The Fine Print

Spilling the secrets of the Republican Party

Some of the innermost secrets of the Republican Party of Florida spilled out in the open on Tuesday as prosecutors released documents that raise additional questions about the ongoing financial scandal that has resulted in the arrest of the former party chairman.

Jim Greer, the man handpicked by Gov. Charlie Crist to lead the party, was arrested earlier this month on six felony charges that he steered party money into a shell company that he set up with another top party official. Greer, who was ousted from his post in January, has said he is innocent.

But the documents that were released -- and the potential witness list for Greer's trial -- could have extensive reverberations for many top elected officials. Crist is listed as a potential witness, as are many other party officials and even a potential future House speaker.

Keep reading here for the full story.

Among the details:

Crist gave investigators a written affidavit saying he knew nothing about Greer's involvement in Victory Strategies, the company that Greer set up and received money from the party.

A 56-minute phone call between Greer and former executive director Delmar Johnson where Greer says he Crist and Greer talked about Crist's independent bid for U.S. Senate days before Crist went on Fox News and said he staying with the Republican Party.

Greer says on that same phone call that he and House speaker in waiting Rep. Chris Dorworth talked about whether the party intended to use Victory Strategies - the company that Greer used to get payment from the party - as a "blackmail mechanism" to get out of paying Greer a severance agreement.

Johnson - who in May signed a deal that keeps him out of prison for helping investigators - repeatedly reassures Greer on the phone call that he's not turning on him. "You never have to worry about me,'' Johnson lies to Greer at one point.

Greer talks about how that "idiot Thrasher," a reference to party chairman John Thrasher, will "try to use that anybody as a scape goat." He calls Thrasher, Attorney General Bill McCollum, and incoming Senate president Mike Haridopolos and incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon the "four horsemen."

Johnson on the call says that McCollum "played a much role behind the scenes than we realize."

While some party officials say they knew nothing about Greer's involvement with Victory Strategies, one party employee says she told to "keep quiet" about the arrangement.

Investigators seized items from Greer's home when he was arrested in early June and included in the haul were American Express records for Cannon, Senate President Jeff Atwater, former House speaker Allan Bense, former Senate President Ken Pruitt, former RPOF chairman Carole Jean Jordan, and Richard Corcoran, a former top aide to Marco Rubio. Investigators also seized invoices/payments for other party officials and Dane Eagle, a top aide to Crist.

The LeMieux-Rubio lovefest

Something worth noting:

When George LeMieux was appointed to the U.S. Senate last August, this was how he articulated his political philosophy:

 "I describe myself as a Charlie Crist Republican," LeMieux said at the time.

When asked what that meant, LeMieux said he planned to back the principles of his party, including lower spending, but that he would "work with anyone" who wanted to solve problems. He also said last year that "my view is that we are all Americans first and Floridians first and then comes party."

Flash forward to this year.

Crist bolted the Republican Party after it became apparent that he could not win the GOP primary for U.S. Senate against Marco Rubio. Despite LeMieux's deep ties with Crist - campaign manager, chief of staff and architect of some of Crist's policy initiatives - he opted against backing Crist in the race.

When LeMieux appeared at the quarterly meeting of the Republican Party of Florida earlier this month, he went even further and urged GOP leaders to "work hard" to elect Rubio and praised him for the "courage of his convictions."

LeMieux said he wouldn't "say anything bad about my friend the governor," but he then proceeded to explain that Rubio was needed in the U.S. Senate because he is a "principled conservative."

"Marco is a principled conservative and I have been there and I have seen what it takes, we cannot have people who are going to just go along and get along,'' LeMieux said. (This of course echoes one of the constant criticisms of Crist, which is that he changes his policy positions based on the prevailing mood of the moment.)

LeMieux then added this about Rubio: "He will be a great senator and he will not only be a solid conservative vote but he will be a solid conservative idea person."

LeMieux's statements are even more interesting given what Rubio said about him some 10 months ago:

"This is a disappointing appointment for Florida,'' Rubio said in a statement. "George LeMieux is a talented political operative and the governor’s best friend, but that doesn’t make him the right choice to represent Florida in the Senate."

