Temple Israel cancels Wasserman Schultz speech

Miami's Temple Israel yanked a program featuring Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz after a high-profile Republican donor quit the congregation in protest of the Democratic congresswoman's involvement.

Stanley Tate, a well-known philanthropist who started Florida's pre-paid college tuition program, resigned from the temple in protest after he learned Wasserman Schultz would be talking about Israel Friday night and he wouldn't get a chance at rebuttal.

Both are highly political people. As chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, Wasserman Schultz is one of President Barack Obama's top mouthpieces. Tate is a co-chair of Mitt Romney's campaign in Miami-Dade County, and also has a national role in the GOP presidential candidate's campaign.  

Tate's resignation, first reported by the Shark Tank blog, came after he asked the temple's leadership to let him speak in response to Wasserman Schultz. When they wouldn't do so, Tate said he would leave the congregation.

"She's the chairperson of the Democratic National Committee," he said. "The topic is U.S.-Israel relationship. There cannot be any conversation on that topic, none,  unless it has to do with the politics."

It's not unusual for Florida politicians -- or any political figures -- to speak at religious institutions, and Wasserman Schultz's office said she is regularly invited to do so. The temple is just outside her congressional district, which straddles Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

The temple's president, Ben Kuehne, said that while they "certainly embrace the congresswoman's willingness to participate in one of our programs," the board decided "it's unwise to proceed with the program tomorrow."

Gov. Rick Scott apologizes for 'I've never shot an elephant' gaffe with King of Spain

Gov. Rick Scott told reporters in Miami on Thursday that he is sorry if he embarrassed Spanish King Juan Carlos by bringing up an embarrassing elephant-hunt scandal when the two men met as part of the governor's trade mission to Spain.

"If I did anything to do -- anything wrong -- I completely apologize," Scott said upon his arrival at Miami International Airport. "The king's a wonderful person. He's a wonderful world leader. He's done so many wonderful things in his life. And we had a great conversation."

The governor said spoke to the king about jobs and about the upcoming 500-year anniversary of the discovery of Florida by Spain in 1913 1513.

Scott said he meant no harm by asking the king about his hunting trip to Botswana, which caused an uproar among Spaniards who said the king should not have taken such an expensive vacation at a time when his country's economy is in peril. (Juan Carlos is also an honorary president of Spain's branch of the World Wildlife Fund.)

Spaniards found out about the trip after the king fell out of bed and hurt his hip.

"The first thing I asked him about it was his hip, of course, because he had been injured," Scott said.

--MARC CAPUTO AND PATRICIA MAZZEI

Ex-Fla. chancellor Reed steps down in California

Charlie Reed, a blunt-talking champion of higher education who left Florida 14 years ago to run California's universities, is retiring.

Reed announced Thursday that he will step down as chancellor of CSU when a replacement is found, and that he and his wife will return to Florida.

"Throughout my time here, the CSU has grown by more than 100,000 students, and I have been honored to sign more than a million diplomas," Reed said in a statement. "I take great pride in the CSU's mission to serve California's students, and I am proud to have played a role in carrying out that mission during these critical years."

Reed was a close ally of former Florida Gov. Bob Graham, a Democrat. Reed left Florida in 1997 for the California position and in recent years has grappled with severe budget deficits resulting in a 35 percent drop in funding over the past four years. He left Florida in part because of what he saw as a steady erosion of support in the Legislature for this state's universities.

"Florida has a motto: We're cheap and we're proud of it," Reed said as he prepared to depart Florida for California. Five years ago, on a brief return visit to Tallahassee, he criticized state leaders for their constant meddling in the governing structure of higher education, and sharply criticized the Bright Futures scholarship program as the "dumbest" higher-ed policy he had seen.    

-- Steve Bousquet

Obama campaign leaflets Miami neighborhood with Bain-attacking remember-Dade-Behring flyers

After Democratic surrogates criticized President Obama's decision to attack Mitt Romney's business background at Bain Capital, it was unclear if the Democrat's campaign would continue to make it an issue.

