By Dan
McLaughlin
Saturday,
January 15, 2022
Gary Fineout of Politico tries his best to make Ron DeSantis sound scary, but ends up just illustrating
how dramatically his leadership differs from that of Joe Biden, who has such a
weak grip on his own Congressional caucus that he was reduced this week
to intemperately comparing them to Jefferson Davis, Bull Connor, and
George Wallace, and then pretending he
didn’t mean to. The Florida governor, by contrast:
Gov. Ron
DeSantis has become arguably the most powerful governor in Florida’s
history…With one year left in his first term in office, DeSantis’ consolidation
of power has become clear: Democrats, who are in the minority, are unable to
stop him. And Republicans in the Florida Legislature are enthusiastically
carrying out his wishes or are unwilling to buck him. “He’s become the
1,100-pound gorilla in state government,” said Tom Lee, a Republican and former
Senate president who dealt with four different governors during the 18 years he
was in the Legislature. Lee’s wife is Secretary of State Laurel Lee, a DeSantis
appointee. “Gov. DeSantis is extremely popular relative to most of his
predecessors. With that goes a tremendous amount of power.” One current
Republican legislator granted anonymity to speak about the governor offered a
more blunt assessment: “They are not going to embarrass Ron DeSantis. Ron
DeSantis is essentially the speaker of the House, the president of the Senate
and the chief justice of the Supreme Court right now.”…
Some
longtime Capitol veterans and insiders say that many GOP legislators have
little inclination to resist or cross DeSantis because he will cut off
communication. “There are no second chances,” said one former legislator, who
was granted anonymity to speak freely about the governor. “It’s well known you
can’t go against him. If you cross him once, you’re dead.”
Even Democrats are reduced to complaining
that DeSantis gets his way because…the voters like him.
State Rep.
Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, said DeSantis is too popular with
rank-and-file Republican voters for Republican legislators to challenge his
actions. “In addition to his veto pen, Republican lawmakers see him as
appealing to their base, so if they question him they’re questioning the base
which would hurt them on the campaign trail,” Eskamani said. “So not only do
they consent to his extreme agenda but some try to appeal to it by filing their
own bills grounded in the culture wars.”
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