Crazy Jim Greer Quote of the Day

Aren't we currently in a budget crisis? Greer doesn't seem to know about it:

"When it comes time to get out and speak around the state, it's important that we have the ability to travel there and that we accomplish as much as we can in any given day... You will see that the party is much more engaged in traveling the state..."

They've spent more than $1 million in private charter jet flights in the last year. Greer wants you to think that these expenses are necessary, but the Sarasota Herald Tribune found otherwise, discovering that they lodged "high-flying expenses from last year with tens of thousands of dollars in ritzy New York hotels, thousands of dollars in limousine services and thousands of dollars more in regular air service."

This is while they are seeking to cut healthcare for more than 40,000 low-income senior, disabled and seriously ill Floridians. And it flies in the face of the rhetoric the members of Greer's party regularly spout off...

Charlie Crist: "We're asking local governments to tighten their belts, too. We are tightening ours. We can do no less... I feel for our students and I feel for their families... They are paying higher insurance rates. They are paying higher property taxes. They are paying higher gas prices."

Durell Peaden on the healthcare cuts: "If we don't get to print money, we're going to have to do with what we've got."

Charlie Crist: "If a family with two young boys can tighten their belts to live within their means certainly our cities and counties can also."

Alan Hays: "We cannot ask our state and local governments to tighten their belts if we continue to support frivolous spending."

Mike Haridopolos: "Experience also proves that government in Florida does not have a revenue problem -- it has a spending problem."

Apparently, it's the Republicans who have a spending problem and have pretty serious problems with hypocrisy. I wonder if any of them will call in their votes to cut healthcare for poor people while riding in a limo or if Crist will sign the bill flying in his a chartered jet?

Crist Hates Good, Clean Government

Governor Charlie Crist claims to be a champion of good, clean government. How does the reality match up to the rhetoric? Not very well:

He went behind closed doors to negotiate a Vegas-style casino deal with the Seminole Tribe, and then, going back on his word, refused to present it to the Legislature for public debate. For this double-dealing, Crist has been sued in court. His odds aren’t good: Five other governors tried this ploy; all five lost.

...

Crist gambles with the public’s trust in other ways. Since his 2006 campaign was bankrolled by every facet of Florida’s development industry, the governor has made no secret of his disdain for grassroots attempts at curbing out-of-control growth.

...

In the days following Feb. 1, when the Secretary of State’s office announced the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment wouldn’t make the ballot this year, Crist’s office received several complaints. Correspondence obtained by this newspaper alleged serious procedural glitches at local and state levels. Among them:

• Petitions were denied equal treatment. Some were counted as late as Feb. 1; others, submitted as early as Jan. 2, were not counted.

• Signatures of “inactive” or “purged” voters were tossed, in violation of Division of Elections rules.

• For seven months, the state did not divulge problems it was having with its petition-tallying database, and stopped posting online updates in January. (Ironically, Crist brags about making state Web sites “more accessible to the citizen’s of Florida.”)

• Administrative orders issued without notice or public hearing created chaos. On Dec. 31, Sarah Jane Bradshaw, state assistant division of elections director, informed county officials, “Today is the deadline for petitioning groups to submit petitions to you.” Yet the law set Feb. 1 as the deadline.

And those are the words of a conservative columnist. I wonder what unbiased critics might say...

Crazy Republican Quote of the Day

"I'm even thinking about buying a house. I've never done that. The thing that's kind of cool is you can get some better deals!" -- Empty Chair Charlie Crist explaining why he's considering a foray into Florida's disastrous housing market.

It's great that our governor can make jokes about a serious situation that is negatively affecting many of our citizens. Florida has the second highest foreclosure rate in the United States and Crist is making jokes about how he can profit off of the pain and suffering of a family who lost their home. Shame, shame, shame.