Marco Rubio: From Poor Boy Cuban Hero to Grinder?
Marco Rubio, son of working class immigrants, Republican US Senate candidate and, of course, a hero, is facing questions stemming from spending decisions made during his reign as Speaker of the Florida House.
In 2007 while courageously leading the Florida House of Representatives, Rubio somehow found the time to become a true hero to a bereft group of judges who really really needed a new courthouse. A Taj Mahal courthouse.
Scheduled to be completed in November, it's a $48 million behemoth in which each judge will get a 60-inch LCD flat screen television in chambers (trimmed in mahogany), a private bathroom (featuring granite countertops) and a kitchen (complete with microwave and refrigerator).
How did it get funded? Like many things that gain life in Tallahassee, the courthouse grew out of a last-minute amendment on the last day of a legislative session. The funding for the courthouse was buried in the middle of a 142-page transportation bill, approved the last day of the 2007 session.
The state had never floated a bond issue to build a courthouse, but Sen. Victor Crist of Tampa attached the amendment that allowed the court to float a $33.5 million bond issue.
Several legislators say they were not aware the courthouse amendment was in the transportation bill when they voted on it.
Former Rep. Lorrane Ausley of Tallahassee voted against the bill, but she says she did not know about the amendment that was added to build the courthouse in her hometown.
"It was safer to vote no on things like that given the lack of transparency on stuff like this,'' Ausley said last week. "I do recall that the judges worked the halls pretty hard. I don't think the Legislature ever intended something like this.''
That bond issue didn’t quite cover all the extras so $16 million was taken from the state's Workers' Compensation Trust Fund.
Now Rubio, ever the bashful type, has refused to take credit for this kind hearted deed. In fact,
Rubio said Wednesday the proposal for the courthouse, which has been criticized as too luxurious in a time of severe budget constraints, originated in the Senate, not the House, which he controlled; and that it wasn't the Legislature's job to scrutinize building plans.
...Asked about the courthouse in an interview with the Tampa Tribune editorial board, Rubio, said, "That specific spending priority emerged from the Senate."
He said funding courts is "a core governmental function," but, "How that money is spent and what it's spent on is not what the Legislature does. The Legislature doesn't approve architectural plans, it doesn't approve purchasing orders."
In other parts of the interview, Rubio emphasized his commitment to cutting government spending and eliminating earmarks.
...The courthouse is being built on the outskirts of Tallahassee for the state 1st District Court of Appeal at a time when state courts are laying off employees and making do with inadequate or dilapidated quarters because of budget cuts.
...State Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Ocala, then chairman of the House council on law enforcement and courts, has been quoted in news reports as saying the project was pushed through at the request of two politically influential judges with connections to two Rubio aides. Dean couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.
And it turns out that Dean may be on to something, for despite his protestations to the contrary, Rubio has been named as a “hero” by the very judges for who were elevated from mere mortals overseeing innocuous courtrooms to Hela Judges in charge of the Taj Fucking Mahal! Bitches!
Since the story first broke about the palatial new courthouse being built in Tallahassee, the former House speaker has said it was a Senate priority, and he couldn't even remember the money being appropriated to build it.
But now the St. Petersburg Times has obtained an e-mail circulated among the judges on the courthouse building committee that identifies the "heroes'' in delivering the money to build it.
Among them, the e-mail identifies a select few who were "especially helpful,'' including Rubio.
"I have never heard of this list'' of heroes, Rubio said this week.
...Dated April 29, 2008, the e-mail exchanged by judges on the building committee and court staffers encouraged them to personally thank those who helped secure the funding.
...Rubio, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, has repeatedly said the courthouse was a Senate project and the House knew nothing about the architectural plans. He said it was part of the last-minute House and Senate give and take.
Rubio's appropriations chairman, former Rep. Ray Sansom, remembers it differently.
...He said 1st DCA Chief Judge Paul Hawkes frequently visited Sansom's office to remind him the project was a priority of the speaker's. As was Sansom's practice whenever someone said he had the speaker's backing, Sansom said he went to Rubio to make sure.
...In an unrelated case, Sansom has been criminally charged with grand theft in connection with a $6 million appropriation in the 2007 budget for a friend's airplane hangar. He has denied wrongdoing, and his trial is scheduled for January.
Poor Boy - Rubio’s altruistic inner Cuban wants no part of the credit for this selfless accomplishment. Despite his status as Hero, he seeks no recognition- he’d probably prefer to be hiding out on a submarine.
But Rubio may go from hero to the grinder. Rye? Well, a Grand Jury could soon be asking questions about the Taj Mahal courthouse.
A grand jury in Leon County will hear a complaint next week about the controversial new courthouse being built in Tallahassee for the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Leon State Attorney Willie Meggs said Wednesday that he has received a complaint from a citizen who wants a grand jury to review the situation surrounding the courthouse.
Meggs said he will bring the case to the grand jury when it meets Wednesday.
...Two years ago a complaint sent to Meggs about former state Rep. Ray Sansom prompted a grand jury not only to indict Sansom but to issue a scathing report of how the Legislature handled the 2007 budget. The report criticized a system that lets a handful of powerful lawmakers make multimillion-dollar decisions in secret.
The grand jury urged the Legislature to "clean up the process" and make Florida "an example to the nation as a state that works for the people and not the special interest of those who have money to influence the Legislature."
It was in that same 2007 legislative session that the $33.5 million bond issue for the courthouse passed the Legislature as an amendment to a transportation bill.
Nothing like a good meaty scandal to chew on leading up to election day.
