Courtesy of CNN. He says he wants to return to his family, but that’s almost always a lie. Is it because of the Sotomayor vote? Something else? Whom will Crist appoint to replace him?
Hiking the Okeefenokee Trail, perhaps?
Well, Crist does want the job. Maybe he’ll appoint himself. 
Martinez had already announced he was not running for re-election. I don’t know why he quit, overall, he seemed to find national electoral politics a frustrating experience, so maybe he decided he didn’t feel like playing out the string for another year and a half.
I hear his resignation speech is in the works:
I was wondering if it’s an attempt to short-circuit Crist. Since Crist can’t exactly nominate himself to fill the post, whoever he picks will be the person he’ll have to run against next year. So, does Crist pick someone who will best serve the needs of Florida, or will he pick someone who he can easily defeat come the election?
Wow, that would be…crafty. Does Martinez really dislike Crist or something?
I would guess that Crist nominates a trusted friend and adviser who has no designs on keeping the office and will step aside. I assume that’s the same function being fulfilled by Joe Biden’s ex-adviser Ted Kaufman, currently the Senator from Delaware. Arguably it applies to Roland Burris as well.
He could pick himself. I don’t think it’s against Florida law, and it would also mean that someone else would have to make tough financial decisions for the next year.
He picks someone who will serve out the rest of Martinez’s term and then bow out.
Is it really? Spending time with family seems a perfectly valid reason to resign, especially when coupled with the fact that Senatoring is much less fun when your party can’t even filibuster.
(And yes, I know that “Senatoring” isn’t a word. But it should be.)
He’s trying to hide something, and we’ll know what soon.
He is running away with Palin. It all makes sense now.
The Miami Herald has Crist’s first (and rejected) preferred pick: Connie Mack.
Apparenlty he also doesn’t want Crist to pick himself.
Nah, Mel isn’t energetic enough to have something to hide. I just think it wasn’t any fun for him.
Crist would not pick himself, he’s way ahead and cruising, why borrow trouble? By all accounts, he is not a member in good standing with the unspeakable evil wing of the Party, so, meh.
when you’re (you being a Senator/Rep) in the minority party in Congress it pretty much sucks…you’re basically riding shot gun while the other party is driving.
As a lame duck, Mel probably got tired of sitting on Capitol Hill while wielding no real power.
source: friends who are Dem. staffers on the Hill.
Maybe Palin is moving to Florida.
ITR champion wrote: Is it really? Spending time with family seems a perfectly valid reason to resign…
Spending time with family is a perfectly valid reason to resign. CC didn’t say it isn’t, just that it probably isn’t the real reason. With politicians, it usually isn’t.
the problem is that your opponents can you this against you. "Crist put his own political ambitions ahead of Florida’s best interests! "-kind of thing. Best of all they can start hammering him on it before the campaigning really starts by claiming he abused his power as govenor because his policies would not stand up against a real fight for the seat.
I think Mel reallly and truly screwed Crist with this. He just went from an alomst sure thing to a race to the finish because anything he does to keep himself in the race can be turned on him by opponents from both sides of the aisle.
Spending time with your family is a great reason to retire. Serving one last term (especially in the House, where that won’t take long), and then returning to your spouse and kids is not uncommon. However, politicians don’t resign unless they’ve got a great reason, and it seems odd to announce your resignation a year and change before you would have left office anyway.