Fred Thompson & Bill Bunting

Fred Thompson has gained the support of Pasco County Florida Republican County Chairman Bill Bunting. A definite advantage for the Florida primary.

From The Miami Herald :

Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign has hit a conservative bull’s eye: The exclusive rights to advertise at some of Florida’s largest gun shows.

Pasco County Republican chairman Bill Bunting said he has engineered the deal for the former Tennessee senator and Law & Order star because he’s the best person to trust when it comes to the right to buy, sell and own guns.

In a state with 435,000 concealed-weapons permit holders, the arrangement all but guarantees that thousands of voters who care deeply about the issue could identify Thompson as their man heading into the Jan. 29 primary, in which the other Republican candidates’ gun-toting credentials are viewed as suspect by many.

”The other candidates just aren’t as clear in their support of the Second Amendment,” Bunting said. “There are good Democrats who own guns, but that party doesn’t put the right to bear arms in their political platform. The Republican Party does.”

Bunting plans to make his announcement this evening at his county GOP’s Reagan Day Dinner, where a Colt .45 will be raffled off.

GOP campaign guru David ”DJ” Johnson, who’s not connected to the Thompson campaign, said the deal is ”huge.” He should know. Bunting made the same arrangement for Charlie Crist’s successful governor’s race last year, flummoxing Johnson’s candidate, Tom Gallagher. Gallagher even tried to get some gun-show promoters to allow him to pass out fliers, but he was rejected.

”There are people who vote guns and only guns, and they’re Republicans,” Johnson said. “These are the people you see at the polls.”

The state’s biggest gun-show promoter, Victor Bean, of the Florida and the Southern Gun and Knife shows, said he has 11 shows left until the primaries and estimates that 11,000 people will see Thompson’s signs.

In addition, he said he has an e-mail list of 70,000 politically active gun owners he plans to contact on Thompson’s behalf.

”Going into this campaign, I was concerned,” Bean said. “We feel Fred is our best hope.”

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Now that the Republicans have another “scandal” among the ranks of the Senate with Larry Craig playing “footsy” and displaying ” hand signals” in an airport men’s room and his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

The Republicans are calling for an ethics investigation and /or his resignation which is alright and as it should be,I suppose, but what about the Democrats scandals of late? What ever happened to the ethics investigations of Democrat Party members?

The “Culture of Corruption” leans more toward the Democrats than it does to the Republicans.

Let’s look at some ignored scandals of the Democrat Party and it’s members.

Gary Studds (Dem-Mass)

Former Democratic Congressional Representative Gary Studds of MA, actually “DATED” a 16 year old male page, got him drunk and molested him –and when he was caught, he stood before congress and said he did nothing wrong! Democrats in Massachussetts overwhelmingly re-elected him.

Alcee Hastings (Dem-Florida)

Hastings is a senior Democrat on the intelligence committee, who was impeached and removed from his federal judgeship in 1989 for conspiring to take a $150,000 bribe and give light sentences to two convicted swindlers.

More information of Hastings impeachment here .

William Jefferson (Dem-Louisiana)

Jefferson, a congressman from New Orleans is under indictment for taking bribes ($90,000.00 found wrapped in aluminum foil in his freezer at home). Jefferson was re-elected in 2006.

From the Washington Post:

William Jefferson :A sixteen count indictment and still in Congress :

Federal authorities accused Rep. William J. Jefferson yesterday of using his congressional office and staff to enrich himself and his family, charging the Louisiana Democrat with offering and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to support business ventures in the United States and several West African nations.The 16-count indictment also accused Jefferson, a former co-chairman of congressional caucuses on Nigeria and African trade, of racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The indictment was handed up by a federal grand jury and capped a long and tumultuous FBI investigation.

The grand jury said Jefferson, 60, had solicited a bribe for himself and family members in a congressional dining room, falsely reported trips to Africa as official business, sought to corrupt a senior Nigerian politician and promoted U.S. financing for a sugar factory in Nigeria whose owner paid fees to a Jefferson family company in his home state.

The indictment said that at one point, Jefferson drove in his Lincoln Town Car through the streets of Arlington with $100,000 in marked FBI bills meant for a top Nigerian official whose assistance Jefferson needed for a business venture. The lawmaker allegedly stowed $90,000 in his home freezer, wrapped in aluminum foil and concealed inside frozen-food containers.

The funds would be a down payment, Jefferson is accused of explaining to an associate, to ensure that “the little hook is in there.”

The indictment came after a lengthy investigation that became public in 2005 with an FBI raid on Jefferson’s homes. A separate raid in May 2006 on his quarters in the Rayburn House Office Building provoked a political and legal debate over the seizure of his computer hard drive and office files, with House leaders raising questions about the constitutionality of such an intrusive act. President Bush sealed the seized documents, but a federal judge later declared the raid constitutional. Some documents were eventually released to investigators, but others are held up in a legal challenge over the raid.

Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), the target of a 14-month public corruption probe, was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit released yesterday.

A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson’s home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers, the document said.

The 83-page affidavit, used to raid Jefferson’s Capitol Hill office on Saturday night, portrays him as a money-hungry man who freely solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, discussed payoffs to African officials, had a history of involvement in numerous bribery schemes and used his family to hide his interest in high-tech business ventures he promoted in Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria.

In one instance, at an unidentified D.C. restaurant, Jefferson allegedly exchanged cryptic notes with investor Lori Mody and discussed illegal kickbacks for his children in a telecommunications venture in Nigeria in which she had invested.

“All these damn notes we’re writing to each other as if we’re talking as if the FBI is watching,” he told Mody, who was wearing an FBI wire.

About 15 FBI agents, wearing suits, entered Jefferson’s office in the Rayburn House Office Building about 7:15 p.m. Saturday(May 20,2006) and left about 1 p.m. yesterday. Authorities said it was the first time the FBI had raided a sitting congressman’s office.

John Murtha (Dem-PA)

From The American Spectator:

…John Murtha was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam scandal. (Abscam was an FBI sting operation of members of Congress from 1978 to 1980 in which one senator and five representatives were convicted of bribery and conspiracy.) As the Cybercast News Service recently detailed, Murtha was videotaped telling an undercover FBI agent, “I’m not interested. I’m sorry… at this point.” When the House ethics committee cleared Murtha in 1981, CNS reported, the committee’s lead counsel, E. Barrett Prettyman Jr., quickly resigned. When asked by Roll Call if he had resigned because of the committee’s Murtha vote, he said that would be “a logical conclusion.” Prettyman has otherwise declined to comment on the Murtha case.

…

Perhaps that national prominence is steering the major press away. When Cybercast News Service asked Murtha about his Abscam past, he answered, “Questions about my record are clearly an attempt to distract attention from the real issue, which is that our brave men and women in uniform are dying and being injured every day in the middle of a civil war that can be resolved only by the Iraqis themselves.” Rep. Murtha’s office said he was giving interviews all day yesterday and would be unavailable for comment.