Bi-Party Crist Wont Pick Partner
Florida Governor and one-time leading Senatorial Candidate Charlie Crist is finding that coming out as bi-party is not the cakewalk that he was hoping for - his old friends feel betrayed and confused, his new friends are somewhat fickle, and his enemies are gleeful as he bends and twists to distance himself from the very party whose supporters he must approach if he is to have any chance to win.
Sunday on CNN's State of the Union, Crist declined to answer the caucus question - if elected, will he caucus with Democrats or Republicans? As he has for weeks, he evaded the question by asserting that he will "caucus with the people of Florida." Unfortunately, the people of Florida don't hand out committee assignments.
A few days ago, he tried to go both ways on healthcare. He stated that he would have voted for healthcare reform then he corrected himself and said he would not have voted for the bill. He doesn't like it - not one bit! But since it's already passed and everything, he thinks we should keep it and make it better. Of course, since he wont be sitting on any committees, his opinion may not matter all that much.
And last week in liberal Broward County, he thanked God that he was no longer a Republican then travelled to a much less progressive part of the state and bragged about being a "Jeb Bush Republican."
But even as Chain Gang Charlie repaints himself as a bi-party milquetoast with compassionate leanings who still enjoys the occasional hippie punching, Kendrick Meek and Florida Democrats are gearing up to remind voters of Crist's true preferences:
(Click to listen to wav audio file.)
This is Charlie Crist calling to set the record straight. I'm pro life, I oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, I support traditional marriage, and I have never supported a new tax or big spending program.
The fact that Meek, a real Democrat, won the party nomination over self funding former Republican Jeff Greene will make life difficult for Crist. Democrats will use the boastful conservative's own words against him again and again and Democratic voters will continue to come home to Meek - Meek presents a clear progressive choice vs. Chain Gang Charlie's newly found wishy washy middle-of-the-roadism.
Meanwhile, Marc Rub's (Marco Rubio has had the vowels removed from the end of his name for conduct unbecoming a Hispanic, per Tampa's La Gaceta newspaper) campaign is hammering Crist as a turncoat and newly enflamed liberal. Crist wont be winning too many votes from this wing of his spurned party.
So far, Crist refuses to pick sides, but he can't win with independents only, his old party still hates him, and Democrats are warming to Meek - Meek is far and away the best candidate on the issues, and he is, in fact, just the kind of "better Democrat" that we need in DC.
Crist's approval ratings are dismal and he is a man without a party. Many observers do not see a way for him to win unless he promises to caucus with the Democrats, but just as he missed his oppurtunity to switch parties and clean Meek's clock in the Dem primary, Crist may again be waiting too long to pick sides.
Rubio Likes Dry Feet, Not Wet Backs
NOTE: The title references two US immigration policies. Wet Feet, Dry Feet:
...in what has become known as the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, a Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (i.e., with "wet feet") would summarily be sent home or to a third country. One who makes it to shore ("dry feet") gets a chance to remain in the United States
and Operation Wetback:
Operation Wetback was a repatriation project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service to remove illegal Mexican immigrants ("wetbacks") from the Southwest.
The intent of the double entendre is to tersely describe the shockingly inappropriate and illogical positions taken by a first generation American. I do not mean to offend, but I, like Atrios, understand that your mileage may vary.
The story reads like a script from the ultimate Tea Party horror film: waves of foreigners illegally cross our southern border fully intending to seamlessly integrate into the expat community - folks who spurn English in favor of their native Spanish, people who retain their traditional dress and mores despite the obvious superiority of the tawdry fads of their host nation.
The foreigners undermine our laws with their exotic abattoirs and their support of terrorism. Crime rates increase dramatically. The immigrants' sheer numbers combined with their stubborn refusal to learn English force entire cities to waste precious resources going bilingual
The illegals plan to defy our laws and make a permanent life in this community, working, learning, worshipping, and popping out anchor babies ASAP to keep themselves moored in Miami.
And after literally thousands of them navigate through our porous border, the sniveling spineless America hating President grants them amnesty!
The stars of this Tea Party Circus of Horrors are the illegal immigrant parents of Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio.
The elder Rubios, despite their reported status as uneducated peasants, managed to flee Castro's Cuba in 1959 - either by sea or by air - with the first wave of mostly elite, ruling class land owners. They illegally entered our country, gave birth to an anchor baby in 1960 - Marco's older sister - and were subsequently granted amnesty by Presidential Pardon.
In the Western Hemisphere, Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959 and embarked upon a policy making it a communist country. These wars, along with Castro's victory, led to another wave of refugees. Shortly after Castro won control, some elite Cubans fled to Miami. As the flow grew, Presidents Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson used the parole power to admit them. From 1959 to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, more than 200,000 arrived. Flights were suspended after the missile crisis, although some escaped by boat to Florida.
So with such a rich family history, where does Marco Rubio stand on the hot button immigration issues that are so important to his fans?
Flip flops, tightropes, and crickets.
Rubio was criticized as a Tea Party Pooper when he came out against Arizona's immigration law. He executed a classic flip flop as he declared that the law would not, after all, lead to a police state - it turns out that Rubio is very much against immigrants who walk in through the desert.
On the campaign trail, Rubio walks a tightrope as he extols the sacrifice and hard work of his parents...
His message, though, resonates: His parents migrated from Cuba to Miami to give him a better life; the Obama administration is dangerous; the federal debt will crush the next generation.
"We are at a real crossroads," he gravely tells the gathering. "There are only two ways we can go. Either my children, your children, and your grandchildren can grow up to be the freest, most prosperous Americans ever... or else they will be the first generation to inherit from their parents and grandparents a diminished nation."
