From early Spring of 2009 right through to the last days of the year, Florida's Attorney General and Republican candidate for governor, Bill McCollum, has been nothing - and I do mean nothing - if not consistent in peddling his self-serving, short-sighted, downright deceitful brand of politics.
Back in March, as he was preparing to abandon his current job and make a run for Governor, the state's leading law enforcement official doled out almost one-and-a-half million of our tax dollars to a former consultant-crony, to produce "public service" ads warning about online sexual predators - ads starring Bill McCollum as the heroic supposed protector of Florida's vulnerable children and endangered teens.
Forget about the ethical questions surrounding awarding of the contract itself. Forget about the fact that the ads were shameless self-promotion (including a $550 taxpayer tab for his makeup!). Forget about the fact that the actual severity of the problem of online sexual predators was so exaggerated by McCollum in the ad and in related publicity efforts.
Well, don't really forget any of that, not when election time rolls around. Rather, keep it in mind, then put it all aside for a moment and ask yourself:
What kind of politician - what kind of a man - would claim to be fighting to protect the health and well-being of our children in the Spring, only to spend much of this Autumn and Winter trying to derail health reform efforts, efforts that would for the first time give hundreds of thousands of Florida's uninsured, at-risk children the kind of health care coverage and care they should have had all along?
In September, McCollum joined the Republican drumbeat of deceit and disinformation about health reform, attacking the public option plan still on the table, lying about the importance and potential impact of medical malpractice reform on health care costs, and claiming his answer to health reform as governor would be creation of an advisory council.
In October, we had to suffer through the following divisive, borderline Joe McCarthy-esque attack by McCollum on health reform, cloaked even more dishonorably in a personal attack on his Democratic rival in the governor's race, Florida's Chief Financial officer, Alex Sink: "Sink is siding with the unions and their bosses – they know where she stands. On government-run health care Sink is with the left wing unions.".
Not long after that, McCollum went after health reform and Sink some more, challenging the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who was attending a health care town hall in Florida, to call out his competitor Sink on her health reform positions.
But McCollum has saved his personal best of the worst for these last days of the year. This do-nothing Attorney General - the guy who has been in power, yet seemingly powerless during this infamous period of Florida political corruption and legislative lawlessness, during this period when so many Floridians have been bilked and duped and disowned by insurance companies and mortgage lenders and banks - this week, this servant of only the rich and powerful has announced that he is directing his staff to explore whether they can file a lawsuit declaring any new health reform bill that gets passed by the U.S. Congress as unconstitutional.
The McCollum cover story this time, the pretext for killing health reform, is that there ought not to be any requirement that uninsured people have to get health insurance. It would be like a tax - Boo! - and just unfair, doggone it. Forget that these uninsured, at-risk people, if they have difficulty affording insurance, would get subsidized under a new reform bill.
Forget that without such a mandate, all of us taxpayers will end up paying for their health care, at the most expensive levels, when they finally show up at emergency rooms seeking medical attention.
Forget that such a mandate, even as part of this very imperfect health reform bill now being finalized, will still help to quickly, finally provide proper health care access and coverage for nearly 800,000 uninsured children in Florida - the children McCollum claimed to be looking out for way back in...the Spring.
Forget that as Attorney General, Wild Bill is defending the state in efforts to maintain Medicaid reimbursement levels that are so low that poor, uninsured children can't find doctors who will treat them.
Forget that McCollum's extremist anti-government, anti-entitlement views were in evidence during his years in the U.S. Congress, when he voted time and again to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Forget that McCollum's extremist anti-government, anti-entitlement views not only pander shamelessly to, but in fact prey on some people's fear and ignorance, cultivating selfishness and inhumanity, rather than selflessness and humanity.
NO. Do not forget any of the above, not when election time rolls around. Keep it all uppermost in your mind, in fact, as you listen to and watch McCollum peddling his politics of hypocrisy and heartlessness, divisiveness and duplicity, throughout this 2010 gubernatorial campaign. He will cloak it all the while in the guise of being some kind of moderate conservative who's trying to keep big government out of your life. He will be lying to and trying to deceive and distract you. The facts are the facts. The record is the record. You can look it up.
Ask yourself.
What kind of politician - what kind of human being - do you want as Florida's next governor?