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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 02:48 PM
Original message
"Usually, far-right Republicans get elected and then become criminals..."
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_11/026456.php

GOV.-ELECT RICK SCOTT.... After having been born and raised in Florida, I've come to expect a certain amount of madness from the state, especially when it comes to politics. But I honestly thought Floridians' judgment wasn't quite this bad.

Wealthy businessman Rick Scott (R) will be the next governor of Florida after state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (D) conceded this morning, handing Republicans a victory in one of the marquee gubernatorial contests in the country.

Sink's concession came as raw vote totals showed her trailing Scott by roughly 50,000 votes out of more than five million cast. <...>

Scott's victory also has major implications for the 2011 congressional redistricting as the Sunshine State is slated to gain two seats and Republicans now control the governorship as well as the state House and state Senate.


Rick Scott is, of course, best known as the disgraced former head of the Columbia/HCA health-care company that got caught up in a massive fraud scandal in the 1990s -- and nothing says victory in Florida like "Medicare fraud." Scott's firm later pleaded guilty to charges that it overbilled state and federal health plans, and agreed to pay $1.7 billion in fines, a record penalty for a health care company. The fines covered fraud perpetrated under Scott's watch, and he was forced out of his job as a result of the scandal.

More recently, Scott used his personal fortune to hire the Swiftboat liars' p.r. firm, and proceeded to launch a breathtakingly deceptive right-wing ad campaign in opposition to health care reform. He is, by the way, also at the center of an ongoing scandal stemming from his alleged fraud at a different health care company he created.

When the initial HCA scandal broke, and Scott was forced to give a deposition about his role, he pleaded the Fifth Amendment -- 75 times. After the second fraud scandal broke, Scott gave another deposition just days before he announced his gubernatorial campaign, but refused to let the public know what he said.

And despite his scandals and alleged crimes, and the fact that he's never held any public office and at any level, Rick Scott will now be the chief executive of one of the nation's largest states.

Usually, far-right Republicans get elected and then become criminals. It's not every day an apparent crook gets caught and then gets elected.


—Steve Benen
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FSogol Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 02:50 PM
Response to Original message
1. Rick Scott is a real person? I thought he was a character in a Carl Hiaasen novel.
Edited on Wed Nov-03-10 03:01 PM by FSogol
:shrug:
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 02:54 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. I wish you were right; unfortunately, he's real. I can only hope
the ongoing scandal goes to trial, he goes to jail, and someone with a better character can fill in.

What were they thinking? :crazy:
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Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #1
26. I think he's both.
:cry:
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TwilightGardener Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 02:53 PM
Response to Original message
2. Come on, they love criminals. And draft-dodgers, and perverts, and hypocrites,
and substance abusers, and idiots. Nothing's shocking anymore.
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moondust Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:33 PM
Response to Reply #2
13. Moral vacuum.
Super-religious facade.
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MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
4. We have a very close friend
who worked with Scott closely for quite a while until he figured out what was going on and left. THAT Richard Scott? You can't be serious.....oh yes you can, we just elected Brownback and Kobach *sigh*.

Funny in an odd sort of way.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 03:31 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I'm sure it's 'that' Rick Scott. Go figure. nt
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MuseRider Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 04:51 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Well the only good thing
I can see about this and several other state elections is that my state, Kansas, will not be the only really fucked up mess of a state. And I mean this facetiously, I wish none of us were in the mess we now find ourselves in.
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subterranean Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 03:52 PM
Response to Original message
6. Someone like this could only have run for one purpose...
to steal as much as can get away with. Do Floridians actually believe he gives a shit about them or serving the state? He is in it for his own personal gain and nothing else.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 05:49 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. That also doesn't make sense because he's loaded. I guess
when you're rich, it's never enough.
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Pacifist Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:44 PM
Response to Reply #6
27. Well that and now he gets to appoint the people responsible for...
following the investigation trail that would lead straight to his doorstep.
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Jeffersons Ghost Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:17 PM
Response to Original message
9. K&R
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The Backlash Cometh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:28 PM
Response to Original message
10. This was the direction this state was going.
People get away with too much crime. OUr law enforcement agencies are a joke. They go after the little guys and leave the kingpins alone.
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AllyCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:29 PM
Response to Original message
11. We have a pool going in the Wisconsin forum for how long until Johnson's scandal breaks
Edited on Wed Nov-03-10 06:32 PM by AllyCat
so I could agree with the title of this post. And the candidate for sheriff in my county (lost, thank goodness) was fired from his job for trying to get an opposing football team in trouble before the big game where his son would be playing for the home team.

In fact, I think you have to have a criminal record that is um, lets say kind of in the shadows, to be a member of the Republican party.
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RainDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:31 PM
Response to Original message
12. kick
honestly, until we have paper ballots to count votes - I question any win.

I'll look forward to the day I read about this one's indictment.
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glinda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:42 PM
Response to Original message
14. Most voters most likely did not even know he had a record. Thanks to the media.
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DFW Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:45 PM
Response to Original message
15. Then after this election, they'll have to build a new correctional facility
Existing ones won't have the capacity to house them all!

Unless, of course, their beloved death penalty gets imposed for corruption as it is in China.
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:46 PM
Response to Original message
16. I want to be a Republican gun moll when I grow up.
Anything can happen in America.

Obviously.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 06:57 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. I'm sure that wouldn't be too difficult to
accomplish for a man of your many talents. :D
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:02 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. You got that right, sister.
One day I'm going to have to upload my drag photos.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:20 PM
Response to Reply #18
19. You packin' heat in any of them?
:evilgrin:
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:23 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. Yes!
Rachel Shimkus, fed up librarian doing a PSA while cleaning her gun.

It's on video somwhere.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:29 PM
Response to Reply #20
22. OK, there's a joke in
there somewhere, but not being familiar w/Rachel Shimkus (and I take it I'm one of the very few), I did the google and got this:
do you resemble her?

http://www.facebook.com/rachael.shimkus
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:38 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. No
:rofl:

Only three people in the world are familiar with her. I don't think anyone in Chicago who might have seen the broadcasts in the 90s would remember. But one day perhaps she'll get "YouTubed", so to speak.
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:39 PM
Response to Reply #22
24. Are you hijacking your own thread?
:D
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:40 PM
Response to Reply #24
25. I'm just
playin' with you. Sort of got off topic, didn't we. :blush: :D
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:47 PM
Response to Reply #25
28. I do it all the time.
I'm completely irrelevant! :D
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:50 PM
Response to Reply #28
29. Haha!
No you're not, so stop sayin' that! Irreverent, distinct possibly. ;)
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Overseas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 07:26 PM
Response to Original message
21. In Florida. A Medicare Fraud perp. Sure was a shocker.
Millions in right wing PR paid off. How sad.
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704wipes Donating Member (966 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 09:26 PM
Response to Original message
30. this pic removes all doubt he is an asshat
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Kurovski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Nov-03-10 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. Well
He's just starin' at the light that is Jesus' love and redemption!
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