...while lambasting amnesty and calling for tough immigration policies against newcomers.
"I believe we must fix our immigration system by first securing the border, fixing the visa and entry process and opposing amnesty in any reform," he said.
So, he's against amnesty. Except for his parents. And presumably his older brother. But what about the whole 14th Amendment debate? Does Rubio think it should be repealed so that anchor babies like his sister can be deported along with their parents (unless, of course, said parents were HIS parents...)
Crickets. More crickets. And here.
Finally, today, the St. Petersburg Times reports that despite his illegal mother's apparent refusal to learn and use english,
"The fundamental issue we need to focus on is border security. These other things are really not at this moment pressing issues," said Rubio, when asked about calls to revise the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
..."I've been raised around immigration and immigrants my whole life," he said. "Legal immigration is good for America, but I also know we can't be the only country in the world that doesn't enforce its immigration laws."
It was a careful choice of words for a prominent Hispanic candidate caught between a growing national furor over illegal immigration and a cultural connection to the source of that fury.
Rubio is the son of Cuban immigrants. His wife is of Colombian descent. His mother prefers to communicate in Spanish over English.
Okay - Cuban immigrants good. Colombian immigrants good. Mexican immigrants... well, let's just sum up Marco Rubio's complex and thoughtful stance on immigration with some campaign friendly bullet points (with apologies to Orwell):
-
Whoever immigrates upon two legs is an enemy.
Whoever immigrates upon water, or upon wings, is a friend.
And, of course, an addendum: All immigrants are equal but some immigrants are more equal than others.
Unions 101 – Which Side Are You On?
"There’s no such thing as neutral. You have to be on one side or the other. Some people say, “I don’t take sides - I’m neutral.” There’s no such thing. In your mind you’re on one side or the other. In Harlan County there wasn’t no neutral. If you wasn’t a gun thug, you was a union man. You had to be."
Rand Paul doesn't know squat about Harlan County Kentucky. He should have studied up by now, and his ignorance, be it willful or just plain stupid, is a slap in the face to the Kentucky coal miners who fought and died over many generations for the right to organize the mines.
Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwellChorus
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's wonThey say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. BlairOh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize
Florence Reece was the wife of a Harlan County coal miner and labor organizer and her simple message "Us poor folks haven't got a chance unless we organize," may resonate more today than at any time since she wrote those lines in the midst of a terror attack at the hands of deputized company gun thugs sent to arrest or beat or kill her union organizer husband Sam.
The Kentucky coal mines weren't union back then. If you worked the mines, a company payday lender issued you company scrip - actually an advance against unearned wages which was designed to trap the worker in debt - which you could redeem in the company store for shoddy overpriced merchandise.
Many lost their lives due to the neglect of operators who in some cases robbed the miner of his dignity, his honor and his rights to earn a decent living for his family. I am a coal miners daughter. One of eight children who lived in a four room company house, in a company camp, traded at the company store, with company scrip. To get silver money a miner got 85 cents in silver for every dollar in scrip. My dad did owe his soul to the company store.
As a Kentucky coal miner, you paid rent right back to your employer for the right to live in a company hovel. If you were willing to pay a little extra, you might have had running water - out on the front porch with open drainage directly into the street.
When you died, a company funeral home buried you in a company cemetery.
The absentee mine owners also owned the police and the jail - Harlan County Sheriff J. H. Blair bragged that most of his deputies were mine guards still on the company payroll. There was no democracy in a company town or coal camp - everything was controlled by the company.
The paternalistic system worked well enough in boom times - coal was king before petroleum - and the vast profits rapidly accumulated by mine owners gave them plenty of cash with which to quash any attempts at organizing while paying their workers just barely enough to get by.
But after World War One, coal prices slumped, and the subsistence wage boom times were over. A decade of pay cuts and layoffs followed, and by 1930 or so, the workers were getting really fed up. Or, more accurately, not fed at all.
Q4 Can you tell us something about the condition of the people in this hollow?
A: The people in this country are destitute of anything that is truly nourishing to the body. That is the truth. Even the babies have lost their lives, and we have buried from four to seven a week all along during warm weather.
Q5 Due to lack of food?
A: Yes, on account of cholera, famine, flux, stomach trouble brought on by undernourishment. Their food is very bad, such as beans and harsh foods fried in this lard that is so hard to digest. It is impossible for a little baby's stomach to digest them. The digestive organs are not strong enough to digest this food.
Q6 Is that the only food they have, if they have that?
A: They can only get beans. Their parents have been out of work this summer. Families have had to depend on the Red Cross. The Red Cross put out some beans and corn....
Q11 Do they give to every one that asks?
A: No the Red Cross does not give to every one. I always thought they was selfish; they didn't have the right kind of heart.
Q12 Do they give to members of the National Miner's Union?
A: No, they stop it when they know a man belongs to the union.
Q13 What did they say about it?
A: The Red Cross is against a man who is trying to better conditions. They are for the operators, and they want the mines to be going so they won't give anything to a man unless he does what the operators want him to. For instance, I will explain this. My husband took pneumonia and flux for three months. He has not been able to work since this strike. I have to carry back something for my husband to eat from the soup kitchen. The Red Cross won't give anything. We are really in destitution. I talked to the Red Cross lady over at Pineville....
Q15 Did she offer to give you any relief?
A: No, because they was members of the National Miners Union. They said, "We are not responsible for those men out on strike. They should go back to work and work for any price that they will taken them for." That was last week.
Q16 How many children die a month or a year under these conditions?
A: Now in the summer, it would be three to seven each week up and down this creek....
