Tuesday, September 14, 2010

GOP Play Blame Game With Charlie Crist

I thought this was interesting - a Jim Stratton for The Orlando Sentinel brings up claims by the Republican Party that Florida governor and senate candidate Charlie Crist may have charged thousands on party credit cards which he does not possess.  The claim by current GOP Chairman and State Senator John Thrasher is simple - Crist, former state GOP Chairman Jim Greer, and former executive director Delmar Johnson "ran up potentially 'hundreds of thousands' of dollars in inappropriate charges."  The problem is that the GOP won't release any details and include a lot of assumptions in their mention of their auditor's findings.
He said auditors found that Crist, Greer and Delmar Johnson, the party's former executive director, may have inappropriately spent money on travel, consultants, meetings and other items not related to party business.

Thrasher provided no firm numbers but said Greer could owe "hundreds of thousands" of dollars and that Crist was in "that ballpark." Thrasher said party officials would spend the next 10 days considering a lawsuit against Crist, Greer and Johnson.

Crist abandoned the Republican Party in April and, since then, has been hammered by the party as a turncoat, liar and political chameleon.

Saturday, Crist spokesman Danny Kanner blasted the GOP, saying that "party bosses" should "stop playing the same old political games and take a hard look at their own nominee" before attacking Crist.

Kanner was referring to disclosures earlier this year that Rubio, when he was Florida House speaker, used his party-issued credit card for thousands of dollars in personal expenses and other items not related to party business. The party and Rubio have said that, although he used the party AmEx, Rubio personally paid the bills.
These accusations are very interesting because Charlie Crist is involved in a tight race with GOP candidate Marco Rubio (the Democratic candidate is far behind) and relations with the party have been tense since Crist announced his independence a few months ago.  The GOP is considering legal action, and with elections in a less then a couple months, I am sure they will opt to sue, but so far they have not released anything placing a smoking gun in Crist's hands.  They just assume that he was in the "ballpark" when wrongdoing occurred, and with elections near by, their accusations are suspicious. 

Sounds like just some drama from a scorned lover...

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