Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Is Scared

Is there any other way to interpret this other than that Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is suddenly worried about her re-election prospects?

Ros-Lehtinen: I'm no Bush 'rubber stamp': Out of the blue, Ros-Lehtinen's office Tuesday shot out two press releases: list of domestic initiatives where Ros-Lehtinen has broken with the current administration and “list of foreign policy initiatives where Ros-Lehtinen has broken with the current administration.”

Her office said it was interested in debunking any perception that the generally reliably Republican is a rubber stamp for President Bush.

This is pretty funny: Where on earth could anyone have gotten that idea? Perhaps it's all the statements of support she's made for Bush over the years.

Something, someone, has her worried.

Is it Bush's tanking popularity?

Or is the Annette Taddeo campaign getting some traction?

As far as I'm aware, other than on issues relating to gays and lesbians (who form an important voting block in Florida's 18th Congressional District), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has been a pretty reliable Bush vote on everything that matters: the Iraq war, FISA, health care, you name it.

A spokeswoman for Annette Taddeo, Ros-Lehtinen's Democratic challenger, said Ros-Lehtinen had voted “85 percent of the time for her boss, George Bush.

''Her decision to release the 15 percent of the bills where she did not vote with George Bush is a clear indication of the fact she understands she is disconnected with the needs of the people of the district,'' said spokeswoman Anastasia Apa.

Indeed, if you think about it, if all you have to boast about is that about one time out of seven you don't vote with Bush, that's not a whole lot to boast about, is it?

Let's hope for more great press releases like those.