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:

Martinez and Nelson fire a warning shot on Cuba proposal

With word of Sen. Byron 'Let's drill off Florida's coast' Dorgan proposing an amendment to extend U.S.-based financing to Alimport, a corporation of the Castro regime in Cuba, Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson have fired off a letter, warning lawmakers off.

According to Martinez's office, the amendment would alter the current practice of "cash-in-advance" for authorized sales to Alimport, which is owned and operated by the Castro regime. Dorgan earlier this year introduced a bill to allow Americans to travel to Cuba.

"Any policy change concerning the national security of the United States should be subjected to a full and rigorous debate...." the pair say in a  letter to SAC re Cuba Polic to Appropriations Committee chair Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Nelson's Twittering makes the Atlantic's Top 30

Bill Nelson's tweets have made Atlantic magazine's list of the top 30 Washington Insiders on Twitter.

His "obsessions," the mag reports, "the Everglades, the stimulus bill, alternative energy." Other hot Twitterers: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich - author of the famous "racist Latina" tweet and Sen. John McCain who recently told the world he's getting a Ford Fusion Hybrid.

Lawmakers to Obama: Don't let Cuba pull a China

Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson, Joe Lieberman and Robert Menendez are urging the Obama administration to ensure that any U.S. telecom companies doing business in Cuba won't "engage in any activities that would suppress or violate the human rights of the Cuban people. 

Martinez noted problems in China -- "complicity between U.S. companies and the Chinese government in restricting Web access and identifying Internet-using government critics. "Let’s lay the groundwork now so that the same can’t happen in Cuba," he said.

The letter to Obama notes that a 2006 Human Rights Watch report detailed how U.S. telecommunications companies had provided the identity of Internet users to Chinese authorities, resulting in the imprisonment of four Chinese government critics.

“We need to make certain Cuba’s officials won’t monitor and police the Cuban people when they use the Internet, for example," Nelson said. The letter comes as the administration writes new regulations to carry out Obama's push to to provide greater telecommunications links with Cuba.

Sunshine in the Senate...at long last

Dragged into the 21st century, the Congess has finally put its once-secret list of earmark requests online. The House went online in April; the Senate filed in May.

With a couple of click of a mouse, interested parties can check out what Sens. Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson are asking to get into the federal budget. In the past, they've resisted efforts to release that information -- saying it would put them at a competitive disadvantage with other senators vying for federal dollars for pet projects. Sen. Daniel Inouye -- the Senate appropriations chair -- in January required online posting before requests can be considered.

Here's the links to Martinez and Nelson. Nelson also has a military request site, notes the SunLight Foundation.

Secretaries, senators and snakes. Oh my!

Florida senators Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will get up close and personal with a dreaded Burmese python as they tour the Everglades next week.

The visit by the interior secretary who oversees the national park system includes an airboat tour, a meeting with environmental groups and a briefing on the invasive species that threaten the refuge, including the giant snake that water management officials say is killing off native species.

 

The senators are hoping the visit impresses upon the former Colorado senator the importance of the Everglades. Word is, a contingency plan is in place should the Glades water level be too low to conduct the tour by air. Regardless, the python remains on the agenda. Snakes on a Plane anyone?

White House: We don't need political posturing when it comes to hurricanes. Confirm Fugate

White House press spokesman Robert Gibbs called out Louisiana Sen. David Vitter today for putting a hold on FEMA nominee Craig Fugate, calling it "political posturing.

"We're three weeks from hurricane season, beginning the first of June. And we have nominated somebody that has a stellar bipartisan record, originally nominated by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and supported by Democrats and Republicans alike," Gibbs said at the White House press briefing. "He is somebody that deserves immediate Senate confirmation, not political posturing from a senator from Louisiana who should understand as well as anybody what's at stake in responding to a hurricane.  And we expect that he'll be confirmed quickly."

Gibbs said he didn't know if President Obama had talked to the Louisiana Republican, but said there may be an effort today to seat Fugate.

"I think I would let Senator Vitter know that the best way to get moving on any concerns that he has with FEMA is to get somebody of the utmost regard at the helm of FEMA to make progress.  And I think his constituents would expect that same level of professionalism," Gibbs said.

Hillary Clinton to meet with wife of missing Floridian

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's schedule today includes an 11:30 a.m. private meeting with Christine Levinson, the wife of a retired FBI agent who went missing in 2007 from a Persian Gulf island. The family lives in Coral Springs.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has been prodding the federal government for months to press Iran for information about Bob Levinson.

Fl senators all a twitter over Specter

What did Florida senators do upon learning the life-changing news that their Pennsylvania colleage Arlan Specter was switching parties? They twittered, of course.

Republican Sen. Mel Martinez: "The pressure is now on moderate Democrats to stop the radical agenda. I am disappointed and suprised...On a lighter note Sen. Dodd came to meeting where Specter was speaking and asked if Ds could trade for someone else."

Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson: "Whoa, Arlen Specter is switching to Democratic Party after three decades in GOP."

Nelson: Obama needs to raise tainted drywall complaints with China

A frustrated Sen. Bill Nelson says federal investigators are moving too slowly on Chinese drywall, as the number of complaints continues to rise in Florida and the state’s attorney general is warning that the issue has attracted scam artists.

Emerging from a private briefing with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Nelson again called for the firing of the commission’s acting chairwoman. He also pressed President Barack Obama to put the drywall issue "at the top of his agenda" when he visits China this summer.

“I asked how harmful is it and they said, ‘We’ve got to wait ’til the end of our study,’ ” said Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has proposed a temporary ban and recall of Chinese-made drywall. “But when are you going to have some definitive information?"

Read more here.