Mitch Perry
Happy Friday — or will it be in Tallahassee? In the spirit of Larry King‘s classic USA Today columns, here we go …
All eyes are on the Capitol today to see whether the Senate will go along with the House’s plan on redistricting, a process that’s supposed to be completed by high noon …
None of us knows how much time we have left to carry this mortal coil, but that time may be even shorter for Jimmy Carter, whose had the greatest post-presidency in the history of our nation. Carter spoke honestly and movingly Thursday in discussing how cancer has spread through his body and now has gone to his brain. The 90-year-old said he will continue to do his work, though this health situation will now force him to slow down and back away from the work at the Carter Center that he thought he would be doing when he hit 80, a full decade ago. The news conference was so classy all the way around. I hope there will be more opportunities for him to engage the public in the immediate future.
OK, I admit I did not know that Deez Nutz, who is polling at 9 percent in the North Carolina primary according to Public Policy Polling (and is actually a 15-year-old kid named Brady Olson), is actually derived from a song on Dr. Dre‘s Chronic album going back to 1992….
Do you remember that SNL skit from 1988, when Jon Lovitz, playing Michael Dukakis, goes a bit crazy after hearing some gibberish from the George H.W. Bush (played by Dana Carvey), and says, “I can’t believe I’m losing to this guy!” I thought about that last night while watching the news of Jeb Bush go off on Donald Trump.
“I cut taxes every year; he’s proposed the largest tax increase in mankind’s history, not just our own country’s history,” Bush said talking to reporters in New Hampshire. “I have been consistently pro-life; he until recently was for partial-birth abortion. I’ve never met a person that actually thought that was a good idea. I believe we need to reform our health care system to make sure we stop the suppression of wages and allow people to have access to insurance; he’s for a single-payer system. He actually advocates these things … He’s been a Democrat longer than a Republican.”
That would assume that Trump’s policy prescriptions are what has resulted in him leading Bush among Republicans everywhere, including Florida. Bush also accurately noted that to deport all the undocumented people in this country would be the highest tax increase ever (estimated to be more than $100 billion)
So much more to say about this, but let’s just leave it there for today.
In other news …
Speaking of Jeb, Democrats are blasting him for his using the term “anchor babies.” DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says the GOP is way off the mark in trying too woo Hispanics. But one Latino advocacy group isn’t too happy with a recent Hillary Clinton remark, for that matter.
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And despite all the hype about Jim Norman‘s comeback, he ain’t the first Republican to enter into the District 6 Hillsborough County Commission race. It’s Tom Aviano.
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A new Quinnipiac presidential poll was released on Thursday, and it showed that Hillary Clinton is losing now by double-digits to Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and is in a statistical tie with Donald Trump in the Sunshine State.
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Eric Lynn is the only declared candidate in the CD 13 Pinellas County congressional seat. Lynn spoke out Thursday on the recent disturbing news about those five schools in South St. Petersburg. He also said he will make an announcement on the Iran nuclear deal before it goes before Congress next month.
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Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commissioner Victor Crist is determined not to allow an Uber spokesman to have the final word when it comes to the question about whether the ridesharing company has been playing fair when it comes to working with the local agency.
