Going Indy?

Remember how Republicans were in an uproar that Washington Democrats failed to listen to overwhelming taxpaying voter discontent over health care reform? Of course you do!

Every public opinion poll showed that American’s were angry at the out-of-sight, out-of-their-mind, closed-door dealings that eventually ensured the necessary votes to get the legislation passed through the Senate. It gave cause for coast-to-coast protests and a level of social unrest not seen since the Viet Nam War. There have been tints of racism, a clash of the classes and has ultimately taxed the financial future of the young and healthy against the old and infirm.

Americans continue to demonstrate their displeasure at the tactics that led to what will undoubtedly become the largest entitlement program in the history of United States, more so than Social Security and Medicare, both of which will have to be overhauled by raising the eligibility age and reducing current levels of benefits.

As if taken from the same playbook used by the U.S. Congress, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) sly-dogged a piece of legislation of its own through the Florida Senate that would have made it possible to fire teachers for students’ failing grades, nullifying their earnings potential with decertification, leaving them with little means to repay their student loans and ruining their chosen careers.

The ‘tenure bill’ would have required local school districts to set aside 5 percent of their available funds to cover merit pay, test development and related administrative expenses. There would have been forced participation in the program or resulted in the loss of the funds entirely. It reminds me of the medical coverage ‘option’ as mandated by the federal health care bill.

It’s as though the RPOF expected fellow-Republican Governor Charlie Crist would have done an ‘Obama’ and hailed the bill as a triumph for educators, students, taxpayers, etc. But, contrary to right wing Republican assumptions, Charlie is not a mirror image of Obama’s political makeup. Thank you very much, Charlie.

Speaking of political motives, House Majority Leader Adam Hasner (R-Delray Beach) said, “The governor would still veto it if he thought it would help him get elected.” He added, “The veto was poll-driven, not policy-driven.” And yet, he and every other Republican would have praised President Obama if he had heeded public opinion polls. Ergo, surveys can paint a Mona Lisa smiling or picture a Whoopi Goldberg poised for discharge.
And speaking of discharging, the tenure bill was ballyhooed by former Florida House Member John Thrasher (1992-2000 and House Speaker 1998-2000) who, in 2001, became a partner at Southern Strategy, a lobbyist firm that represented not one, but two, companies that offer educational testing services, including end-of-course assessments tests not unlike those that would have been used to evaluate teacher assessments as provided by Senate Bill 6, the tenure bill, that was introduced by none other than Thrasher himself on March 1.

Thrasher, newly elected Senator from District 8, and dutifully elected Chairman of the Florida Republican Party on February 21, said of a possible conflict of interest, “I never had any connection to (the testing companies). I was bought out last May and don’t even have any connection with them anymore.”

In 2009, Thrasher reported a buyout income of more than $1.5 million from Southern Strategy.

Coming off the heels of the Governor’s veto of HB 1207, which would have created ‘leadership funds’ that could have allowed unlimited ‘soft money’ political contributions, the RPOF has nailed Crist as a Judas to their ultra-conservative edicts. The political crucifixion of Crist has thusly been decreed by the pompous pilots of the Republican Party.

Going as far back as last June, following an early endorsement of Charlie Crist by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) said, “There is no question Marco Rubio will be a big part of the Republican Party’s future… Marco Rubio needs to be a big part of the Republican Party’s present.”

Just this past week, Rob Jesmer, executive director of the NRSC, released the statement, “We believe there is zero chance Governor Crist continues running in the Republican primary. It [is] our view that if Governor Crist believes he cannot win a primary then the proper course of action is he drop out of the race and wait for another day.”

Wait for another day? Unlike many other candidates, Charlie Crist is no political patsy to a Republican Party that is still in denial of the historic losses in the 2008 elections, the very reason it remains constrained as the party of ‘no’, acting much like a child in the midst of a temper tantrum, known in psychiatry as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).

Charlie Crist need not ‘wait for another day’ to confirm that he is who he is – a free and willfully independent decision maker.