BREC Committeeman on Rick Scott- “He Reminds me of Obama”(VIDEO)
by Javier Manjarres
The Broward Republican Executive Committee (BREC) is known for its very ‘lively and controlled” monthly meetings, and this month did not disappoint. Earlier this evening, State Committeeman Ed Kennedy distributed a personal letter to the REC members that stated his support for a number of Judicial candidates running for office in Broward County. One of the candidates he is supporting isn’t running to be a judge, he is running for Governor of Florida, Attorney General Bill McCollum. The text of his thoughts on the gubernatorial race were as follows:
“In addititon to the judiciary candidates I am supporting, I would emphatically urge you to discount the 30 million dollare smear campaign being conducted against an honorable,hones and hard working true Republican witha solid track record of accomplishments second to none, Bill McCollum. His opponent(Rick Scott) in the primary reminds me of Obama, “never mind my past; this is what I’m going to do.” Many Republicans were fooled by this type of rhetoric and should not be fooled once more.”
In his address to the members of the BREC and visitors, Mr. Kennedy reiterated his “predjudice” for McCollum in the Governor’s race, and when confronted by angry BREC members, Mr. Kennedy stood by his statement he wrote in the letter. Mr. Kennedy also went on to hedge on whether he would vote for Rick Scott, if Scott were to win the Gubernatorial primary race against Bill McCollum.
Have your say, leave us a comment
I have known Ed Kennedy to be an honorable and stand-up type of guy, but this kind of rhetoric is uncalled for and unhelpful to the more important goal of retaining the governorship. And in true form, REC Chairwoman Cindy Guerra, whose boss happens to be AG McCollum, did not recognize motions from the floor to speak, and she abruptly closed the meeting.
Whooh! An established Republican compared Rick Scott to Obama and endorsed a racist Judge candidate? I assume its Judge Rebollo from your earlier postings. What the hell is happening up there in Broward. You guyz are worse than what we have in Miami and Ted or Ed Kennedy needs to resign immediately!
Shameful. Typical establishment mentality that will cost us the election
DISGUSTING! These are the Republican Crist supporters. Way to go Patrick! I just changed my vote to Rick Scott.
I TOTALLY AGREE. Has not one orignal thought. Sell the stste plain. Sarah Palin. Take no salary. The Arnold S.
Javier – come on man, what happened to impartiality – instead of attacking the guy on his choices in a noisy room across a table why not ask someone you believe to be a “honorable and stand-up guy” to do one of your video interviews where he has a chance to explain his views (on both McCollum and the Judge pick)?
Also, what is wrong with his rhetoric? The guy has been a loyal republican for a long time and if he thinks Rick Scott could be another Obama then how is that divisive if hes right? This isn’t about electing anybody who puts an R next to their name (even if they barely make it under the 7 year requirement) its about electing the best Republican for Florida. This isn’t divisive its valid point of view and you should be reporting it as such.
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You would think it shameful unless you had the opportunity to see what actually went on inside a Rick Scott -HCA-Columbia Hospital…..I compare Rick Scott as Obama…..a LIAR!
@ Tamara, and what about Bill McCollum? The man was no saint either when he took money from Planed Parent Hood. You know? the same organization that helps fund abortions! I mean kills babies! Go Scott!!
Typical liberal BREC. Did you see Chairwomen Cindy Guerra adjourn the meeting as fast as she could? She heard there was a motion from the floor but she didn’t want any part of it! How could there be any GOP UNITY when you got a bunch of LIBERAL REPUBLICAN CRIST SUPPORTERS controlling BREC? Sharon Day is the only one You can count on!
Ed Kennedy… “I was told if Rick Scott wins then people will leave the party!” Who are those people? The LIBERAL/MODERATES that are voting for Crist? Good! Leave…
When I was young and naive, I believed that wealthy candidates who could fund their own campaigns were the way to go, because they wouldn’t owe anyone. These days self-funded campaigns tell me that someone is looking for total SELF-power. It doesn’t give me a clue as to the type of person who is funding the campaign.
Please remember that there’s a difference between someone’s law firm defending people of unacceptable activity or philosophy, is not proof of an individual’s philosophy, because lawyers believe that everyone has a right to legal defense (just as Dr.’s will try to medically save the life of a criminal). Bill McCollum’s pro-life voting record received a 100% rating from Right to Life. So to me, this is proof of where he has stood and that he’s being honest as to his pro-life position. To accuse McCollum of not being pro-life is a deliberate deception. Quite frankly I’m tired of this type of thing. People have a right to know all of the truth on where a candidate stands on the issues, but not the dirty politics of skewing and spinning the truth.
Scott’s statement that he is a “pro-life leader” is highly questionable due to the fact that as CEO of Columbia hospital (whose function is to set and change policy), he knew that the hospital performed abortions, he did nothing to change that policy, as he made millions of dollars from an institution which performed abortions, and which he had a major say over the continuance or discontinuance of same! To me, this dispells the myth of being a “pro-life leader”.
Many are not thrilled over McCollum. Many feel he is not as conservative as they would like, but in most areas he IS conservative, and at least he’s been honest as to where he stands.
El Sharko did not attack Mr. Kennedy. El Sharko only stood there filming what was going on-just like the Sun Sentinel reported just stood there and audio recorded the whole exchange as well. As for Mr. Kennedy’s views, he explained why he compared Rick Scott to Obama- go back and watch the tape again. I personnally like Ed, he is has been a great Republican-just baffled and suprised at his actions.
All to often voters seemingly don’t know very much about a crucial arena dealing with the election process by which many very qualifed Judges and, in some cases less astute Judges, get elected.
You may read about them in the print, you may receive campaign material on-line or in the mail but do you ever actually get to shake their hand, hear them present their reasons for holding an important position, or listen to them being questioned about positions of judicial importance relevant to the robes they hope to wear or continue to wear?
Here is an opportunity for you and your friends to fill in the voids. Regardless of your political persuasion here is an opportunity for voters to experience, first hand, who will and will not fill the open seats which jusicial candidates hope to occupy.
==============================================================
———- Forwarded Message ———
You are cordially invited to attend
a Judicial Candidates Meet and Greet
Thursday, August 5, 2010
from 7 PM to 9 PM
at the
GLCC Pride Center
2040 No. Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors, FL 33305
This is a non-partisan event
co-sponsored by the
Fort Lauderdale Bus. & Professional Women’s Club and
HRC – Human Rights Campaign
All Judicial Candidates welcomed to participate
Each candidate will have the opportunity to introduce himself/herself and then mingle with the voters.
For information Contact Sponsors:
Sandra Steen
President, Ft. Lauderdale BPW Club
954-566-4165
sandy215825@aol.com
Steven Bard- HRC : bard621@comcast.net
I have known Committeeman Ed Kennedy for many years and have always been and remain proud to support him.
Preparing a “voters’ guide” with his recommendations for various offices is commendable. People look to those of us who hold positions of leadership for a sense of orientation in making their own decisions on who to vote for on election day. However, distributing his letter/voters’ guide at the BREC sign-in table, through the ladies who work the sign-in tables is an inappropriate use of his position. It makes it look as though BREC “endorsed” the candidates of HIS choice.
BREC has a sorry history of endorsements. Much like Chairman Guerra did last night, then-Chairman Shane Strum ignored protests, point-of-order objections and ultimately faced various Grievances to allow former Chairman Chip LaMarca’s motion to endorse Charlie Crist in 2005. Strum is now Charlie’s Chief of Staff. Guerra worked for Charlie at the AG’s office. McCollum promoted her to her current position.
