Connie Mack disses Paul Ryan budget as "a joke."

Criticizing the Republican House budget isn't just for Democrats any more.

Republican Congressman and Senate candidate Connie Mack called the budget plan, drafted by fellow Rep. Paul Ryan, a "joke" during a weekend Orlando Tea Party forum. Mack, who missed the Ryan plan vote in Washington last week while he was fundraising in Florida, later said through a spokesman that he would have voted for it anyway.

Mack spokesman David James also sought to clarify that Mack didn't mean to criticize the conservative plan itself -- which President Obama roundly bashed Tuesday in a campaign-style speech.

"The vote was the 'joke,' as in the process being a joke, not the Ryan plan itself.  And Connie said the vote was a joke," James said in an email. "He supports they Ryan plan but the process is a joke when the GOP House continues to do the right things and the liberal Senate under [Majority Leader Harry] Reid and [Florida Sen. Bill] Nelson continue to kill fiscally responsible measures."

Still, Mack clearly criticized the Ryan plan itself when he was asked about a string of missed votes in Congress, including the budget plan.

“I was here in Florida campaigning," Mack said Saturday, according to an undisputed quote reported by the conservative Florida Political Press. "You know that budget was a joke, doesn’t balance the budget for years.”

Comments like that can be deadly to Republicans this campaign season. Last year, conservatives were outraged when Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich dissed the first Ryan plan.

Mack also chided then-Senate candidate and state Senate President Mike Haridopolos last year for waffling over the Ryan plan. Haridopolos ultimately withdrew from the race for other reasons and has endorsed Mack. Mack, Ryan and Haridopolos have all endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has praised Ryan's budget plans.

Another straw poll. Another Connie Mack loss

Tom Tillison of Florida Political Press reports that tea party activists in Orlando held a U.S. Senate straw poll Saturday and George LeMieux won overwhelmingy with 53 percent of the vote, followed by Mike McCalister with 25 percent and Connie Mack IV with 21 percent.

It's the second straw poll of conservative activists in Florida that LeMieux won and frontrunner Mack finished last.

Posted by Adam C. Smith

How long did it take Connie Mack to finish college?

George LeMieux depicts Florida Republican U.S. Senate rival Connie Mack as a man who vaulted from college party boy to congressman. And those college days, well, they lasted awhile, according to LeMieux.

In the Web ad "Two and a Half Macks" LeMieux says that  "Connie the IV took seven and a half years to finish college," while showing a buffoonish-like Mack wearing a T-shirt that says "Kollege" and dancing around in front of a University of Florida sign.

We’ve already checked other claims in the same February 2012 Web ad including that Mack "failed to pay his child support" (False) and whether his only job in the real world was an events coordinator for Hooters (Mostly False). In this item, PolitiFact explores how long it took Mack to finish college.

Q Poll: Sen. Bill Nelson surging, beating Rep. Connie Mack 44-36

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson holds a solid 8 percentage-point lead over one of his potential rivals, Congressman Connie Mack, in a new poll that shows Democrats are gaining political ground in Florida.

Nelson beats Mack by a 44-36 percent margin – a shift of 7 percentage points in Nelson’s favor since January, when the two were essentially tied, according to Quinnipiac University’s Polling Institute. Nelson’s 8-point lead is outside the poll’s 2.8 percent error margin.

Quinnipiac, however, didn’t poll former Republican Sen. George LeMieux, who’s running against Mack for their party’s nomination. Previous polls showed Mack comfortably in the lead in the GOP primary.

But, as the economy has improved and the fortunes of the Republican Party diminished, Democrats are picking up momentum in Florida. President Obama now leads Republican Mitt Romney, whom Mack supports.

 “President Barack Obama’s surge in Florida is helping Sen. Bill Nelson’s re-election chances,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac’s polling institute. “Just as President Obama’s lead in the presidential race in the Sunshine State is fueled by female voters, so too is Nelson’s.”

Among female voters, Nelson leads Mack by 46-32 percent margin. That’s an 8 percentage-point shift in the incumbent’s favor. Similarly, Obama has surged with women, who appear to have begun cooling to the Republican Party amid the fight over federally mandated insurance contraceptive coverage.

George LeMieux's "Two-and-a-half Macks" video seeks to make Connie Mack a mockery

In the increasingly tough Republican race for U.S. Senate, George LeMieux released a scorcher of a web video that seeks to make Connie Mack an object of mockery for all his past court troubles (Background story here). Two errors stand out:

1) It says Mack "stiffed his lawyer." She said he didn't. He paid her $30,000 tab after she filed a charging lien

2) It says Mack "failed to pay his child support." Actually, Mack was late with a temporary support payment of about $1,700.

