Good riddance to another screwball!

If Mel Martinez retired from the Senate, would you miss him?

I sure as shit wouldn't.

The 62-year-old Florida Republican was elected to the Senate in 2004 after serving as Bush's HUD secretary. While senator, Martinez headed the Republican National Committee from 2006 to 2007.

Martinez represented a particularly destructive brand of right-wing lawmaker. For one thing, he supported Bill Frist in his insistence that members of the Taliban be kept in Afghanistan's government. This followed Bush's 2003 claim that "we destroyed the Taliban in Afghanistan" - a claim debunked by reports of Taliban violence that continue to this day.

Why the hell did America go to war in Afghanistan if the Taliban was just going to be kept in power?

During the Terri Schiavo controversy, a Martinez staffer wrote and distributed a talking points memo that urged Republicans to make hay of what the memo called "a great political issue."

Martinez is perhaps more infamous for his right-wing tirade in 2005 against populism. He said populism is a "radical ideology spread like a virus."

The American Heritage Dictionary defines populism as "a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite." So if populism is a virus, I want it to sneeze all over me!

Now - thanks to his growing unpopularity - Mel Martinez has decided not to seek reelection in 2010.

Of course, this nearly ensures the GOP will run a candidate who'll almost make you miss him. For those Republicans who want a Bush shadow government, Jeb Bush has been named as a possibility. Another is the despicable Bill McCollum. But they may be even less likely to win than Martinez would have been.

Bye, Mel.

(Source: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/mel_martinez_to_retire.html)