Q20 Are these houses sanitary and healthful to live in?
A: Therse houses bring grip, flu and pneumonia.
Q21 Is this a company house?
A: Yes.
Q22 Does the company fix it?
A: They do not fix it. Just plainly speaking they are no more interested in the men, in the miners, they have not got the sympathy that people has for stock, for the mules.
Q23 Much less, because a man who owns stock knows he must take care of it or he loses money. They don't feel that way about the miners, I believe you.
A: If I had a milk cow or a horse I certainly would be more interested in them than the coal operators is in these people.
Is your husband a member of the N.M.U.?
A: My husband is a member of the National Miners Union, and I am too, and I have never stopped, brother, since I know of this work for the N.M.U. I think it is one of the greatest things that has ever come into this world....
Q29 You know all the people in this village are suffering from lack of food?
A: Yes, they are destitute of food and clothing.
Q30 You have been a nurse in this community?
A: Yes, just charity.
Q31 You have brought children into this world?
A: Yes sir, 65. My poor husband, he did all he could do. They took their wagons and they would beg for these pumpkins and corn and that would be all they would get without any seasoning and many days they had nothing but those pumpkins. It's all right if we had the other things to fix the pumpkins up but we had nothing and it is very hard to digest that way.
Q32 What do they do with the pumpkins?
A: They feed their hogs. If you had the flavoring, you could fix up something good.
That was the testimony of Aunt Molly Jackson before the Dreiser Committee in 1931. Jackson was a blacklisted miner's wife and a midwife, a union organizer and, per Woody Guthrie, "one of America's best native ballad singers."
Actually, Woody had a little more to say about Aunt Molly Jackson.
When she saw these little babies starving to death like flies all around her, Aunt Molly got interested in good wages for their dads. She got up in front of the miners, sung them songs, made them speeches, yelled at them to lay down their tools and wait till the boss raised the pay. She tells of the meetings they had. How the winchester rifle bullets use [sic] to kick the gravel up in your face while you was out making a talk about the rich coal operators and the poor hungry miners. In a year Aunt Molly told more truth than the politicians could bear to hear, so it got too hot for her down in Kentucky.
...
I know Molly well. She's strong and she's good, and she aint [sic] afraid of the police. She says what she thinks when she thinks it. The big guys call her a red. Well, Molly, it looks like if you always say just exactly what you think is right, they'll jump on you and say you're a red.
Some folks just aint quite got the nerve to say what they think is right. But some day they'll wish they had. You aint scared of nobody, Molly. I know it. I've been around you long enough to know that. And you can't stay around Molly for even a few minutes, but what she'll speak out something that is so good, so true, and so honest, that it'll stick in your head as long as you live.
Kentucky coal miners know how to speak out. They also know how to take action.
The bloodiest battles to build a union have been in the coal fields -- in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, Colorado, and Kentucky. And surely the toughest and meanest of all the coal field where men fought for a voice and a place in the sun was "Bloody Harlan" in Kentucky.
...In 1931, coal miners in Harlan County were on strike. Armed company deputies roamed the countryside, terrorizing the mining communities, looking for union leaders to beat, jail, or kill. But coal miners, brought up lean and hard in the Kentucky mountain country, knew how to fight back, and heads were bashed and bullets fired on both sides in Bloody Harlan.
The violence ebbed and flowed, but the Kentucky miners stuck to their guns (literally) and in 1933, they won the right to organize
Unionism finally came to Harlan County in May 1933, when section 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act recognized the legal right of workers to organize unions. The UMW organized the coal mines in a matter of months. By autumn of 1933, the workers signed their first collective bargaining agreement with the coal operators.
One of the most important things about Harlan County is that it attracted national attention to the plight of the coal miners, much as the civil rights demonstrations of the early 1960s brought the injustice of segregation to the awareness of the nation. In late 1931, novelist Theodore Dreiser and a team of writers came down to report on (as Dreiser put it) "terrorism in the Kentucky coalfields." And during the strike, writer Waldo Frank organized an "Independent Miners Relief Committee" to bring food to the miners. Busloads of northern college students came South to support the miners, handing out food and copies of the Bill of Rights. Florence Reece's song, "Which Side Are You On?" also served to spread the word about the conflict, and became a lasting favorite of labor and civil rights activists.
For people around the country, the Harlan County uprising of the early 1930s demonstrated the limits of the company paternalism and welfare capitalism of the 1920s. In this way, it helped pave the way for the Wagner Act of 1935, which guaranteed workers the right to organize and created a legal process for attaining union recognition. The northern writers and organizers who told the story of Harlan County to the rest of the country helped to cast union organization as American and democratic, and the actions of the companies as tyrannical, violent, and arbitrary. Finally, the ultimate victory of the miners showed that even under the most difficult conditions, in the most rural communities, workers could organize and win union representation. The mineworkers' union, with its stronghold in Harlan County and Appalachia, would remain a powerful force in the United States throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and the entire postwar era.
Winning the right to organize was not the end of the struggle for Harlan County coal workers. Violence continued for many years as miners struggled to educate reluctant owners. In April of 1941, the last union organizing gun battle in the SE Kentucky area took the lives of a mine owner and some company officers and guards as well as at least one union member.
Rhodes was a large, reckless young man who arrogantly told union men that if miners attempted to picket his mine, he would slaughter them. For months, he and Bob Robinson, a former Tennessee highway patrolman, had been parading around with their Tommy guns and challenging the miners to a fight. More than half of the employees had been signed up by the UMWA, but Rhodes ignored their demands and hired more thugs.
