I usually ignore political commercials
because I assume that they are just like commercial commercials - i.e.,
thoroughly dishonest. Nevertheless, I have managed to catch glimpses of a
couple of the ads being run by the Charlie Crist and Rick Scott campaigns. Based on these, I might be tempted to conclude that Florida’s candidates
for governor both belong behind bars.
But this conclusion would only be half true, because
Charlie Crist does not, in fact, belong behind bars. The GOP has accused Crist
of being dishonest over and over again because in 2010 he migrated from
Republican to independent to Democrat. In fact Crist did make this two-step
party switch, but he did this because (a) he is an ambitious politician, and (b)
the Republican Party has morphed into a lunatic ship of fools dominated by the
likes of Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.
To be fair, not all Republican are as nutty as Ted
Cruz. Some of them incline more toward the thuggish side, like New Jersey
Governor Chris Christie, for instance – who Rick Scott recently brought down to
Florida as his upstanding character witness. Governor Christie dutifully declared that
Scott, unlike Charlie Crist (the party switcher!), is a man of “honesty and
integrity.”
And who would know more about honesty and
integrity than Chris Christie?
One of Charlie Crist’s commercials included a video
of Rick Scott sitting mournfully for a deposition looking anything but
innocent. I haven’t bothered to track down the trial for which Scott was deposing
and during which he apparently kept saying, “I don’t recall,” and taking refuge
in the Fifth Amendment, but I’m guessing it related to his old company,
Columbia/HCA. This is the Texas-based corporation that was found guilty of
fraudulent billing practices, illegal kickbacks and other shenanigans and from
which Scott was forced to resign his position as chairman and CEO.
No sooner did Scott successfully avoid indictment
in the Columbia/HCA case and make his way to Florida than he managed to win the
2010 gubernatorial election here. Once in the governor’s mansion, he continued
his obsession with medical issues. One of his favorite policies was requiring various
state employees and welfare recipients to pee in cups in order to prove that
they are drug free. This policy has been judged unconstitutional, but Scott has dedicated $381,654 of Florida’s budget to appeal this decision.
If this appeal succeeds, I wonder how my good
friends and fellow professors at the University of Central Florida will feel about
being told to step forward with their cups full of evidence. Or my friends in
the teaching profession. Or anyone who works for the State of Florida for that
matter or who benefits from welfare.
Scott has also been obsessed with cutting funding
to public health departments. One result of this is that more people than ever are
forced to seek care at privately owned medical centers – like those of
Solantic, a company in which Scott’s wife holds controlling interest. As Rick
Scott is no doubt aware, Florida law does not bar governors from implementing
policies from which their family members profit.
Thank you, Florida legislators.
I will stop thinking about this race
right now because currently it is “too close to call,” and I really can’t bear the thought that we might have to face another four years of …
this.
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