FL-18: Ros-Lehtinen hosts MoveOn/Dems and enjoys

A little triumph was recorded when five members of the Miami Beach Democratic Club had a meeting with our staunchly Republican member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. It happened Thursday evening in the congresswoman’s Miami office. The occasion was to propose President Obama’s Green Jobs initiative.

Bottom Line: Ros-Lehtinen was pretty enthusiastic about it. And happy to meet a bunch of her constituents, even if they all voted against her, and our leader, Dave Patlak, was the candidate against her in 2006. And your blogger here runs several blogs that sometimes are pretty critical of her. It’s the way things are. No hard feelings.

You can see the video of it here:

This was a joint effort of a vast infrastructure of progressive endeavor, with MoveOn a big player through its current program called Power Up America. A week or so earlier we had met as a MoveOn council drawing in people with interests in green jobs and green business of small scale. Also prominent in the background was Green for All, a grassroots organization whose founder, Van Jones, now is part of the Obama administration as special adviser on green jobs. So we can say an arm of this effort reached up to the White House.

The goal is to help the economy recover as well as to redirect economic activity along environment-friendly lines.

As the congresswoman said at the end of the meeting: “Save the planet and save money too.”

Her overall positive reaction to the presentation still leaves the question of where she will put her vote when it comes down to that. Ros-Lehtinen is famous for being nice to her constituents and as helpful as possible. But then she votes the way the Republican leadership orders. So far she has been a reliable No vote on the Barack Obama programs and budget. Maybe things will be different now that she's met with us and may have a better understanding of Green Jobs as a way to stem a tide of unemployment among her constituents.

(also posted on the Florida Progressive Coalition blog.)

Dave Patlak takes on McCain (surrogate)

Our own Big Dave Patlak took the Democratic side Friday morning on CBS-4 against Frank Cuzzocrea, who calls himself a libertarian Republican on his Facebook page. You can look at it here:

http://cbs4.com/video/?id=62462@wfor.dayport.com

There was one juicy moment when the Republican, to dig himself out of a tough spot, kicked George W. Bush in the butt, saying, "Fortunately, John McCain is not George Bush." Like that "fortunately."

Big Dave did a fine job pinning McCain back to Bush's record and pointing everyone's attention to Barack Obama's appearance later Friday at the University of Miami with the theme of Change.

Obama campaign erases boredom: 44 events in SoFla

Yet another new name in the Obama campaign surfaced in my email this afternoon, Angela Botticella, field organizer for the Florida campaign to elect Barack Obama. Welcome, Angela!

Now I'm clicking on the link she sent to find a "Vote for Change" event, and what do I get? A list of 44 events on the July 4th holiday throughout South Florida -- 44! And I know of a few more not listed.

Did anyone perhaps think that Florida might be written off? I heard progressive voices in recent weeks resigned to being a backwater, as far as the Obama campaign was concerned. This was Clinton country, some said, Obama won't have a chance. On what evidence? was my question, but anyway, that was their opinion, perhaps from having read too much mainstream media. And they were dispirited from the Republican-inspired fuss over our too-early primary date.

So now I am enthusiastic and gratified that we are so far from being written off. Now the hard part comes in deciding what to attend. In case you find all 44 events unsatisfactory, you can join Dave Patlak in his event, which starts in South Beach at the South Point Piere at 5:30 p.m. on Friday July 4 (Time corrected). Dave will be trying to register new voters by trolling from one beach blanket to the next. He calls it Beach Blanket Bingo for Barack. Y'all come.

Sign up at My.BarackObama.com/page/event/detail/4gt53

“Team Democrat” – A sweep in view for South Florida in Congress

This is a link to Michael Putney’s column in the Wednesday Miami Herald about our three Democrats running for Congress against Republican incumbents in South Florida.

In itself the story is close to equal to all the coverage our candidates got two years ago mounting vigorous but lightly funded challenges to the same ineffective trio.

I’d pick away at things here and there in Putney’s column – Who are those people who think Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is so great? But no, let’s celebrate the fact that the coverage of our three launches is ample and pretty fair.

Last night I spent some time with Big Dave Patlak, who ran against Ros-Lehtinen in District 18 two years ago (I was his media guy and nominal campaign manager) and we marveled at the attention this year’s candidate, Annette Taddeo, is receiving. “She’s already got more publicity than we got in the whole campaign!” Dave exclaimed. In admiration, I say emphatically. And me, too.

The drift of Putney’s article is that our three candidates were recruited by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Some will dispute that, though the DCCC certainly had a role. Who found the candidates for the DCCC to vet? I think more of a South Florida grass-roots thing is at work. And they certainly wanted to run themselves.

There is a rising up here (Have I been listening to Obama and Edwards a lot in recent months?) of people who see a need to assert leadership against entrenched and ineffective (that word again) representatives in Congress.

The incumbents do not represent us well. If they did, we’d have expanded health insurance coverage for children and the troops would be coming out of Iraq, and we’d have habeas corpus back and no torture permitted.

And they do not lead well. If they did, we’d be doing a good job protecting the Everglades and advancing alternative energy, and someone would have yelled that the economy was going to tank thanks to our over-development.

They may have convinced Michael Putney that they’re popular, but I have my doubts. If I wanted to visit my sick aunt in Cuba and couldn’t go, thanks to the Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, they’d be my most unpopular people of all.

They are so vulnerable. Now, if the media will just let the story roll.

Veterans Day event

Sam Feldman and Dave Patlak were among the Democratic activists who set up the Arlington South memorial for this Veterans Day. Sponsors were Democracy for America Miami-Dade and Veterans for Peace.

There will be a memorial service at 5 p.m. Monday Nov. 12 in Bayfront Park, Miami, to conclude the three-day display of memorial tombstone replicas to the U.S. military personnel who have died in the Iraq war.

UPDATE: Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman has rung in with a statement honoring Veterans Day, concluding: "On this Veterans Day, I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all those who have served our nation, both past and present. So, to every solider, sailor, marine, and airman: the leadership, staff and members of the Florida Democratic Party thank you wholeheartedly for your selfless service to this great country. Thank you for the sacrifices you have made. Thank you for continuing to make us safe. And thank you for making us proud."

COMMENT: This link takes you to today's NY Times editorial on the plight of veterans.

Florida Progressive Radio -- again

Trying to help introduce new stuff, here's another promo for Florida Progressive Radio -- available on the Internet, and the link here is to the already-archived program on Sunday July 29, during which your faithful blogger was the first caller.

Listeners will hear that your blogger approves of being nimble in political campaigning -- that is, reacting quickly, being proactive, letting no moss grow. The reference is to the blogging done by Michael Calderin and Christian Chiari, both candidates for the Florida House of Representatives, reacting to news that the Republicans in Miami-Dade County were holding lavish fund-raising spectacles this weekend. This link takes you to my post earlier this weekend on this topic.

Since then there has been further evidence of nimble thinking: Dave Patlak, pictured in that earlier post, organized a protest at the site of the Republican gross excess in South Beach. He reports that Marco Rubio, speaker of the state House of Representatives, descended from his tour bus and opined that Big Dave had a perfect right to mount a protest. Thank you, Your Majesty!