On April 15, 1941, the union decided to post a picket line in the safest place they could find. The pickets chose stations where they could take cover in case they were attacked by company guards, and then moved to a strategic place near the mine. When the caravan of cars came to a stop at the state line and started to unload, the fifty pickets were greeted with a broadside from fifteen or eighteen armed guards who had word they were coming and had preceded the pickets to the state line. On the first volley, one picket was killed and more than a dozen were wounded, nine seriously enough to be hospitalized.
...
The battle raged across the state line and more than a thousand shots were fired.
This was the last gun battle in southeastern Kentucky and/or Tennessee over the UMWA’s right to organize. The feudal coal barons learned a valuable lesson from this encounter, namely that times were changing. They could no longer murder miners like dogs with impunity and with the protection of state governments. They had been taught that workingmen, for the first time in American history, were thought of as first-class citizens.
Thinking back, I realize that the Harlan County gun thugs in reality got nothing for their efforts to drive out the union. Most of them died violent deaths.
The ones who survived or died natural deaths had their consciences to live with. How they did it, I do not know.
Harlan county coal miners fought and died and beat back the capitalist thugs that were treating them worse than farm animals, and they set the stage for the Wagner Act and other labor victories.
Today, the working class is being squeezed and exploited in much the same ways that the coal miners were. The elite have stolen our wealth. Payday lenders and credit cards trap the working poor in debt. Wages have been stagnant or falling for years. Working families are turning to relief agencies to feed their kids.
Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize
There's no such thing as neutral. Which side are you on?
ACTION:
If you are not a union member, join Working America and get involved.
If you are a union member, join Working Families and get involved.
If you're interested in forming a union at your workplace (that's a BFD!), start here and stick to it.
Support American workers - use union shops whenever you can and buy from American manufacturers when possible.
Note: This post was inspired by Ross Altman's awesome presentation of American protest songs archived at Pacifica and broadcast by Community Radio WMNF in Tampa last Friday.
No Longer Beating a Dead Horse
I give up - there's really no reason to rally behind the only real Democrat in the Democratic primary race. No Party Charlie Crist is with us on everything except what he's not with us on and that's good enough for me, so the primary is officially moot.
Look, I will always like Kendrick - he's such a nice guy! But his campaign is teh suck. It lacks visibility and support, and Meek is not a gifted orator, and he's not as cool and popular as Charlie, so it's over. I can not vote for Kendrick. I am going to invite Crist into my life.
Some say we need work hard to elect better Democrats. Balderdash. I used to be in that camp, but I have seen the light - a halo, actually, just behind Crist's head.
I don't care if we have a real Democrat on the general election ballot in November. I don't need a chance to vote for a candidate who stands for my values.
I am going to vote for Charlie Crist come hell or oily water. What could possibly go wrong?
To this point, Charlie Crist has been nimbly avoiding the literal gusher of indictments and arrests and trials and IRS audits and FBI investigations and lavish credit card spending sprees and, well, just about everything bad that's been happening to the Florida GOP. So I'm betting that none of those scandals will touch him, and I'm absolutely certain that no new bombshell revelation will pop up that might affect his general election chances.
In fact, I have such faith in Crist that I'm betting everything I have.
Of course, I'm not worried that after the Democratic primary Crist will realize that I now have no leverage over him - that I've already placed my bet and that I will have no recourse were he to kick me in the face. I don't need a plan 'B'. I'm positive that Crist is different. He wont hurt me. Honest.
And by backing Crist now I can absolutely guarantee that Marco Rubio will not win the election.
After all, there's no way that anything that no one could have predicted could possibly have come to pass by the time I cast my ballot for Charlie Crist in November.
So I see no reason to even pay any attention to the Democratic primary much less back a candidate just because his values line up nicely with mine and the rich carpetbagger he's running against is a real schmuck. This would be a waste of my valuable time and it really does not matter one iota who the Democratic nominee is because I am going to vote for Charlie Crist.
What could possibly go wrong?
Kendrick Meek could really use our help, but none of us like him anymore, so just don't bother.
I’m Not Afraid of the Big Bad Rubio and Jeff Greene is a Real Schmuck
I’m NOT Afraid of the Big Bad Rubio
and Jeff Greene is a Real Schmuck:
Why We All Need to Get Behind Kendrick Meek Right Now
I keep hearing folks say that they have given up on Kendrick Meek and that they’re voting for Chain Gang Charlie Crist in November because he is the only hope to keep Tea Bagger Marco Rubio out of Washington.
Bullshit.
It’s true that the polls don’t look very good for Meek right now, but November is a long way away and Marco Rubio is primed to self-destruct. As Rubio implodes, Dems may end up with a real choice in November, but only if we ensure that Kendrick Meek wins the Democratic Primary.
Rubio is a lightweight. He’s never been tested in a statewide race. His West Miami district is safely Republican. Like some other Tea Party candidates who found themselves suddenly newsworthy, his campaign is wilting somewhat as the harsh glare of the national media spotlight illuminates slimy stances that are forcing the candidate to dance around the issues.
But in Rubio’s case, the campaign is also drowning under a deluge of scandal.
Rubio, the fiscal responsibility candidate, was carrying a million dollars or so in debt as of 2008 and is a deadbeat. Apparently, at least since he was forced to cut up his Republican Party of Florida AMEX, he has not been making monthly mortgage payments on a house he co-owns in Talahassee. Rubio’s camp claims it’s all a big misunderstanding. The Bank has filed for foreclosure.