Maybe the Shark is on target once again: Charlie Crist loyalists do lurk in BREC.
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Rick needs to visit Broward, answer questions, and put an end to all this confusion. Last night was my first BREC meeting and I have to say I was really disappointed in the divisive tone. We’re all in the same party, people. Let’s get it together.
Javier is a paid staffer posing as a journalist, just look at the paid ads on this website. These same headlines could just as easily come from moveon.org.
Good for Ed Kennedy. He’s doing what a leader SHOULD do — lead! Have the Scott supporters noticed lately that Alex Sink is rising in the polls because of the negative campaigning that Mr. Scott started? I wonder if the Dems put him up to this so the Repubs would lose the governors mansion. If you want to know about McCollum’s record, you can look it up — he HAS a record. If you want to know about Scott’s record, where do you go to look anything up? And if you ask him about what we DO know about his record, namely his company’s health-care fraud charges, he won’t answer — he says if you don’t like what he says, don’t vote for him. I will indeed take him up on that!
So now we have Rick Scott’s “pro-life leadership” in question, and we also have his ties to Medicare fraud (rumored to be one of the largest). But because he apologized, we are ready to elect him as Governor???? No Way!
It seems to me that Mr. Ed Kennedy nailed it when he said in his 50 years of Broward political involvement, he had never heard of Rick Scott. I feel the same way. I guess people didn’t get enough of a Presidential candidate we never heard of, and still don’t know anything about (his grades, his college records, etc.), and what we do know, we don’t like!
We have some candidates, who haven’t voted in some primaries, and some general elections, and who have never been involved in legislative issues, campaigns, or candidacy, but all of a sudden (without even knowing the issues) they claim to be concerned about our community. How stupid do we have to be to vote for people we don’t know… people who have never cared before… people who pop up out of the blue (especially those we find were connected to this huge Medicare fraud and who made millions off of a hospital which performed abortions, could’ve changed the policy as CEO, but didn’t) and claim to care!
America is on her knees! We don’t have time to mess with someone who has proved himself to be a questionable character (in the hopes that he’ll turn out to be what we want him to be). I agree with Mr. Ed Kennedy, 100% !
I remember once, a number of years ago where all of the conservatives backed a woman who claimed to support all of our issues. Right before voting day we discovered that she was the giflfriend of a mobster. C’mon people… check these people out! Anyone can claim to support things, but if they’re lives don’t back it up why should we believe them?
@ Carolyn O’Brien – an election isn’t an “originality in policy” contest. the Scott policies you brought up may not be original, but they are GOOD. @ bocacheryl – so because a candidate is new, they shouldn’t be considered?? i’m sorry but that argument lacks logic, LOL…i’m sure AG McCollum is a lovely man with a good record; however, how can we possibly expect a career politician to overlook countless favors owed and received in favor of policies that will indeed serve the entire state and its citizens? how can we honestly expect a person who has spent their careers in government to truly understand wealth-building and the neccessary environment for a solid business growth? we can’t, thats how. Scott has a sound financial plan, and he has the experience to execute it successfully. as Republicans, we should all want the best for the state, not only for a chosen few, deeply ensconced in a political clique that looks first and foremost for the interests of its members. lets give each candidate a fair shake, and let the best man win. let the people choose freely, and lets back up the winning Republican candidate as the loyal Republicans that we are.
No disrespect to Mr. Kennedy, but it is just a bit ridiculous to believe that Scott is some sort of “Manchurian candidate”. He may not have a political track record, but he has a substantial business resume and was on the front lines of defeating HillaryCare back in the 90′s, which was no small feat. And while everyone has their panties in a bunch about “negative campaigning” now, rest assured there will be “negative campaigning” in the general election, so you people better buck up now. Decide for yourselves- do you want to defend Scott and HCA and the so-called “fraud” that took place, or do you want to defend the RPOF establishment under Crist and Greer’s supervision- with Greer’s criminal trial set for October, right before the election. Do McCollum supporters honestly think that Sink’s “negative campaigning” won’t be in overdrive tying McCollum to Greer right before the election?
bocacheryl says McCollum has a record you can look up which I have done over 20 years or so. He talks a good game but his voting record doesn’t always match the rhetoric. I wrote this for the newsletter, VOICES OF THE FLORIDA TAXPAYER, Fall 2000: [ http://voices.freehosting.net/ -good search capabilities ] “U.S. Senator-wannabe Bill McCollum has disqualified himself in our view due to his outrageous spending record in the U.S. Congress. According to the National Taxpayers Union’s latest VoteTally rankings, Rep. McCollum is among the biggest spenders in the Florida delegation, outspending Rep. Robert Wexler (Dist. 19), Rep. Alcee Hastings (Dist. 23) and other Florida Democrats (only Boyd and Diaz-Balart outspent him). In fact, he was the 43rd biggest spender in the entire U.S. Congress! It is difficult to imagine his Democratic opponent being much worse, although apparently he is…” That is just one of many examples.
As for Scott –no record? He only built a $19 billion company with 265,000 employees, that’s all. It takes quite an executive to do that. The Governor’s job is an executive position. I’ll take the successful exec anytime over a career pol.
I’m glad to see the BREC is so smart as to known who I should vote for. A bunch of idiots if they think their endorsements are in individuals best interest. Many of the RECs around the state aligned themselves with McCollum thinking he was the chosen one because at the time, there was no othercandidate with an R next to their name.
The lack of ethics being demonstrated by all RECs by endorsing any candidate before a primary is unexcusable. All the more reason to vote for Scott. Mr Kennedy, crawl back under your rock and wake up on the 25th, when we all will be supporting Scott.
For the good of the Party, Bill McCollum should step down and return to his old job as a lobbyist. He has been a loser for years, and Florida does not need another Katherine Harris (loser) on the ballot, to give the Democrats another seat.
Javier is a paid blogger posing as a journalist, just look at his paid ads on this site. You could just as easily find these headlines on moveon.org
To honegetoverit:
It is not because a candidate is new that he/she shouldn’t be considered, but rather because we know very little about him, and what we do know isn’t conducive to electing him as Governor. The policies of which I spoke (while you may think they were good) are not in line with his telling us that he is a “pro-life leader”. This is the same thing that Crist did to us, and no one ever knew where he really stood on conservative issues, and we still don’t!
As for whether or not we can expect a “career politician” to overlook countless favors he might owe, the answer is “yes”.
We have quite a few “career politicians” who are the heroes of this nation. These people have put their lives, and their careers on the line to educate us and to fight for the very things some Americans are just recently awakening to.
These newly awakened people are the very people who have been happily living their lives in complete oblivian for years, have sat back and allowed the near destruction of our country without raising a finger. They don’t even have an awareness of the background of the issues we’re fighting (and if you don’t know where you’ve been, how do you know where you’re going?). While others (like some career politicians) have actually had their lives threatened, the lives of their families threatened, have been attacked by the media (often with deliberately erroneous info), have worked themselves silly trying to inform America of what was happening! These are the heroes of America, and now you want to cast them aside simply because you don’t want to expend energies doing your homework in trying to find out who has tried to save America, who has simply sat back and done nothing, and who has tried to destroy her!
