Florida's GOP: A party at war with itself

[Judi Lynn]

Florida's GOP: A party at war with itself

By Mark Hollis
Tallahassee Bureau
Posted July 27 2003

TALLAHASSEE · Gov. Jeb Bush's honeymoon with the Florida Legislature is officially over.

Aggressive arm-twisting of Senate Republicans by the governor has created an enormous, if not unprecedented, rift in the Republican Party of Florida. And after more than five months of surprisingly public bickering over what to do about doctors' rising medical malpractice insurance costs, GOP leaders face the prospect of spending the rest of the year trying to heal their fractures.

On the surface, the domestic dispute of the GOP has been about how severely to limit what victims of malpractice can collect in lawsuits for their pain and suffering. It's a fight that has led to a political impasse after two special legislative sessions on the issue.

But the underlying battle has been over how much deference a Republican Legislature should give a Republican governor. It's been an emotional struggle, fought with blistering e-mail attacks and nasty name-calling exchanges, that's put an embarrassing stain on Florida's Republican administration. (snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-fbushgop27jul27,0,4237217.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

[davidinalameda]

1. we can only hope it continues!

I hope the Florida Democrats have enough sense to take advantage of this.