primarily responsible for florida's acquisition of one of our natural resources, the 75,000-acre babcock ranch on the southwest part of florida, which now provides necessary corridors for wildlife, especially the endangered florida panther. and in the late 1980's, thom worked to implement some of the first manatee protection laws. well, this is a four-decade long continuing service of public service. he's demonstrated the importance of looking out for the common good. you know, i just did an interview today in the aftermath of our vote today on what started out to be highly contentious on what we were going to resolve in debt reduction and deficit reduction, with the pending guillotine handing over our head at the default that would occur at 12:00 tonight which has now been averted. and the reporter that was asking me in this interview said well, why is it that everything is so contentious and people are all so wrapped up in their selves and they talk past each other, and they're only looking out for their own, and they don't respect the other fellow's point of view? thom rumberger repre