A Hand In The Till?
The Miami Herald reported that Crist requests probe of GOP ‘mess’
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist asked federal authorities Friday to investigate the Republican Party of Florida amid growing concerns about secret deals and misspent money.
“It’s a mess,” he said. “This thing stinks.”
In an interview, Crist said the U.S. attorney’s office needs to take over the criminal investigation of former Chairman Jim Greer and examine the use of party credit cards by top GOP lawmakers.
“A federal comprehensive investigation is . . . fully appropriate,” the Republican governor said. “Particularly because of the significant IRS implications throughout this thing.”
OK, everyone has been reporting on all of the dubious uses of the RPOF [Republican Party of Florida] credit cards, which looks bad and is embarrassing for individual politicians, but the real problem is Jim Greer’s consulting firm, which Jim neglected to tell people was his firm. That’s where this drifts away from the normal stupidity of politicians with credit cards and access to campaign funds, and enters the domain of the IRS.
Charlie was a major backer of Greer, and this certainly isn’t going to be good for him, but if the RPOF doesn’t clean this mess up, a lot of donors will stop contributing. Charley didn’t have a party credit card, so he was golden on that problem, but Greer’s consulting firm is definitely a negative for Charlie.
It’s time for more popcorn.
