In Final (?) Installment of the Lemieux Report, Broward Senator-to-Be Pooh-Poohs Elections

There's your new, unelected U.S. senator, Florida, in his former role as pseudojournalist. I don't throw that term around lightly. It's just that in "Topic One" and "Topic Four," our Broward-based correspondent George LeMieux has sources that can give us a huge helping of inside dirt -- namely, himself and his best pal in the governor's mansion -- but he seems to prefer to make bland observations and to frame important state issues in a way that's politically advantageous for the governor -- and for himself.

Isn't it interesting that four days before he'd be named as the senator-designate, LeMieux would want to remind Floridians that, after all, voters electing U.S. senators is not the long-standing democratic tradition you may think it is?

Also notable: LeMieux's neglecting to mention his role in negotiating a compact between the state and the Seminoles and his eagerness to remind Floridians that if the state failed to get a deal with the tribe, the federal government could have allowed gaming without the state's getting a piece of the action. LeMieux whiffed the last time he tried to negotiate a compact, and the Legislature's refusal to sign off on the latest deal would be a political blow to him and to the man to whom he owes his new gig.