We have our answer.

Obama's campaign is leafleting the section of a Miami neighborhood near the Dade Behring plant that was ultimately closed on Bain's watch. They're distributing flyers with copies of a Miami Herald-Tampa Bay Times story about the plant and its workers. The story ran during the Republican primary, which Romney won.

Story is here and the leaflet is to the left.

Marco Rubio promotes his jobs bill on Fox News

 

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was on Fox News this morning, talking about a jobs bill that also has the support of Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Mark Warner of Virginia, and fellow Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas. Among its provisions: Making it easier for highly skilled foreign workers to get visas.

Barack Obama scores the endorsement of Fidel Castro's niece, Mariela Castro

AFP is reporting that Fidel Castro's niece, Mariela Castro, "hailed" President Obama for supporting gay marriage and the loosening of US-Cuba travel restrictions.

Speaking at a gay-rights conference in California, she also called the largely Republican Cuban-American community "a small group of delinquents."

"I would vote for President Obama," she said. "I think he's sincere and speaks from the heart."

AFP noted that her trip has been denounced by "opposition Republicans," but it totally failed to mention that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Broward congresswoman, and Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (the only statewide elected Democrat) also opposed the granting of her visa.

Nelson specifically raised the issue of a wrongfully jailed American in Cuba.

"Allowing Raul’s daughter to come to the U.S. when the regime still holds Alan Gross makes no sense," Nelson said.

Castro apparently never mentioned Gross. But, according to an AP article, she made sure to give lecture about "justice and social equality."

Really. She said that. While Gross rots in jail.

"If we don't change our patriarchal and homophobic culture...we cannot advance as a new society, and that's what we want, the power of emancipation through socialism," she said . "We will establish relationships on the basis of social justice and social equality...It seems like a Utopia, but we can change it."

Nor, apparently, did she say that her uncle, with the support of her dad, rounded up gays during the AIDS crisis and had them sequestered in homosexual shtetls. Also, during the 1980 Cuban boatlift, Fidel Castro kicked gays out of Cuba, labeling them as "undesirables." (Old Miami Herald story in text file here)

It's unclear if reporters got near her. If so, hopefully someone asked her to square the contradiction of the scion and supporter of a dictator lecturing in the U.S. about equality and justice.

**Update: Republican Mitt Romney's campaign wants Obama's campaign to disavow the endorsement:

 “President Obama should disavow the endorsement of the daughter of Cuban dictator Raul Castro. It is galling that an envoy from a Communist regime would come to our country and lecture the American people on who to vote for while the regime refuses to hold free and fair elections and systematically violates the human rights of its people. The decision by the Obama Administration to welcome Mariela Castro to our shores—a decision that has received rightful criticism from both Republicans and Democrats—continues to be an egregious affront to the people of Cuba and those who love freedom everywhere.” – Romney Campaign Adviser Alberto Martinez

Rick Scott's 'I've-never-tried-to-shoot'-an-elephant gaffe with King of Spain

Gov. Rick Scott's trade mission to Spain this week has helped the Spaniards -- who are suffering with a depressed economy -- laugh out loud.

Newspapers and local television shows are howling at the exchange of greetings between King Juan Carlos and Scott, who was joined by his wife, Annette.

Here's how protocol and politics became parody.

Upon entering the King's office, Scott immediately asks the Spanish royalty about his hunting trip to Botswana, where the King injured his hip -- getting out of bed.

"I've ridden elephants. I've never tried to shoot one," Scott joked in shaking the King's hand.

The King seemed taken aback by the topic -- a sore subject for him in more ways than one. Not only did the King hurt himself physically on the trip but also politically. Spaniards were ticked that the King took such an expensive hunting trip at a time when the country is in such dire economic straits. About one in four Spaniards are unemployed.

Scott made matters worse when he continued to talk to the King about the Botswana trip by telling the story of his trip to the same African country.

On and on the conversation went -- much to the chagrin of the royalty in the room.

  the King appears anything but comfortable in chatting about Scott's adventures in Botswana with his wife Annette.