So then what did Rubio say about LeMieux at a Tampa breakfast earlier this month with the GOP faithful?

"He has done more in the last 9 months in the U.S. Senate that some people do in six years,'' Rubio told the GOP faithful.

Rubio added that he was "grateful for his service."

Rookie mistakes by veteran McCollum?

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum strode before group of newspaper editors and publishers June 17 in Sarasota and boldly proclaimed that, if elected to the state's highest office, he would impose a two-year freeze on tax rates for every local government in Florida.

When pressed for details, such as how his plan would affect schools and whether it would usurp local control of cities and towns, McCollum promised that he would spell it all out the next day.

He did not. Instead his campaign put out a vague press release that left as many questions as answers about a plan that, if enacted this year, would force local governments and schools to reduce spending by $3 billion.

Since then, McCollum has talked little about the tax rate freeze.

It seemed like a political mistake, pitching a far-reaching plan without having the consensus and details to sell it. The irony is that McCollum is anything but a newcomer, having held elected office for most of the last 30 years, from Congress to his current job as Florida attorney general. Indeed, McCollum's campaign has tried to portray his GOP opponent, Rick Scott, a health care executive who has never been elected to office, as someone that voters cannot rely on during such challenging times.

"They don't need a rookie up here running this place who doesn't know what Tallahassee is and what state government is all about," McCollum said earlier this month, referring to Scott.

Yet it is McCollum's campaign that seems to have struggled to show the strength of the candidate's experience.

Keep reading here.

New showdown between Crist and Republican-led Legislature

A battle over proposed redistricting amendments is turning into an extraordinary legal fight between members fo Congress, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, Gov. Charlie Crist and even a former governor.

Last month U.S. Reps. Corrine Brown and Mario Diaz-Balart filed a lawsuit in Leon County to get one of two redistricting amendments sponsored by FairDistrictsFlorida.org thrown off the 2010 ballot. Brown, D-Jacksonville and Diaz-Balart, R-Miami contend the measure is misleading and would reduce the number of minorities elected.

But since then both the Florida House and Florida Senate have gotten permission to join the lawsuit and now are fighting to get Amendment 6 removed from the ballot. Amendment 6 would impose new standards for congressional redistricting. But the Legislature also wants the court to throw out another ballot measure - Amendment 5- that would apply to legislative districts only.

Crist this week has jumped into the legal fray as well, but he wants the court to throw out the lawsuit. Crist’s general counsel argues that both amendments was previously reviewed by the state Supreme Court before they went on the ballot and that the lawsuit is “prolonging a legal imbroglio at the expense of healthy political debate.”

The governor's legal filing slams the Legislature for launching "an attempt to block the people's opportunity to weigh in on the way their congressional and legislative districts are drawn."

Keep reading here.

Rick Scott's big money gift to McCollum and Sink

Millions of dollars have already been spent during Florida's wild election season and tens of millions will likely be spent between now and November.

But who could be footing a big part of the bill?

Florida taxpayers.

Four years ago, candidates running for governor and other state offices received more than $11 million from taxpayers thanks to a state public campaign financing law that some Republicans have called "welfare for politicians."

But that amount could double or even triple this year because of the millions that health care executive and Republican Rick Scott is pouring into the race. Scott's rivals for governor could get a dollar-for-dollar match from taxpayers if Scott keeps up his relentless and expensive round of television advertising.

Candidates don't have to take the money, but Attorney General Bill McCollum says he will. Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink says she might.

Scott is ineligible for the matching money because he has put so much of his own money into the campaign, but his campaign says he is opposed to taxpayer financing of elections and it blasted McCollum for taking the money.

"He has so little support for his ideas and his candidacies that he can't raise money,'' said Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for Scott's campaign.

McCollum, however, not only backs public campaign financing but he is now opposed to Amendment 1, the measure that state lawmakers put on the ballot to repeal the entire system. In an interesting little twist, his own Lake County chairman is the lawmaker who sponsored the amendment and calls public financing a "gross misuse" of tax dollars.

