Jim Greer charged big on Florida GOP credit card

[Sancho]

Source: St Pete Times

Reeling from a criminal probe into the Florida GOP's finances, Republican leaders finally got a peek Wednesday at the spending habits of the man at the center of the long-running scandal: Jim Greer.

The ousted party chairman charged nearly $500,000 to his American Express card to eat well and live well: spa treatments, flowers, flights, fine hotels and pricey restaurants. In a month ending in March 2008, he dropped $41,421.31 in Las Vegas, Washington and Beverly Hills, according to billing statements obtained Wednesday by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald.

Greer's spending is just a sliver of the $7 million charged on party AmEx cards between late 2006 and 2009. The Times/Herald on Wednesday also obtained the statements of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who charged $44,116, and former party executive director Jim Rimes, who has charged the most to date: more than $2 million.
---snip---
The most striking expense on former RPOF executive director Rimes' statements — which total more than $2 million from July 2007 to April 2009 — is tens of thousands of dollars for chartered planes and limos. The less luxurious expenses apply to the labor-intensive running of campaigns and voter turnout operations — hotels, rental cars, food, cell phones and office supplies for staff and volunteers. So-called "staff meals'' range from $27.99 at McDonalds in Tallahassee to $556 at Chez Pierre.

Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/jim-greer-charged-big-on-florida-gop-credit-card/1089273

---

Of course, we all know this system of corruption started with Jeb, but these are the most arrogant and crooked folks anyone can imagine. Who thinks they wouldn't hack election machines, or any other thing that they wanted to do?

[ixion]

1. And yet the GOP somehow still gets to cluck and hand-wring about being fiscally

conservative.

I don't see anything even remotely fiscally conservative about they way they handle themselves.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

7. Well, in fairness to Republicans....

as a group they are astoundlingly unintelligent.

It's not an excuse, but a reason.

[Mopar151]

12. I call it Rovian logic

Attack you opponents at your own weak points. Seen in that light, a lot of Republican actions make sense. That's about the only sense they make sense in, tho.

[wilt the stilt]

2. Entitled- the missing adjective n/t

[nashville_brook]

3. the Florida GOP has never had a sense of proportion.

i hope this cleans some of the shit out of the state.

[lark]

38. Wish it was so, but nah

Republicans are too entrenched in FL - except for a few counties in So. FL. Dems are a small, voiceless, dispirited group who have no say state wide. Dems couldn't even stop the worst education reform bill ever that was blatantly anti-teacher, anti-union. We had to be bailed out of that nightmare by a Republican - Charlie Crist. Very glad he did that, but sad and scary that it got to that point.

[trumad]

4. Yhe front runner Rubio has the same spending habits.

[Sancho]

5. If you have been keeping up with the series of stories...

a bunch of Fl legislators have hired 20-something women who charged over a million dollars on GOP cards, and several of them including Rubio have run up hundreds of thousands in fun money. Maybe Crist knows where the bodies are buried, but he may be just as guilty.

[olegramps]

6. What can you expect from a pack of degenerate bastards?

[Blue_Tires]

8. they sure love spending other people's money, don't they?

[UpInArms]

9. more great reading from your link:

Rubio is among the Florida GOP leaders whose credit card spending is under review by the IRS, but like Crist, he has denied wrongdoing. On Wednesday, he sent a $2,417.80 check to the state party as reimbursement for six flights that he said were inadvertently double-billed to the party and to state taxpayers.

With assorted credit card statements steadily leaking out and generating embarrassing headlines for the party preaching fiscal discipline, Rubio also called on state party chairman John Thrasher to release all the credit card statements.

"After all the negative publicity regarding the way Charlie Crist's hand-picked chairman spent money at the state party, getting this information out in the open will be the best way to deal with it," Rubio said. "As far as my spending is concerned, it was for legitimate political purposes. When I made personal charges, I paid for them directly to American Express. I have not been contacted and don't know anything about any potential inquiries, but I welcome the chance to set the record straight once and for all."