John Murtha is apparently using a controversy he created in November to shield himself from his ethical past. His comments about the war in Iraq make for convenient cover in an increasingly critical ethical atmosphere. The major media’s silence is deafening.

…

“I’m not interested. I’m sorry… at this point.”

John Murtha’s family members have benefited from his term in congress an example is his brother, Kit :

Who is “Kit” Murtha?

He’s John Murtha’s brother — a Washington lobbyist whose firm reeled in more than $20 million for its defense contractor clients in the 2004 Defense appropriations bill. And the Pennsylvania congressman is the ranking Democrat on the Defense appropriations subcommittee, which he also chaired for six years before Democrats lost the House in 1994.

It’s a cozy relationship the likes of which are garnering heavy attention these days in Washington. Roy Blunt’s family connections to K Street have received extensive coverage, as have Harry Reid’s. Yet despite a front page story in the Los Angeles Times last June exposing Kit Murtha’s firm’s enormous success in steering defense contracts to its clients, other newspapers have been mostly silent: the Times has yet to follow up, and Murtha’s lobbying ties have earned coverage by Roll Call and only single mentions in the Village Voice, Investor’s Business Daily, and the Boston Globe just this week.

If Murtha were a powerful Republican legislator, the media would probably be all over this story. A former aide from John Murtha’s office, Carmen V. Scialabba, is a top official at KSA Consulting, where Kit Murtha is a senior partner. KSA has directly lobbied Murtha’s office on behalf of defense clients that directly benefited from the 2004 Defense bill. Murtha’s subcommittee staff helps write Defense appropriations bills and oversees the lucrative earmark requests forwarded by Democrats. The contracts for KSA clients in the bill were entirely earmarks, the L.A. Times found. The Times also reported that most of KSA’s defense clients hired the firm only after Kit Murtha became a senior partner in 2002.

The Hill reported in October that John Murtha is the top House recipient of campaign contributions from the defense industry for the past three years. As of the October 31, 2005 Federal Election Commission report, Murtha had received over $200,000 from defense firms in the 2006 election cycle, surpassing the next highest recipient by over $60,000.

Kit Murtha has been lobbying for defense firms since at least 1986, when he became Westinghouse’s chief lobbyist in Harrisburg. In 1994, National Journal reported, Westinghouse made Kit Murtha its director of state and local government affairs, in which role he would also lobby the Pennsylvania congressional delegation in Washington. At that time, John Murtha chaired the defense appropriations subcommittee.

A list of Murtha’s campaign contributions here .

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Dem-Nevada)

Harry Reid’s hypocrisy.

A donation of between $61,000-68,000 connected to Jack Abramoff that he refuses to return.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator’s staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist’s team about legislation affecting other clients.The activities—detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press—are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff’s firm, lobbying partners and clients.

Reid’s office acknowledged Thursday having “routine contacts” with Abramoff’s lobbying partners and intervening on some government matters—such as blocking some tribal casinos—in ways Abramoff’s clients might have deemed helpful. But it said none of his actions were affected by donations or done for Abramoff.

“All the actions that Senator Reid took were consistent with his long- held beliefs, such as not letting tribal casinos expand beyond reservations, and were taken to defend the interests of Nevada constituents,” spokesman Jim Manley said.

Reid, D-Nev., has led the Democratic Party’s attacks portraying Abramoff’s lobbying and fundraising as a Republican scandal.

But Abramoff’s records show his lobbying partners billed for nearly two dozen phone contacts or meetings with Reid’s office in 2001 alone.

Most were to discuss Democratic legislation that would have applied the U.S. minimum wage to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory and Abramoff client, but would have given the islands a temporary break on the wage rate, the billing records show.

Reid also intervened on government matters at least five times in ways helpful to Abramoff’s tribal clients, once opposing legislation on the Senate floor and four times sending letters pressing the Bush administration on tribal issues. Reid collected donations around the time of each action.

Ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest in collecting contributions around the times they take official acts benefiting donors.

Abramoff’s firm also hired one of Reid’s top legislative aides as a lobbyist. The aide later helped throw a fundraiser for Reid at Abramoff’s firm that raised donations from several of his lobbying partners.

And Reid’s longtime chief of staff accepted a free trip to Malaysia arranged by a consulting firm connected to Abramoff that recently has gained attention in the influence-peddling investigation that has gripped the Capitol.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty in a fraud and bribery case and is now helping prosecutors investigate the conduct of lawmakers, congressional aides and administration officials his team used to lobby.

Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum declined to comment on the Reid contacts.

Reid has assailed Republicans’ ties to Abramoff while refusing to return any of his own donations. He argues there’s no need to return the money.

…

A shady land deal :

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn’t personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.

The Nevada Democrat’s deal was engineered by Jay Brown, a longtime friend and former casino lawyer whose name surfaced in a major political bribery trial this summer and in other prior organized crime investigations. He’s never been charged with wrongdoing—except for a 1981 federal securities complaint that was settled out of court.

Land deeds obtained by The Associated Press during a review of Reid’s business dealings show:

_The deal began in 1998 when Reid bought undeveloped residential property on Las Vegas’ booming outskirts for about $400,000. Reid bought one lot outright, and a second parcel jointly with Brown. One of the sellers was a developer who was benefiting from a government land swap that Reid supported. The seller never talked to Reid.

_In 2001, Reid sold the land for the same price to a limited liability corporation created by Brown. The senator didn’t disclose the sale on his annual public ethics report or tell Congress he had any stake in Brown’s company. He continued to report to Congress that he personally owned the land.

_After getting local officials to rezone the property for a shopping center, Brown’s company sold the land in 2004 to other developers and Reid took $1.1 million of the proceeds, nearly tripling the senator’s investment. Reid reported it to Congress as a personal land sale.

The complex dealings allowed Reid to transfer ownership, legal liability and some tax consequences to Brown’s company without public knowledge, but still collect a seven-figure payoff nearly three years later.

Reid hung up the phone when questioned about the deal during an AP interview last week.

The senator’s aides said no money changed hands in 2001 and that Reid instead got an ownership stake in Brown’s company equal to the value of his land. Reid continued to pay taxes on the land and didn’t disclose the deal because he considered it a “technical transfer,” they said.

They also said they have no documents proving Reid’s stake in the company because it was an informal understanding between friends.

The 1998 purchase “was a normal business transaction at market prices,” Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. “There were several legal steps associated with the investment during those years that did not alter Senator Reid’s actual ownership interest in the land.”

Senate ethics rules require lawmakers to disclose on their annual ethics report all transactions involving investment properties—regardless of profit or loss—and to report any ownership stake in companies.

Kent Cooper, who oversaw government disclosure reports for federal candidates for two decades in the Federal Election Commission, said Reid’s failure to report the 2001 sale and his ties to Brown’s company violated Senate rules.

…

Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.)

Charged with assault and battery for allegedly shoving a female airline attendant.