Speaking of Rubio’s RPOF AMEX, he was one of the big spenders, racking up one hundred and six thousand dollars in charges. He is known to have double billed taxpayers and the RPOF for expense reimbursement and he was very slow to reimburse the party for personal expenses incurred on his card. He chalks all that up to accounting oversights. The IRS and FBI are investigating.
It was accounting again, along with staff errors, that led to six million dollars allegedly being misappropriated by Ray Sansom, Rubio’s hand picked successor as Speaker of the Florida House. Neither Marco Rubio, whose job as Speaker required him to sign off on all budget items, nor Governor Charlie Crist, who could have vetoed this particular turkey, have any memory whatsoever of the line item which paid for a brand new airplane hanger for Sansom’s future employer. Sansom is awaiting trial.
All of these scandals are starting to wear on Rubio and he’s already slipping in the polls. He’s not coming back up.
So, if Rubio continues to slip, then there really is no reason to strategically back Crist to keep Rubio out of DC. And if Kendrick Meek wins the Democratic Primary then we will have a choice between Crist, a Republican who is adopting Democratic ideas in a calculated move to appeal to the political center and Meek, a real Democrat who has always believed in and voted for the ideals that form the bedrock of our party.
But now, with Jeff Greene having purchased a spot on the primary ballot, Meek first has to win the Democratic primary in order to give us a real choice in November. Jeff Greene has bombarded the airwaves and has literally bought himself up to parity with Meek, but no one really knows anything about him or where he stands on the issues.
It is, however, fairly easy to illustrate the difference between the Democrat in the Democratic primary race for Florida Senate and the other guy who is running in the Democratic primary.
First, from The Buzz:
Jeff Greene's first campaign stop in Tampa Bay yesterday. He met privately with assorted politicos, taped some TV interviews and stopped by the Jordan Park gym in St Pete, to visit an after-school program serving mostly African-American children. His chauffeur drove up in a shiny cadillac, and Greene cheerfully pressed the flesh with nearly two dozen people.
Jeff Greene with his Limo and his Driver
And from The Miami Herald:
Unlike most candidates, Meek usually carries his own bags and takes the wheel on campaign road trips, even while making fundraising calls or doing interviews. He drives a solid 80 mph on the highway, frequently in the left lane. ``The one thing I like about going out on the road [to campaign] is that I get a chance to drive,'' he said.
Kendrick Meek delivers petitions. Meek is the only statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot via petition in Florida history.
We've got a regular guy with working class credentials and values up against The Millionaire Billionaire and his wife mom.
Billionaire Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene features his 83-year-old mother, Century Village of West Palm Beach resident Barbara Greene, in his newest TV spot.
“My Jeff, he’ll shake things up in Washington and he’ll get results. That’s what he does,” Barbara Greene says in the ad.
The Billionaire and his mom.
People were being mean to Jeff Greene so he used his mom as a human shield. Classy.
Look, I haven't even touched on the fact that Crist is tied into most of the same scandals as Rubio plus a few of his own. Crist and Rubio could both conceivably be under indictment soon. Even if you think you will ultimately vote for Crist, you need to support Meek right now during his primary challenge or you could find yourself regretting your lack of a plan B as you hold your nose and send Democratic Primary Winner Jeff Greene to DC.
Keep your options open. Support Kendrick Meek in the primary. Don't let this schmuck Jeff Greene buy the nomination. Ensure that voters have a real choice in November.
Meek vs. Greene In a Nutshell
The difference between the Democrat in the Democratic primary race for Florida Senate and the other guy who is running in the Democratic primary can be summed up with these two short clips.
First, from The Buzz:
Jeff Greene's first campaign stop in Tampa Bay yesterday. He met privately with assorted politicos, taped some TV interviews and stopped by the Jordan Park gym in St Pete, to visit an after-school program serving mostly African-American children. His chauffeur drove up in a shiny cadillac, and Greene cheerfully pressed the flesh with nearly two dozen people.
Jeff Greene with his Limo and his Driver
And from The Miami Herald:
Unlike most candidates, Meek usually carries his own bags and takes the wheel on campaign road trips, even while making fundraising calls or doing interviews. He drives a solid 80 mph on the highway, frequently in the left lane. ``The one thing I like about going out on the road [to campaign] is that I get a chance to drive,'' he said.
Kendrick Meek delivers petitions. Meek is the only statewide candidate to qualify for the ballot via petition in Florida history.
We've got a regular guy with working class credentials and values up against The Millionaire Billionaire and his wife mom.
The Billionaire and his mom.
Kendrick Meek Needs Us Now
Charlie Crist is no progressive.
“I'm as conservative as any governor. I'm chain gang Charlie. I'm pro-gun. I'm pro life,”
There is a true progressive in the Florida Senate race, and he is being all but ignored by the progressive community. Kendrick Meek needs and deserves the support of everyone who is looking to put better Democrats in Congress.
Meek is the one Florida Senate Candidate who remains just as committed today as he has always been to keeping oil rigs away from Florida's fragile coasts. Unlike Charlie Crist who
... even evoked childhood memories of cleaning birds after an oil spill in Tampa Bay. He has expressed adamant opposition to drilling throughout his career, from state senator to education commissioner to U.S. Senate candidate to attorney general.
But on Tuesday, he joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain in calling for an end to a 26-year federal ban on drilling, saying states should decide whether to allow rigs off their coasts, subject to safety and environmental restrictions.
Well, let's just say Charlie wants us to believe that he's back with us right now, but we know that Kendrick Meek has always been on our side against offshore drilling.
Meek is now and always has been a strong progressive and he comes down on the right side on an impressive number of issues.
- Meek strongly supports repeal of DADT.
- Supports gay marriage.
