The Recent Record of Mel Martinez
Today, Mel Martinez gave an unexpected announcement today, declaring that he will soon resign his seat in the United States Senate and retire from politics, leaving Florida with just one U.S. Senator. In a certain sense, that’s a loss for Florida. It’s certainly a loss of representation, but did Senator Martinez represent the interests of Florida well?
Martinez certainly has not been a representative for progressive Floridians. Our congressional scorecard, which stretches from a positive 100 to a negative 100, gives Martinez a score of -44. Martinez is not the most regressive politician in the Senate, but he certainly is no ally of those citizens who seek to move forward from the old politics of fear and free markets.
This year, Senator Martinez did vote for a good land conservation bill. Thanks to him for that. But, Martinez has also voted against protection from employment discrimination, voted in favor of blocking the closure of the prisons in Guantanamo Bay, voted for re-funding the F-22 jet fighter (a boondoggle of an airplane that crashes frequently, requires nearly constant repairs, paid for through alarming cost overruns, all for a military mission that ended a generation ago), and voted against expanding health care coverage for children.
We can’t know yet who will replace Senator Martinez, but we can hope that the next junior Senator from Florida will have more respect for the economic needs of American citizens, will honor true fiscal responsibility, and will uphold our Constitutional rights in alignment with the often-ignored words of the Oath of Office.
[...] Mel Martinez wasn’t the only congressional quitter yesterday. U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney also [...]