All Aboard The Rick Scott Scandal Train
Rick Scott's campaign has been plagued by an embarrassing number of scandals and constant reminders that he answers to special interests before Floridians. And it just keeps getting worse. This weekend, news of yet another special interest-driven scandal within the Scott administration broke, this one involving his current chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth, an adviser on the Scott transition team at the time, played an instrumental role in Scott's decision to reject $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed rail. Then, he accepted a job at Parallel Infrastructure, and turned around and lobbied Scott to move forward on a rail project with Parallel's sister company, All Aboard Florida, breaking Scott's self-imposed one-year lobbying ban for his transition team. Scott embraced the All Aboard Florida plan, which received millions in Florida taxpayer dollars, and Hollingsworth later rejoined the Scott administration as his chief of staff. It's a disturbing development but not a surprising one. Scott has already come under fire for approving plans from Florida Power & Light, a major campaign donor, to build obtrusive new nuclear plants. He flip-flopped on state funding for rowing facilities after receiving donations from developers. His Department of Economic Opportunity is taking heat for allegations that they fraudulently referred 19,000 Floridians to collection agencies and retaliated against the whistleblower for exposing the cover-up. And his staff has been marred by one scandal after the next. Rick Scott has a lot of questions to answer. But then again, answering questions isn't really his thing.
Chris Christie Suddenly Silent
Chris Christie is hardly known as the quiet type, his loudmouth persona is well documented. Yet all that has gone…
Supremely Inconsistent
Chris Christie fashions himself a bold leader, but when it comes to politically difficult issues, he's hardly a profile in…
Please Rick Scott, Tell Us More About "Transparency" (VIDEO)
Rick Scott's hypocrisy gets more comical by the day. Yesterday, he released a new ad targeting Charlie Crist's wife, calling on her to release her taxes because he, quote, "believes transparency matters." In fact, transparency matters so much to Rick Scott that when a whistleblower, who had worked at the Department of Economic Opportunity for 30 years, tried to expose systemic fraud that improperly inflicted economic hardship on 19,000 Floridians, this is how Scott's administration responded: They fired her. She filed a lawsuit and won her case as the jury ruled that the Governor's administration had fired her in retaliation for trying to uncover the DEO's wrongdoing.
Rubio to Speechify About His Non-Existent Support for Working Families
This afternoon, Senator Rubio is scheduled to give a speech in D.C. designed to burnish his middle class credentials: "Finding…
Bridgegate Part 2: My Way On The Skyway
Bridgegate one has been a box office success thanks to a thrilling plot that has included lawsuits, lies, and retribution.…
What Does Rick Scott Have To Hide?
This week, PolitiFact confirmed that when deposed in lawsuits involving his company in 2000, Rick Scott invoked the Fifth Amendment 75 times. That’s the one that protects you against self-incrimination. Scott was deposed in a civil case against his former company, Columbia/HCA, who later plead guilty to at least 14 corporate felonies including Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and paid a whopping $1.7 billion in criminal fines. Scott was under advisement from his attorney to invoke the Fifth Amendment in his deposition due to those ongoing criminal investigations. Whether Rick Scott is under oath or he’s on the campaign trail, he just won’t answer questions. When it comes to tackling problems, the voters of Florida don’t need a Governor who pleads the Fifth. They need real answers.
Cory Gardner "Discovers" Women's Rights
Last week, Cory Gardner penned an op-ed in support of over-the-counter birth control. What he didn't mention in the op-ed…
Wisconsin headlines from Scott Walker's no good, very bad Thursday
Yesterday, documents released from an ongoing John Doe investigation into illegal campaign activities by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his allies implicated the Governor himself as being central to a "criminal scheme." While Gov. Walker insists that "this is a case that’s been resolved," the front pages of Wisconsin's newspapers this morning tell a different story.
Scott Walker: Just Ask My Koch-Crony Judge, I'm Innocent!
Scandal-tainted Scott Walker’s fortunes grew even dimmer yesterday when newly released documents showed that prosecutors have alleged he was at the center of a criminal scheme to evade Wisconsin election laws. Now, Walker is coming out firing, claiming that the accusations are nothing more than unfounded partisan attacks, and pointing to a ruling from a state judge and a ruling from a federal judge that’s under appeal Only there’s one catch. The federal judge who halted the original campaign finance probe against Walker, Rudolph Randa, has attended multiple expense-paid judicial summits funded by Koch brothers’ groups who explicitly fight against campaign finance laws. Those would be the same Koch brothers who poured money into the very Pro-Walker outside groups that lie at the heart of this investigation. And Judge Randa didn’t just halt the probe. He originally ordered prosecutors to destroy the evidence they had obtained. But according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “the appeals court found he couldn’t issue such an irreversible order in the early stages of the case.” What’s more, Randa’s assistant is married to a Walker campaign attorney. Yes, Scott Walker has been temporarily cleared of wrongdoing by a federal judge. A federal judge who is part of the same shadowy conservative network as Walker, the Koch brothers, and the outside groups that helped flood the Wisconsin recall elections with dark money; and a federal judge who seems extremely eager to make this case go away. Background after the jump.