California Rep. Bob Filner was facing charges Monday for allegedly assaulting an airline worker at Dulles International Airport after becoming upset that his luggage had not arrived at a baggage carousel.Filner, 64, is slated to appear in Loudoun County, Va., General District Court on Oct. 2. Court officials could not say whether the San Diego Democrat had been served the summons yet to show up on that date.

According to law enforcement officials, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police were called to the United Airlines baggage claim office at about 6 p.m. Sunday evening for a report of an incident with a passenger regarding his baggage.

“The individual allegedly attempted to enter an area authorized for airline employees only, pushed aside the employees outstretched arm and refused to leave the area when asked by an airline employee,” according to airport police.

“When MWAA officers arrived a few minutes later, the man had left the office and was waiting in the area of a bag carousel. Officers interviewed him and witnesses and released him. Before the individual left the airport, officers advised him that the airline employee would be pursuing charges,” the police statement reads.

The statement says the airport worker filed assault and battery charges, a class 1 misdemeanor.

Senator Hillary Clinton(Dem-NY)
Ex-President Bill Clinton(Dem-?)

After listing the previous alleged and unindicted felons my bandwidth would be used to it’s peak listing all the Clinton Scandals over the last 17 years that they have been in the National Political spotlight. But here are a few examples of the Clinton’s antics as the most ethical administration demolished American Politics and contributed to the present partisan bickering in congress.

A Timeline of the Clinton Lewinsky affair.

Hillary’s disappearing Rose Law firm records

The “Disappearance” and “Discovery” of the Rose Law Firm Billing Records.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, on February 12, 1992, an unknown person printed out a set of the Rose Law Firm’s computerized records of billings to Madison Guaranty.(1221) These computerized records were the only source of detailed information about the services that the Rose Law Firm provided and billed to Madison Guaranty. The records provide information well beyond that reflected in bills sent to Madison–such as the date services were performed, the amount of time expended by particular lawyers, and precise services performed, including the identity of persons with whom Rose lawyers spoke or met in the course of representing Madison.(1222)

Mr. Hubbell asserted that either he or former Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, also a Rose partner, directed the Rose accounting department to print the billing records for Madison.(1223) In addition to obtaining the computerized billing records, Mr. Hubbell also retrieved other files and documents relating to Mrs. Clinton’s work for Madison:

I recall in 1992 that the issue regarding our representation of Madison and specifically our work before the Arkansas Securities Department was of interest to Mr. Gerth of The New York Times, and that our firm was being questioned by people within the campaign about her work in that regard. We did some work in trying to organize and pull up the files. And in connection with that, bills were pulled and reviewed by myself and Mr. Foster and Mr. Massey, I believe.(1224) Because of allegations that Mrs. Clinton had a conflict of interest in appearing before her husband’s appointee, Beverly Bassett Schaffer, Arkansas Securities Commissioner, Mr. Hubbell reviewed the records in 1992. During his review, Mr. Hubbell made notations next to entries in the bills related to the firm’s work in connection with Madison’s novel proposed preferred stock offering before the Arkansas Securities Department. According to Mr. Hubbell, “the issue then, way back when, was did Mrs. Clinton ever have any contact with the Arkansas Securities Department. When we went back to the bills, that was the only, I believe, indication on the bills of a direct contact with the Arkansas Securities Department, so I underlined that — probably gave that to Vince.”(1225)

Indeed, in notes taken during the 1992 campaign concerning Whitewater, Susan Thomases recorded a February 24, 1993 conversation with Mr. Hubbell about the Rose Law Firm’s representation of Madison. According to her notes, Mr. Hubbell told Ms. Thomases that Mrs. Clinton did all the billing for the Rose Law Firm to Madison, and that she had numerous conferences with Mr. McDougal, Madison President John Latham, and Rick Massey, then a junior associate at the firm.(1226) Ms. Thomases’ also indicated that Mrs. Clinton had reviewed some documents and that she had at least one telephone conversation with Ms. Schaffer in April 1985.(1227) Ms. Thomases recorded in the margin of her notes next to this entry: “Acc. to time Rec.” She testified that “[t]his is my notation for according to time records,”(1228) and that the notation reflected what Mr. Hubbell had indicated to her.(1229)

Ms. Thomases asserted, however, that she herself did not see the billing records,(1230) nor did she ever ask to see the time records.(1231) Ms. Thomases further claimed that, other than her conversations with Mr. Hubbell in 1992, she never had any discussions with anyone about the billing records.(1232) She contended that she had no knowledge concerning the handling of billing records and how records were transported from Little Rock to the White House Residence.(1233)

In addition to Ms. Thomases, Mr. Hubbell discussed the contents of the records in 1992 with Loretta Lynch, an attorney working on Whitewater issues for the Clinton campaign.(1234) Ms. Lynch testified that, in response to press inquiries, she talked to Ms. Schaffer and reviewed the files of the Arkansas Securities Department in an attempt to reconstruct Mrs. Clinton’s role in representing Madison before state regulators.(1235) During the course of this investigation, she and Ms. Thomases agreed that they should ask members of the Rose Law Firm about billing records.(1236) Ms. Lynch talked to Mr. Hubbell about Mrs. Clinton’s work for and billings to Madison Guaranty,(1237) who advised her that he had reviewed the Rose Law Firm’s billing records concerning Madison Guaranty.(1238) Ms. Lynch also knew that Mr. Foster had reviewed the billing records,(1239) but she does not recall speaking with anyone else at the Rose Law Firm regarding the billing records.(1240) Ms. Lynch testified that she did not handle any records reflecting billings by the Rose Law Firm to Madison Guaranty, and that she had no knowledge regarding how those records came to be deposited in the White House Residence.(1241)

When Mr. Hubbell and Mr. Foster reviewed the billing records in 1993, they spoke with each other about the Rose Law Firm’s representation of Madison. Mr. Hubbell identified the notes written by Mr. Foster in red ink on the billing records found in the White House Residence–e.g., “HRC–this suggests 1st matter”(1242) or “HRC I believe there was a subsequent bill”(1243). These notes suggested to Mr. Hubbell that “[w]e were both working on it, and this is what he did to ultimately give it to somebody to indicate what was going on, what the records showed highlighted.”(1244) As of the time Mr. Hubbell handled the records, Mr. Foster had not written or made any notations on the records.(1245)

According to Mr. Hubbell, Mr. Foster was the last person he saw handling the billing records.(1246) Mr. Hubbell did not know who removed the records from the Rose Law Firm,(1247) or how they came to be left in the White House Residence.(1248) He claimed not to have spoken with anyone about the billing records since the 1992 presidential campaign.(1249)

