Double-Dare them to vote 'No!'

Those who expected a special session on oil drilling in Florida may have to wait. Gov. Charlie Crist tells the Sun-Sentinel today that he still lacks the votes to get a ban on offshore rigs in Florida waters. But I say he should call a session and see if legislators truly have the guts to vote 'No' right now.

Just as a reminder, barely a third of voters in Florida support offshore drilling in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, according to the most recent Mason-Dixon. And that was before the oil got into the Loop Current and started its crawl for our coasts. A state of emergency has been extended to Keys and to counties whose coasts don't even touch the Gulf of Mexico, which should remind voters there that this spill is a real threat to the entire state.

I think now may be a good time to remind people that state lawmakers and the Florida constitution have a jurisdiction that reaches only 10 miles from the coast. That means any action by members of the Florida Legislature would involve rigs getting built much closer to the shoreline than BP's rig. Deepwater Horizon was roughly 400 miles away from Florida when it blew, yet threatens our top industry. Also of note, the majority of the members in the state Senate and House have districts that either touch the coast or are close enough that much of the economy is dependent on beach tourism.

So call the session, Charlie. The chance of passing a drilling ban will never be better than they are now. You need to do it by August or it won't make it onto the ballot this year. And if a majority of lawmakers are foolish enough to shoot this one down in special session, you can say you tried, and they will suffer before their constituencies this Fall.

And who better is there to show the need for this in our state constitution? You have changed your position on this so readily as to demonstrate how dangerous it is to trust our coastline to the whims of ambitious politicians.