Posted on Sun, Nov. 07, 2004
U.S. SENATE
Nelson: I'm ready to work with Martinez
BY FRANK DAVIES
fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, the lone Democrat left in Florida who has been elected statewide, says he will have no problem working with Republican Mel Martinez, elected senator Tuesday after a bitter campaign.That's because Martinez campaigned door to door for Nelson in 1978, when both were young lawyers in Central Florida and Nelson made his first, successful race for Congress.
''We've been friends for 25 years, and I know him well,'' Nelson said of his new Senate colleague.''I think we'll be able to work together on issues important to Florida,'' he said.
That's despite Nelson's extensive campaigning for Betty Castor, the Democrat who fell short against Martinez in a campaign marked by nasty TV ads.The Democrats' dismal showing on Tuesday, with the defeat of Castor and President Bush's solid win over John Kerry, will force the party to do some soul-searching, Nelson said.
''Democrats who are elected statewide, like Bob Graham and myself, are political moderates, in tune with the mainstream,'' Nelson said.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/10119000.htm(Free registration)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Please check this article on Nelson's Bush-backing view of Venezuela:
Published: Sunday, April 18, 2004
Bylined to: David Coleman
US Senator's Miami Herald diatribe made to measure for southern Florida exiles
In a not unexpected harangue published in today's Miami Herald, reporter Richard Brand says US Senator Bill Nelson (Florida-Dem) has ended a three-day visit to Venezuela convinced that President Hugo Chavez Frias is "aiding Colombian guerrillas", blocking "the opposition's recall referendum petition" and "ignoring a flourishing black market for passports and other official documents that could fall into the hands of terrorists." Nelson, who is a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee is quoted as saying ''We may reach the point where the US has to treat this government as a hostile and unfriendly government to the US and the US interests."
While is is clear that Nelson has parroted the US State Department's internal disinformation handbook on the Chavez Frias administration and that reporter Richard Brand is patently catering for his southern Florida readership of exiled Venezuelan and Cuban radicals, he reports that Nelson had "a tense conversation" with Foreign Minister (MRE) Jesus Arnoldo Perez which appears to have been a one-sided bundle of unsubstantiated opposition allegations that Venezuela is/was assisting the Colombian FARC.
While Perez had informed the visiting US Senator that "Venezuela has no ties to the guerrilla groups," Nelson arrogantly slung the assurances back in Perez' face saying "I respect your right to your opinion (?) but that I disagree with you ... and that is based on complete information, including intelligence that I have seen!''
Nelson refuses to describe the "intelligence" on which he so broadly relies but it is apparent that it is form the same source that had assured the world of the existence of WMD in Iraq as a pretext for the US invasion of that country ... backtracking, Nelson said: "Obviously, I can't share the sources, but I can share the conclusion ... we have plenty of evidence of participation by representatives of the Venezuelan government when the FARC is given safe haven to come across the border and communication with the FARC both inside Venezuela and in Colombia.''
Venezuelan officials, naturally, deny the arrogant US Senator's diatribe and Venezuela's Ambassador to Washington, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera reacts strongly saying, somewhat pointedly, that United States "intelligence"' has failed in the past ... "I wouldn't trust 100% what American intelligence (?) said ... there is no evidence of Venezuela helping the FARC.
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http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=17579
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