Sen. Mel Martinez to Replace Mehlman as RNC Chairman

By Aussiegirl

Another Bush crony and team player. The Bushes intend to run the Republican party ad infinitum just like Hillary runs the Democratic party. No wonder they are all so chummy. So what was all the fuss about floating Steele's name out there? It now looks like a public slap in the face to a wonderful new face for the Republican party -- and a black man. So, are they going to stick him in HUD? I'd turn it down, if I were he. It's an insult. More Karl Rove genius. I'm through with this Republican party -- it's now the party of the Bush family.
You know, I've had this thought ever since the Bushes got so chummy with the Clintons, but I pushed it to the back of my mind as being preposterous. Now I'm not so sure. The Bushes are elitists -- and so are the Clintons. They both believe that the people know nothing and that the world is better ruled by enlightened people of the higher economic strata who understand issues that go beyond parochial national interests. They are globalists. As such, and with both families running the Republican and the Democrat parties, they will share the presidency back and forth for the foreseeable future. The Bushes will hand off to Hillary for 8 years, and then run either Jeb, or the first Hispanic president -- Jeb's son. We have the equivalent of two dynastic families set to rule politics in this country for the foreseeable future. Sure, I'm trying to push these thoughts to the back of my mind, but why else is Bush single-handedly destroying the Republican party? We need a Constitutional Conservative party.

FOXNews.com - Sen. Mel Martinez to Replace Mehlman as RNC Chairman - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

Sen. Mel Martinez to Replace Mehlman as RNC Chairman
Monday , November 13, 2006

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mel Martinez, the first-term lawmaker who previously served in President Bush's Cabinet, will assume the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, GOP officials said Monday.

Martinez, 60, will replace current chairman Ken Mehlman, who will leave the post in January at the end of his two-year term, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a formal announcement.

Martinez will remain in the Senate. Mike Duncan, the RNC's current general counsel and a former party treasurer, will run the day-to-day operations at the party's Capitol Hill headquarters.

Martinez was tapped in 2001 as President Bush's secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He resigned in 2003 to run for the open Senate seat created when incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Graham decided not to seek another term. Martinez was elected with 49 percent of the vote — a slim margin that was credited to Bush's win in that state.

Martinez started slowly in the Senate where he was embarrassed by a one-page unsigned memo that originated in his office. Written by a Martinez aide and disavowed by Senate Republicans, the memo laid out the political benefits to getting involved in the fate of Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman whose end-of-life battle became a rallying cry for conservatives.

"This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue," said the memo. Its author resigned.

Martinez fled Cuba in 1962 as a 15-year-old. His parents remained on the communist island, hoping one day to join him. He eventually was placed with a foster family in Orlando, studied English and worked odd jobs that helped him buy his father a used car when his parents arrived in the United States four years later.

He put himself through college and earned a law degree, made millions as a trial lawyer and served as president of the Orlando Utilities Commission from 1994 to 1997. He was elected as the Orange County, Fla., chairman, serving from 1998 to 2001.