Health care debate hits FL airwaves

The national Democratic party is launching a television spot targeting on-the-fence senators in eight states -- including Florida -- who are wary of President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul of the health care system.

The ad will run on national cable and local stations in Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Maine, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Dakota and Nebraska over the next two weeks. The party is also enlisting grassroots volunteers from the 2008 campaign to lobby for the president's agenda.

Local activists have already started nudging Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson over the past couple weeks. One blogger noted a recent Tweet by Nelson: Lotta folks asking me about health care reform. We really need it. I'm working on it. But we need a viable plan for how to pay for it.

Here's the ad:

Obama and the pope talk Cuba, Honduras

President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI met today and among the issues that came up: Cuba and Honduras, says White House Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough.

McDonough said Obama "obviously underscored our policy directions..." and "underscored his particular appreciation for Archbishop Rodriguez, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, who has been playing a very critical role in the ongoing crisis there, and he expressed his appreciation for the fact that he continues to call on all sides to restrain from violence there, which is obviously a critical development."

Archbishop Oscar Andrés Rodríguez last Saturday called on ousted President Manuel Zelaya last week to reconsider his decision to return to the country. He also called for unity among the Honduran people and asked world leaders to reconsider their support of Zelaya.

 

Mr. Garcia goes to Washington -- in the Obama administration

Joe Garcia, the former exec director of the Cuban American National Foundation who gave Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart a run for his money when he challenged him in campaign 2008, has landed a job with the Obama administration.

President Obama has nominated the Miami Beach resident as Director of the Office of Minority Economic Impact at the Department of Energy. If confirmed by the Senate, he'd the top-ranking South Floridian in the aadministration. Read more here.

Says the White House: "Joe Garcia's dynamic public service career spans over 20 years and consists of a diverse body of work in the fields of energy, foreign policy and human rights. As a law student, Mr. Garcia directed the Exodus Project, a non-profit refugee resettlement program that reunited over 10,000 families at no cost to American tax-payers. In 1992, the late Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Joe Garcia to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), where he fought for lower utility bills for the people of Florida. In 1998, Mr. Garcia's fellow commissioners elected him as chairman of the PSC.  As PSC Chairman, Joe Garcia worked across party lines to pass the largest energy rate cut in Florida's history, saving Florida's families more than $1 billion. In 2001, Mr. Garcia was named as the Executive Director of the Cuban American National Foundation, where he served as a tireless proponent of freedom and improved human rights conditions in Cuba and throughout the Americas. In 2004, Mr. Garcia was named Executive Vice President and Director of the Hispanic Project for NDN, a policy research institute in Washington D.C. Joe Garcia earned his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Miami."

Jeb to push for immigration reform

Jeb Bush will be back in DC this week to present a Council on Foreign Relations-sponsored report on immigration policy that calls for a path to legalization for illegal immigrants -- a position shared by his brother, former president George W. Bush.

The task force -- co-chaired by Bush and Mack McLarty, former President Bill Clinton's chief of staff -- argues that "the failure to reform immigration laws and procedures threatens to harm America's economy, jeopardize its diplomacy, and weaken its national security."

The report urges Congress and the Obama administration to undertake a new effort with three central components: "the creation of a more efficient legal immigration system that responds to labor market needs and enhances U.S. competitiveness; a strong enforcement regime that secures U.S. borders and ends the hiring of unauthorized workers; and a program of earned legalization that will offer an
opportunity for many illegal immigrants to earn the right to remain in the United States."

Ileana and the president

The House Republican who famously hung up on President Barack Obama after his election, is still welcome in the Oval Office.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was at the White House Wednesday as Obama signed into law a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots who served during World War II. Ros-Lehtinen was one of the bill's sponsors.

 Photo courtesy The White House

Dissident disappointment

The woman who accepted a democracy award on behalf of her Cuban dissident brother and four others says she was sorry not to get an audience with President Barack Obama.

"Bertha Antunez...said today she was naturally disappointed at not having the opportunity to tell their stories directly to President Obama of the harsh treatment they have received from the regime for speaking out for basic human rights."

But a statement from the National Endowment for Democracy said Antunez and the dissidents "are encouraged by the President's statement commending the award recipients for 'standing up for the right of the Cuban people to freely determine their country's future and his call for all political prisoners to be unconditionally released and allowed to fully participate in a democratic future in Cuba."

An administration official says Obama had a town hall meeting on health care Wednesday night and nothing should be read into the fact he wasn't able to meet with Antunez.

President Bush had met with the honorees since 2005, which prompted NED to ask Obama for the meeting, a spokeswoman said.

Martinez: Ready for another immigration battle

Mel Martinez, who took a few licks in the bruising immigration battle in 2006, says he's ready to push for immigration reform again -- but he says President Obama has got to be engaged.

"This is tough stuff, it's tough politics," said Martinez, who met with Obama and other lawmakers Thursday at the White House.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who attended the meeting and has already filed legislation to let immigrant students stay in the U.S., said the meeting was "better than I thought it would be" and he's optimistic about seeing a bill passed.

"There's a possiblity," Diaz-Balart said. "It became pretty evident there's a lot of good faith." But Martinez said he's skeptical about the bill passing this year. He suggested the votes in the Senate are a "little dicey at the moment.

"I'm too much of a realist," he said. "I got my head banged around a little bit last time and I know this is not an easy issue. People walk away from it because it's tough."

Obama disses the Cuban dissidents?

A statement from the White House today says President Obama "would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and commend the National Endowment for Democracy's 2009 Democracy Award recipients Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, Librado Linares, Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, and Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera and all the brave men and women who are standing up for the right of the Cuban people to freely determine their country's future."

But the award organizer told the Washington Post that unlike in past years, the representative who received the award on behalf of the dissidents was not invited to the White House. (None of the actual awardees were allowed to leave Cuba to accept the award.)

"Message to ... the Castro brothers," the Post opined archly: "We can work with you. Message to Cuba's democratic opposition: We don't have time for you."

Obama administration promises a new day on the Everglades

The South Florida EcoSystem Restoration Task Force -- the folks charged with recharging the Everglades -- met in DC today -- with special guest Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who wowed the crowd by promising full cooperation from the federal government.

"We're passionate about getting this thing done," Salazar said of the massive effort to bring the imperiled Everglades back to life again. The Obama administration has funneled some $360 million into Glades projects next year -- the largest annual infusion since Congress approved the state-federal project in 2000.

Terrence "Rock" Salt, who was named to a key White House post directing civil works projects, said the project was "one of the highest priorities for the administration."

Shannon Estenoz, a special advisor to the task force, said she was "astounded" by the pace. "I'm hopeful and optimistic for the future," she said.

One discordant note was from Dexter Lehtinen, an attorney for the Miccosukee Tribe, which contends that one project -- a bridge on the Tamiami Trail -- hasn't been properly vetted. He said the proposal breaks promises made to the tribe.

"Which means screw the tribe," he said.

Mel Martinez, back for more

Mel Martinez who weathered a storm of criticism -- and a barrage of bricks -- from immigration reform foes, is stepping back into the fray.

Martinez rsvp'd yes to an invite from President Barack Obama who Thursday will hold a (twice delayed) meeting with lawmakers from both parties at the White House to talk about how to move forward on immigration reform.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart will also be at the meeting.