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Back when Florida Statehouse Repubs thought DeSantis would be the GOP’s 2024 nominee, they fell all over themselves kissing his ass. Now that DeSantis has been exposed — and people in the state are grumbling about all the stupid culture war bullshit the statehouse wasted money on while real issues were ignored — the statehouse is backing off the DeSantis agenda. From the Tallahassee Democrat:

Is Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo putting Florida’s ‘war on woke’ to bed?

Reporters on Wednesday asked the Naples Republican about a quartet of bills included in the Republican Party of Florida’s legislative agenda approved this past weekend. They have not, however, either moved in either chamber or are stalled in the Senate.

Measures include prohibitions on the government display of Pride flags and taking down Confederate memorials, regulations of the use of pronouns, and a rollback of age restrictions for firearms purchases.

But with the meeting of committees coming to an end and budget negotiations moving to center stage, Passidomo said the bills in question were effectively dead. It takes an extraordinary effort to get a bill not approved in a committee to the floor for debate and final passage.

“Our bill process is not the Republican Party of Florida. We are the Legislature. We make the laws,” Passidomo said.

“… None of those bills are moving in the Senate anymore,” she went on, explaining that just because something is part of the state GOP’s agenda, she would not take it out of a committee “or violate our rules” to get it to the Senate floor.

Notably, she had no problem with doing that when her statehouse crew functioned as background performers in the governor’s ill-fated presidential campaign. But good riddance to all that bullshit anyway.

Also, DeSantis is walking back the book-banning spree that he simultaneously claims is a hoax, citing “bad actors” who may have to be restricted from requesting reviews. Or maybe not. He’s not sure. PEN America’s local spokesperson had the best response to that nonsense: (Florida Politics)

“Governor DeSantis’ denial that Florida is banning books, and his shifting blame to local school boards and Floridians, is a blatant attempt to avoid responsibility for the significant and ongoing harm caused by statutes that he championed. But there is one thing we can agree on: book banning has gone too far, and limiting challenges is a good first step toward protecting Florida’s libraries,” said Katie Blankenship, Director of PEN America’s Florida office.

Culture warriors nationwide are deflating like leaky bouncy castles — even in Florida. There’s still a lot of work to do, but you love to see it.

Open thread.

Florida’s Culture Wars Are Ending With a WhimperPost + Comments (90)