Democrats aren't wasting any time getting back in the game. Republicans gave them such a shellacking at the polls in November that they're looking to rebound big in 2012 -- starting as early as right now and targeting 19 Republican U.S. House incumbents they believe are vulnerable, including two in Florida.

As the swordfish in the governor's kitchen broiled this week, the press corps stewed, and then was left out and got cold.

Carol Browner, who headed the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation under Gov. Lawton Chiles, is leaving her post at the White House, where she ran the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy.

Gov. Rick Scott pulled back a request to the U.S. Justice Department to review constitutional amendments 5 and 6 earlier this month, but is taking heat for the move from one member of his own party.

The new Republican majority in the U.S. House will vote Wednesday whether to repeal the health care law passed last year with the support of President Barack Obama. Florida’s congressional delegation is expected to mirror Congress as a whole and divide on partisan lines, with Republicans voting to repeal and Democrats voting to keep it in place.

Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked a federal court to dismiss a case filed by two members of Congress that attempts to strike down a recently passed amendment to the Florida Constitution changing the way congressional districts are drawn.

U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, named members of his party to the various appropriations subcommittees Friday -- and three Florida Republicans won some plum assignments, giving the Sunshine State a large seat at the table when Congress sets federal expenditures.

After stalling in the afternoon, the U.S. House voted just after midnight Friday to extend tax cuts initially backed by George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 for all Americans. The bill, which also extends jobless benefits, now moves to President Barack Obama’s desk.

If anyone has a chance of surviving a Mexican gang kidnapping, it might be Felix Batista. Then, again, if anyone should have been able to avoid getting kidnapped in the first place, he was at the top of the list.

With a host of much-better-known Republicans considering running for president in 2012, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota has been raising his profile in recent days as he reflects on launching his own bid for the White House.