Keep reading here.

Up in smoke: Firms battle over multi-million dollar campaign

A fierce battle has broken out over who should be in control of the state's multi-million campaign to keep teenagers from smoking.

And one of the companies seeking that $25 million a year contract contends the winning ad firm failed to disclose that its parent company once worked for the tobacco industry. Florida's well-known anti-smoking campaign comes from money the state won in a settlement with tobacco companies.

The state agency responsible for choosing the ad firm refuses to comment, although Department of Health officials told members of an advisory council earlier this week that it checked out the allegations and “didn’t find anything there.’’

Yet the Florida Tribune was able to quickly discover that one of the top executives at the Coral Gables firm that won the contract once worked for British American Tobacco. British American Tobacco manufactures brands such as Lucky Strike and Pall Mall.

Keep reading here.

McCollum's own staff didn't want to hire expert caught up in Rentboy scandal

The hiring of a now-disgraced psychologist to defend Florida's ban on gay adoption was done over the objections of the main attorney defending the case for the state, according to records made public Thursday.

Attorney General Bill McCollum pushed for the hiring of a critic of gay adoption over the objections of one of his subordinates.

Nevertheless, Attorney General Bill McCollum pushed for the hiring of the psychologist George Rekers, who was at the time a leading advocate for conservative social issues.

The controversy has emerged as an issue in the governor's race, in which McCollum is the leading Republican candidate. Gay rights advocates say it showed poor judgment on the part of McCollum and reflects the flawed efforts Republicans have made to keep gays from adopting.

Florida wound up paying more than $120,000 to hire Rekers, whose credibility was tarnished after he recently went on a European vacation with a gay male escort. The state's ban on gay adoption was declared unconstitutional by a Miami judge in late 2008 who criticized Rekers as "not credible."

The e-mails released Thursday show that an attorney in McCollum's own office warned against hiring Rekers, whose testimony had been deemed suspect in an earlier Arkansas lawsuit that challenged a ban on placing foster children in homes with gay parents.

Keep reading here.

Crist talks about Jim Morrison

Here's video of Gov. Charlie Crist talking about Jim Morrison

Crist says he still has an "open mind" about the Lizard King

There is yet another meeting this morning of the Board of Executive Clemency.

And as expected - the name of James Douglas Morrison or Jim Morrison- is nowhere to be found.

For those who don't recall - Gov. Charlie Crist way back in 2007 promised to consider a posthumous pardon for the Lizard King that fans of the Doors singer wanted. Morrison died while his conviction stemming from a notorious Miami concert was on appeal.

So far nothing has happened and some of the Doors advocates are getting frustrated. When asked about this past week, Crist called Morrison's case "tragic" and said he still has an "open mind."

 Here's a letter that was sent from one of them to Crist and the board last week:

Dear Governor Charlie Crist/Florida Parole Commission,

It is once again with great honor and respect that I write you with regards to our efforts in the referral of James Douglas Morrison, a Florida citizen aka Jim Morrison, lead singer of THE DOORS music band, to follow up with the Florida Parole Commission/Clemency Board in our on-going request that you consider the Posthumous Pardon of said James Douglas Morrison.

Governor Crist, in March of 2007, I sent you a letter detailing our concerns about the Constitutional flaws of this now "legendary & infamous" Miami-Dade case of Jim Morrison, which has become what the musical press would like to refer to as "legend" or "myth" surrounding the facts of this case. In that letter, I spelled out to you that Mr. James Douglas Morrison, as written by hundreds of musical historians and documentarians, died at the age of 27 with his appeal still pending. From then to now, that appeal has never been acted on and his case was not abated, as was done very quickly in the manner of Kenneth Lay vs Enron:

On October 17, 2006, since Lay died prior to exhausting his appeals, his conviction was abated. Precedent in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal appellate court governing the district where Lay was indicted, indicates that abatement had to be automatically granted. When abatement occurs, the law views it as though he had never been indicted, tried and convicted.The government opposed Lay's attorneys' motion for abatement, and the Department of Justice issued a statement that it "remains committed to pursuing all available legal remedies and to reclaim for victims the proceeds of crimes committed by Ken Lay." 