The final punch line: Annette tells the King she wishes he had been in the jeep with them on their Botswana safari.

King Juan Carlos maintained his composure and, alas, did not respond to the governor as he did, memorably, to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in a 2007 summit of heads of state held in Chile.

 After Chávez repeatedly interrupted Spain's then-prime minister, Jose Luis Zapatero, the exasperated king told Chávez, "¿Por qué no te callas?" -- "Why don't you shut up?"

The king's words briefly became a catchphrase, printed on T-shirts and featured on cellphone ringtones.

  (Miami Herald reporter Patricia Mazzei contributed to this blog)

 

 

Not so fast, GOP. Unlike Q Poll, Marist FL poll says Obama, Nelson winning FL, Rubio makes 0 difference

Well, now we have a real political tussle -- not so much in the presidential and Senate races in FL, but among dueling polls.

Yesterday and today, Quinnipiac University found that Republican Mitt Romney was beating President Obama and that Republican Rep. Connie Mack was essentially tied with Sen. Bill Nelson. Quinnipiac also found Sen. Marco Rubio could give a small, 2 percentage-point boost to Romney's ticket.

But this morning, an NBC-Marist poll found different results. Some excerpts:

And in Florida, 46 percent of registered voters prefer Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson to 42 percent who said they would vote for Republican Rep. Connie Mack.....

In Florida and Virginia, Obama leads Romney by an identical four-point margin, 48 percent to 44 percent, among registered voters, including those who are undecided but leaning toward a particular candidate....

The NBC-Marist polls also make this clear: Adding potential home-state politicians to the Romney ticket doesn't change the results much in these battleground states.

An Obama-Biden ticket vs. one featuring Romney and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio produces the same head-to-head result in Florida -- 48 percent to 44 percent. But Romney adding former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush narrows it to a two-point Democratic lead, 47 percent to 45 percent.

What gives?

First off, these fluctuations simply happen with surveys. That's why polls have error margins (3% for Martis and 2.4% for Quinnipiac).

Also, there's a chance that Quinnipiac and Marist asked a different question about identifying party ID and registration (lengthy background here). We know that Quinnipiac asks respondents about party ID and doesn't scale (or weight) its polls to make sure that the Republican, Democrat and independents are represented in proportion to how they appear in the voter-registration rolls. Marist, however, could have weighted its poll or specifically targeted voters to ask about their party registration. If Marist used the same method as Quinnipiac, then please refer to the first point: This stuff happens.

 

Q Poll: Sen. Bill Nelson tied with Connie Mack, who's killing GOP rivals. Voters back Stand Your Ground

From a press release:

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack holds a wide lead in the race for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, getting 40 percent of the vote to 7 percent for former Sen. George LeMieux and 8 percent for Tea party favorite Mike McCalister, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.***  Another 41 percent are undecided.

A general election matchup is too close to call as Mack gets 42 percent to Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s 41 percent.

Gov. Rick Scott’s job approval has risen above 40 percent for the first time, although he still remains underwater with a negative 41 – 46 percent rating from voters, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University survey finds.

A majority of registered voters, 56 – 35 percent, support the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law that has come under recent scrutiny.   Support is 78 – 15 percent among Republicans and   58 – 35 percent among independent voters while Democrats are opposed 59 – 32 percent.  Men support “Stand Your Ground” 65 – 31 percent while women support it 48 – 39 percent.  Support is 61 – 31 percent among white voters and 53 – 36 percent among Hispanic voters while black voters are opposed 56 – 30 percent.

“Although some activists have been critical of Congressman Connie Mack and his campaign, he retains an overwhelming lead in the race for the Republican Senate nomination and is tied with Sen. Bill Nelson,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac   University Polling Institute. 

“It is not clear how the late entrance of former Congressman Dave Weldon into the race will affect the campaign, but Mack’s lead is pretty formidable with three months until the primary.”

*** There will be some partisan handwringing regarding the undersample of self-identified Democrats in the poll. Go here for more about that

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