It's not often that a newspaper is so bothered over the behaviour of a candidate that it have endoresed for office that it has withdrawn said endorsement. While such action may have occured in the past in a local race, I have never heard of it happening in Florida in a state or national race...until today.

The St. Petersburg Times did it one day before the Republican primary by changing it's mind in removing it's endorsement from former HUD Secretary Mel Martinez in favour of former Congressman Bill McCollum. The unprescidented move was in response to the Martinez campaign's adversitments against McCollum, which you've got to admit were below the belt. There's nothing wrong with highlighting differences in opinion/policy, but character assaination has no place in the political arena.

If Martinez if that desperate to win the Republican nomination, just think about what he would go against Betty Castor, who will likely win the Democratic race tomorrow. And just remember, dear ol' Mel was brought into this race by the White House, regardless of how neutral 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue tries to be.

Also saw a story where Jeb! got into the stink over the weekend, trying to take credit for getting Martinez to pull one of the harsher TV ads which was supposedly running in the Panhandle. Of course, it's almost impossible to change TV ads during a weekend when the office is closed and there's only a skeleton crew of engineering personnel. Now, Jeb! has another stink of his own to control with his DCF director resigning today...that's a department which is an almost constant scandal, but that's for another day.