Governor Crist, as you see here with this very important precedent, which you publicly acknowledged in the spring of 2007, you vowed to expeditiously "put a legal team on this case" to review it, as documented by several leading online news sources that are very closely following these developments in with regards to this case.

To date, no legal team has responded to us or to your office with official fact findings of this case and we find that troubling, since Mr.Morrison, as evidenced by the above submission, died in Paris France at the age of 27, with his appeal pending. Under the Constitution of The United States of America, anyone who dies, pending appeal, their case is granted automatic abatement, since a) they never got a chance to appeal, and b) the case is automatically abated, as if the case was never indicted or tried.

With these precedents, Governor Crist, we find it troubling that it has taken this long for the Florida Parole Commission and Clemency Board to issue a quick and immediate posthumous pardon as it relates to case # F69002355, the State of Florida/Miami-Dade Country vs. James Douglas Morrison. We feel that we have more than proven our case for immediate posthumous pardon and also the inevitable expunging of this particular case.

We are again requesting to you, formally, that you, Florida Attorney General Mr.Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer, Ms.Alex Sink, and Commissioner of Agriculture, Mr.Charles Bronson, call this case, as was submitted to your Clemency Board via Application For Clemency Form 1501 on three occasions and noted by certified mail by the Department of Corrections, whom received the initial request of our mailings and certified by signature as such, to please call this case for a fair up-or-down vote on consideration of posthumous pardon this coming Thursday, June 3rd 2010 at 9:00 am when you next Clemency Board meeting convenes.

If further information is needed, please feel free to click on the attached link below my signature, as it contains an accurate timeline of everything that has occurred with the developments of this case from the the moment you made the commitment to review the case to present day happenings.

It is critical, Governor Crist, that we see to it that this lingering matter is resolved to the benefit of the family of James Douglas Morrison, since the family has had to live with this unresolved case for over forty years. Jim Morrison, a citizen of Florida first, before he became the famous singer of the rock group "The Doors" deserves all due process of the law that was obviously denied to him during that infamous 1970 trial, which serves as nothing more than a stain on the law books for Florida. We stand by you and the Florida Clemency Board members to quickly correct this most embarrassing series of Constitutional flaws that were allowed to spill out as a result of these most unfortunate decisions that evolved from this case. The family of Jim Morrison have had to endure over forty years of documentaries, VHS and DVD airings as well as television and in-print medias' depictions of portraying Mr.Morrison into someone, some "iconic rebel" that he was clearly not!

Governor Crist, Mr.Morrison was clearly a proud citizen of Florida, who was unfairly railroaded by the "Conservative times of the Sixties." Be that as it may, it's time to for the mainstream musical media and musical historians to stop romanticizing Mr.Morrison for the this "infamous" case and put the focus back where it belongs- on his art and demonstrating what a proud Floridian can do with his God-given talent, to make the State of Florida proud of one of its own citizens who rose to great prominence to entertain, inspire and mesmerize a generation of poets and artists for years to come! James Douglas Morrison aka Jim Morrison was NOT an "enemy" Florida, but one of its most treasured citizens! James Douglas Morrison should be celebrated for his artistic contributions and not vilified for a series of misdemeanor series of questionable infractions, given the nature and times of the Sixties.

Thank you & the Florida Clemency Board for your time.

-Dave Diamond

Crist admits veto process isn't "perfect" but insists he did not target legislators

Gov. Charlie Crist this week defended his decision to veto $371 million from the state's new budget and insisted that he did a "top line" review of budget projects.

“I don’t really pay attention to who the member is and gave specific instructions not to do that for me,’’ Crist told the Florida Tribune.

Crist made this statement even though his own budget staff drew up a 44-page document that listed individual projects in the state's $70 billion budget and which member was associated with it.

Crist also admitted that the budget process isn't "perfect" when being asked about why he vetoed nearly $10 million for Shands at the University of Florida.

Read more about it here.