Laziness, not checking out candidates, and apathy are the reasons for how we got here in the first place! WHO IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO LAY HIS/HER LIFE ON THE LINE, JEOPARDIZE HIS/HER FAMILY AND CAREER ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT PEOPLE AREN’T EVEN GOING TO SUPPORT HIM/HER WHEN THE CHIPS ARE DOWN!????
You don’t want to trust “wealth building, solid business growth, & a financial plan” to a “career politician”, but you would trust it to a person with ties to Medicare fraud, and to a person who has not being quite honest with us (on pro-life leadership) before he is elected… so how much can we trust him afterward?
Is the BREC in cahoots with McCollum? I haven’t made my decision yet as to who to vote for, but i gotta tell ya, I think I am really considering Rick Scott. We def need some real change in the Repub party.
What happened last night is the reason why I won’t join this BREC
It is good to see other State Committee people work to destroy the party. Why? We need to have power and destroy any and all who do not kiss our butts. Look at me, I use the name of Congresswoman Ileana Ros;-Lehtinen to get elected even though my real name is Liliana Ros Ferrer. I even fake the “L” to make it look like a star and get the vote from the old people. I wield a heavY ax at the REC and destroy unity in the party. Paul Crespo is correct, we are corrupt and so what? Go BREC, keep up pushing for people who will follow and do nothing as long as we can control them and they will make us look good.
Vote for Liliana Ros for State Committeewoman in 2012 and let’s not go to work Florida. We can stagnate the party even further.
There are too many people running in this Primary who have never shown an inch of “Republican” in their life. Well, aside from being registered as Republicans and sometimes not even that.
Everyone needs to do the homework on all candidates and see what Republican work they have done. What Republican clubs they belong to, what donation have they made and what people they have actively supported. Too many are raising tons of cash to be elected and be controlled. At least Rick Scott is using his own money and that is nothing to be ashamed of. RINO candidates are showing up all over the state. They are like Obama. Never had any experience or interest and now they see an opportunity. They worst part is that the political machine is backing them up and this truly destroys the GOP.
Wake up people! Do not support these people. They are going to further destroy the party. In 2012, vote all State Committee Men and Women and bring in new people to lead the Party. Elected new leadership. This State is too valuable to let Special Interest politics keep us down.
No More RINOs!
Make pretend that we are in Arizona and ask for their Republican credentials always! True credentials!
Good grief! We don’t need “change” in the Republican Party! We need to go back to our roots and adhere to our Party Platform. Think about it… The problem has been that we’ve supported anyone with an (R) behind his/her hame. What we got were Democrats, Libertarians, in Republican Clothing!
There have been a number of Congressman with whom we were relatively certain of their background not aligning with our beliefs, and therefore we pretty much knew where they were really coming from, but voted for them anyway. (The opposing parties used the information, got the officials out of office and made us look like complete idiots! Here we claim to stand for certain things, and then we elect people whose past have pretty much indicated that they did not stand for those things we hold dear!. So we got exactly what we deserved… We got people who claimed to be Republican, but who actually lived as and stood for Democrat and Libertarian principles!
And to the person who doesn’t want to join the BREC, because of what she heard… all I can say is politics can be ugly, but you need to know as much info on a candidate’s position as necessary. This isn’t a vote for prom king or queen… This is a vote for the soul of Florida and ultimately America!
I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t want to expend my time, energy and finances to support someone else’s agenda (especially when they’re not even honest about their background or their real agenda)!
Wake up people and smell the coffee! Rick Scott has too many unkowns. And what we know is very disturbing. His involvement in Medicare fraud as CEO of HCA and preforming of abortions at his hospitals. He made money off of abortions. Blood money. Bill McCollum has a 100% pro-life record.
Rick Scott did not start running for Gov by giving his stand on issues. He started out by trashing Bill McCollum and his reputation. He knew he could play us a fools if he trashed Bill McCollum by having people turn against Bill McCollum they would in turn vote for him. Then he would not have to let people know where he stands. Some of the commercials that Scott has run against McCollum have been proven to be false.
Do you really want to vote for someone for Gov who has trashed a good man’s reputation?
McCollum is a man of integrity, Scott is not! Yes he has money and he is trying to buy the governorship.
Yes! he reminds me alot of Obama. Instead of running on issues he is running on trashing his oppornent. That is the same thing that Obama and the DEm party are doing.
Bill McCollum will have my vote. I will not vote for Scott even if I have to vote a 3rd party candidate and I have never voted a 3rd party candidate.
If we want , and I use this term lightly, Change————-Then vote out the ones with experience. Get some new blood in that will generate some solid thoughts and not those of the special interests groups. We all talk about the US Congress and how we are going to get rid of them all–Well, Florida is no different !! Those in power now owe favors, have committments they must honor. Get some fresh Blood in there and lets see if we can overcome some of the old cronie mentality.
The RInos will keep trashing Bill just like they did Ron Paul– and they will get what they deserve — a self absorbed amoral opportunist.who got rich with crime and deceit. Scott will sell FL down the river–his buddies will get richer and the people of FL will suffer and pay.—remember you heard it here first.
Bill McCollum is associated with Charlie Crist. How can you trust him?
Please do not equate Bill McCollum’s conservativism with Ron Paul’s. Ron Paul, who ran for President as a Libertarian, and then changed to Republican, is still a Libertarian minded man, and as such while he may be conservative on fiscal issues, he is not conservative on most social issues (look up the Libertarian Platform. Libertarians do not define Liberty the same as Republicans do, but they seldom make this public.). His only conservative position on the social issues, is on pro-life. However the Libertarian Platform states that the position on abortion is up to individual choice (which is the same position as pro-abortion politicians and voters).
Ron Paul is Pro-gay marriage. Pull up Ron Paul’s interview by John Stossel, on 20/20, regarding Gay Marriage (which Ron Paul supports). (http://www.queerty.com/ron-paul-on-gay-marriage-20071210/).
Ron Paul is also in favor of legalizing recreational pot. So also check out the two bills which Ron Paul and Barney Frank sponsored together: HR 5842 legalizes medical marijuana, and HR 5843 legalizes recreational marijuana for personal use.
Always keep in mind that Libertarians have been trying to take over the Republican Party to change our Platform to be in agreement with theirs. I do not want our platform to align with the Libertarian Platform. So if you agree with me, you better check out the Libertarian Platform, and candidates (like Rand Paul) who claim to be Republican, and are very conservative in some areas, but who are very liberal in the social issues.
And finally, once again, don’t “get rid of them all”, because long before America awakened to our country being destroyed, many good people who are in office, had been paying a major price to stand up for and fight for our freedoms, to try to educate us that this was coming. They did so at their own peril, at risk to their lives, their families’ lives, their careers, and their good reputations! What kind of horrible people would now get rid of these good people who have been on the front lines for so long, rather than checking out what they’ve done for us? What part of honoring and protecting and being loyal to our friends do Americans no longer understand?
In my county, we had a wonderful elected official who had done battle for us for years. He did one thing (relative to strategy) with which a group of people disagreed. They turned on him, and we ended up with a major, liberal Democrat who replaced him. THINK ABOUT THAT !!!!!!
The attacks on Scott are uncalled for. He began his campaign by stating what he would do. Then he was attacked by McCollum with charges related to the Medicare in HCA-Columbia Hospitals. The fact that that HCA purchased the hospital in question which was then discovered to have these issues clearly does not matter. It appears we should never let facts get in the way of biased opinions. I have worked in these hospitals, and while I really do not like what is happening to the practice of medicine nationally, these are well run and effective hospitals.To those who time line is fudged, he counter attacked McCollum after that-don’t believe me-look it up.