The battle between Rubio and Crist has helped divide the party after a year of enduring scandals. Rubio's successor as speaker, Republican Ray Sansom, awaits trial on corruption charges. A former fundraiser for both Rubio and Crist named Alan Mendelsohn was indicted in a separate corruption probe. And Crist's top fundraiser, Scott Rothstein, pleaded guilty to a massive Ponzi scheme in which he helped use ill-gotten gains to make campaign contributions.

[Botany]

10. How do you inadvertently double-bill plane tickets?

:rofl:

[happygoluckytoyou]

19. MY BAD.... I SLIPPED... OOPSIE....

HEY DID I JUST ACCIDENTLY BILL YOU AGAIN... AND THEN AGAIN.... FOUR TIMES....

maybe you should be looking at all the things i didn't do....... i wasn't molesting boys at the minni. airport....... see isn't that good
COULD I PLEASE STAY IN POWER and keep my credit card ? huh ? can i ?

[happygoluckytoyou]

20. I JUST FIGURED IT OUT......

THE GOP IS GOING AFTER THE CONVICT VOTE... AND THEY ARE USING THIS PLOY TO GET INTO THE PRISONS!!!!!



The battle between Rubio and Crist has helped divide the party after a year of enduring scandals. Rubio's successor as speaker, Republican Ray Sansom, awaits trial on corruption charges. A former fundraiser for both Rubio and Crist named Alan Mendelsohn was indicted in a separate corruption probe. And Crist's top fundraiser, Scott Rothstein, pleaded guilty to a massive Ponzi scheme in which he helped use ill-gotten gains to make campaign contributions.

[KG]

11. the corruption is deep, long-term, and spans both parties. there's a reason the capitol is

is up in the panhandle, in the middle of nowhere.

[Dappleganger]

16. +10000

And people wonder why I'm registered Independent. The corruption runs BOTH ways! Welcome to FL, Capital of the Good Ol' Boys Network.

[Frances]

25. That kind of thinking enables the Republicans

Sure there are corrupt Dems and sure some Dems don't vote for progressive ideas, but more Repubs are corrupt than Dems and no Repubs have supported anything progressive since Obama was elected.

By not supporting Dems, you enable the Repubs to maintain control.

That's how Reagan was elected governor of California and how W was able to get into the White House.

[Dappleganger]

26. That's bullshit.

Just because I am registered 'I' doesn't mean I don't campaign or vote for democrats and progressive values and issues. Too bad you didn't ask me how that happens and chose to pass summary judgment instead. Many of my progressive friends in this area do the same.

[Frances]

35. "Corruption runs both ways" is what you wrote

To me, this statement implies both parties are equally guilty. I don't buy that just as I didn't buy that Pat Brown and Ronald Reagan were equally bad candidates or that both Al Gore and W were equally corporate friendly.

The Dems have problems, but there is a clear difference between the Dems and the Repubs.

[Dappleganger]

37. Not much difference at all in FL.

And FL politics is what the OP and I were discussing, not national.

[Frances]

39. Well it doesn't look that way to someone who grew up 2 hours

north of Pensacola (southern Alabama).

I don't think any corrupt Dem has caused as much grief as Jeb Bush and his crew. They were the ones responsible for W being in the White House for 8 years.

[sasquuatch55]

23. Term limits!

nt

[JCMach1]

28. Absolutely they managed to outdo us in the embarassment department

WAY TO GO RPOF!!!

[flyarm]

13. This is more of the reason Charlie Crist will go indy..to separate himself from these clowns.

And Charlie will win as a Indy..prob big time..

[flyarm]

14. Hey the head of the FDP gets her democratic paycheck and then gets a paycheck from Jebs best buddies

in Miami..amd when democrats here in Fla had the audacity to try to remove her or fire her..they were smeared by the DC democrats and the DNC and DCCC and Dscc and most especially Rahm and the DLC...so please spare me what the probs of the GOP is..we have them big time with our head of FDP!

