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Pruitt's puerility

State Sen. Ken Pruitt's fundraising letter attacking "anti-God, left-wing liberals" should give his colleagues pause about voting him president-designate.

Ken Pruitt's sophomoric diatribe against "anti-God, left-wing liberals" may not violate Florida Senate ethics rules, but it sure casts his impending presidency in a different light. A chamber that prides itself on relative comity and moderation could be putting a stick of partisan dynamite at the rostrum.

Pruitt, a Port St. Lucie Republican who is rules chairman and president-designate, has offered no apologies for his fund-raising letter. In it, he noted his powerful stature by way of advising that: "I have a lot of influence over what bills are voted on." He then went on to herald "The Boy Scouts and Pledge of Allegiance Protection Act," except that no such bill has actually been filed. He appealed to "god-honoring patriotic Florida voters" and said he was "fed up with the ACLU and the anti-God left's never-ending attacks on faith in God and the traditional American institutions."

The letter runs four pages, but you get the drift.

Pruitt was given the chance Thursday to distance himself from the rant, and did not. Rather, he told a reporter: "I don't regret any of it."

Maybe Pruitt has no regrets, but those who voted to give him the presidency next year need to entertain some second thoughts. Under both Democratic and Republican rule, the Senate historically has been the political grownup in the Capitol. It has shown independence from the House and from governors. It has been more successful in working in a bipartisan fashion, including building coalitions that crossed party lines in some years and sharing power between the two parties during one period when the chamber was evenly divided in the early 1990s.

Pruitt was known as a conservative firebrand in the House, but he has projected himself as more moderate in the Senate. He even helped lead the unsuccessful effort by former Senate President John McKay in 2001-02 to eliminate special-interest sales tax exemptions. His call to "force liberals in the Florida Senate to take a stand one way or another" on whether to grant constitutional protection to Boy Scouts, then, is especially disappointing.

The Republicans who have led the Senate in recent years, including Tom Lee of Brandon, Jim King of Jacksonville, McKay of Bradenton, and Toni Jennings of Orlando, have been conservatives but not radicals. But as House speaker-designate Marco Rubio tours the state to invite new ideas and welcome a new political culture, Pruitt offers a wild-eyed rant that divides rather than unites.

Maybe next year, the grownups will be in the House.

[Last modified January 30, 2006, 00:32:10]