The St. Petersburg Times reports today on a list of prospective nominees to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. Florida governor Charlie Crist will seek election to the seat himself in 2010, so in the meantime he needs to appoint a replacement who won’t stand in his way or embarrass him in the next 16 months:

Why, you may wonder, would so many respected public servants subject themselves to this? Because it is a dream job, and potentially very lucrative.
Especially for some of the lobbyists and power-broker lawyers on the list, the lifetime title of “former senator” is probably worth millions. And the person, who could be chosen any day now, won’t even have to keep the job long or campaign for it — except for courting Crist.
The list of nine candidates really says more about Crist than anything else. He’s a man who wants to please everybody, so he checks off all the boxes. North Florida, South Florida and Central Florida are represented. So are conservatives and moderates. And Hispanics, women and African-Americans.

Isn’t representative government dreamy?