It is clear what we have in McCollum A carrier politician who will waste our money, croney for his fiends-see what happened to the party boss who endorsed his run after McCollum did not investigate clear evidence of wrong doing, prompting the feds to come in, investigate, prosecute and put the boss in jail.
If we conservatives screw this one up, our country is done for. Get you heads out of you a.. and let’s make sure conservatives win-we need balanced budgets, tax reductions to get this great country growing, national security from those who would attack us, border security so we are not overrun and overspent caring for illegals, schools that can actually produce students who can function in our society (just look at how easily they were duped to vote in the last election by a school system that is so left leaning it is pathetic), and reduce this enormous debt. We need to repeal much of the socialist agenda that has been passed, including the health care, business regulation, get the government out of the private sector, and if a business cannot make it-let is go down.
We are an exceptional country the likes of which has not been seen since Rome. If we let the liberals and socialist screw this up, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Pull together people!!!
Patrick, keep fighting the fight! You have our support.Your the man!!!!!!!!!!
After watching this video I now realizes that the Republican establishment/Crist supporters are supporting McCollum. Now I will defiantly vote for Rick Scott!
sandi, read George Blumel post, he sums it up beautifully. as u can clearly see with all the posts, the people have spoken, and those that haven’t said it openly have CERTAINLY said it behind closed doors – GO RICK!!!!
Wow! Thank God there are Patrick Castronovo’s and Javier Manjarres out there that have the guts to fight and expose these guy’s. I was leaning towards Bill McCollum but now i’m voting for Rick Scott for sure! This is the same Liberal Republican establishment that supported Crist! Rick Scott is my guy now! Out with the RINO’s!
Once again the Republican Party is still a fascist party just like the Democratic Party.
Just shows how things have not changed.
I for one am proud to be a Libertarian!! I support Rand Paul and have supported Ron Paul and will continue to support similar candidates.
Javier is a paid blogger posing as a journalist, just look at his paid ads on this site. You could just as easily find these headlines on moveon.org.
First let me dispell the accusation that McCollum accepted a contribution from Planned Parenthood. (Another major spin)… The two separate years that McCollum received the contribution from the law firm which represents Planned Parenthood, that firm had not registered as a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood! So would someone mind explaining how Bill McCollum was supposed to have known this?!
Second, I have been an activist for 38 years. I’ve fought for issues of traditional values of pro-God, family and country, and I’ve learned not to accept things at face value, and not to blindly believe campaign rhetoric. When no one, I know, in the pro-life community has ever heard of Mr. Scott, and then I discover that he was CEO of a hospital that performs abortions and that he had the authority to change that policy, but didn’t (and actually profited by millions of dollars from it) that tells me that while he may be personally pro-life (a phrase used by many pro-abortion people), the chances are that he is not the “pro-life leader” he claims to be. The minute somene claims to be something he’s not, my radar goes up. Isn’t that how we ended up with Crist, and many other politicians who deceived us? Whether you agree with the pro-life philosophy or not, the fact that the statement is more than a little questionable ought to raise alarms!
Unless you consider the Republican Platform part of “the establishment”, I have never been part of the establishment. I am a Republican, because I believe in the platform, which I and many others in the Republican Party have fought to preserve. Rather than allow the Party to be taken over by those who wish to destroy what it is supposed to stand for, many Republicans chose to stay and fight to uncover dishonesty and deception within the Party. I don’t support, or vote for, someone whose lifestyle, actions or voting record is in major opposition to the values I believe are best for our community, our state, or America, just as I don’t support those who tell me one thing and I discover major discrepancies.
I have never supported Charlie Crist. Have always believed him to be the kind of self-serving person who tells us what we want to hear. His principles are whatever will get him elected at any given time.
As for people here who are saying they’re going to vote for Rick Scott out of defiance. “Defiance” voting is irresponsible, and could finish America off by splitting the vote and allowing the Democrat to get in to continue Crist/Obama’s agenda! America doesn’t have time for “protest” or “defiance” votes at this time in our history. Barring a miracle, 2010 and 2012 are probably our last chances to take our country back! All I wanted to do is point out that we must actually check out “truth”, and read between the lines before we vote.
Sorry, folks, I can’t vote for someone who built a multi billion dollar business by having ties to medicare fraud. What part of “fraud” do we not understand here? While an “apology” can certainly warrant forgiveness, it doesn’t warrant my blind trust to elect a person as Governor of my state.
Look, I wanted to point out some things for people to consider before blindly trusting someone who has already shown a major dishonest spin on truthful reality, and close ties to Medicare fraud! If you want to shut your eyes to that then go to it.
I have no problem with people who disagree with me. I DO have a problem with a philosophy which I believe is destructive. If you support Ron Paul and believe in Libertarian principles that’s your business, but when Ron Paul or anyone else runs as a Republican , while they actually adhere to Libertarian values, that becomes my business and should be the business of every voter. It’s called dishonest! As I said earlier, why would anyone want to expend their time, energy, and monies for someone elses agenda? And why would anyone follow a person who is not true to what he/she is, but rather deceives people into believing that he is something he’s not. .
The “Big Tent” philosophy is absurd. One can, of course, register as a Republican without adhering to the principles, but it is impossible to unite under opposing philosophies, therefore person’s of opposing philosophies should never be voted into office, or hold a position of leadership; To stand for everything, is to stand for nothing…. one or the other will win out! I am a Republican, only because I believe in the principles! If the day comes when all of those principles have been abandoned (as many are trying to accomplish now), I will no longer be a Republican.
@ Sandi Trusso:
Those of us who have seriously looked into the “fraud” of HCA and every other major hospital chain at the time see that these ties of ‘fraud’ to Scott are just as scurrilous as McCollums’ ties to Planned Parenthood. You want the truth? You want to know who really perpetrated fraud? It was the Clinton Administation, who in an act of spite for losing the fight over HIllarycare, decided to use the brush of “fraud” over the entire hospital sector- an almost entire Republican constituency group- as payback. Lots of good and honorable businesspeople got tarred with that slander- coming straight from the Clinton Machine. If you really insist on ascertaining “truthful reality”, it behooves you to find out the truth, rather than settle for the convenient narrative that Scott=HCA=1.7 Billion Fraud. It seems your inquisitiveness only extends in one direction.
@ Jason
To make the statement that something “is scurrilous” (implying “not true”) without documenting facts, is not an opinion or conclusion-changer.
To those of you who have seriously looked into the “fraud” of HCA,.. and discovered that there was no truth to the accusations of the “Clinton machine”, I sincerely request that you please share the documentation on this. What records can we check to prove that no fraud existed, and that this was only a made up “get even” scheme of Bill Clinton? – Where can we find the retractions or exonerations of such accusations? Believe me, since my inquisitiveness actually does extend both ways, if you give me the documentation, I will check it out, and if there is actual proof, then I will re-evaluate my conclusions. However, I still must question that if there really was no truth, what was Mr. Scott apologizing for, and what lesson was it that he claimed to have learned in this matter?
On the other hand, if you check campaign contributions for 1997-1998, you will discover that the PAC committee of the firm of Arnold and Porter, which contributed $1000 in ’97, and $1000 in ’98 to Bill McCollum’s campaign (while techically qualifiying as “thousands of dollars”) hardly qualifies as the dramatically huge contribution that the term “thousands of dollars” implies. Man, someone really had to stretch a long way to find and spin this!