Mr. Hubbell stated that he may have spoken with Carolyn Huber, Special Assistant to the President and Special Director of Correspondence for the White House, about the records when she was the administrator of the Rose Law Firm, but not when she was at the White House.(1250) When Mr. Hubbell learned that Ms. Huber had discovered the billing records in her office, “I kind of smiled.”(1251) According to Mr. Hubbell, “I know Ms. Huber, and it just didn’t surprise me that all of a sudden she discovered them.”(1252) He explained, somewhat cryptically: “First of all, I felt sorry for her, but just that all of a sudden, oh, you’re looking for the billing records, here they are. You know, it just wouldn’t surprise me that something like that happened. I read about it, but I just smiled about it.”(1253)

During the first two weeks of August 1995, while the Special Committee was holding hearings into the handling of documents in Mr. Foster’s office at the time of his death, Ms. Huber testified that she saw the Rose Law Firm billing records for the first time.(1254)

The billing records, which were subject to several different federal subpoenas, were in the Book Room, a small room on the third floor of the First Family’s private quarters in the White House Residence.(1255) The room is adjacent to Mrs. Clinton’s private office and is accessible only to a limited number of private guests and staff.(1256) Gifts, book, and memorabilia are stored in the Book Room until they can be catalogued and put away.(1257) In the center of the room sits a large table where such memorabilia are piled.(1258)

In early August 1995, Ms. Huber was gathering newspaper and magazine clippings in the Book Room when she noticed the records in clear view on the edge of the table.(1259) The records were folded in half, and Ms. Huber recognized the records, from her experience at the Rose Law Firm, to be billing records.(1260) Ms. Huber recalled that, specifically, the records were not on the table a week or two earlier when Ms. Huber was last in the Book Room.(1261) Because Ms. Huber thought that the billing records were left in the Book Room for her to file,(1262) she placed the records in a box to be taken to her office without studying them.(1263) White House ushers carried this box, along with several others, and placed them on the floor of Ms. Huber’s office.(1264) Later, a table was placed over these boxes.(1265)

For several months, Ms. Huber forgot about the records. Meanwhile, the Special Committee, continuing its investigation into activities and transactions relating to Whitewater and Madison, held several hearings in December 1995 on the extent of Mrs. Clinton’s role in the Madison representation. The billing records figured prominently in these hearings. On December 1, 1995, Mr. Hubbell was unable to provide complete answers about the Mrs. Clinton’s role in the Rose Law Firm’s representation of Madison because he did not have the billing records to refresh his memory.(1266) Likewise, Ms. Thomases testified on December 18, 1995, about her work during the campaign and her notes about billing records relating to Mrs. Clinton’s work for Madison.

On the morning of January 4, 1996, Ms. Huber was having new furniture placed in her office in the East Wing of the White House.(1267) In the process, the table that had concealed the box containing the billing records for five months was removed.(1268) Once the boxes were uncovered, Ms. Huber began to file the contents of the boxes.(1269) As she was filing, Ms. Huber pulled the billing records out of their box and examined them more closely.(1270)

Immediately, Ms. Huber realized the billing records were related to Madison Guaranty.(1271) She was horrified because she understood their significance; she had seen several subpoenas calling for the production of Madison Guaranty records, including these very records.(1272) She had also assisted the President and Mrs. Clintons’ personal counsel, David Kendall in searching and reviewing documents in the White House responsive to those subpoenas.(1273) Ms. Huber contacted Mr. Kendall and asked him to meet her in her office as soon as possible because she had found some documents.(1274) After calling Mr. Kendall, Ms. Huber called her attorney, Henry Shuelke.(1275)

Early in the afternoon on January 4, Ms. Huber met with Mr. Kendall.(1276) She gave him the records and explained her discovery.(1277) Worried, Ms. Huber asked Mr. Kendall whether she had done the right thing in contacting him.(1278) Mr. Kendall assured Ms. Huber that she had made the correct decision.(1279) Mr. Kendall examined the billing records and asked Ms. Huber whether she could identify the handwriting in red ink.(1280) Ms. Huber identified some of the notations as Mr. Foster’s handwriting.(1281) Mr. Kendall then told Ms. Huber to maintain custody of the records,(1282) and that he would contact White House counsel and meet with her later in the day.(1283)

Mr. Kendall then contacted Special Counsel to the President Jane Sherburne and Mr. Shuelke, who agreed to meet around 5:00 p.m. in Ms. Huber’s office.(1284) Ms. Sherburne informed her supervisor, Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes, and her staff of the discovery of the billing records.(1285) No one contacted the Independent Counsel or any other investigative agency, including the Special Committee. Mr. Kendall and Ms. Sherburne claimed that they did not inform Mrs. Clinton on January 4 about the discovery of the billing records.(1286)

Ms. Huber, Mr. Kendall, Ms. Sherburne and Mr. Shuelke met that evening.(1287) Ms. Huber once again explained her discovery of the records.(1288) Ms. Huber told the assembled attorneys — as she also had testified to before the Special Committee — that she clearly recalled seeing the records in early August 1995. Ms. Huber and the lawyers together examined the billing records page by page.(1289) Ms. Huber identified for them some of the handwriting on the billing records as Mr. Foster’s and some as the Rose Law Firm bookkeeper.(1290) In view of Mr. Foster’s notes in red ink, the billing records were obviously a copy of the original records.(1291) Other handwritten notes appear to have been made on the original and then copied.(1292)

At one point in the meeting, Ms. Sherburne asked to speak with Mr. Kendall and Mr. Shuelke in the hallway.(1293) Ms. Sherburne raised the issue of how the documents should be reproduced and whether the integrity of the documents should be preserved in case the records would later be examined for fingerprints.(1294) The attorneys never considered contacting the Independent Counsel for advice on how best to proceed.(1295)

Mr. Kendall and Mr. Shuelke returned to Ms. Huber’s office and photographed the box in which Ms. Huber found the records earlier in the day.(1296) Ms. Sherburne and Ms. Huber searched for a color copier in the White House offices.(1297) After finding a copier, Ms. Huber made copies, while Ms. Sherburne collated and checked for completeness.(1298) Two color copies of the billing records were made.(1299) Mr. Kendall took the original set of the billing records and one copy with him that evening. Ms. Sherburne took the other copy of the billing records to examine and to keep for White House records.(1300)

The next morning, January 5, 1996, Mr. Kendall and Ms. Sherburne notified the Independent Counsel of the discovery of the billing records.(1301) That same morning, Ms. Sherburne informed President Clinton of their discovery.(1302) Later that afternoon, Mr. Kendall produced a copy of the billing records to the Special Committee.(1303) Copies of the billing records were also produced to the other investigative agencies.(1304) III.

Travelgate

During the 1992 election campaign, the Clintons used an Arkansas travel agency, World Wide Travel (working with Clinton’s cousin Catherine Cornelius). The firm had provided a million dollars in deferred (fly now- pay later) travel for the Clinton campaign, freeing up much needed cash for campaigning. Employees of the firm donated to the Clinton campaign. The apparent pay-back to the firm — apparently supervised by Mrs. Clinton — resulted not only in the firing of White House employees without cause but also in false accusations against Billy Dale (who had worked in the White House for 30 years and for 8 presidents), ending in a criminal trial in which the jury quickly acquitted Dale.The replacement of the White House Travel Office occurred without competitive bid. The fired employees were given no warning. In fact, when they returned to clean out their desks, they found the offices already occupied, and they were escorted from the premises in a windowless van.