Regardless, the web ad could be the precursor to a devastating line of attack by LeMieux, who's fending off Mack for his role as a top advisor to former Gov. Charlie Crist. It also dovetails with a Super PAC's whack at Mack (here). Right now, this is just baseline chatter, something aimed at the news media, donors and activisits. The question: What happens if LeMieux puts money behind this?

 

Mack camp calls out LeMieux's 'juvenile, embarrassing campaign' over Charlie Sheen crack

Inbox:

MIAMI – Jeff Cohen, Campaign Manager for Connie Mack’s U.S. Senate campaign sent the following letter today to Charlie Crist’s closest political confidant, “Maestro”, and former Chief of Staff, George LeMieux.
 
February 23, 2012
 
George LeMieux
1007 North Federal Highway #389
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33304
 
Dear George:
 
Drug and alcohol addiction is a serious concern. To compare your opponent, Connie Mack, to Charlie Sheen is both offensive and outrageous.
 
The Mack family – including Congressman Mack, his wife Mary and his parents –  have been leaders in standing up against the rising use of drugs among our citizens.
 
I know you believe it was cute (albeit juvenile) to bring in Charlie Sheen. Instead, it was offensive, demeaning and belittling to the hard work that so many people – including the Macks – have done for so long in dealing with the serious problem of addiction, and particularly drug and alcohol addiction among teenagers.

Ouch. Video of George LeMieux touting 'shovel-ready' aspects of Obama's stimulus

The specter of Charlie Crist has reentered the Republican Senate race and, unbeknownst to us, former Crist adviser George LeMieux didn't just talk favorably about President Obama's 2009 stimulus in his LeMieux Report -- he shot video of it.

That could be deadly. Campaigns hinge on these little video moments.

LeMieux, when a private-practice attorney supporting Crist, was clearly not holding the GOP line about the $787 billion stimulus package. The divide was pretty simple. Democrats said it was good. Republicans said it was bad. And LeMieux said:

"Florida's expected to receive some $10 billion in funding, much of which will be used to create jobs through shovel-ready projects -- including $1.3 billionin transportation projects. In total, the White House estimates the legislation will save or create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.

"Bottom line: Was the stimulus package good policy? The proof will be in the pudding. If, in the next 18-24 months, the American economy is recovering due to job creation, it will be hard to say it was not."

Hard to say indeed -- for LeMieux at least. The economy appears to be improving now. Job growth is up. Consumer confidence is increasing. The DOW skyrocketed the other day.

Ooops. While hurling Crist-slur at George LeMieux, Connie Mack has some Charlie taint

With the absence of Adam Hasner, it seemed as if there was no Republican U.S. Senate candidate who would trash fellow Republican George LeMieux for being former Gov. Charlie Crist's brain. But then LeMieux today tore into Mack, comparing him to Charlie Sheen. Mack's campaign responded by noting LeMieux helped "create" Charlie Crist.

But the Crist taint pervades the GOP.

Mack used to be a Charlie Crist Republican, too. He endorsed Crist in the Republican Senate race against Marco Rubio. He and LeMieux stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Crist -- until Crist bolted the party. Both LeMieux and Mack were silent when Crist promoted the now-hated stimulus plan of Obama. Contrast that with then-Sen. Mel Martinez who publicly said of his friend, Crist, that "I don't know that my governor understands all the details."

But the similiarity ends there. Mack voted against the simulus, which he repeatedly bashed. LeMieux actively touted it in his Crist-boosting LeMieux Report.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/02/a-valentine-for-the-peoples-governor.html#storylink=cpyThere is a difference on the simulus, however: Mack was an early and vocal critic and voted against it in Congress. LeMieux, in private practice, was more actively in favor of the stimulus and boosted aspects of it in the LeMieux Report, which he produced at the time in 2009.Anyway, here's a screen shot of Mack's conniemack.com website, which once boasted about Crist's endorsement. As a bonus, there's also a copy of a press release from Crist's hand-picked Republican Party chairman, Jim Greer, whom LeMieux helped install.

 

Connie Mack camp: George LeMieux 'created Charlie Crist,' asks if he's 'amoral'

From a press release, which notably is not from Connie Mack (but his campaign manager), whom fellow Republican Senate candidate George LeMieux mocked and eviscerated today at a press conference:

LeMieux says Mack is "the Charlie Sheen of Florida politics"

U.S. Senate candidate George LeMieux skewered Congressman Connie Mack on Wednesday for years of overspending and decades-old bar fights, quipping Mack's record makes him the "Charlie Sheen of Florida politics."

"You can't come away from a rap sheet like this and conclude anything other than Connie Mack IV is the Charlie Sheen of Florida politics," he said. "Mack IV does not have the temperament or the character to serve in the United States Senate."