If you further check the records you will see that in ’97 and ’98, the firm had not registered as a Planned Parenthood lobbyist. Therefore, if they were, in fact lobbying for Planned Parenthood at that time, Bill McCollum would have had no way of knowing that.
I guess it’s just too hard to read something that begs questions and responses, without doing so..
Yes we can!Blow the state of Florida, that is.I am a very loyal Republican, very conservative on fiscal and social issues I am a memebr of BREC. Even though I am an idealist , I also know that politics is a numbers game. If you really want to oust the Washington corruption and socialist agenda you need to oust the Pelosi -Reid leadership. If you want an advantage in the Presidential 2012 race you need as many Republican governors as you can get.To get control you need the numbers.Again even liberal or middle of the road R’s will assure John Boehmer,not Nancy Pelosi is Speaker.Even though there are many conservative Dems in congress the far left took over Washington because the leadership goes to whoever holds the majority.We went from sure thing is the Senate race to toss up. My son and I both predicted that this divisive stuff would spill over into the Gov .race.
@Sandy
The “documentation” is out there, it’s all a matter of public record, all you have to do is merge that information with the corruption of the Clintons, and you will have your answer. As I said, if you are an truly objective person, you would go to the exact same length that you have for McCollum to see if these allegations are true or false- I’m not going to do your research for you.
I will say this- If the possibility existed that Rick Scott was guilty of committing fraud, it is reasonable to assume he would have been questioned about the allegation by investigators. He was not. The Feds were simply interested in extracting vast sums of money from the hospital systems by exploiting the inherent confusion within Medicare Regs and defining down the meaning of the term “fraud”, which they then recklessly painted everyone with that brush, deserved or not.
No one ever said that Rick Scott was convicted of fraud, but as CEO (who was never questioned or personally fined) he said that he “takes” responsibility. No…… the CEO doesn’t “TAKE” responsibility, IT WAS HIS JOB to “BE” responsible.
There are only a few options here. He either never knew there was a problem, or suspected, but never bothered to look at the problem, or he did look at it and gave it a pass.
Giving Mr. Scott the benefit of the doubt, that he wasn’t involved and wasn’t aware of any of the fraud, here’s my conclusion on that: If he really wasn’t involved (as CEO, and am I correct in understanding that he’s also an Attny) he SHOULD HAVE BEEN involved & responsible enough to have recognized and handled the problem. So the question is this… If he didn’t realize what was going on in an organization of this size, why would we want to put him in an even more powerful job, because how can he be expected to know what’s going on in the entire state of Florida?
I have found nothing identifying “the Clinton Corruption” as being behind this mess (for Clintonto get even with conservative Republicans). It is also hard to believe that Beth Israel in Mass. (connected to Harvard), also under investigation, involved conservative Republicans whom Clinton felt needed to be paid back.
Help me out here. With the Bill McCollum/Planned Parenthood lobbyist contributions, accusation, it’s easy enough to check out by finding the impeccable records on registered lobbyists, and campaign contributions. But I don’t know where to go to find “Bill Clinton’s getting even corruption”, or “hospital financially settles fraud charges, and gets rid of CEO because he wanted to fight, and they don’t want to prove their innocence”.
I know this is sarcastic, but seriously, why wouldn’t you want to disprove the allegations? Can’t you direct me to a web site (other than one based on Rick Scott’s own interpretation), or to the files where you found the info. Just point me in the right direction. I’ll do the leg work.
I support Ed Kennedy, Rick Scott is a crook that has run his campaign on money stolen from us!
1) Scott lies in two TV ads about McCollum taken out of context a quote about the AZ immigration law, saying “We do not need that here”. McCollum stance is to stop illegal immigration, and he has publicly stated it, yet Rick Scott still runs the ads knowing that it is not true. No moral or ethics I guess.
2) He ran HCA (highest Medicare Fine in history), partners with a Co. to send US dollars from Illegal offshore & owns a soft porn Mexican magazine.
3) From my point of view he is a lousy Businessman, because he does not know what is going on in his companies or a liar for not admitting what he knows. Either way it makes him a bad Candidate for the next Governor of Florida.
3) I am tired of Candidates buying their way into office.
4) Scott spends all this money on his campaign then sues to stop McCollum (who is not a rich man like Scott) from receiving matching funds. Then being a poor loser, after the court rules against him, he appeals the Judges decision. His win at all cost because he has the money does not sit well with me.
5) In my opinion, Scott is an egotistical, narcissist that has to have everything his way.
6) He should be ashamed to be using the money he stole from all of us to run his horrendously deceptive campaign.
The man is a smooth talking con artist that has no experience on how to bring our State out of the precarious position it is in.
Obama ran the same type campaign and it worked for him. How is that working out for you? This is not the place for a rookie to start his political career.
Tim McClellan
Political Strategist
@ Tim McClellan, And we are tired of career politicians like Bill McCollum! Now let’s get to work!
Bill McCollum is a Crist guy! Just look at that video… The Moderate/Liberal Crist Board of Directors at BREC are supporting McCollum and that’s all we need to know. Go Scott!!
Bill McCollum has less then $489,000 in the bank and if Bill was to win and run against Sink… Sink has a war chest over 7 million dollars so far in the bank and we all know money talks in Florida. Just one week of t.v. ads in Florida is about 1.3 million dollars! And Scott has a ton of money to fight the Democrats and beat them. Scott is our man! Plus i’m tired of the same old same old. Sorry, Bill your a nice guy but…
@Miguel
So you’re saying that “he who has the most money should be the winner of the elections”? Let’s elect just anyone to beat Sink, even if for all we know, the person could end up being worse than Sink. We know very little about Rick Scott (except what he tells us), and except for his ties to “medicare fraud”, and the “Pro-life leader” deception (as a self-proclaimed Pro-life leader, what pro-life organizations has he worked with, what pro-life legislation has he fought for, what amount of pro-life personal time or contributions has he expended to save lives?). Most people in the pro-life community haven’t heard of him. I want to be able to document these things, not just take his word.
Never mind that self-funded people not only owe no one favors, but they are also answerable only for themselves and their personal agendas (which may or may not be destructive to us and/or monetarily beneficial to themselves). Never mind that many times the better candidate can’t compete, because they aren’t wealthy. Whatever happened to the wonderful old truth that “only in America can a poor boy grow up to be president”? Our morals are such today, that this thought is down the tubes. As long as we have wealthy self-funded candidates, who can outspend all the rest, the truth in many circles today has been replaced with “Only a wealthy, self-funded candidate should win an election in America”!
@FL Republican Voter
I’m all for VOTING OUT CAREER POLITICIANS,BUT ONLY THOSE who have voted for destructive issues for America, or issues which only benefit themselves, or issues which are immoral by principles of faith (which, by the way, can always be proved by siting even secular facts when the media gives us the chance) But I WILL ALWAYS STAND FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FOUGHT TO PROTECT OUR FREEDOM, OUR SOVEREIGNTY, OUR LIBERTY, OUR SOCIETAL MORALS (NOT THE MORALS OF THE ACLU OR THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY, OR THE DEMOCRAT PARTY) THOSE MORALS, SECURITY ISSUES, AND FINANCIAL ISSUES THAT ARE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF OUR FOUNDING FATHERS (WHICH HAVE SERVED US WELL FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS, AND MADE US THE ENVY OF THE WORLD)!.
