Several posts this morning were items were originally added late yesterday. The Law.com piece that is excerpted immediately below is truly a must read; it gives you a real sense of the GOP machinations in the Florida 2000 mess, and makes you wonder how much "Jeb!" and "W" knew, and when they knew it. As an aside, it interesting to note that Dem party lawyer Mark Herron and Gore lawyer Kendall Coffey are representing GOP principals in the scandal.
This Is Blockbuster - Via Eschaton, this piece from Law.com:
"In a case with national political implications, the Florida Elections Commission has ruled that Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty violated state campaign finance rules in working to oust three Florida Supreme Court justices. It will decide next month whether to impose up to $450,000 in fines against her."
"On May 21, the FEC voted 7-0 to adopt an administrative law judge’s findings that McCarty violated state election laws in the collection, expenditure and reporting of tens of thousands in political action committee (PAC) funds."
"The commission will determine any fine and finalize a final written order in the case at its next meeting Aug. 13-14 in Tallahassee. She has the right to contest the final order before a state appellate court."
"But state administrative law judge Harry L. Hooper, who presided over McCarty’s hearing in February on the campaign finance charges, concluded on May 1 that the former Palm Beach County Republican Party chairwoman was little more than a front for a Washington, D.C.-based campaign against the justices, which was organized during the 2000 presidential election recount battle."
"That campaign, Judge Hooper found, was orchestrated by Roger J. Stone Jr., a Republican lobbyist and political operative who has said he worked for President Richard Nixon’s Watergate-era re-election committee and served as a campaign strategist for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Stone, who owns a $2.2 million bayfront mansion in Surfside, received $1.8 million from the Miami-Dade County Commission last year for political work he did for the county. " See "Supreme plot".
This Could Be Bigger Still - "The state Education Department tried to cover up lax oversight of a corporate tax credit voucher program that channels $88 million to private schools, a top department official has charged in a whistle-blower complaint. The whistle-blower, Robert Metty, was relieved of his duties as director of scholarship programs for the Department of Education's Choice Office after complaining of a "conspiracy" to falsify records concerning the financial state of some schools receiving the vouchers." See "Official: State altered voucher school records".
That's Why He's Called "Jeb!" - "The crisis in Tallahassee has outgrown the issue of medical malpractice insurance. As serious as that is - and no legislator denies it - Florida's worse problem now is a governor, Jeb Bush, who threatens the Legislature with an endless summer of special sessions until it passes a bill that suits him. His arrogance calls into question whether he has any respect for the separation of powers that represents America's great and unique contribution to the theory and practice of representative democracy." See "Aggravated condition".
The Malpractice War: Opening Shots In The New(est) Session - "The Florida Legislature's medical malpractice melee grew feistier Wednesday as state senators opened another special session by blaming Gov. Jeb Bush for politicizing the issue and questioning whether insurers have misled them about why doctors' liability insurance rates have skyrocketed." See "Recriminations fly as session starts".
The Malpractice War: "Jeb!" Offers Too Little, Too Late - "Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday endorsed a $1 million cap on medical malpractice awards in an effort to end a bitter fight with the Senate Republicans over how to curtail rising insurance rates for the state's doctors. But the proposed compromise offered little hope of resolving the wrangling. Senate leaders said late Wednesday that despite Bush's threats to keep them returning to the Capitol until they capitulate, they are reluctant to accept strict caps. 'We're going to have to know for truly catastrophic cases there's going to be some reward over the cap,'' Senate President Jim King said.' Someone should not go in for a tonsillectomy and end up brain-dead. There's got to be a provision that takes care of that.'' The offer -- backed by House leaders -- is four times as much as the $250,000 limit that Bush had insisted on and comes amid unprecedented public sniping between the Republican governor and the Republican-led Senate."
"Jeb!", This Ain't About Your Brother - In a slip of the tongue our Gov. said that "took a swipe at a Senate proposal to set up a state-run insurance pool to make up for any lack of available malpractice coverage. 'Those are the kind of proposals you would expect from Howard Dean,' Bush said, referring to the fiery Democratic presidential candidate who is trying to topple his brother.". See "Legislators might want to cap sessions".
Dems "Moving To Protect Their Political Advantage With Hispanic Voters" - In this New York Times article today,"Democrats Design Agenda in Bid to Hold Hispanic Support", we are reminded that "the governor of Florida, whose wife is a Mexican native, won the Hispanic vote outright in the governor's race last year, even among Hispanics outside South Florida's generally conservative Cuban-Americans."
The Judiciary: This Nomination Can't Fly - "William Pryor isn't just far-right. He crashes through the guardrail. He called the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history." Asked before the Senate Judiciary Committee whether he really believed that Roe vs. Wade was worse than the Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery, Mr. Pryor said he did. This is the man President Bush wants to sit on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Florida, Georgia and Alabama." See "Reject William Pryor".
Thank The Neocons For This One - "We poured our French wine in the gutter and started eating "freedom fries" with our burgers. Now the French government is firing back, delaying a highly anticipated Orlando exhibition of impressionist Claude Monet's work." See "Monet exhibition hangs in suspense".