Southern Political Report

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On same-sex marriage/civil unions, the air is leaking out of the tire

By Tom Baxter

7/2/2009 —

Don't expect any Southern state to follow suit with the six which now permit same-sex marriage any time soon. But as a recent poll in Texas indicates, the issue has significantly less political traction than it did earlier in the decade.

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DCCC keeps heat on Florida’s three Cuban reps

By Hastings Wyman

7/1/2009 — The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has focused considerable attention on the three Florida congressional seats currently held by Cuban-American Republicans. While well-financed Democratic challenges failed in all three districts in 2008, the committee’s continued media releases attacking US Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart suggest that Democrats are not convinced that the three GOPers are secure in 2010.

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	*6/30/2009 — Tom Baxter:* Cap-and-trade vote a benchmark for both sides**
	Coming as it did during the news eclipse created by the unrest in Iran and the death of Michael Jackson, the House passage Friday of the cap-and-trade bill on a 219-212 vote has received scant notice. Nevertheless, it was the most significant vote since the Recovery Act, and the most closely-fought legislative engagement of the young Obama Administration.

	*6/29/2009 — Hastings Wyman:* Sanford & Sin**
	What good does it do either party to pillory their politicians when they're caught with their pants upzipped? It's time to call these ritual assassinations to a halt.

	*6/29/2009 — John A. Tures:* To the loser, the spoils**
	"To the victor, the spoils." That old phrase, most frequently associated in American politics with the Andrew Jackson administration, is being turned on its head in the Obama Administration. People are now being appointed from the opposing party with great frequency. The question is why.

	*6/26/2009 — Hastings Wyman:* Grits**
	The weeky roundup of political news from across the South: SC: Scandal reaction; Huckabee endorsing; TN: Ford for Cohen; KY: GOPer bows out of Senate race