Florida's Gubernator Rick Scott - An Asshole That May Have Ensured A Contested Election

Scene at one of the polling places in Florida, compliments of Gov. Rick Scott who cut early voting days by half.

A couple years ago I wondered in one animated blog how Floridians could elect to the governorship a consummate asshole and likely criminal (his healthcare outfit, Columbia HCA was once found guilty of overcharging Medicare over $600m while Scott was CEO). Scott himself admitted "As I have said repeatedly Columbia HA made mistakes, and I take responsibility for what happened on my watch as CEO."  What were those 'mistakes'? The Miami Herald in an expose of Scott's Columbia HCA and the aftermath (June 27, 2010) noted, despite Scott denying that he knew frauds were taking place:

"However, federal investigators found that Scott took part in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal -- specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to lawsuits the Justice Department filed against the company in 2001.


The doctor payments were among 10 different kinds of fraud identified by the Justice Department in its 10-year probe of the company, records show. Three years after Scott left Columbia/HCA, the company admitted wrongdoing, pleading guilty to 14 felonies -- most committed during Scott's tenure -- in addition to paying two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion..."


 I also projected in the same earlier blog that in the next major election this dickhead would cause trouble by using voter suppression gambits, shortened early voting times or both. In fact each has occurred, though at least a judge has stopped some of the suppression tactics, while Nathan Sproul and his Repuke henchmen have been exposed in assorted Reep voting frauds.

But Scott did not do diddly about extending early voting times, thereby causing unconscionable voting line waits of up to 6 HOURS as reported in The Miami Herald on Friday. Now, Scott has forced the hand of the Florida Democratic Party to file a lawsuit early today to force Scott and the state to extend early voting. This followed a stream of complaints from voters (mostly African-American, Hispanic) who reported voting line waits of up to SEVEN hours Saturday. It also followed an ardent request on Thursday  from both the Florida Democratic Party and the League of Women voters to extend early voting hours. But Scott, unreconstructed asshole of the month that he is (maybe asshole of the year, superseding Mitt Romney) has done neither.

As a number of outside observers have put it: "The extraordinarily long lines and extreme delays created have unujustifiably burdened the right to vote"

That's putting it mildly! Think of the oldsters, pregnant women, disabled and others who simply physically would not be able to withstand such rigors, and hence would have to give up their franchise in the interests of their own health and well being. Does Scott care? Not at all! Like Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris in 2000, the fucker is determined to make the tally so close that it enhances the odds of Mittens to take the state - like Bush Dumbya did in 2000. (In that case, as Greg Palast notes in his book, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy', Chapter One, Harris used Choicepoint to create a 'Felon's list' that denied over 157,000 African Americans the right to vote. It basically made the election close enough for Jebbie and Bro Dumbya to steal and tossed the country into a 2-month legal shitstorm and possible constitutional crisis.

Make no mistake - THIS time it will not be graciously given up like Gore did in 2000 - but fought to the fucking bitter end. This election is too damned important to have again, the spectacle of a Banana Republic that passes itself off for a state, fucking up national elections. And yes, my language is rough because that is how I feel, as one who also used to live in the state (Miami and Tampa).  I also hate to see (again) the whole country being made the butt of jokes by outsiders and foreigners, like it was in 2000, because some jackwad who shouldn't even be sitting in any elected office (other than maybe dogcatcher) is again screwing things up.

Reading today's New York Times also disclosed that mail ballots are no use as they evidently contain errors that encompass the possibility that they might be regarded as 'provisional" and we know what happens to those.  Interestingly, the longest lines have been in Miami's Dade County, which coincidentally harbors the largest concentration of Democratic voters. Coincidence? Happenstance? Don't fucking bet on it!

Thanks once again, jag -offer Reich Scott, for bringing disrepute on your stupid ass state and likely the whole country on Tuesday if this election is as close as many pundits believe, and your backward state and its jagoff ruling party is once more at the center of electoral mayhem.