Mel Martinez Is Resigning From The Senate

Interesting.

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will be stepping down from the Senate, according to several senior Republican sources familiar with his thinking.

He made the announcement at a morning staff meeting, where he said he will not be returning to the Senate after the August recess.

Martinez had already announced he was retiring after next year. I guess he wanted to get a jump on that whole 'spend more time with the family' thing.

I don't know Florida law off the top of my head but I'm guessing the Governor will appoint a replacement. That's kind of awkward since the Governor is currently running to replace Martinez. I'm assuming he'll appoint some respectable placeholder who will not run next year.

All in all, the sooner we are rid of Martinez the better.

On the related Republican primary, Governor Crist is desperately trying to pretend he's not the stimulus loving, cap and trade supporting RINO we know him to be.

Meanwhile, there's an actual conservative in the race, Marco Rubio, and Jim Geraghty has a profile.

Over a two-hour conversation, Rubio offers a conservative message on a wide spectrum of issues, often punctuating his points with memorable and witty observations: “We’re getting lectured to by the Chinese on economics”; “On the stimulus, mostly we’re stimulating the debt”; “No start-up guy is going to get any stimulus dollars”; “I like Dick Cheney, but nobody’s perfect — he’s not a very good hunter, apparently”; “Cuban-Americans don’t think of themselves as minorities, because in Miami, they’re the majority”; “There’s a correlation between cigar-smokers and their politics.”

On immigration, Rubio disagrees a bit with his mentor, Jeb Bush, and another former governor, George W. He prefers a tougher line on illegal immigration, but he understands the immigrant dream.

...Rubio calls the Obama administration’s response to Honduras’s power struggle “outrageous,” and when discussing the Iranian protests, laments that the loudest voice for freedom and liberty on the world stage belongs to French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Read the whole thing and enjoy the fact that there are still conservatives out there.

BTW-Here's Rubio's website. He's running an insurgent campaign and while money isn't everything, it ain't nothing (IYKWIMAITYD).

posted by DrewM. at 10:58 AM

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