Bill McCollum's Long Record of Keeping His Political Cronies from Getting Caught

From FDP:

Today's news of Miami Lobbyist Marco Rubio's lavish personal spending spree on his Republican Party AmEx is just one more reason Floridians deserve an independent investigation of this abuse. Yet Washington Politician Bill McCollum is doing what he always does when corruption should be investigated - nothing. Bill McCollum's failure to call for an independent investigation is only the latest time Bill McCollum has treated his political cronies as above-the-law and above concern for any ethical standards.

"When politicians do questionable business in shady corners, they need to look no further than Bill McCollum to protect them from the sunlight and the consequences of their actions," said Eric Jotkoff, Spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party. "A career politician protecting other career politicians, Bill McCollum helped his political cronies sweep their ethical messes under the rug in Washington and now he's at it again in Tallahassee. A life-long politician like Bill McCollum doing his best to cover up the misconduct of his fellow politicians is the last thing Florida needs as governor."

McCOLLUM's RECORD OF PROTECTING FELLOW POLITICIANS , HELP THEM SWEEP ETHICS COMPLAINTS UNDER THE RUG:

McCollum Won't Call For Independent Investigation into RPOF Spending and Doesn't Want to Open Party Books. Bill McCollum has refused to call for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the secret contracts and accusations of misused money at the RPOF. McCollum has also objected to the RPOF turning over credit card statements and opening the party books for public scrutiny. (Miami Herald, 02/05/10 and St. Petersburg Times, 02/18/10)

McCollum Has Refused To Open RICO Investigation into Disgraced Former Speaker Ray Samson. As far back as December 2008, McCollum has been publicly called on to open a RICO investigation covering the actions of the former House Speaker Ray Sansom. For over a year, McCollum has refused to do his job and investigate alleged corruption. (FDP Email, 12/29/08 and St Petersburg Times, 01/21/09)

McCollum Voted Repeatedly To Protect Gingrich From Ethics Investigations; Gingrich Later Admitted To Violations. In 1995, McCollum voted twice to protect then House-Speaker Gingrich from a special investigation by outside council. Then McCollum twice opposed allowing the ethics committee to release the report. That same year Gingrich admitted that he lied to the Ethics Committee and was found to have violated House ethics rules by using tax-exempt organizations to promote the Republican Party. (CQ; Vote 833, 11/30/95; CQ; Vote 287, 6/27/96)

McCollum Voted to Make It Harder to File Ethics Complaint Against Legislators. In 1997, McCollum voted to adopt "new rules that make it more difficult for outsiders to bring ethics complaints against lawmakers, and easier for lawmakers to dismiss complaints that are brought. Critics of the new rules charged that they increase the likelihood that serious misconduct will not be investigated and violators will go unpunished." (Vote 413, 9/18/97; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/19/97; New York Times, 9/19/97)