  Richard DeNapoli in Broward, Joe Gruters in Sarasota and Leslie Doughey of Clay County -- all submitted identical declarations, saying an expansion of early voting would be disruptive and siphon precious volunteers away from get-out-the-vote activities.

"The additional four days of early voting that would be allowed would cause significant prejudice to the Republican Party of (my) county," the Republican officials state, and "divert valuable resources away from other projects that the party had previously planned to undertake and use them to recruit, train and oversee employees and volunteers for the additional early voting days." 

Brown's Congressional office promptly issued a press release that said: "Republicans admit more early voting harms their interests., Brown was quoted as saying: "This motion confirms what we already know. Republicans don't want people to vote. There's no other explanation for their repeated attempts to restrict early voting."

A hearing on Brown's request for an injunction will be held Sept. 19.

The lawsuit by Brown, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Duval County Democratic Party and two local pastors, is before U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan in Jacksonville. Those groups argue in court papers that they "have selected the last Sunday before Election Day for a community-wide, sustained GOTV (get out the vote) campaign to mobilize voters ... Through the churches, African-Americans were encouraged to attend worship services and then go vote, with transportation being provided for those who needed it."

Scott's administration has extracted commitments from five Florida counties under federal civil rights oversight to provide the maximum amount of early voting (12 eight-hour days) to win another federal court's approval. The U.S. Justice Department has endorsed that plan.

The counties are Hillsborough, Monroe, Collier, Hardee and Hendry. Monroe agreed to the 96-hour timetable on the condition that the court first pre-clear the schedule, meaning that it would not hinder blacks' voting rights. 

-- Steve Bousquet

Dolphins-dissing President Obama chats Pitbull, Medicare with 'Pimp with the Limp' DJ Laz

President Obama continues reaching out to non-traditional media to spread the campaign word, appearing in a pre-recorded interview that aired this morning on 106.7 FM with DJ Laz AKA “the pimp with the limp,” who tweeted that he was getting “REAL Answers from @BarackObama.”

Laz even got false ones.

For instance, Obama said that repealing Obamacare, which cut Medicare and helped extend the life of the program by eight years,  would cause the program to go “bankrupt by 2016.”

That’s not really true. If the cuts were repealed, a main hospital trust fund for Medicare would start to take in less than it pays out. But that’s not bankruptcy.

On the whole, Obama stayed on message, dropped a few pop culture references and reached an audience that seldom pays close attention to politics. He also made time to mock the Dolphins bad record. It's an effective outreach technique, but you have to wonder about the president's criticisms of the mainstream press when he picks these venues. Too bad Laz didn't ask the president about his big hit, "if you ain't got your clothes off get your ass off the stage." Would love to hear POTUS rap to that.

The intro:

Obama: DJ Laz.

Laz: O-Bama!

Obama: “What’s going on, man?”

Laz: “How are you, sir?”

Obama: “Blessed and highly favored.”

Laz: It is an honor and pleasure to have the president of the United States. I’m humbled

Obama: “I’m the one who should be humbled. You’re big time. You’ve got Pitbull and Flo Rida and all these guys just beating a path to your door. And so I’m hoping I can get a little of that magic from you in this interview.”

Laz: I’m wearing a Miami Dolphins jersey

Obama: “You’ve got to start with that Dolphins thing. Did you see that HBO special Hard Knocks. That’s a pretty good show. As I recall, you guys didn’t win any… in the preseason”

Laz: Now I’m getting ragged on by the president of the United States

Obama: “I’m just saying you brought it up. My Bears – I’m feeling pretty good about them.”

The rest was standard campaign fare. Click and listen.

 

****update: The campaign tells us the interview was pre-recorded two days ago. The radio station ran the interview this morning, 9/11, and the original post noted the absence of a Sept. 11 reference by the president as a result.

Critics assail 'back door' prison health outsourcing plan

On the eve of a key legislative vote, critics of outsourcing all inmate health care in Florida promised Tuesday to file suit if the proposal goes through as expected.

The 14-member Joint Legislative Budget Commission, controlled by Republicans, will meet Wednesday to consider a request by Gov. Rick Scott's office and the Department of Corrections to award contracts to two out-of-state vendors, Wexford Health Services of Pittsburgh and Corizon Health of Brentwood, Tenn., to provide all medical and pharmaceutical care to more than 100,000 inmates.

The agency wants to shift $58 million between budget accounts to hire the vendors by January.

Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich, D-Weston, and Tom Brooks, an attorney for the AFSCME public employee union, criticized the proposal as a misuse of the legislative budget commission and an end-run around the entire 160-member Legislature. (The Senate last session defeated a proposal to privatize all prisons in a 19-county region in South Florida).

"My feeling is that we need to not do this now. It needs to be brought back to the full legislature next session," Rich said.