I really wonder if the “getting rid of career politicians” people are deliberately trying to lose the election by splitting the conservtive vote and turning the election victory over to the Democrats, or are they just people who are new to the process and aren’t particuarly politically astute, or are they simply people who just don’t stand by those elected officials or anyone else who has laid their lives (sometimes literally) on the line for us? The thinking of these kinds of voters is absolutely frightening to me (for my family, my community, my state and my country).
Those elected officials who have been on the front lines doing battle for us will continue to do so. Why would you want to get rid of them to get an unknown elected, rather than check out each candidate to find out who actually has and will fight for you?
I must admit, this site is addictive!
@ Sandy-
Its not really news that the Clinton Justice Dept. and its FBI were highly politicized agencies under Clinton whose notion of “justice” was skewered. By defining down the notion of what constitutes real “fraud”, they were able to tarnish all hospitals with that label, deserved or not. If there was no actual “fraud”, but rather legitimate ambiguity and interpretative confusion regarding Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement rates (which by the way still exist), there was no fraud committed in the real sense of the term. Furthermore, this is proof positive why we never should have let the federal government distort the health care market thru its issuance of very confusing reimbursement schedule and SGR regulations that can be subject to political machinations.
New Qinn poll just came out Scott is up by 11%! I think this video just gave Rick Scott a bumb in the polls! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!
Ed, you were wrong buddy…
The BREC has always been a den of slithering Charlie Crist-supporting brown nosers. Unfortunately, those on the right side of things have made little effort to rid the BREC of these roaches.
BREC stands for Broward REPUBLICAN Executive Committee. If there are Crist supporters in there undermining the Republican nominee for US Senate against a RINO-turned-putative-Democrat-”Independent,” then they should be removed. Read the rules. It’s there and it’s not that hard.
Wow, have just been reading some of the back and forth.
There seems to be some misconception regarding the HCA fines. I was an ICU nurse for 30 years, many of them in an HCA hospital. Consider this before you jump to conclusions. Scott was CEO of a corporation with >350 hospitals. Each hospital has a billing department with probably dozens of billing clerks, mostly high school graduates, doing billing for thousands of patients during the course of a year. Now consider that the medicare guidelines are comprised of thousands of pages-larger than the US tax code. I’m wondering how it is possible to get anyone’s bill correct under those circumstances? I don’t think there was intentional fraud, I think there is a lot of unnecessary regulation and nonsensical rules from a bloated bureaucracy overseeing a socialized program. This is not like some proven cases of fraud of people who filed claims on non-existent patients, or for procedures that were not done. Before you castigate Rick Scott for not knowing what was going on down in the billing department of each hospital-realize that when obamacare gets into full swing, all of us will have our health care affected negatively by exactly this same kind of bureaucracy. Obamacare is bad news. Bad for patients, bad for physicians (who will be retiring early in droves), bad for insurance companies who will be driven out of business so we are all forced to the public option they will create-the lowest common denominator. Rick Scott spent lots of his own money fighting obamacare. I’m guessing it will be quite an advantage to have someone as governor who is familiar with how a hospital is supposed to run, to fight and help get obamacare overturned. If you have the slightest idea that socialized medicine is a good idea, google “Canadian hospitals closing” and see what our neighbors to the north went through. Check out how much income tax they pay to foot the bill for their “free” health care. I have taken care of many Canadian patients who have medical insurance here and come here to have surgery, They were happy to give me an earful.
Also, regarding the comments above about abortion. The McCollum ad that says thousands of abortions were done in HCA hospitals-a blatant lie. I had the opportunity to see the surgery schedule every day. The medical term for abortion is D & E- they were not commonly done in the hospital. During the 90s, I doubt if any insurance paid for elective abortions, though some do now unfortunately. That is why most people went to abortion clinics, where they could plunk down their cash to get their procedure done. If a wealthy patient wanted to get one done in the hospital, her physician could schedule it, she could pay cash, and the hospital could not refuse to do it if they were a public hospital and they accept federal funds, ie, medicare reimbursement. I know that abortion in the hospital was rare-and I have written the McCollum campaign and asked them for numbers to back up that ad, and I got no response. Folks, our lousy courts have made abortion legal. What would you have had Rick Scott do-refuse care to people which was legal? What did McCollum do about this when he was in Congress? Well, he sponsored a bill to protect the hospital corporations against the clinton administration, as he thought they were being agressively persecuted. He seems to have changed his tune now. But-while McCollum was in Congress, did he sponsor a bill to overturn Roe v wade? How come? If he thinks it is such a terrible procedure, I’d think while the republicans had the majority they would have addressed that. I liken Florida politics to a game of musical chairs. The same people keep playing, year after year. When the music stops, what chair will they be in? Well, Rick Scott has not been in the game. I say he deserves a chance. If you have not heard him, read his website, get informed. Don’t just pay attention to the ads. I am not voting for career politicians again. They have gotten us into this mess.
Very insightful post, Cindy. I really think Scott has really struck a chord here- there is a severe distrust of anyone affiliated with the outgoing Crist Administration. Very little was accomplished on their watch that was genuinely beneficial to Floridians, all the while Greer and Crist were exploiting the party at everyone else’s expense in the pursuit of their own narrow self-interest. Time to clean house.
When the rhinos are sinking in the quick sand they will do anything. Cleansing of the parties is occuring and the rhinos must go, but they will obviously not go with out a fight. While this is occuring the more liberal Dems are being forced upon their party’s primaries as well trying to replace those so called “Blue Democrats”. All in my humble opinion! Watch out for Sink republicans.! She will win her primary. Will be an interesting matchup Scott v Sink….That’s right I just called it…Up in the air then… I have pegged the contestents of this here Florida Guvnah! race, however, I am not sure who to roll with. no more party with sheepy followee any more here..I don’t think I am alone in this thought.
Be well
McCollum is a nice guy with no dirty laundry except that he has affiliated with Crist, who in my book is turncoat Charlie or Judas Crist, call him what you will. And Crist took the stimulus, hugged Obama and is being supported by Democrats. McCollum has been around for 30 years and has to be part of the problem. I agree with the above–let’s clean the house. The old guard in the Republican party need to let go of their moderate views which led to a great weakening of our country in conjunction with the push for change through the progressive movement. We need strong conservative business leaders so I’ll take my chances with Scott. At least it’s a shot in the right direction instead of hitting the same old target.
@ Cindy
What, are we all stupid here? Are we actually supposed to accept that Rick Scott, as CEO of HCA (who was paid millions to know what’s going on), didn’t know about the Medicare fraud, because of the fact that there are 350 HCA hospitals, dozens of billing clerks (mostly high school grads… which according to Cindy, seems to have contributed to the ineptness of billing) doing billing for thousands of patients? These reasons are what makes Cindy wonder “how it is possible to get anybody’s bill right”?
Now apply that same theory to “Career Politicians” (I’m speaking only of those who have made horribly destructive legislative choices) who depend on these State/Federal employees…. Obviously you’re not willing to give them a pass… so why does Rick Scott get a pass?!
Now go back and apply that same theory (wondering how under the above-mentioned circumstances, it was possible to get anyone’s bill right) to the frightening possibility of Rick Scott heading up the population of an entire state, with the (generally agreed upon) ineptness of many Governmental State/Federal Employees in many, many job capacities… How in the world, if Scott didn’t know what was going on in the 350 HCA hospitals, can we expect him to know what’s going on within the entire State of Florida?
