“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

If you’re a political junkie, you’ve heard Reagan’s “Eleventh Commandment” invoked a thousand times. It almost always follows a blistering attack.  Too often, it is a desperate attempt to call off the wolves; a way to change the subject.

Next week, the Republican Party of Florida will elect a new chairman.  Nearly every candidate for that office has been attacked in some fashion. I’m not going to get into the details. They have been covered elsewhere. Some candidates have handled the attacks well, others resort to the tried and true (and lame) spin control that makes Democrats snicker.

Sure, nearly every one of these attacks deal with embarrassing personal stuff. But how a candidate deals with the adversity can speak volumes on how he or she will handle the job as RPOF Chairman.

If you can’t handle this how will you handle real trouble cooked up by the OBAMA White House in 2012? How can you hope to handle the Bill Nelson re-election campaign? If you’re worried about attacks from an REC guy, how will you handle the DC media let alone the Florida press?

Florida Republicans crave leadership. We’ve had enough scandal. We’ve had enough “yes” men. We’ve had enough of “friends of friends” who just want to get along.

We want a leader that can do his own dirty work. A leader that doesn’t need flunkies and bagmen.

Florida Republicans want strong leaders. Leaders with ideas. Leaders willing to fight for those ideas even when being shouted down by a blowhard on MSNBC.

Come to think of it, we want someone like Ronald Reagan.