Gov. Charlie Crist faces rough road in U.S. Senate race

Talk about a rough start to the new year.

The ouster of Gov. Charlie Crist's hand-picked Republican party chairman looks like only the start of Crist's problems as he faces a tougher U.S. Senate campaign than he ever expected.

His emergency management chief quit this week under fire, and his juvenile justice administrator is under investigation for excessive travel. Any day now U.S. Senate rival Marco Rubio is expected to report another improved fundraising quarter.

Sen. LeMieux decries `culture of corruption' in South Florida

A slew of South Florida political scandals have uncovered ``a culture of corruption'' that must be stamped out, freshman Florida Sen. George LeMieux said Tuesday.

``I feel bad about my home town. This is another black eye on Fort Lauderdale,'' LeMieux said in response to a reporter's questions about accused Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.

In the past decade, Rothstein -- a Broward lawyer who allegedly bilked investors over bogus legal settlements -- helped steer about $2 million in campaign contributions to political causes, committees and candidates, including Gov. Charlie Crist.

Who will replace Martinez? Gov. Crist's potential picks

The search for a successor to U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez quickly centered on Jim Smith, a wealthy Tallahassee lawyer-lobbyist who served as a Democratic attorney general and Republican secretary of state in Florida. Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to name a replacement before Congress returns to Washington in September.

``Charlie's going to look for someone who's totally nonthreatening, both a supporter and a friend, who won't embarrass him,'' said Republican consultant Rick Wilson of Tallahassee.

``He's got to pick someone who is an elder statesman, who will be good for Florida and doesn't have a lot of further political ambition.''

Let's try `Sen. Clay Shaw' in the interim

I 'm saddened and somewhat surprised to see Mel Martinez step down 16 months early. Disappointed, too. He was just starting to find his true voice, even it had taken almost five years in the Senate and eight years in Washington. Or maybe we were just now hearing the voice of a man freed from party orthodoxy after announcing last December that he wouldn't run for reelection. Well, free at last, free at last, gracias a Dios , Mel is free at last.

On the publication of his autobiography last year -- a lovely and remarkably ego-free account of coming to this country alone at age 15 as a Pedro Pan -- Martinez told me that he sorely missed seeing his teenage son, Andrew, play high school basketball in Orlando, just as his own father had missed his athletic career. He missed his two older kids, too, and his charming wife, Kitty, who had remained in Orlando. When most politicians talk about leaving office to spend more time with their family it's usually so much hot air. With Martinez, he means it.

Work by incoming Sen. George LeMieux, his law firm draws scrutiny

When Gov. Charlie Crist anointed George LeMieux as Florida's new U.S. senator, he did more than hand his closest adviser the plum job of a lifetime. With a hug and a handshake, Crist transformed LeMieux from a little-known insider ("George LeWho?'' one paper asked) to a major political figure, suddenly thrust into a spotlight that's illuminating how his public service brought him private profit.

Amid charges of political cronyism and claims he was picked to be the governor's proxy in Washington, there is renewed scrutiny of LeMieux's dealings and those of his law firm, Gunster Yoakley & Stewart, on multiple fronts:

The law firm, chaired by LeMieux, helped foreign workers get visas last fall to help build a hotel and condos in Miami, depriving dozens of Floridians jobs at a time of rising unemployment. CBS4 News in Miami first reported the law firm's efforts, which included persuading the U.S. State Department that the Mexican workers had special skills that Americans didn't. In a statement