It's been awhile since the fraud case against former Florida GOP chairman, Jim Greer, came to light. He is indicted for grand theft, money laundering and running an organized scheme to defraud that could land him in jail for 75 years.
He pled not guilty, but it's clear that Florida's Republican voters don't care. Well, that's not exactly true, I can't find any conservatives or independents who know anything about it.
I asked one conservative if they thought the RPOF AMEX scandal would influence their vote.
I got a WTF response.
Got it.
This makes no sense. The Republican Party of No constantly complains about spend, spend, spend while the Republican Party of Florida wantonly spends money on female escorts, weekend getaways, junkets to Vegas, lobster dinners that have nothing to do with elections and most of the voters I ask about this story shrug their shoulders and say they don't know anything about it or they don't like politics. Then, they take a breath and complain about government spending and the bad economy.
To say this story hasn't been covered in multiple cities wouldn't be true. It's not that complicated.
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First we have to understand the role of a State Chairman of the RPOF. Specifically the RPOF Chairman's job duties includes overseeing everything, including being the chief fund raiser. So, when the RPOF turns around and pays Greer again for fund raising through secret ownership of a shell corporation (Victory Strategies), you know, double dipping; that's wrong, right?
So, I asked a conservative friend what they think of someone who managed to get paid to do the same job from the same employer twice at the same time but one of those paychecks was for a vendor and the employer didn't know the vendor was owned by one of their employees. I got a different WTF response (followed with), "That's pretty sleazy" and "Tell me more". So, I did.
The case in a Nutshell: Prosecutors released hundreds of pages documenting evidence and a taped telephone call that indicate Greer and his cohort, Delmar Johnson, the party's former executive director committed 6 felonies and stretched, bent or broke numerous EEOC, IRS and FEC regulations along the way.
They started out by attempting to shake down their previous fund raiser, Meredith O'Rourke (starts on page 6 of the affidavit). They cut her pay by 85% when the shake down didn't work; they subjected her to a freeze out by putting together mens only fund raising events (allegedly with hookers) then eventually fired her. They replaced O'Rourke with a shell company called Victory Strategies that is secretly owned by Jim Greer, the former Party Chairman and Delmar Johnson the former Executive Director. The RPOF then funneled 10% of the contributions (about $200,000 total) for fund raising commissions into Victory Strategies, LLC (part was Greer's second paycheck that he denied receiving and an extra $65,000 to Johnson, which was his second paycheck). What made the scheme fly is that the 10% commission was allegedly less than the $30,000 per month Meredith O'Rourke earned doing the same job. It was a win, win, win, lose proposition, or was it? Ms. O'Rourke didn't like her end of the deal, all the men were satisfied.
So, I asked a conservative friend what they would think of an employer who asked you to kick back a percentage of your paycheck to remain employed. Oh, DID I GET A WTF! response. "That's illegal!" That's...(sputter)...just...wrong! (gee, and I didn't even mention the misogyny.)
I followed up with saying, "Ok, well, that's one of the things Jim Greer did and many of the Florida's top Republicans like Bill McCollum, Jim Thrasher, Delmar Johnson and Charlie Crist knew about it. It's possible Marco Rubio knew about it too. Does that impact how you view the Republican palette of candidates? That earned me a silent response.
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Moving on. Another Side of Jim Greer's Fraud Case Stems From Improper Expenses
Other documents detail a multitude of personal expenses charged to the GOP as election expenses. The documents also include and imply some intriguing political tidbits" that I, for one, find titillating. Buried deep is $30,000 paid to Victory Strategies for polling that never happened and a twin disbursement to Greer on the same day for $25,000.
So I asked a friend who's an Independent voter, "What would your boss say if you submitted $1.3 million in expenses and the details came out it was for not just lobster dinners but for car repairs, private helicopters and one month alone was $209,000?" I can't do justice to the response, it started with "Bwaaaaa hahahahahahahahaha and ended with cough, choke, sniff, wiping their eyes followed with "That's a good one". Sigh
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The paper trail isn't that hard to follow, but The Miami Herald says the documents "lay out an intricate web of deceit" sown by Greer and Johnson. It's not that intricate, the case falls like dominoes, but that isn't as interesting a story as "an intricate web of deceit". The details of all the side issues surrounding the wrong doing conflate the basic criminal activities of organized fraud, money laundering and grand theft.
I asked another conservative friend after a similar conversation, "Based on what I've told you, is this too complicated to understand?" "Pfffft! No, some jerk boss didn't want to pay his contract employee, so he played hard ball to get her fired and probably broke a couple laws doing it. Then, instead of hiring someone else for less money, he set up a way to get the money for himself without telling his boss what he was doing. That 'bout sum 'er up?" I'd say so.
I couldn't resist adding the rest of the story. The interesting part of Greer's shake down of Meredith O'Rourke is that Greer and Johnson didn't do a good job of fund raising. Greer did all sorts of screw ups and lost his job as Party Chairman, so he sued the RPOF for $120,000 in severance. Priceless response, ready, set, roll eyes.