Another issue to consider… Within all issue-oriented organizations, there is certain terminology used, which pretty much defines the principles of each group, and distinguishes one group from another. Usually within minutes of beginning a conversation one can determine where an individual stands on an issue just by the terminology used. So FYI: The term “Care” used by Cindy when referencing “legal hospital abortions”, is not a term which would ever be used by pro-lifers to reference, interchangeably with abortion…)
Now let me say this about abortion being performed in these hospitals… 1) Is abortion the current law of the land? Yes! 2) Are abortions done in hosptials? Yes! 3) To pro-lifers does even one abortion that claims the life of a baby matter? Yes! 4) Do rare abortions matter as much as frequent abortions? Yes! 5) As CEO of HCS (having the power to have changed the abortion policy) should Rick Scott, a self-proclaimed pro-life leader, have refused abortions in the hospitals under his authority, even though abortion is legal??? ABSOLUTELY! He had the power to do so, and as a self-proclaimed, pro-life leader, he certainly should have. Just because abortion is legal, does not make it illegal to disallow abortions being done in a facility under your authority. Again, In my opinion, whether you are pro-life or pro-abortion, it is important to recognize that to do other than disallow abortion as a matter of policy, negates Rick Scott’s claim of being a “pro-life leader”. In fact, unless he is not a man of principle, it even negates the claim of being a pro-life person.
Finally, I’m sick of hearing the term “career politicians”. This is a term used by people who yell for “less government intrusion”, and then yell for “term limits”, because they’re too lazy to check out and educate others as to which gov’t officials have fought for America, and which have been destructive. So they would rather risk getting a destructive person into office, than keeping a person of honor, by letting government decide who gets in or out of office, or by “just voting everyone out, including those who have put their lives on the line (sometimes literally) for us!”.
Voter ignorance, and voter apathy is what got us into this mess, and now we have the “career politician” phrase being thrown at the lazy, uninformed, and apathetic groups, simply because these groups don’t want to research, think and vote for themselves! This is usually a deceptive phrase used as a tool to indoctrinate people into a philosophy which is not usually completely revealed. In large part, the vast usage of the phrase was initiated and attributed, to the Libertarian minded people to get their philosophy into governmental power, without the voters ever knowing for sure what that philosophy is until the candidate is already elected, and in some intstances, even then the true voting record is guarded!)
Benjamin Franklin was right, when he answered the question(after coming out of the first Constitutional Convention) “what form of government do we have”?, by saying “You have a Republic… if you can keep it”. Even back then, he must’ve realized that many people did and would continue tofall into laziness and apathy!
Since Rick Scott doesn’t even show up for any of the candidate debates I’ve attended, how is anyone to know what the man actually stands for, except for the erroneous statements made, against McCollum, in his ads? The fact that, to my knowledge, he hasn’t participated in most (or perhaps, any) of these debates should be a major red flag to voters! We can only determine our votes by the few things we do know about him. Presidents Obama, and Clinton personify the term “smoothe talkers”, and I think they both proved that we can’t merely take the word of “smoothe talkers”. Rick Scott can talk a good game, but I for one am not going to be taken in unless I see proof of what he actually stands for. Pro-life is one thing I’m not buying, and his not knowing about the Medicare fraud happening on his watch as CEO is still very questionable to me.
Hey, Sandi-
It just struck me. To use you own words-”do you think we are stupid here?” The only reason you keep harping about all of Scott’s faults when people repeatedly have pointed out the obvious lack of honesty in your criticism of Scoot- and completely ignore major issues in McCollum- You work for McCollum-enough said!
Hey, Sandi-
It just struck me. To use you own words-”do you think we are stupid here?” The only reason you keep harping about all of Scott’s faults when people repeatedly have pointed out the obvious lack of honesty in your criticism of Scott- and completely ignore major issues in McCollum- You work for McCollum-enough said!
@ E Eye
I ‘ve read nothing about anyone pointing out anything about my “lack of honesty”. Further, no one has shown me proof of any of those things I’ve asked for. I would like to know of a specific site, or dept, or file, or the date/title/News paper, where I can find a news article, or somewhere I can go, to find this proof. So far, I have received none. Telling me that the fraud wasn’t really fraud, that it was just something trumped up by Clinton to get even with hospitals, might sound like a believable thing, because everyone knows Clinton pulled some sleazy things, but surmising that he pulled it in the specific case of HCA, and proving that he pulled it in the specific case of HCA, are two different things! At this stage the only proved fact we’re still left with is the fact that HCA had to pay an enormous fine for Medicare fraud, and that all of this transpired at the time that Rick Scott was CEO!
When it comes to truth, and proof everyone knows that you can’t just take someone’s word (especially not when the stakes are as high as they are at this time in our lives). I’m sure that Bill Clinton would just as vehemently deny the accusations that Rick Scott’s supporters are vehemently claiming! Since very few of us really know Rick Scott personally, why would we presume that his word is any different than Clinton’s (I’m not accusing, but none of us, who’ve not known him personally, knows how credible Mr. Scott is… that’s why we need proof of his statements!). In 38 years that I’ve been involved with the pro-life movement, no one I know among many pro-life leaders and members(throughout the state of Florida) has ever even heard of Rick Scott, a self proclaimed pro-life leader. Before the man ran for office, the average person had never heard of him…. What has Mr. Scott ever done to let people know that he cared about our country, our laws, our legislation, our morals? Why wouldn’t I question this? Why wouldn’t everyone question this? Why does that make someone who does question, dishonest?
I do not work for McCollum! I am supporting him, however. If your accusation (that I’m working for him) rings true, that because I support him I must be working for him, does this mean that because you’re trying to defend Scott that you’re working for him? Why would you make an accusation of “my dishonesty”, and that I’m “working for McCollum” based upon absolutely nothing?
And just for the record, when you say that I’m “working for” McCollum, I hope that you aren’t implying as a paid worker, because I’ve been a political activist for 38 years, and have never been paid one thin dime, nor have I taken any thing in like kind.
I check out everything that comes before me before I make a decision on whom (or what legislation) to support within this political arena, and I don’t make claims that I can’t document. I check everything out, try to educate others, and activate patriots, because America has been fighting against the slow erosion of our morals, our very foundation and our system of government for many years!
I have worked for issues relating to God, family, life, freedom and the preservation of an America left to us by our founding fathers. I’ve done this because I don’t want to leave an America (such as we’ve realized that we’ve been moving toward and are witnessing the near completion of now ) to my children, grandchildren or the families of any other American. For people who have never bothered to be involved with anything that doesn’t involve themselves, personally, that may be hard to understand, but for those of us who know that we are answerable to a God who is greater than ourselves, this is not a difficult task.
Please check this article out:
Poll: Columbia/HCA whistleblowers stunned Rick Scott is atop Florida governor polls
BY LIZ FREEMAN Naples Daily News
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Sandy, In response to your response,
One day you too will have some imbecile government bureaucrat rationing your care.
