Florida shifts primary date

According to an article in the New York Times, Florida moved up its primary date yesterday. Details are in the lede:

Casting more uncertainty over the presidential nominating process for 2008, the Florida Legislature on Thursday moved the state’s primary up to Jan. 29, ignoring the threat of sanctions from the national Republican and Democratic parties.

Marco Rubio, speaker of the Florida State House of Representatives, had this to say of the decision:

“We have people who get invited to a big party where they drop a balloon and people wear funny hats,” said Marco Rubio, speaker of the State House of Representatives. “But they don’t have any role to play.”

“At the end of the day,” said Mr. Rubio, a Republican, “the truth of the matter is that the nominee of either party is going to want to make sure they have not offended the big donors and the biggest activists in the most important state in the country that is electorally available.”

Now I know how he feels about the Florida primary AND apparently the Kentucky Derby...