The supposed investigation against the Travel Office improprieties was headed by Catherine Cornelius even as she was planning with World Wide Travel for a reorganization which would put her in charge of the department.

Although Hillary declared no involvement in Travelgate there is overwhelming evidence that she did such as this From the House Oversight Committee:

Report Summary:Travelgate is a story about the failure of the Clinton White House to live up to the ethical standards expected of the highest office in the land. The wrongdoing of this administration lies not in the firings of the seven Travel Office employees. They served at the pleasure of the President. If the President chose to fire them to reward political cronies, that was his prerogative.

Rather, the wrongdoing occurred after the firings. It resulted from a desire to hide the truth about who actually fired them and why. The committee spent 3 1/2 years investigating not just who fired them and why, but the wrongdoing that followed. The resulting mosaic pieced together from the facts uncovered reveals the answers the White House refused to disclose. In the end, the actions of the Clinton administration following the firings may have a lasting and damaging impact on the Office of the Presidency.

The committee has found that the motive for the firings was political cronyism: the President sought to reward his friend, Harry Thomason, with the spoils of the White House travel business. A pretext for the firings was created, and the trigger was pulled.

When the public reacted to the firing with outrage, the roles of the President, First Lady and Thomason were minimized as the White House staff engaged in a colossal damage-control effort. First, it had to portray the victims of the firings as the wrongdoers. This was achieved by White House officials unleashing the full powers of the Federal Government against the seven former workers. The extraordinary might of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice- not to mention the prestige of the White House itself -all were brought to bear. These actions constitute a gross abuse of the rights of seven American citizens and their families.

Second, an enormous and elaborate cover-up operation, housed in the White House Counsel’s Office, sought to prevent numerous investigations from discovering not only the roles of who fired the workers and why, but also their efforts to persecute the victims. In the process…it obstructed and frustrated all investigations; it turned the Office of the White House Counsel into a political damage-control operation; it made frivolous claims of executive privilege; it abused its powers to smear innocent citizens; and most important, it failed to level with the American people.

* Hillary’s involvement:

… a long-hidden memo by a key figure in the Travel Office affair, David Watkins, disclosed that Hillary Clinton, based upon information provided by Harry Thomason, pressured senior White House aides for the firings. Despite President Clinton’s misleading press accounts that he knew little about the firings, …Bill Clinton actually was briefed on the firings 2 days before they occurred. And then-Assistant to President Clinton for Management and Administration, David Watkins reluctantly became the designated fall guy for the firings in order to protect the higher-ups who had directed his actions.

…the long-hidden notebook kept by Vincent Foster had been in the office of White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum following Mr. Foster’s death. The notebook chronicled Mr. Foster’s anguish over Hillary Clinton’s role in the firings, Harry Thomason’s potential criminal liability, and whether the White House scandal containment strategy could be maintained to stop at the level of David Watkins.

… Mrs. Clinton directed President Clinton’s Chief of Staff, Mack McLarty not to tell President Clinton about the torn up “suicide” note found in Vincent Foster’s briefcase on July 26th, 6 days after his death. Mrs. Clinton instructed the President’s senior aides to wait until a “coherent position” was developed before informing the President. The note was essentially an outline of a defense of the Travel Office firings. When it took more than a day to turn the note over to the proper law enforcement authorities, both the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General were so concerned that the Deputy Attorney General immediately initiated an FBI investigation into the delay in turning over the note. In the investigation of the delay, no one mentioned Mrs. Clinton’s involvement in reviewing the note or recommending a delay in turning it over.

…a letter long withheld from all investigators which David Watkins wrote to “Hillary.” In that letter, Watkins lamented that the GAO revealed conversations that Watkins had with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Watkins assured Mrs. Clinton that he knew who his “client” was and regretted revealing that Mrs. Clinton told him she wanted “those people out” and “our people in.”

* The pursuit of Billy Dale:

…the lives of seven innocent long-time career Government employees were shattered, their reputations smeared, to make way for the ambitions and arrogance of the President’s friends and family. We learned that the FBI and IRS became involved in this matter because of Harry Thomason’s false allegations that Travel Office Director Billy Dale received illegal “kickbacks” from a charter airline company. The White House knew very quickly that the alleged source of the kickback charges denied ever making them. But upon learning this fact, the White House did nothing to correct the public record it had created through misinformation.

In fact, long after President Clinton’s White House staff knew the allegations were false, they continued in their efforts to make a case against the beleaguered and increasingly impoverished Billy Dale. The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) case, U.S. v. Billy Ray Dale, was sorely lacking in evidence. It was compromised by missing records that had not been secured by the Clinton White House or the Justice Department.

It was obvious, even to Justice Department prosecutors, that they had no witnesses who could provide any derogatory information about Billy Dale. Finally, they were left only with the dubious claim that the notoriously frugal Mr. Dale lived a “lavish lifestyle.” The prosecution revealed to the jury the “scandalous” evidence that Mrs. Dale went to a hairdresser and purchased large quantities of groceries for the Lake Anne vacation home the two-career Dales saved many years to build and enjoy. Predictably, Dale was acquitted in less than 2 hours by a jury of his peers.

Unfortunately, Mr. Dale’s speedy acquittal did not put an end to his 3-year ordeal. The IRS pursued Dale, threatening income tax audits. The IRS also was busy in Smyrna, TN auditing the company that did business with Mr. Dale at the Travel Office, UltrAir.

Only recently was Mr. Dale given a clean bill of health by the Internal Revenue Service after 3 years of intense scrutiny. UltrAir had no tax liability and an owner of UltrAir received a $5,000 refund before the IRS gave up its search for any shred of evidence to justify its harassment of this small struggling business.

Whitewater timeline

blood scandal

Barney Frank(Dem-Mass)

Barney Frank and his embarrassing if not illegal imbroglio with a gay gigolo who was his housemate. Male prostitutes were working out of the basement of Barney’s residence:

Stephen Gobie never did write his tell-all book, Capitol Offenses, but he still has a juicy story to tell. A male gigolo, in 1985 he placed an solicitous ad in Washington, D.C.’s weekly gay paper, the Washington Blade: “Exceptionally good-looking, personable, muscular athlete is available. Hot bottom plus large endowment equals a good time.” That was all that U.S. Representative Barney Frank needed to hear. A powerful Democratic representative from Massachusetts and one of the few openly gay politicians at the time, Frank met with the hunky Gobie on April Fools’ Day, 1985.

At first their (paid-for) relationship was all sunshine and twittering birds. Gobie and Frank became inseparable friends, with benefits. Gobie joined Frank’s team in the Congressional Softball League and, according to him, became “the star player.” He attended a bill signing at the White House with Frank and they all but skipped through the Rose Garden.