The Legislature, in last year's budget (fiscal 2011-2012), included fine-print language known as proviso directing the health care outsourcing. But when a new fiscal year began July 1, the old proviso language died. Now the state is pushing ahead, claiming it has the authority under state law -- an action that surely would be the crux of a union legal challenge.    

Brooks said the state is improperly relying on a clause that allows it to contract with local governments, non-profits and "other entities" for services. "This is just a back door attempt to revive the expired proviso, and believe that legally, there needs to be a specific authorization from the Legislature, not this generalized authority from DOC."

Brooks said AFSCME will file a new lawsuit challenging the privatization if it's approved Wednesday.

The JLBC is chaired by Sen. JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, a longstanding supporter of privatization in prisons. Rich is one of four Democrats on the panel, and as a declared candidate for governor in 2014 would be seeking labor's support in a primary.

Privatization of inmate health care has a controversial and unsuccessful history in Florida. Corizon has a contract to provide mental health care to inmates in South Florida, where inmate Darren Rainey died in custody in June. Prison officials have declined to discuss Rainey's death, citing an ongoing investigation.

-- Steve Bousquet

Mitt Romney stumps in Jacksonville today while Bill Clinton is in Miami

Bill Clinton speaks this afternoon in Miami. Hours later and miles north, in Jacksonvile, Mitt Romney is stumping at an airport event.

Life in a swing state.

 

Barack Obama, Mitt Romney coming to the University of Miami in September

From a press release:

President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney will be visiting the University of Miami on Wednesday, September 19th (Governor Romney) and Thursday, September 20th (President Obama) as special guests of Univision broadcasts entitled:  "El Gran Encuentro con el Gobernador Mitt Romney" and "El Gran Encuentro con el Presidente Barack Obama."

Former justice joins pushback in merit retention debate over FSC justices

Former Supreme Court Justice Raoul Cantero joined in the defense of Florida's three justices up for merit retention in the face of a recent "report card" by a conservative group aimed at ousting the judges.

Justices Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince are up for a yes-or-no merit retention vote in November, as required by law every six years.

Cantero, who appointed to the bench by former Gov. Jeb Bush and served for six years, said in a conference call with reporters that the merit retention system was designed to allow voters to remove justices for misconduct, inside or outside of office, and his colleagues deserve to be retained.

He said that the majority of opinions that come from the court were unanimous decisions, but only the small fraction of the opinions rendered drew dissenting opinions and those get the attention.

Three counties reject revised Medicaid bills

Three Florida counties have opted to challenge their Medicaid backlog bills in court, arguing that even after months of review the state has still incorrectly calculated how much they owe. The Agency for Health Care Administration has asked for the state Division of Administrative Hearings to review bills for Broward, St. Johns and St. Lucie counties, the News Service of Florida reported.

By challenging the amount the state says they owe for unpaid Medicaid bills -- $18.6 million in Broward, $11.9 million in St. Lucie and $763,286 in St. Johns -- these counties are on the hook for repaying the full amounts if an administrative judge rules against them.

The rest of Florida's counties have agreed to pay back what they state says they owe over the next three years, minus a 15 percent discount for not challenging the final numbers. In total, the state stands to collect $120 million from the 64 remaining counties.

Initially, the state estimated that it was owed $325 million in upaid Medicaid bills.

However, most counties are still moving forward with a lawsuit filed in Leon County's Circuit Court by the Florida Association of Counties to challenge the new Medicaid billing system as an unfunded mandate.

Miami-Dade commissioner now says he had heard that former aide embroiled in absentee-ballot probe was involved in other campaigns

When authorities revealed a month ago that one of his former aides had collected some 164 absentee ballots in his Hialeah office, county Commissioner Esteban Bovo expressed shock at the news.

But on Monday, Bovo admitted that more than a month earlier he’d received a separate complaint that his then-aide Anamary Pedrosa had offered the services of ballot brokers to judicial candidates at a Fourth of July celebration in Hialeah. “I confronted her and Anamary denied being involved in any campaigns,” Bovo told Channel-41 AmericaTeve. “In fact, she said that some judicial candidates had asked for her help, but she said she wasn’t working for anybody for pay or as a volunteer. I believed her.”

However, Miami-Dade County Judge Don S. Cohn told a different story to El Nuevo Herald on Monday night. He said Pedrosa and her mother offered to take him to meet elderly Hispanic voters at an apartment building in Hialeah Gardens. Cohn ended up paying her mother, Ana Valdez, for the work.

“[Pedrosa] was definitely the one who approached me,” said Cohn, who won the race despite losing in absentee ballots. “My expectation was that she was going to take me to those places. I don’t speak Spanish.”

Pedrosa doesn’t show up in any campaign reports for the Aug. 14 elections. But Valdez earned some $5,700 for working in three judicial campaigns.

More from Melissa Sanchez and Enrique Flor here.