- Pro choice.
- 100% NARAL rating. Rated 10% by Christian Coalition.
- Strong environmental record.
- Voted against oil refineries, for energy independence.
- Strong pro working families record.
- Co-sponsored Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
- Voted against CAFTA.
- Progressive on immigration.
- Progressive on taxation
- NO on retroactive telecom immunity
- Defender of Social Security
And as a State Senator he became famous for championing the Class Size Amendment and for leading a sit in Governor Jeb Bush's office to protest the One Florida initiative that basically did away with affirmative action at state schools.
The list goes on. Pick an issue. I found that Meek shares my values and ideals many of my priorities. Even on issues where we disagree, I find that his reasoning is fact based and defensible.
No Party Charlie Crist is no progressive. It's true that he's not exactly a raging right winger like Rubio (or is he?) but he will never amount to a reliable progressive vote.
So, we can have in Senator Crist another Lieberdem - a guy who might sometimes vote our way, but who will always have great leverage over us and our priorities, or we can support a true progressive candidate.
Meek is not a compromise candidate - he is progressive. He is not a typical triangulating centrist, and certainly not a right-center wishy washy GOP today Dem tomorrow flip flopper like Charlie Crist. Kendrick Meek is a true progressive champion who we can count on for the next 6 years.
The truth is that we really have no idea how No Party Charlie might vote. On the other hand, we know we can count on Kendrick Meek to support our causes. But only if we support him now.
Kendrick Meek is and always has been a strong progressive. He believes in and fights for progressive ideals. He deserves the support of this progressive community.
The Kendrick Meek Campaign needs money and volunteers.
Rubio Drilling Deeper and Deeper
Nationwide, tea party primary winners are grabbing headlines as they seemingly try to outdo each other in a surreal political reality theater. Nevada's Sharron Angle, Kentucky's Rand Paul and Florida's Marco Rubio are three of the not ready for post-primary time players who are battling it out on America's Got Tea.
Each of these far right Senate candidates is playing to win, with everything from the resurrection of prohibition (tea partiers don't mind the government regulating what you put into your body) and the elimination of Social Security to the return of the Jim Crow era being discussed.
Oh, and the Florida candidate has decided that now is a really really good time to differentiate himself by favoring expanded offshore drilling.
Game changer.
Floridians have never wanted oil rigs off of our coasts. Drilling was always the third rail of Florida politics. When he ran for Governor in 2006 Charlie Crist remained adamantly against drilling.
Crist even evoked childhood memories of cleaning birds after an oil spill in Tampa Bay. He has expressed adamant opposition to drilling throughout his career, from state senator to education commissioner to U.S. Senate candidate to attorney general.
But on Tuesday, he joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain in calling for an end to a 26-year federal ban on drilling, saying states should decide whether to allow rigs off their coasts, subject to safety and environmental restrictions.
Charlie Crist, cozying up to John McCain during his Presidential run, breached the wellhead when came out in favor of drilling and wasn't subsequently beaten up in the polls. A veritable gusher of GOP legislators followed, along with bills and proposals and rushed studies, and for the first time ever, in the last couple of years, Florida has been on the verge of allowing the rigs within a few miles of shore.
That's right - in 2008 when Charlie Crist considered himself a prime contender for the VP slot on McCain's ticket, he honed his rank hypocrisy polished his tough guy hetero cred by getting himself caught swapping spit in an elevator, and by openly supporting the rape and pillage of the Gulf.
Of course, in 2010 Crist is courting Democratic voters, and the timing couldn't be better to flip around like an oil covered fish show his sensitive side by sensibly turning against drilling. Let's trust him! I think he really loves us!
Anyway, Marco Rubio should probably come out against drilling too. Public opinion in Florida, which had been trending toward drilling acceptance, has turned sharply against as the Gulf continues to bleed.
But Rubio is stuck. His tea bagging masters are keeping him on a tight leash. He tried to be just a little bit moderate on the Arizona immigration law, but his base gave a jerk of the lead, and he came right back into step, flipping his position to just right of crazy.
Rubio's easily trained, and he wont attempt to roam around on drilling or be caught trending toward the center on any other issues. This will help him with the really hard core crowd, but most voters will be turned off by his extremism. And the hard core group wont be enough to drag him over the finish line, even in a three way race.
In fact, there is a real possibility that Rubio's hard core supporters may end up being so bitterly disappointed by their dream candidate that they wont end up expending much effort for him in the end. But that's fodder for another post.
Will Meek Be the Last Pol Standing in Nov.?
In the 3 way race that is expected to develop for Florida Senate, Kendrick Meek is perfectly positioned to benefit from scandals rocking the Florida GOP. No party Charlie Crist's hand-picked head of the Florida Republicans was just arrested for... stealing from the Florida Republicans. Marco Rubio is also caught up in the scandal, as the IRS is investigating reports that he more or less lived off of a Florida Republican Party American Express Card for several years. Perhaps most importantly, Crist's and Rubio's problems are indicative of a GOP brand in Florida that is heavily tainted by rampant corruption.
Charlie Crist made a big splash when he dumped the GOP and went independent. Polls showed him as the new front runner. But Charlie has a little problem.
Jim Greer was Charlie Crist's pick to head the Florida GOP - Charlie almost singlehandedly inserted Greer into the post and Crist supported Greer right up to the day he resigned in January. Charlie Crist was Jim Greer's only friend for quite some time during late 2009 and January 2010. Of course, we all know that Charlie's buddy was just arrested.
Charlie's Greer problem does help in one way - it has taken the spotlight off of his Scott Rothstein problem.