I will reiterate- if a public hospital accepts federal funding, which medicare reimbursement is, I do not believe they can refuse to perform an abortion. I think that Catholic hospitals can because they are private hospitals. You perhaps misinterpret my comment about the billing clerks in hospital billing departments-my point is only that I think errors made were only errors, not attempts to defraud medicare. I think those folks were doing as well as they could under circumstances they were faced with. Do you have any idea how many thousands of pages are in guidlines for medicare billing? Have you ever seen them? I understand it is larger than the US tax code. You should take a gander. An acquaintance just told me she went to her doctor this week, and the coding list for medicare billing has increased from 3000 diagnostic codes to 7000. Do you think that 4000 new diseaases have been discovered? No, the bureaucratic crap is piling up-or perhaps they are distinguishing diagnostic codes by age so that some patients can be deemed inelligible for some care in the upcoming rationing which is inevitable. Medicare does not pay hospitals and physicians’s offices for the care that is given. Hospitals are not paid by the actual care or the days of hospitalization. The hospital is reimbursed a flat amount for the diagnostic code. If a patient for some reason does not recover as fast as medicare expects them to, the hospital takes a loss. You really must go to a billing department and ask them to see the medicare billing guidelines. And if you don’t have the initiative to educate yourself on this, you should not be slamming a candidate when you have no idea what you are talking about
@Cindy
That is the same argument that Congress used for passing some several thousand page bills without reading them. I’m certain that Mr. Scott (just as Congress) had access to attorney’s whp were quite capable of wading through the pages to de-code the content. I don’t mean to sound ugly, because I’m sure you’re sincere, but I just don’t buy it!
I think those who are voting for Scott are having the wool pulled over their eyes as when the Dems fell for Obama. I still haven’t heard from ANYONE who actually KNOWS Scott well who has anything good to say about him. I don’t want to go down that road and regret voting for someone who bought his job. Money buys a lot of blinders…just ask OJ.
Hey Sandi,
You should check out the latest polls-to follow: Despite incredibly negative adds in this campaign-which Ronald Regan would spank both candidates for-an by the way unless you forgot started by McCollum,-this is the response to them:
” With just three weeks until Election Day, and early voting beginning next week, Scott is beating McCollum in every demographic and geographic category of likely GOP voters, said Jim Lee, president of Voter Survey Service of Harrisburg, Pa., which conducted the survey.
“Most startlingly is the 50 percent negative number for McCollum. That’s a very huge red flag and suggests very little room to grow. You never want to have that going into an election,” Lee said.
The VSS survey, commissioned by Sunshine State News and conducted July 26-30, builds on results of an earlier Quinnipiac Poll that showed Scott holding an 11-point lead over McCollum. The Sunshine State News Poll is the largest sampling of likely voters — 1,345 — of any poll so far taken for a 2010 statewide election in Florida.”
-enough said!
As a former County Chairman in Illinois…I am dismayed that the Chairman there would allow such goings-on! Precinct Committeemen can have their differences in candidates but to have ANYONE other than Committeemen attend their meetings is just beyond me. I would NEVER allowed such discussions to go on. UNITED WE WIN–DIVIDED WE FALL!
@ E Eye: Pull together people!!!
@ Joy Richards; @Cindy
@Ruth: Yes, Time to clean house
All excellent posts. Thanks for your messages,
2010 IS OUR YEAR AND 2012 TO FOLLOW.
Please don’t screw things up and We Conservative Republicans lose!
The Liberal/Socialist/Marx are just HAPPY seeing and hearing all this in fighting. Is THIS WHAT YOU WANT?
The Voters will decide and it is our duty to SUPPORT AND WORK for our Candidates.
Best regards and GOD BLESS AMERICA and the Sunshine State!
How A GOP November Victory Could Bring Its Death (this could very well happen as most politicians have not come to grips with the severity of the situation)
If the GOP gains control of one or both Houses of Congress in the November midterm elections, and then does not make good on its promises to reverse and counter the Democrats’ socialist agenda, we could hear the death knell that signals the end of the Grand Old Party.
The wisdom of the conventional response to conservatives who threaten, out of frustration, to align with a third party is well-established by tradition and history. Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party brought the nation President Woodrow Wilson, and Ross Perot’s entry into the 1992 race elected Bill Clinton. Both were movements based on personality-in-the-moment. TR didn’t like Taft, and Perot had a grudge against Bush 41. In the 2000 election, Perot only begrudgingly endorsed George W. Bush, laying aside his animosity against the family name.
On those two occasions, when a third party played the spoiler, personality-in-the-moment was the primary driver. National circumstances and the mood of the voters are much different today.
Still feeling betrayed by the GOP’s failure to live up to its promises going back to soon after the Contract with America, conservative voters are preparing to march to the polls in decisive numbers, but not with wild-eyed enthusiasm for the GOP. As they vote to oust the current Democrat Congress, under their breath, they’ll be muttering the warning, “This is your last chance, Republicans.”
If they invest the GOP with power again only to be betrayed again, conservative voters will not passively accept the fate of having no political party in which to believe. And because their angst over the future of the country that their children and grandchildren will inherit runs deep, they won’t shrug off another betrayal as merely representing politics as usual. Not this time, for these are unusual and troubling times, and settling for politics as usual will bring intolerable consequences.
Meanwhile, there is no Summer of Recovery. The federal government continues to grow in size and influence. And the most audacious misnomer of the century to date is “bailout,” for our sinking ship of state isn’t being emptied of any water at all. Instead, Congress continues to shoot large-caliber holes into the bottom of the boat with every subsequent “bailout,” as the water level in the engine room rises ever higher.
But most readers of the American Thinker already know all that and saw it all coming. Our politically naïve friends and relatives drank the hope and change Kool-Aid, and now, along with us, they are suffering the consequences, with worse ahead. Some will admit they were conned. Many will not. But nearly all have a growing concern for the future of their country.
If the GOP wins big in November, and then retreats into a “moderate” stance — pledging to work across the aisle with Democrats to advance the country; compromising in order to tweak some of the fundamental transformation that’s been dealt to us during the last eighteen months; playing nice with the radical left, who’ve added a quarter of a million new federal workers during the Obama regime — if the GOP is DOA with regard to fulfilling its stated and implied promises to turn around the unsustainable course the nation is on, then a third party will emerge. It will draw support from both mainline parties, but it will bleed deepest into the GOP.
Today, the Tea Party isn’t configured as a political party. It’s a hydra-headed grassroots movement — one unimaginable before the days of the internet and cable news. It’s like a big, gangly, uncoordinated kid. Its leadership is local and diverse. Liberals like to say Dick Armey or others are behind it all. That’s nuts.
Its strength is gained, in part, because it lacks a single face, or even a cadre of faces. It has millions of faces. It’s not a personality-in-the-moment, like TR or Perot; it’s a purpose-in-a-movement. And the politicians of both parties fear (and often loathe) it because they can’t control it. It aims to influence the election of fiscally conservative politicians who will stop the siphoning off of the nation’s wealth by the current regime and reverse the damage done to America’s ability to create wealth in the future.
If the GOP wins in November and betrays the voters again, then the gangly teenager will morph into an adult, into a political party, because there won’t be any other choice left.
Should Republicans be in a celebratory mood on the evening of November 2, they will do well to temper their joy with this sobering thought: Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, and we’re done with you.
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This could very well happen as there are way too many narcissistic, politics above all, reach across the isle McCain-Arlene Specter type politicians around. Something the public has grown tired of and has become disgusted with what these politicians neglect to understand, unfortunately this just may contribute to their untimely demise, taking the American Dream along with it.
THINK ON THIS MESSAGE!!!