ORLANDO, Fla. - Republican Senator Mel Martinez of Florida said yesterday that he will step down from the Senate before his term ends, adding intrigue over who will fill the seat.
Martinez, who said in December he would not seek reelection in 2010, said he was leaving office of his “own free will.’’ His resignation leaves one Hispanic in the Senate, Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
Martinez’s decision puts Republican Governor Charlie Crist - who is running to replace him - in charge of filling the job in the interim. Crist said yesterday that he would not appoint himself but wouldn’t discuss the issue further.
Crist will almost surely pick a Republican, meaning Martinez’s resignation will have no effect on the balance of power in the Senate, where Democrats control 60 seats.
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Representative Carolyn Maloney said she won’t take on Gillibrand next year, choosing instead to stay in the House, where she has served for nine terms. She said her decision was based on a desire to deal with current challenges including healthcare.
Gillibrand was appointed in January to fill the seat vacated when President Obama named Clinton his secretary of state. She got the nod over higher-profile possibilities including Caroline Kennedy.
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The Anti-Defamation League also condemned remarks by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who this week compared President Obama’s healthcare logo to a swastika and Democratic policies to those of the Nazis.
“Regardless of the political differences and the substantive differences in the debate over healthcare, the use of Nazi symbolism is outrageous, offensive, and inappropriate,’’ Abraham H. Foxman, ADL national director and a Holocaust survivor, said. “Americans should be able to disagree on the issues without coloring it with Nazi imagery and comparisons to Hitler.’’
Limbaugh, on his show Thursday, said, “Now, what are the similarities between the Democrat Party of today and the Nazi Party in Germany? Well, the Nazis were against big business - they hated big business. . . . They were for abortion and euthanasia of the undesirables, as we all know, and they were for cradle-to-grave nationalized healthcare.’’
Also, some who have been protesting Obama’s healthcare plans at town hall events being held by members of Congress during their recess have taken to putting Hitler-like mustaches on Obama’s image. The Democratic National Committee has called on congressional Republicans to disavow the comments - to no avail, so far.
“Americans have every right to be critical of the president’s healthcare plan but we demean ourselves and everything that America stands for when we compare either Democrats or Republicans to the Nazi Third Reich,’’ Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement. “Some of us may be too liberal and others too conservative, but none of us are Nazis.’’
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