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The Lawyer
Greer's attorney claims Greer's relationship with Victory Strategies is a legal contract, which could be true. Perhaps its the fact that most of the RPOF members didn't know that Greer and Johnson owned Victory Strategies on a 60/40 split is the fraud part of the case. Although Greer's attorney, Damon Chase, says that the deal was legal, then why the secrecy? Would the donors or Executive Committee members have objected?
What's more, Chase's strategy seems to be smear the rest of the Florida Republican Party elite to prove his client not guilty. To that end, he went for Crist's former right-hand man, now U.S. Senator George LeMieux (paid $350,000 by RPOF for consulting fees). He supposedly first proposed the idea that they earn a fund-raising commission to save the party money and replace the $30,000-a-month contract with fundraiser Meredith O'Rourke. Is Chase defending his client or spreading the mud around? Is Lemieux a misogynist or was he trying to save the party money?
I asked a Young Republican after explaining the case, "What do you think about Jim Greer's defense strategy? What a delightful response, indeed, "I'd ask Mr. Greer if Charlie Crist jumped off a cliff would he jump off too?" ...and we think our kids don't listen to us.
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The Players Witnesses
Delmar Johnson, the former Executive Director for the RPOF, is impeachable. He got a "sweetheart deal" if you think paying back $65,000 to the Florida GOP, recording Greer on the phone and agreeing to testify and becoming political kryptonite is a peach of a deal. The sweet part is that he won't be going to jail for being a righteous rat confidential informant.
I asked a former student about Mr. Johnson, "Why do you think Johnson is cooperating with the Prosecution?" The predictable response, "He has to. Greer, is only sorry the offer wasn't made to him first." ba duh bum
Susan Wright is a 57-year old pissed off, fired ex-office manager for RPOF and man, does she have an ax to grind. Wright was told to shud-up-abouda-it and was fired when she didn't. Her disgust when she discovered Greer and his wife spent nearly ``Five-thousand friggin' dollars!'' for a getaway in exclusive Fisher Island probably is when she lost her job. The entire Miami Herald story is a good read for the deals of GOP mis-spent donations on Wayne Newton concert tickets, steak and lobster dinners and what all. I just wonder, why did Greer need 6 frat brothers at $10 per hour each? ..or why he needed a GOP paid entourage to go to his kid's Bday party?
I was talking to a Tea Party Sympathizer one day when I asked, "Do you think the Party's spending is any indication of how the GOP will spend your tax dollars?" He growled, "They're all crooks. What else do you know about this?" So I continued with....
Charlie Crist is listed as a "low priority" witness for the prosecution. There's enough murk to paint Crist as a dupe, dope or co-conspirator. Crist's cynical appointment of George LeMieux as Senator until this November's election was supposed to preserve the seat for Crist - it's had mixed results. According to Greer, Crist signed off on the Victory Strategies expenditures and knew Greer and Johnson were the secret owners. Apparently prosecutors (so far) have determined Crist wasn't a willing conspirator, he was just a chump who didn't see any connectible dots.
The Tea Party Sympathizer scratched the side of his face and said, "Crist is a damn librul!"... which made me choke on my tea. I was asked to continue....
Marco Rubio avoids mention as a witness because his trouble comes from charging personal expenses on his GOP credit card for 4 years. He used the card to repair his car after an unfortunate incident at a GOP event with valet parking and spent $4,100 on meals in Tallahassee during the 2007 and 2008 sessions. (According to IRS regulations party credit cards should cover only expenses aimed at influencing elections -- fund-raising, voter registration, candidate recruitment. Car repair and lunches between legislative sessions don't qualify.) Rubio may not have been part of Greer's fraud club, but Rubio's connections to Ray Sansom and other issues is indicative of his "bubba" attitudes.
My Tea Party friend sighed, "Who's Ray Sansom?" which made me grind my teeth.
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According to the GOP, corruption, double dealing and indiscriminate spending are contrary to core Republicans values, but you wouldn't know it by looking at this scandal. The dirty dealing of Rick Scott targeting Bill McCollum who isn't that innocent (see the 2nd story of the link) should be revolting to anyone who has been the target of corporate dirty dealing. The fact that Rick Scott said he'd stay under the cap, then didn't then sued to prevent McCollum from getting Florida tax dollars to make up for Scott's overspending is Scott's idea of fiscal conservatism. Anyone can see it's his idea of skirting the law that has been on the books for over 2 decades.
Jim Thrasher, the current Chairman of the RPOF can't say anything nice about Jim Greer, but carries on the old RPOF agenda. Thrasher thinks Republicans like Marco Rubio and the rest of the Republicans running this fall will do fine. (IMO I hope not.) He's hedging his bets by saying he won't get mad at any Republicans that want to support Charlie Crist for the Senate seat.
Speaking of Charlie Crist. He's hoping disenchanted Republicans will vote for him this fall and hopes no one remembers he was best buds with Greer.
There's so much back story to the Republican Party of Florida that the indictment against their former Chairman, Jim Greer, is almost an afterthought a month after the indictment.
Meanwhile the Republican Party of Florida spends, spends, spends, the candidates spout GOP talking points (when they aren't taking cheap shots at each other).
I'm going to vote for Alex Sink for Florida Governor.
Crossposted at FLAPolitics:
http://www.flapolitics.com/...