WACK A MOLE

BLOODLUST: Thirty years after first securing a conviction and death sentence, the same white Texas state prosecutor is again trying to kill the same black defendant even though the US Supreme court reversed the verdict and sentence, finding that the Bowie County prosecutors who tried the case suppressed evidence and deliberately covered their mistakes for decades. The NY Times coverage is here.

Chaos in the closing moments of the Florida Legislative session as Senate President Mike Haridopolos (R-"Let them eat cake") saw his carefully crafted session devolve into internecine fighting among Republicans.

The title of the post links to the Herald article.

Some highlights:

The end of the lawmaking session Saturday should have been Mike Haridopolos’ triumph – a celebration of the Republican agenda that the Florida Senate president touts in his U.S. Senate race.

But Haridopolos was a model of dejection. It was the middle of the night — 3:35 a.m. — and the session had unraveled in its final hours, with Republicans fighting Republicans, Senate vs. House...

The man he called his “friend,” House Speaker Dean Cannon, helped put him in this predicament. The two are the Florida Legislature’s most powerful lawmakers....

I just candidly never saw this coming,” said Haridopolos, who tried to accommodate Cannon all session. But Haridopolos’ concessions only sowed resentment with rank-and-file senators. ...

House members retaliated by killing Senate bills and stripping a gambling deal from a tax-cut bill that helped operators of amusement arcade games like Whac-A-Mole. That forced the Senate into the wee hours as bleary-eyed senators were rousted from bed, bars or their offices...

You have a Senate president running for higher office and he’s much more limited in what he can do,” said Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth. “He needs to be aware of every step he takes because it can be used against him. There’s no doubt about it. Dean Cannon did that. He played Mike Haridopolos.”