Oh and the lady loves martini's..did I TELL YOU THAT ???????????.......

But is untouchable..because she helped steal our primary away from the voters OF Florida, to where the DC crowd wanted our votes to go!..not the way the voters wanted our votes to go! The voters were a mere nusiance to what DC wanted!

Oh and when we the people of Fla were fighting against the crooked voting machines and vote stealing that was going on..The FDP chairman told us to shut the fuck up!...In fact did everything in her power to shut up and dissent....then she went back to drinking her martini's..

Did she or the democratic party help the Citizens of Fl or the Democratic voters get rid of the DRE machines in Fla..( the only state to do so by the way for the 2008 election)...no ..in fact she helped the DNC and the DLC steal our primary votes ..because the repuke legislature tagged on the bill to get rid of the DRE voting machines..a primary date change..

What did the FDP chair do about it..well again she told us to STFU..she was on it..and then she drank her martini.........
Did I tell you she drank martini's????

Soooooo democrats throughout the state of Florida were punished for fighting our legislature to abolish the DRE voting machines in our state..and we got fucked for doing so.

That is one of many reasons I will never vote again!

And why I quit the Democratic Executive Committee..and will not give another hard earned dime to any of them!

Oh and that stimulus money..for the past two weeks I have watched from my condo new sidewalks being redone in my area..Last week all in front of my condo..nothing was wrong with them..NOTHING...Zip.zero ..NOTHING.

Now at the condo next door they are replacing all the sidewalks..the fucking building is less than 2 years old!!!! the Sidewalks they are replacing are almost (1 1/2 yr old) BRAND NEW!

Your hard earned tax money at work..replacing NEW sidewalks with ....surprise...NEW sidewalks!!

How many of our homeless ( we have alot) could have been fed or gotten meds..or housed ....instead the Dems and Gop do everything they can to try to remove them and get them out of sight!

Your hard earned Tax dollars at work here in Fla..Thank you all for our new sidewalks..that we didn't need..

Take a look around you..see where those tax dollars are going..are they starting up new businesses by you ??

Not by me..more and more are boarded up daily..

And if you haven't gotten new sidewalks..come on down and walk on mine!!

[windbreeze]

24. now I wonder...

IF the new sidewalks in the little town next to me, are courtesy of stimulous money...I drove through town a couple weeks ago..and found the city was destroying all the beautiful flowering Redbud trees on Main street...I couldn't understand why they'd do that...next thing I know...they have planted brand new sidewalks instead, in an area that absolutely didn't need them...the trees looked far better in the middle of a little country town for crying out loud..but they call that improvement I gather?? Not in my book....or on the freeway...spending $1.3 million bucks to string ugly wire cable between posts in the median from point a to point b...for what reason??? who knows.......It's not like 1.3 million could have done a whole lot more had it been used somewhere else??? at the same time the state is screaming it's short of money, while trying to figure out new ways to tax us to make up for the shortages...it seems nothing makes sense any more....wb

[JCMach1]

29. Our pols in FL swim in the same corrupt swamp...

I got my own personal experience of this when I ran for the Florida Legislature in 2002.

[d_r]

15. I think this is more than just spending other people's money

which is bad enough. I think this was a way for the party to be a money launderer for bribes. Folks that wanted friendly state legislators gave money to the gop, the gop gave credit cards to the legislators.

[Botany]

17. The right wing has billions from that little Iraq war adventure

I might be in tin foil hat country but I think that under W's war on terror
billions of dollars got syphoned off and "they" have a monster slush fund
w/ which they buy media, politicians, and help fund Palin/Beck/Tea Baggers.