But a darker underside was about to surface. Gobie lived loose. He had a felony past with convictions for cocaine possession, oral sodomy and “production of obscene items involving a juvenile.” Gobie also had a habit of not paying his parking tickets.

Frank did what he could to extricate Gobie from his legal troubles. Using his congressional position, he successfully urged the sheriff to dismiss at least 33 parking tickets for Gobie. He also went on to hire Gobie as his personal aide, housekeeper, and driver. Gobie later explained the job was a “cover” concocted for his probation officers.

Meanwhile, Gobie had settled comfortably into the congressman’s Georgetown brownstone. One night while lounging around the home, he was watching The Mayflower Madam on TV, a movie about an upscale madam. That story inspired him to become a pimp. Over the next few months, he ran a prostitution ring from the congressman’s home. In 1987, the Washington Post broke the story.

And last but, by far, not least….

Senator Ted Kennedy (Dem-Mass)

The name Mary Jo Kopechne will haunt Teddy Kennedy for the rest of his life as it has for the last 43 years.

The only US Senator not indicted for manslaughter but should have been.
Kennedy entered a plea of guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury and received a sentence of two months in jail, which was suspended.

In the statement to the citizens of Massachusets he asked for their opinion on his future.

” Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law?
Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty? ”

-Ted Kennedy 1973

A Partial timeline of the events following the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne:

8:00 AM

- Two fishermen, returning from surf-casting on East Beach, noticed the glint of metal reflecting off a dark shape in the water off Dike Bridge. Upon closer inspection, they discovered a submerged automobile, turned upside down and resting on its roof.
- They immediately headed for the nearest cottage ( Dike House ) about 400 feet from the pond. Mrs. Malm, who was renting the cottage with her family, was cooking breakfast when the fishermen knocked at the door. After hearing their report of a car overturned in Poucha Pond, she telephoned authorities.

8:20 AM

- A call was logged at the Edgartown police station that a car was underwater off Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick. When Police Chief Dominick Arena was informed of the situation, he first told the dispatcher to send the fire department’s scuba diver to the scene, and then left the station and headed for the ferry landing.
- When he reached the ferry, Arena asked Dick Hewitt, the ferrymaster, if he had heard anything about the accident. “Not until now,” Hewitt said.

8:25 AM

- John Farrar, a scuba diver and captain of the search and rescue division of Edgartown’s volunteer fire department, received a call from the police dispatcher and was told to proceed at once to Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick.
- Farrar left the bait and tackle shop he managed in Edgartown, and headed for the fire station where his diving gear was maintained in immediate readiness.

8:30 AM

- When Chief Arena arrived at the Dike Bridge, the fishermen directed him to the submerged automobile with its rear tires beginning to show above the water-line. After changing into a bathing suit, Arena waded out into the pond and swam toward the car, making a mental note of the license plate: Massachusetts registration # L78 207. He dove underwater, and caught only a blurred glimpse of the automobile before being swept away by the outgoing tide.
- Arena swam back to shore, and returned to his cruiser where he called the dispatcher to request a check of Massachusetts registrations to find the owner of the submerged vehicle. When he returned to the bridge, he borrowed a face mask from one of the fishermen and dove into the pond again.
- Still unable to maneuver against the strong current, Arena finally climbed onto the car’s undercarriage and took a seat beside the gas tank to await the arrival of help.

Dike Bridge with Chief Arena
- Inquest Exhibit # 10 -

Dike Bridge ~ Edgartown Police Chief Dominick Arena sits on Kennedy’s submerged car in the location it landed following the accident. Arena is unaware that the body of Mary Jo Kopechne is in the back seat.
- Rub rail on the right side of the bridge describes the path the car took before plunging into Poucha Pond.

8:35 AM

- Scuba diver John Farrar was joined at the fire station by Antone Bettencourt, the 70 year old former ferrymaster, who helped him load the diving equipment into his car and then drove him to the dock.
- Fire Chief Antone Silva was waiting in his cruiser at the Chappaquiddick landing to direct the men to the accident scene. Farrar changed into a full diving suit on the way to the bridge.

8:45 AM

- As the men arrived on the scene, Silva received the news over the cruiser’s radio:
License plate # L78 207 had been issued to Edward M. Kennedy, Room 2400, JFK Building, Government Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
- Fearing another Kennedy family tragedy, John Farrar immediately entered the water and swam toward the accident vehicle holding a safety line. He gave Arena one end of the rope, put an oxygen tube in his mouth and dove underwater.

- Underwater, Farrar saw the Oldsmobile sedan balanced on the brow of its windshield, tipped forward from the weight of the engine so that its rear end was tilted toward the surface. The car was facing the opposite direction it had been traveling before plunging off the bridge. Only speed could account for such aerial maneuvers, Farrar said later. “The car must have been going at a pretty good clip to land almost in the middle of the channel.”
- Farrar peered through the driver’s side open window and saw the front seat was empty. He made his way to the back of the car, and through the corner of the rear window he saw two motionless feet clad in sandals. As long as there was a chance that the occupant might be alive, he had to hurry and expand the air pocket in the automobile and bring a resuscitator, if necessary.

- Farrar thrust himself through the open window and into the car. Looking up, he found the body of a young woman. Her head was cocked back, her face pressed into the footwell. Both hands gripped the front edge of the back seat to hold herself in conformity with its upholstered contours. It was not the position assumed by a person knocked unconscious by the impact of a crash, Farrar said. “If she had been dead or unconscious, she would have been prone, sinking to the bottom or floating on top. She definitely was holding herself in a position to avail herself of the last remaining air that had to be trapped in the car.”
- Farrar took hold of the woman’s thigh, and as soon as he touched the body he knew she was dead; the flesh in his hand was hard as wood. “Instead of life-saving, I realized I was now evidence-gathering,” Farrar said. “Because I was the only person who would be able to observe this situation, it behooved me to pay attention to what I saw underwater to be able to report it.”

Other quotes about Teddy:

Chappaquiddick has been called “the most brilliant cover-up ever achieved in a nation where investigative procedures are well developed and where the principles of equal justice prevail, at least during some of those moments where people are watching.”
~ The Last Kennedy by Robert Sherrill

The mysteries of the case continue to haunt Ted Kennedy as well as the authorities who investigated them. Charges of ineptitude and lack of diligence abounded, as did insinuations that the machinery of justice crumbled beneath the power and prestige of the Kennedy family. George Killen, former State Police Detective-Lieutenant, and chief of a never-revealed investigation, lamented that the failure to bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion was “the biggest mistake” of a long and distinguished police career. Senator Kennedy, he said, “killed that girl the same as if he put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger.”
~ Senatorial Privilege by Leo Damore

Now let’s check out the results of the most recent “scandals” involving Republicans:

Senator Larry Craig(Rep-Idaho)

The most recent scandal. Larry Craig a US Senator from Idaho pleads to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct after playing footsy with an undercover officer in an airport men’s room. Nothing sexual happened but, in the Senate Leadership’s eyes this is reason for asking for Craig’s resignation.I am not defending the actions of Craig. He should be investigated by the Republicans in the Senate. But if this was a Democrat I doubt there would be no such kerfuffle in this esteemed chamber of noble American conscience.

Here is the MSM’s take on the latest major scandal:
From Newsbusters :

For NBC’s “Today” show crew it wasn’t enough to label Larry Craig’s scandal as a crisis for him personally or even to call it a crisis for the Republican Party, no “Today” went even further as it declared it a “crisis” for conservatives everywhere. NBC’s Matt Lauer opened the Tuesday “Today” show asking his viewers: “Can the right wing withstand yet another scandal involving one of its own?”Lauer’s colleague Ann Curry, then piled on, as she wondered if the Craig incident spelled doom for the GOP’s chances in ‘08: “How does this specter of hypocrisy affect the party, especially as we’re now moving into a very critical time for the Republican Party facing this presidential election year?”

Former Representative Mark Foley(Rep-Florida)

The former Congressman from Florida that the Democrats successfully demonized prior to the 2006 midterm elections. The result of the charges brought against Foley? Nothing….

Sources close to the investigation told Scripps to date there has been no criminal finding against Foley. Once the investigation is completed, it will be turned over to prosecutors in Pensacola. Pensacola has jurisdiction in the case because that is where Foley was when one of the explicit messages was sent.

Joe diGenova, the former U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., said investigators likely could not prove the case had merit.

“My guess is they probably have been unable to find evidence of an actual relationship,” diGenova said. “Although the e-mails were suggestive, they didn’t violate a statute.”

Foley resigned from Congress last September after ABC News reported he wrote e-mail messages to a former congressional page on his personal account. In the e-mails, Foley asked for the teenager’s picture and inquired about what he wanted for his birthday. The following day, ABC News released a series of sexually charged online messages Foley had sent other teenage congressional pages, who act as messengers and couriers on Capitol Hill.

t/b: MoreWhat.com , Captain’s Quarters , Hot Air , Michelle Malkin

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What started out as an effort to recall a school board member that had missed 9 out of the last 17 meetings has now turned into needed legislation. Why you might ask? Because state law currently allows for recall of all elected county officials with the exception of school board members for unchartered counties, of which we are one.

After finding out that we had elected officials who cannot be recalled we checked into the attendance requirements for school board members only to find out that there are none. There are rules that mandate attendance requirements for students and for the school advisory panel which is a volunteer position, but not for the people who are actually being paid. The local school board could set their own attendance requirements but when asked to add it to the agenda for a vote the board chairwoman refused to even discuss it. Judy Kennedy, a concerned citizen, addressed the board to discuss this and followed it up with a letter asking for it to be added to the agenda of an upcoming meeting. The response she received was done on school board letterhead and stated, “I am in receipt of your letter. I will not bring up an attendance policy for elected school board members at the next meeting or any other meeting. If any other member wishes to bring this up for discussion, then I will address the issue.”

Needless to say no one wants to bring this up on the agenda. The bottom line here is that we have an elected school board that is held to no standards. The way it is currently set up a person could be elected and never attend one school board meeting while still making a paycheck of $37,500 per year. The only way they can be removed is by the Governor, but since there is no attendance requirement, there are no grounds to remove them. This should be unaccepatable to all voters! When one considers that there are only 24 meetings per year each lasting approximately 2 hours I don’t think it’s too much for the voters to ask that they attend these meetings. While the majority of our school board members do attend the meetings we need to have some kind of accountability for those who do not. If you want to get involved with this issue please contact Representative John Legg at john.leg@myfloridahouse.gov and let him know you believe some accountability is needed by our local school board .

From George:

The school board member that missed the 9 meetings was paid $14062.50 for her non-attendence. Not a bad paycheck for a do nothing, non caring elected official.

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One of my representatives in the US Senate. 

The State of Wexler, Alcee Hastings and this moron.  

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Abortion may be a little more difficult in Florida if this house bill passes the Florida Senate. 

Women would be shown an ultrasound of the soon to be aborted baby. 

 From Gainesville.com:

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 Sheryl Crow

The Low wattage of the liberal mindset:

(Sheryl)Crow (4/19, Springfield, Tenn.): I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of forest conservation which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don’t want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.

This uttered before she embarks to her next destination on her private jet.  The Hypocrisy of the global warming alarmists. 

Lance Armstrong beat feet from this nitwit  just in time. 

Technorati Tags: Sheryl Crow, Laurie David, Moonbattery, Global Warming Fallacy, Democrat Party, Toilet Paper Preservation Project, Moonbats
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Gov. Charlie Crist, pictured with environmental activist Laurie David

Producer of Al Gore’s fable "An Inconvenient Truth"

Is Charlie Crist the governor of Florida a RINO ( Republican In Name Only)? It certainly appears that way with the recent revelations of his actions in his capacity as governor of Florida. 

I used to be a supporter of Crist but it appears he has pulled the wool over the Conservatives’ eyes in this state.

From the Tampa Tribune:

After three months in office, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has earned praise from surprising quarters – Democrats, environmentalists and even The Nation, which bills itself as America’s leading journal of liberal political opinion.

Some conservatives, however, are starting to grumble about the record that earned Crist that praise, from advocating state action against global warming to restoring civil rights for felons.

Though he ran promising to maintain the legacy of former Gov. Jeb Bush, a hero to the conservative wing of the party, critics say Crist is chipping away at that legacy.

The grumbling so far is muted – only a few grass-roots-level party activists talk openly about it.

Party leaders and big-name conservative activists for the most part are positive or say they’re withholding judgment.

But there are hints that Crist may have trouble continuing to please both sides, as he has managed to do so far while building unprecedented levels of public approval in polls.

Crist may end up being a one term governor if the left wing of the Democrat Party keeps supporting some of his inane acheivements and proposals.

The conservative gripes against Crist broke into the open in early April over restoration of civil rights for felons who have completed their sentences and paid restitution.

Crist, who calls himself a civil rights leader and, for a Republican, has built unprecedented bridges to black civil rights activists, advocated making the restoration automatic.

Crist forged a compromise supported by two other state Cabinet members including Alex Sink, a Democrat, but opposed by Attorney General Bill McCollum, a favorite of conservative Republicans.

"I think it’s a very liberal thing we did today," McCollum said after voting against the move.

The change brought Crist national attention, including a favorable mention in The Nation, and criticism from conservative columnist Robert Novak.

McCollum was one of several Republican and conservative leaders statewide who declined to be interviewed on the subject of Crist’s relationship with the conservative side of the GOP.

Crist’s other dubious accomplishments:

In three months on the job, Crist has acted on issues beyond restoring rights and global warming that also won him praise from liberals, worried conservatives, and seemed to undercut the Jeb Bush legacy:

•Bush appointees. Revoking appointments made by Bush and, in some cases, replacing them. Among them was removing former state Rep. Ken Littlefield, a religious conservative business advocate, from the state Public Service Commission and replacing him with Sen. Nancy Argenziano, known as a consumer advocate.

•Gay marriage. Announcing that he doesn’t want the Republican Party to continue funding a constitutional amendment petition drive to ban gay marriage. Republicans had hoped having the initiative on the ballot would spur GOP voter turnout.

•Butterworth appointment. Naming a prominent Democrat, former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, as head of the Department of Children & Families.

•Wetlands regulation. Saying he would veto a bill to strip local governments of the authority to regulate destruction of wetlands by developers – a measure strongly favored by developers.

•Parkway foe. Opposing the Heartland Parkway, a proposed highway also favored by developers.

•Voting machines. Joining with U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a liberal Boca Raton Democrat, to advocate new voting machines that include a paper record of votes cast. The touch-screen machines now in use were adopted during the Bush administration as the answer to the problems of the 2000 presidential election.

•Teacher meeting. Meeting in his office with representatives of the state teachers union, an organization scorned by Bush.

•Bonus pay. Advocating a teacher bonus pay plan less dependent on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, than the one Bush proposed.

•State song. Advocating a new state song because of what he says are racist overtones in "Old Folks at Home."

 

Crist also ran on citizens’ rights to conceal carry weapons. I guarantee the next thing on Crist’s agenda will be gun control.

 

Jeb Bush’s legacy is being shredded by Crist.  His term in office can’t end soon enough as far as I am concerned.

What Florida doesn’t need is a RINO kissing Democrats’ & liberals’ collective asses.

Jeb Bush will be sorely missed with this clown in office. Charlie doesn’t amount to a pimple on Jeb’s derriere.

Update:

Charlie Supports Al Gore and his movie, shares stage with Sheryl Crow, and Laurie David, producer of Al Gore’s documentary on global warming.

 

 

 

 Sheryl Crow, Crist & Laurie David liberal Hollywood producer of

Al gore’s fable ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

From the Sarasota Herald Tribune:

GAINESVILLE — With "STOP GLOBAL WARMING" bracelets dangling from his wrist, Gov. Charlie Crist last week took his seat between the two women who would soon embrace him in a hug before a row of television cameras: rock star and environmental activist Sheryl Crow, and Laurie David, producer of Al Gore’s documentary on global warming.

This seat might rank near the bottom on the comfort scale for a Republican governor of Florida — even one who is a fan of Crow’s hit song "Soak up the Sun."

Crist, however, feels at home.

"It’s not a Democrat or Republican issue," he told a news conference at the University of Florida for the "Stop Global Warming" college tour. "It’s a right or wrong issue, and this is what’s right to do."

Crist is the first governor in the South and one of a handful of Republicans nationally to so publicly get behind the issue of global warming — an issue the Republican presidential administration denied existed until recently, and to which Crist’s predecessor, Jeb Bush, paid little attention.

In doing so, analysts say, Crist is taking his moderate politics to the national stage and opening the door to environmental issues marginalized under the state’s previous administration.

Crist mentioned global warming occasionally on the campaign trail but made a splash when
he called it "one of the most important issues that we will face in this century" in his state-of-the-state speech in March, and then joined in calling for Cabinet meetings on the issue.

Going against the traditionally Republican grain has become characteristic for Crist, who returned voting rights to felons and supports stem cell research.

But his attention to global warming achieved a new level of publicity last week when he appeared at the University of Florida rally and reaffirmed his plans to host an "Environmental Summit" this summer.

Scientists and activists from around the world will be invited to plan future legislation in Florida relating to greenhouse gases, alternative fuel sources and emissions standards, Crist said.

 

… 

 The invitation list is expected to include California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, along with Sen. John McCain, are two big-name Republicans in the movement to address global warming.

Crist credits both men, and the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," with helping shape his concerns about global climate change.

Bush joked about not seeing the movie and pointed out that "X-Men: The Last Stand" grossed more sales.

"Sen. McCain in a private meeting mentioned it was important for me to pay attention to this issue even more, and I took his heed on it," Crist said.

Crist rented Gore’s movie, which shows melting ice caps submerging the state of Florida, and watched it after the election.

"You just kind of look and observe and listen and pay attention, and you can see that there’s climate change," Crist said. "I think if you’re aware and willing to listen to science you come to that conclusion pretty quickly."

Crow, who owns a home in Okaloosa, said it felt "fantastic" to perform with a Republican.

"It’s awesome," Crow said. "We’re just following him around worshipping him."

 …

Crist proposed $68 million in funding to reduce global warming, just a fraction of the state’s $70 billion budget.

Yet, as he demonstrated at last week’s rally in Gainesville, Crist is reaching out to environmentalists.

Before the show started, the governor chatted backstage with David and invited her to the mansion the next time she comes to Florida. She recommended that he read this month’s Vanity Fair magazine.

"The second annual green issue," Crist interrupted. "I know it."

"The more awareness you create, the easier it gets," he said later. "People see what’s happening with Gov. Schwarzenegger. Hopefully, they’ll see what we’re doing in Florida. We’ve flipped the switch."

… 

 

 it was "awkward" for Crist to appear next to Crow, in front of a crowd that adores Gore.

"As far as it being a safe place for a Republican to be, that’s not here yet," the lobbyist said. "A lot of folks in our party are wondering, ‘Is this what conservative Republicans do?’"

  

 

 It appears the conservative base of the Florida Republican Party was bamboozled by Mr. Crist. His real colors are showing now.

Linked To: Stop The ACLU

Technorati Tags: Charlie Crist, Florida, RINO, Republican In Name Only, Charlie Crist Fraud, Florida Republican Party, Second Amendment Rights,
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A Florida State Rep has been legislating while serving in Iraq and he is a Democrat!

He is not your average "Cut and Run" Democrat.

While he is serving in the military for this country Nancy Pelosi is cavorting with our enemies in Syria.

From TBO Online:

 Scionti is receiving bi-partisan support.

linked to:Captain’s Quarters,  Conservative Cat,  Basil’s Blog

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Florida may gain some clout in the 2008 Presidential Primaries.

From the Sun Sentinel:

Diverse views are represented in Florida.  Much more so than Iowa or New Hampshire. 

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 Senator Wilson (d-Miami)

This is the epitome idiocy from  Florida Democrat State Senator Frederica Wilson, D-Miami.

This woman is a piece of work.  Sometimes it’s embarassing to admit that I reside in Florida with this kind of elected official.

This from The Tallahassee News-Press:

Some suggestions that we could hang on these poor individuals that landed in the U.S. (illegally) through no fault of their own. 

• Outlawed Newcomers

• Illegitimate Interlopers

• Unauthorized Noncitizens

• Verboten Squatters

Tracked to: Suitably Flip, Hot Air

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