GOP Rep. David Rivera beat O2B Democrat Joe Garcia in 2010, in a year when Florida Democrats got massacred from lack of base turnout. It was ugly.
As a reward, southern Florida got themselves a congressman so corrupt, that House Republicans are seeing their "zero-tolerance policy" toward corruption immediately tested.
Just three weeks into his congressional career, Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.) has earned the dubious distinction of being the first member of the historic class of House GOP freshmen to find himself at the center of an ethics scandal.
The Rivera case also could prove an early and politically sensitive problem for Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and other top Republicans who criticized former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of scandals involving Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
Boehner has yet to comment on the allegations involving Rivera, yet behind the scenes, GOP insiders already are drawing contingency plans for a replacement should the freshman lawmaker resign or be forced to step aside, according to multiple Republican sources.
Cantor claims he's waiting for the local investigations to play out. But check out what's happening locally:
Miami Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle is dramatically scaling back the resources her office is dedicating to the investigation of Congressman David Rivera, CBS4 News has learned.
Late last week, Rundle ordered Assistant State Attorney Richard Scruggs removed from the case, even though Scruggs is the most experienced public corruption prosecutor in the office. She also sidelined Robert Fielder, a highly-respected investigator, and Christine Zahralban, a prosecutor who specializes in researching and litigating complex criminal issues [...]
“It’s very disappointing,” said one senior law enforcement official. Another law enforcement source described Rundle’s actions as “disgraceful.”
The local state attorney's actions are blatantly political, but she doesn't care. It's the local Republican Cuban-American machine protecting its own, secure in the knowledge that it won't be held accountable by anyone.
In fact, not content to take her office off the case, Rundle tried to get the Miami-Dade Police Department to also drop their probe.
Rundle’s aides also maintained the Miami-Dade Police Department’s public corruption unit, which had been working on the Rivera case with Scruggs, would phase out of the case “in the next few weeks” and that they were turning over all of their materials to FDLE.
But sources within the Miami Dade Police Department said that even though Rundle was trying to push them off of the Rivera investigation they were going to continue to work the case with FDLE.
If you want a full rundown of all of Rivera's shenanigans, read both links above. It's quite the hot potato, but it shouldn't come as a surprise to House Republicans. All of this was public before the election, yet it didn't stop House Republicans from helping him get elected. They can act dismayed, but they brought it onto themselves.
But if they can get him to resign, that'd be great. It would be a fantastic special election in winnable territory, with a far different electorate than the 2010 stinker we just had.