In Columbus, OH a Catholic Broadcasting Company was able to pay $1.5
million to buy the license of a little progressive radio station to put on the
third all Catholic radio station in the market. It loses money hand over fist
and has few listeners but it stays on the air.

BTW if you want to see money laundering look up the Lincoln Group.

[happygoluckytoyou]

18. OOPS... did i just accidently slip and put my dick in your hand----->

Rubio is among the Florida GOP leaders whose credit card spending is under review by the IRS, but like Crist, he has denied wrongdoing. On Wednesday, he sent a $2,417.80 check to the state party as reimbursement for six flights that he said were inadvertently double-billed to the party and to state taxpayers.

SILLY ME.... HOW INADVERTENT.... I ACCIDENTLY BILLED YOU FOR A FLIGHT I TOOK.... THEN BILLED YOU FOR A FLIGHT I TOOK....

[barbtries]

21. change 1 letter of his name

and there you have it. GREED.

[KansDem]

22. Perhaps Truman's famous quote should be updated.

If yo want to live like a Republican, rip off your fellow Republicans!

[JCMach1]

27. In a shocker, the Repug party in Florida manages to sink lower than our

Democratic Party!

Bloody typical for my beloved home state!


Where the word, PARTY is taken quite literally...

[Dappleganger]

31. How true about the par-tay...

I was pretty shocked when we moved down here in 2001 just after the election year debacle, how corrupt both sides are. That's why people like Alex Grayson are a real treasure, but unfortunately a rarity.

I'd love to hear the story of when you ran in FL.

[JCMach1]

32. Imagine finding yourself at the Hilton in JAX with all of the legislators and candidates from

central and north florida waiting in a green room to be interviewed by the Florida Business lobby. You meet and greet and BS around with the other candidates while waiting your turn to whore for the man. After some time, you step into the room which looks like a scene from Dr. Strangelove. There about 20 of the top business leaders and the PR company conducting this production at a huge table in the room. Multiple spotlights highlight the seat where you get to sit for the grilling. Multiple cameras roll while they hit you on every business issue in the state while taping the whole time. The disks are immediately shipped out to the executive members across the state.

How did a Democrat running against a Republican incumbent even get invited to this party? Well, you see I happened to be in something close to a swing district. In a good year for Dems, it would have most likely ended up close...

After the grilling you got to meat and greet with the individual industry lobbyists. I had a very surreal conversation with one of the phosphate mining lobbyists who 'apparently' really liked my positions. He basically said he would be 'in touch' if I won.

To win a a Florida House seat (state legislature) takes in excess of 250,000 in personal money and/or fund raising. For a Florida Senate seat appx. 500k-1M. My opponent had to spend 300k to defeat me. I ended up raising about 30k. with largely grassroots support. The Florida Democratic party only funded races where the Dem was the incumbent, or the candidate had substantial personal cash to throw into the race! The Republican Party on the other hand supported everyone because they were flush with cash from donors and industry.

My opponent got the lion share of his funding from the Optometrists of Florida. In a poor district, I outraised him in personal donations. However, the lobbying groups would donate the maximum amount. After that, each person in the lobby would donate individual checks to the legislator for EVERY member of their extended family and EVEN employees. I think they call this 'bundling' in the trade.

I lost massively, getting close to same percentage as all other Dems around the state year. Remember, 2002 was a nightmare for Democrats.

I was really sick and disgusted with the whole process after the run and really shifted gears in my life after this. We expatriated and I currently work as a university administrator in the UAE. I have never looked back except to shake my head from time to time...

[freebrew]

30. Awesome!

Half a $million that won't be used for airtime.

Keep it up, pugs...

[notadmblnd]

33. Cool. the more the spend on their greedy little selves, they less they'll have to spend on elections

[Scurrilous]

34. K & R

:thumbsup:

[Prometheus Bound]

36. Ya, ok, they may steal a few pennies here and there, but they would never hack an election machine.

No way. Nope. Unthinkable. Never happen.:sarcasm: