GOP avoids primaries in gambit to survive

I t makes sense that top insiders in both of Florida's political parties want to avoid costly primaries at a time when the economy is in the toilet.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

The GOP are like the dems back in the mid 70's; rudderless, clueless and on a path to mediocrity. They need to disband and regroup as another party. The GOP "brand" has been tarnished by theives and liars (Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1) and downright idiots.

The People Power Hour did a great show on this awhile back. http://www.peoplepowerhour.com

[Griswalds Chancre]

The guy who wrote this article reminds me of Uncle Fester....

[Chester DeGrasse]

The fat lady is clearing her throat...

[Bruce Jordan]

The Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, who has announced a run for Senate, will be outed in a independent film which was released on May 8, 2009.
The film, Outrage, tracks the outings of prominent gay political figures, such as Crist and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. It's being produced by Magnolia Pictures and will appear in Landmark Theaters across the country.
Crist was "first" outed in a 2006 Palm Beach Post article by Bob Norman, prior to his election as governor.
A young rising star in the Republican Party has boasted to witnesses of his sexual relationship with Charlie Crist, the frontrunner in the Florida governor's race who has repeatedly denied that he is gay.
The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.
Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff's reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist's long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who is presently on State Probation for Multiple counts of Forgery and Grand Theft and now living in Bushnell, Florida. Jordan was formerly Pres. Of the Florida Funeral Directors Assn.
Salon notes that Crist is the biggest fish in the film for critics.
"The person most reviewers have been focusing on is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was recently married -- his engagement was announced right around the time when speculation was mounting that he could be chosen as John McCain's running mate," Salon's Alex Koppelman writes. "He was actually first outed back in 2006, by Bob Norman, a reporter for the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, who was also the first reporter to the story of former Rep. Mark Foley's sexuality, in 2003.
"And, in cases like Crist's, it means that the media knows something its audience doesn't, and is holding back information about people who are running for public office,"

[Charlie Tuna]

This is why Crist won't come to Daytona Floods. He knows everyone over here knows he is crooked.

Stanaki Land deal in Volusia County could hurt Crists and McCollum . FDEP/ DSL was negotiating to buy land from a major Republican donor Mori Hosseini. In derrogation of a court ruling (Case 05-001852) Crist and Bush and granted development entitlements on the Land (FLAWC053106) while negotiations were in process. Hosseini was allowed to get new appraisals and raised the asking price from 8 to 16 million. Crist then had FDEP end negotiations and asked DCA to fund the purchase through a FCT Grant reimbursement program. This allowed new appraisals to be used by the State. Last Thursday (FCT Governing Board Meeting) DCA Secretary Pelham approved funding the purchase at the higher per acre price. FCT Director Reecy said the earlier FDEP appraisals and offers were "irrelevant" and removed them from the files prior to staff and Board review of the grant application (08-004-FF8). Both McCollum and Crist received donations before and since the Pioneer CDD was granted

UPDATE: CRIST APPOINTS HOSSEINI’S SISTER TO ST. JOHNS WATER
MANAGEMENT BOARD

Gov. Charlie Crist has picked two new people to serve on the regional water management district board for Central Florida – a Volusia County engineer with development ties and an Alachua County law professor with environmental ties.
Crist named Maryam H. Ghyabi, 50, of Ormond Beach, and Richard G. Hamann, 58, of Gainesville, to the St. Johns River Water Management District governing board, which controls water consumption permits, approves wetland permits and decides how much water the local utilities can siphon from the St. Johns River. The district includes parts of 18 counties, including most of metro Orlando.
Ghyabi is president of Ghyabi & Associates, a transportation engineering and planning firm that has been a consultant on many local transportation issues. She is a sister of Mori Hosseini, a big-time developer based in Daytona Beach. Hosseini is a Republican super-fundraiser, ranking as a “Ranger” who raised at least $200,000 for President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. Hosseini and his array of companies frequently show up in many elected officials' campaign finance reports.
Hamann teaches water and ecosystem law at the University of Florida's Center for Governmental Responsibility. His professional affiliations include the Florida Defenders of the Environment and the Alachua Conservation Trust.
If approved by the state Senate, Ghyabi would replace David G. Graham of Jacksonville and Hamann would replace Ann T. Moore, the Flagler County representative.

[Charlie Tuna]

RIP OFF OF FEE’S FROM THE CONCEALED WEAPONS PERMIT FUND. THEY NEVER FOUND A DOLLAR THEY WON’T CONFISCATE:
TALLAHASSEE — As more people in Florida seek concealed weapons permits, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson wants Gov. Charlie Crist to veto a $6-million raid on a fund that pays for the program. Bronson's request presents a timely opportunity for Crist to score political points with gun owners just as he's embarking on a race for the U.S. Senate. In a letter to Crist, Bronson cited "unprecedented growth" in applications for gun permits that has created a "tremendous backlog" of cases to be processed. All applicants are subject to criminal background checks. To balance the $66.5 billion state budget that takes effect July 1, legislators swept nearly $600 million from dozens of accounts known as trust funds. Most funds are sustained with fees that pay for specific programs. The Division of Licensing trust fund consists of fees paid by applicants for concealed weapons permits as well as security, investigative and recovery licenses. Bronson's office said the $6 million sweep would leave between $2 million and $3 million in the fund."By law, the department is required to issue licenses within 90 days of receipt of a complete application," Bronson wrote in his letter to Crist dated May 14. "If we do not meet this time frame, an applicant may, by law, request the license to be issued even without the results of the criminal background check being reviewed. We simply cannot process all of these applications in a timely manner because of this unprecedented surge in new applications."For months, in a trend seen as tied to President Barack Obama's election, the state has been flooded with tens of thousands of applications for concealed-weapons permits. Some retail stores in Florida have reported running out of ammunition as well. A legislative budget committee in February gave Bronson the okay to spend $3.9 million more to hire 61 temporary workers. In April, the state received 15,534 concealed weapons permit applications, compared with 9,207 in April a year ago. In March, the state received 12,809 applications, compared with 7,996 for the same month a year earlier. Bronson's letter follows a similar plea from lobbyist Marion Hammer of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association. She called the trust-fund sweep a tax and an attack on Second Amendment rights."In a last minute sneak attack on gun owners, the Florida Legislature raided the concealed weapons and firearms licensing trust fund and created a tax on the exercise of the Second Amendment," Hammer wrote. "That is a de facto tax on gun owners."Crist, a candidate for the U.S. Senate who is expected to emphasize his support for gun rights, had no immediate reaction to Bronson's request. He has until May 30 to act on the budget."The governor appreciates the commissioner's letter. We continue to review the budget," spokeswoman Erin Isaac said Monday. Bronson told reporters Monday that the sweep of the money caught him by surprise."It was all done in the last couple of days of the session. We certainly didn't recommend it," Bronson said. "Because we've had such registrations of concealed weapons permits coming in, we may have to put in more equipment, more modernized equipment, more people to handle the issues."

[Charlie Tuna]

Governor Charlie Crist was born in 1956 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, but his family soon settled in St. Petersburg. As a public school student Governor Crist quickly learned the value of participation, leading him to serve as class president at St. Petersburg High School and, later, as student body vice president at Florida State University. In high school Governor Crist was the starting quarterback for his football team. He later played football at Wake Forest University before transferring and receiving his undergraduate degree from Florida State in 1978. Governor Crist then earned his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama. Governor Crist received invaluable experience in Florida’s criminal justice system while interning in the State Attorney’s Office before accepting a position as general counsel for the minor league division of the Baseball Commissioner’s Office. Apparently this is where Charlie begin to develop several homosexual relationships. Governor Crist began his government service as state director for former U.S. Senator Connie Mack before later returning to the private practice of law with the Tampa firm of Wood and Crist. Many pictures can be found on the internet of Charlie living up the night in Clearwater area Gay Bars. At least one showing him in leather pants. Around this time is when Crist met and began a sexual relationship with one Bruce Jordan. Jordan is a career criminal who at one time was President of the Florida Funeral Directors Assn. In 2003 Jordan was charged with five counts of Forgery and two counts of Grand Theft in Leon County. Charlie Crist pulled some strings and got his lover released on State Probation without any jail time. Then in 2005 two additional charges of Grand Theft surfaced. Again Crist intervened on behalf of his lover to insure he would only continue to be on supervised probation and not serve jail time. Currently Bruce Jordan is still on active probation until 2011 and living at 3357 W Hwy 476, Bushnell, Sumter County, Fl 33513. A GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand. Wetherington, and Bruce Jordan both worked for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and Wetherington currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff's reelection campaign. In 1992, Governor Crist won a seat in the Florida Senate. For six years in the Senate, Governor Crist served as Chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee and as Chairman of the Appropriations Criminal Justice Subcommittee. A strong voice for public safety, he sponsored, among other legislation, the Stop Turning Out Prisoners (STOP) bill requiring prisoners to serve at least 85 percent of their prison sentences. This earned him numerous honors, including appointment as an Honorary Sheriff by the Florida Sheriffs Association—only the third person to receive the honor in the organization’s long history. After Governor Crist completed his Senate service, Governor Jeb Bush appointed him as Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. In 2000, Governor Crist won a special election and became Florida’s last elected Commissioner of Education. Governor Crist’s path of public service next led him to seek election as Attorney General in 2002. He carried the general election by more than one-third of a million votes to become Florida’s first elected Republican Attorney General. On November 7, 2006, Governor Charlie Crist was elected to serve as Florida’s Governor. Governor Crist is a lifelong member of the St. Petersburg Chapter of the NAACP.

[Charlie Tuna]

The rumors about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Green Iguana just wouldn’t go away. The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay.
When I got Rick Calderoni, the bar’s well-known owner, on the phone, I expected him to stonewall me about it. He didn’t. Calderoni, who is gay, confirmed that Crist came into his bar quite often and that the two of them became friends. Getting to the point, I asked him if he knew Crist to be gay.“Yes,” he answered bluntly.“I just wish he would come out and admit it. That would be a great thing if he did.”
The topic may soon, however, get some national play. After helping to deliver Florida in the GOP primary, Crist is widely believed to be on the short list to become John McCain’s nominee for vice president. If he were to be chosen, imagine how interesting this presidential election would be. Not only would the American people be asked to vote for the first black president or female commander in chief, but, at least in terms of subtext, also the first gay vice president.
Are they ready for it? Do they even care? Most voters will tell you they don’t, that they couldn’t care less about anyone’s sexuality. Of course, they aren’t telling the truth. Human nature demands that they at least be curious. But, absent a Jim McGreevy-/Mark Foley-/Larry Craig-type scandal, I don’t think the issue would change an election. If anything, the buzz would only bring more intrigue to the candidate and possibly add to his support. Being boring is a lot bigger political sin than having sexual secrets in your closet. Americans knew full well that Bill Clinton was a poonhound before they elected him, didn’t they?
Most Floridians had probably at least heard the rumors about Crist before they elected him governor. During the election, I reported about two male GOP staffers’ boasts of having had affairs with Crist when he was running for governor in 2006. The stories burned across the internet and got a bit of play in the mainstream press. Crist won in a landslide anyway. Republicans homophobic? Not in Florida.
If McCain chooses Crist, it would be interesting to see how the voracious national press (as opposed to cautious Florida newspapers) would handle the issue. Would the New York Times put a small team of reporters on the story in an effort to dig up the truth?

[Charlie Tuna]

NO WONDER JIM GREER ANNOINTED CHARLIE CRIST AS THE REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE AND NOW HE HAS ANNOINTED BILL McCOLLUM AS THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. NOW OUR PARTY HAS A DICTATOR WHO DENIES
THE REPUBLICANS OF FLORIDA THE RIGHT TO A PRIMARY ELECTION.
Embattled Florida State Chairman, Jim Greer was embarrassed by a Miami Herald story amid a growing chorus of requests for a full audit of state party spending. The Herald revealed that Greer charged over $5,000 to a luxury Palm Beach hotel suite paid for by the Republican Party of Florida which included sumptuous meals, spa services, limousine services, French wines, and numerous purchases in the hotel gift shop. Republican activists have raised questions about the state party chair using Party funds to pay for five-star restaurants, posh resorts, sports event tickets, premium cigars and more than a half million dollars in jet aircraft charters. If Governor Charlie Crist who hand-picked Greer seems oblivious to the growing demand that Greer be replaced by someone who will be a better steward of State Party funds and a better representative for Crist on the Republican National Committee, particularly if Crist has 2012 ambitions, it’s because Greer has a secret patron. Jim Greer has been a solicitous courtier of Carole Rome, Governor Charlie Crist’s wife who is fond of Greer and grateful that he is always quick with a credit card. The New York socialite divorcee is married the Governor on December 12 in Tampa. Many major State Party donors are unhappy with Greer and his wild spending but have been hesitant to tell the Governor in the face of Crist’s recent letter of endorsement for Greer’s reelection. Dissatisfaction with Greer is not limited to the Jeb Bush faction of the State Executive Committee with many key Crist supporters weary of Greer’s self-aggrandizement and personal spending. Then there is the fact that John McCain lost Florida by 2 percent yet Greer finished the year with in excess of $1 million in the Party’s Federal account. McCain-Palin activists complained about a lack of yard signs and campaign material from the Republican Party of Florida after being told there were no more funds. In recent weeks, some Republican activists have begun to talk about the tax implications of the personal goods and services Chairman Greer is writing-off to the Party. The matter will be bought to the attention of the IRS who could, theoretically, require an audit of their own to determine the amount on which Greer evaded taxes. Greer would be hard-put to explain how a $3,600 dinner for he and his wife at the Breaker’s Hotel in Palm Beach, is Party business. Will the Obama Justice Department target a high-profile Republican like Greer? With top Crist fundraiser Harry Sargeant already under Federal investigation, can Crist afford another top-backer to have problems with campaign funds A veteran State Chairman said.“He hurts Crist every time he opens his mouth.”“What’s with the entourage?”.“He thinks he is the Governor of Florida!” Greer attends RNC meetings with two bodyguards, two assistants, a press spokesperson, a personal photographer and a driver and limo. Most RNC members are aware of Greer’s problems at home. Little does the first lady know that Greer is an impediment to her and Charlie’s dream of a move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Greer has been criticized by party activists for spending $46,000 of party funds on travel and entertainment in London during Gov. Crist’s Trade Mission, He blames this on Ray Sansone Indicted former speaker. Jim Greer needs an investigation and subsequent indictment for his corruption.

[Kay Vann]

Bruce Jordan wrote:

The Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, who has announced a run for Senate, will be outed in a independent film which was released on May 8, 2009.
The film, Outrage, tracks the outings of prominent gay political figures, such as Crist and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. It's being produced by Magnolia Pictures and will appear in Landmark Theaters across the country.
Crist was "first" outed in a 2006 Palm Beach Post article by Bob Norman, prior to his election as governor.
A young rising star in the Republican Party has boasted to witnesses of his sexual relationship with Charlie Crist, the frontrunner in the Florida governor's race who has repeatedly denied that he is gay.
The GOP staffer, 21-year-old Jason Wetherington, told friends at separate social functions in August that he had sex with Crist, according to two credible and independent sources who heard Wetherington make the claim first-hand.
Wetherington, who recently worked as a field director for U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris and currently works for state representative Ellyn Bodganoff's reelection campaign, also named a man whom he said is Crist's long-term partner, a convicted thief named Bruce Carlton Jordan who is presently on State Probation for Multiple counts of Forgery and Grand Theft and now living in Bushnell, Florida. Jordan was formerly Pres. Of the Florida Funeral Directors Assn.
Salon notes that Crist is the biggest fish in the film for critics.
"The person most reviewers have been focusing on is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was recently married -- his engagement was announced right around the time when speculation was mounting that he could be chosen as John McCain's running mate," Salon's Alex Koppelman writes. "He was actually first outed back in 2006, by Bob Norman, a reporter for the New Times Broward-Palm Beach, who was also the first reporter to the story of former Rep. Mark Foley's sexuality, in 2003.
"And, in cases like Crist's, it means that the media knows something its audience doesn't, and is holding back information about people who are running for public office,"

Hey, are you the Jordan you write about.....sane name, first and last, or is that Jordan a relative?? What gives?