From the Blogs

The latest stories from the Florida blogs...

Pensito Review (Trish): Republican Hypocrisy Blows Florida Travel Budget

Blast Off!: Today's Daily Schadenfreude: Jeff Kottkamp

Talk To Me: Alex Sinks Bill

Fried Gator: Attorney General Bill McCollum's Cyber Crime TV ads by his political consultant wasted our money

Pushing Rope: Shiny Happy Governor

McCollum's Spin Fails to Make Up For Wasting Millions On Ads

FDP:

Reacting to Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum's continued defense of his self-promoting no-bid contract for his partisan consultant to run millions of dollars in ads that does more to help McCollum's political campaign than children across the Sunshine State, Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff released the following statement Friday afternoon:

"There's not enough make-up in the world to cover up wasting millions of tax dollars on a no-bid campaign consultant contract during such tough economic times - and Bill McCollum should know.

"While McCollum tries to conceal the fact that his campaign-style ads do more to promote himself than protect Florida's children, people struggling to get by in these hard economic times would blush if caught spending $550 on make-up.

"Not even the prettiest perfume could cover up the stench coming of McCollum's running ads to promote himself while cutting the budget for cybercrimes investigations that put predators behind bars.

"McCollum's waste compounds the Republican Party's problem of rampant waste, fraud, and abuse in Tallahassee.

"The Legislature should prevent elected officials from spending our tax dollars on make-up by creating a lipstick limit to stop McCollum from having any more Mary Kay moments.

"Rather than pointing fingers, polishing over the fact that these ads do more to promote the Republican Attorney General than protect public safety, McCollum should scrap the self-promoting no-bid contract for his partisan consultant.

"Instead, so we can build a foundation of knowledge for Florida's children, McCollum should have a competitive bidding process to create a genuine public education effort to keep our kids safe from cyber predators."

Daily Humor

Jim Morin

Where's Charlie?

Gov. Charlie Crist sure doesn't seem to be taking his job seriously:

For instance, on Friday, as the state announced that Florida's unemployment rate spiked to 9.4 percent, the highest since Gerald Ford was president, Crist took the day off. The week before, he took two days off.

The article also reports that Crist is disengaged and has had very little contact with legislative leaders. Sounds like somebodies preoccupied with other things, like maybe running for Senate...

From the Blogs

The latest stories from the Florida blogs...

Fried Gator: Charlie Crist doesn't work on Fridays or Mondays -- he's perfect for the US Senate

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Fried Gator: Sentinel exposes Crist secret plane flights from criminals

Fried Gator: Jeff Kottkamp does it again, what does Charlie Crist think?

Fried Gator: Charlie lies about budget cuts, then cuts education 15%

Fried Gator: Alex Sink shows Charlie Crist what leadership is on Pre-Paid

McCollum's Wasting Taxpayer Dollars Fails Florida's Children

From the FDP:

n defending the no-bid contracts that Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum gave to his partisan political consultant to produce thinly-veiled, taxpayer-financed campaign ads, the Miami Herald reported today that McCollum didn't think it was convenient to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.

The Herald reported that, "McCollum said he hired his former campaign consultant, Chris Mottola, because the state's competitive bidding process was 'very slow, very complicated.'''

"As Florida's chief law enforcement officer, Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum has a responsibility to not only follow the letter, but also the spirit of the law. Unfortunately, Florida's laws that ensure taxpayers get the best deal possible weren't convenient for McCollum, so he sought out a loophole that allowed him to be fiscally irresponsible with the public's money. If McCollum had competitively bid the contract, one has to wonder if McCollum would have been able to funnel $136,000 in profit to his Republican political consultant," said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff.

In the same article, the Herald noted that McCollum starred in the ads because, as McCollum said, "This ad needed a message. It needed a messenger."

In reaction, Jotkoff added, "The vast majority of Floridians can't pick Bill McCollum out of a lineup. Wouldn't a police officer, a mother or even John Walsh - the noted child advocate from South Florida - be a better messenger to educate Floridians on cyber safety? The Attorney General has a solemn duty to protect Florida's children from predators, yet Bill McCollum failed Florida's children when he chose to run nearly $2 million in TV ads promoting himself instead of public safety."

McCollum Attempting To Scare People Into Voting For Him

Okay, online sexual predators are a really bad thing. But by all accounts, the problem is vastly overstated. The number of actual online sexual predators is apparently quite small and nowhere near the levels that Chicken Littles such as Bill McCollum say it is. Certainly the problem is not worthy of a $1.4 million dollar campaign commercial for McCollum paid for on the taxpayers' dime during a bad economy.

More:

Pushing Rope

Naked Politics