UNCIVIL WAR IN THE FLORIDA SENATE

Although Florida Senate President Tom Lee (R - Brandon) has tried to seek calm and some sort of peace among GOP factions in the Florida Senate, it seems as though it has become an all out, uncivil war during this session.

It's a mix of several things, with the main ingredient being who will be the Senate President in 2008 and 2010. Personality conflicts added in with accusations of dirty politics and charges of betrayal have made things quite tense in Tallahassee, but interesting to watch.

Polk County's two State Senators are current Majority Whip J.D. Alexander (R - Lake Wales) and Paula Dockery (R - Lakeland). Normally, the duo should work
closely together on behalf of the folks back home, but are in the eye of this current storm on opposite sides...and that could likely hurt their influence in getting things done. Not only that, both have announced that they will run for the Senate President's seat in four years.

Today the Sarasota Herald Tribune and St. Petersburg Times take a close look at the current situation. I like Joe Follick's opening paragraph to his piece in the H-T:

"Imagine a campaign to become president of a high school's senior class that begins in eighth grade. Picture the battles among cliques, with backstabbing whisper attacks and Adrenalin-fueled quests to secure fellow students' support for a vote still four years away."

That's exactly how it seems. Those folks should stop acting like children and work on serving the people of Florida, as it seems they are less interested in now.