Aaron Deslatte adroitly zeroes in on CSX and trial lawyers

There's not much that I can add to this excellent Central Florida Political Pulse blog post and Orlando Sentinel post mortem from Aaron Deslatte on the political aftermath of the Central Florida commuter rail imbroglio, other than that based on what I've read in the Orlando and Tampa Bay newspapers and blogs, there were a lot of supporters of the Central FL commuter train who wondered why there was, apparently, so little discussion among Florida Democratic legislators of pursuing the Amtrak angle months ago.

You know, a credible Plan B?
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http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/
Central Florida Political Pulse
Trial lawyers and the CSX saga revisited
posted by Aaron Deslatte on May 20, 2008

When Sen. Paula Dockery needed friends to help derail Central Florida's commuter-rail deal, she did something once unthinkable for a Republican legislator: She appealed to the state's trial lawyers.
Dockery was up against a political dream team. Central Florida supporters of commuter rail and Jacksonville-based CSX Corp. had public-relations firms in Tallahassee, Orlando and Tampa. The city of Orlando employed uber-lobbyists Southern Strategy Group.And two powerful legislators -- Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster of Winter Garden and Rep. Dean Cannon of Winter Park, in line to be speaker in 2010 -- were leading the charge.
"I couldn't fight them all off. They were attacking from every single angle," said Dockery, who opposed the deal because it meant more freight trains running through her home city of Lakeland.
So Dockery seized on a little-noticed element of the $650 million deal...

For the rest of this story go to:
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008/05/trial-lawyers-a.html
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More from Deslatte on the above story along with some great graphics -and reporting of the sort that you never saw on this issue on local South Florida TV:

SPECIAL REPORT
Cash & Threats: How trial lawyers wielded new power to help block commuter rail at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-csx2008may20,0,1130274.story

Prior Orlando Sentinel stories on the Central Florida commuter rail plan are at: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-commuterrail-sg,0,3785419.storygallery and well worth checking out if you're at all interested in mass transit in Florida. _______________________________________
Also see this story on the SFECC:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/apr/19/30gttreasure-coast-planners-hoping-to-draw-rail/?feedback=1#comments

Treasure Coast planners all aboard plan to draw passenger train service
By Derek Simmonsen
April 19, 2008