Marco Rubio is in big trouble. Rubio shot to the lead in the GOP primary by playing to his Tea Bagging base. He is running on tax reform, secure borders, the second amendment, and every other right wing hot button issue. Oh, and he is the outsider who is untainted by scandal and corruption - his web ads all proclaim "Principles Stand for Something... Stand With Marco." Oops.
RPOF Individual Spending On AmEx Cards
Speaker Marco Rubio - $110,000
Indicted Speaker Ray Sansom - $173,000
Speaker-designate Dean Cannon - $175,000
Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos - *$2,347
Rubio Chief of Staff Richard Corcoran - $70,000
RPOF Executive Director Delmar Johnson - $500,000
Jr. Party Staffer Melanie Phister - $1,258,000
It turns out that what Marco stands for is the right to live large on a state party AMEX given to him by... Jim Greer. Rubio and other users of State Party AMEX cards are currently under investigation by the FBI and IRS.
Federal law enforcement agencies have launched a criminal investigation into the use of American Express cards issued by the Republican Party of Florida to elected officials and staff, according to sources familiar with the probe.
The U.S. attorney's office in Tallahassee, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are all involved in the probe, which grew out of the state investigation into former House Speaker Ray Sansom. He was indicted on criminal charges that he stashed $6 million in the state budget for an airplane hangar for a friend and campaign donor.
In the federal case, Sansom and others could be charged with making false statements on their tax returns and tax evasion.
...
Meanwhile, in a separate inquiry, the IRS is also looking at the tax records of at least three former party credit card holders -- former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, ex-state party chairman Jim Greer and ex-party executive director Delmar Johnson -- to determine whether they misused their party credit cards for personal expenses, according to a source familiar with the preliminary inquiry.
If any of these big spenders enjoyed any personal financial gain from the use of these cards, the IRS will expect to find said financial gain declared as income on the big spenders' tax returns. The IRS can get kind of picky about this kind of stuff.
Regardless of undeclared personal income, the idea that Rubio managed to spend over $100,000 of party donor's money in a short period of time kind of belies his status as principled outsider. His zealous defenders wont mind, but more moderate potential supporters may be turned off by his easy corruptibility and rank hypocrisy, not to mention his far right stands on issues like HIR and immigration.
Last fall he opposed the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, the country's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice, saying he had concerns about her case history and testimony on issues such as the Second Amendment right to bear arms. He opposes counting undocumented immigrants in the U.S. census and providing them a pathway to citizenship.
He suggested in an interview with a conservative publication, Human Events, that even illegal immigrant children who have spent most of their lives in the U.S. shouldn't be allowed to stay. He later told The Associated Press: "Young children have to go wherever their parents are."
And after initially expressing concerns about Arizona's immigration law, the nation's harshest, Rubio reversed his position and came out in support, saying subsequent changes aimed at preventing racial profiling have greatly improved it.
"Most people, what they know about Marco Rubio is that he's a young, well-spoken guy who's Hispanic," said Rep. Juan Zapata, a Republican state representative in Florida who was born in Colombia and supports Rubio's rival Gov. Charlie Crist. "People don't know the details."
Zapata said that the Hispanic community would love to support a Latino candidate but that Rubio's views don't further the causes of Hispanic voters.
"I've known him for a long time and I've worked with him and I'm terribly disappointed in the positions he's taken," he said.
At times it seems as if the entire leadership of the Florida Republican Party is engulfed in scandal. Former Speaker Ray Sansom is under indictment for grand theft. Which led to the GOP credit card investigation that Marco Rubio is caught up in and, eventually, the arrest of Crist's buddy Jim Greer. Money Man Alan Mendelsohn indicted for fraud and money laundering. Crist favorite Scott Rothstein indicted for a massive ponzi scheme - he funneled proceeds to Florida politicians of both parties, but the only politician he ever baked a cake for was Charlie Crist. The list goes on and on.
Crist money-raisers have been charged with crimes, while Greer, his hand-picked state party chairman, is the target of probes; Republican candidate Marco Rubio, among 31 Republican politicians and operatives who are facing FBI and IRS scrutiny, has the IRS looking at his use of state party credit cards.
The avalanche of criminal investigations began in early 2009 with the indictment of former House Speaker Sansom after he accepted a $110,000-a-year job at Northwest Florida State College on the very day he became speaker. A St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald investigation showed how in the previous two years, Sansom steered $35 million to the school.
...
As part of the Sansom investigation, State Attorney Willie Meggs obtained records detailing Sansom's lavish charges to a GOP American Express card totaling more than $173,000.
The credit card charges sparked federal investigations of Sansom and Greer, the GOP chairman who had been living a life of luxury with chartered jets, four-star hotels and chauffeured limousines charged to his party card
.... Anyone who obtained personal benefits from the cards and failed to report them to IRS could be in trouble.
Now, Kendrick Meek has his own problems, but recent reports tying him to a failed Miami development indicate he was burned by family and staff, and that he had no personal knowledge of any shenanigans. There's apparently nothing there, but the "scandal" will be dredged up constantly to provide some balance to the scores of GOP troubles being reported.
Meek is a hard campaigner - he is the only statewide candidate to have ever qualified for the ballot via petition. He did this by getting out and meeting people and energizing volunteers to gather signatures. He is largely unknown, even among Democrats, and as he introduces himself to voters, his poll numbers will rise.
All 3 candidates will be battered by November, but if Kendrick Meek can take advantage of the big scandals enveloping his main rivals, he may well be the last man standing, and, with luck, we may end up with a true progressive representing Florida in the Senate.