Guest Author, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorJune 3, 2014

Republicans have just discovered poverty and income inequality — a remarkable revelation, considering they have caused so much of it. The Tea Party GOP has declared Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” a failure. And with the 2014 elections looming, following the advice of their pollsters and word-testers, Republicans are trying to remake themselves as sympathetic […]

Guest AuthorJune 3, 2014

Last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki took the public-relations bullet for President Obama in an attempt to ease the damage of the growing VA scandal. VA officials have routinely hid months-long wait times that veterans faced when seeking care at VA facilities across the nation. Shinseki ended his five-year stint at the VA and […]

Guest AuthorJune 2, 2014

Amidst the Memorial Day barbecues, shopping sprees, sporting events and endless miles of “are we there yet?” there were speeches and commentaries to remind us of the fallen and the freedoms they died to protect. Typically, these tributes mentioned the rights specified in the Constitution: religion, speech, assembly and press. U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross wrote […]

Guest AuthorJune 2, 2014

Income inequality hovers over our economy like the mother ship from “Independence Day.” It affects millions of individual Americans and the nation as a whole. The problems are systemic, spread out in a web across a wide variety of industries, with interactions, causes and consequences. All you have to do is follow the threads to […]

Guest AuthorJune 2, 2014

Much is made about the decline in public discourse. Thorough and sensible discussion about issues has fallen prey to the brevity of tweets and the anger and anonymity of blogs, online comments and Facebook posts. I am pleased to be “friends” with so many people on Facebook. They use it to send good wishes and […]

Guest AuthorJune 1, 2014

Take your blinders off: This is why the Koch Brothers and radical-right groups will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the 2014 midterm elections, why Gov. Rick Scott wants to raise $100 million to get re-elected — and how you can defeat them. If the Tea Party-GOP gains control of the U.S. Senate, Sen. […]

Guest AuthorJune 1, 2014

The legislative session is over and the fall elections are in full swing. I saw the first yard signs this week and heard that the West Central Florida area is ground zero in the governor’s race. Already, terms like “fraud,” “phony” and “crook” are surfacing as candidates speak of their opponents. I am already tired […]

Guest AuthorMay 29, 2014

Now that Facebook and television talking heads are done with Memorial Day, I’m thinking it’s OK to spin off a mini-rant. Let’s start with this: Memorial Day and Veterans Day are not the same thing. Ditto the Fourth of July, which, along with the other two, is morphing into a “we love folks in uniform” […]

Guest AuthorMay 29, 2014

I’ve been wearing the clothes of a scary thug for 40 years and I didn’t even know it. I’m talking about the hoodie, the low-cost hooded jacket that intimidates both neighborhood vigilante George Zimmerman and business tycoon Mark Cuban alike. It all depends on where you get your fashion sense, I guess. My first hoodie […]

Guest AuthorMay 28, 2014

Government bureaucracies are nearly indestructible and immovable. Elected officials are mere gnats that can be swatted away. These dinosaurs don’t care who occupies the corner suite on the top floor either. They don’t care what the people they “serve” think about them. They will outlast everyone. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is the second […]

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Stephen Goldstein: Republicans ‘discover’ how to end the poverty they created

Steve Kurlander: VA’s problems will spread to the entire health-care system

Martin Dyckman: Republicans are winning the gerrymander game in Florida

Gary Stein: When CEO earns 365 times more than workers, everyone gets hurt

Ed Moore: Nation’s future is bright if we can stop the social media vitriol

Stephen Goldstein: Will the Koch Brothers own Florida in November?

John Grant: Voters are looking for candidates with integrity, not money

Linda Grist Cunningham: It matters when three holidays morph into one

Mark O’Brien: Mark Cuban’s comment about hoodies is revealing

Rick Outzen: ‘Sea change’ may be at hand for massive VA bureaucracy