Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott’s announcement yesterday would be somewhat akin to George W. Bush asking then FEMA Chief, Michael “Heckuva Job” Brown to head up a review of how FEMA and the Federal government performed in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Or, perhaps asking Karl Rove or Dick Cheney to get to the bottom of that whole Valerie Plame outing thing.
The only worse, less independent person who could possibly be chosen to head up a “review” of what went wrong in this year’s disastrous election in Florida would be Scott himself.
But since his hand-picked Sec. of State Ken Detzner carried out every single one of Scott’s horrendous, un-American orders to restrict voting and voter registration and to try and toss eligible voters off the rolls this year, resulting in even active-duty military voters getting purged, all while ignoring actual, massive voter registration fraud carried out by the Republican Party of Florida itself (until it could no longer be ignored), it may as well be Scott himself in charge of this so-called “review” in which Detzner has been assigned to tell us all why it was that, among other things, voters were still in line trying to cast their votes at 2am on Wednesday morning in Miami-Dade, even as the President of the United States was delivering his re-election victory speech in Chicago.
Heckuva job, Scottie!
Scott has already, repeatedly since Election Day, declared that he did “the right thing” by slashing Early Voting from 14 days to just 8 in Florida this year, and then refusing to expand those hours on the weekend before the election — unlike both of his Republican predecessors Governors Charlie Crist and even Jeb Bush — once it became clear that voters were standing in line for 6, 7 hours and longer simply trying to cast their vote…
In a separate interview with WKMG (which is not embeddable here), Scott offered the exact same pre-rehearsed “the right thing happened” line over and over again when asked about the disaster by reporters.
Add to that the broader national finding from a Hart Research survey released the day after Election Day finding that Democrats, minorities and Obama supporters were far more likely to stand in long lines trying to vote across the country than were Republicans and white voters…
While a real independent review of what happened in Florida — and elsewhere in the country — is certainly needed, frankly, so is a criminal investigation of the attempted voter suppression by both Gov. Rick Scott and his Sec. of State Ken Detzner in the Sunshine State, as well as by other Republican Governors and Secretaries of States in Ohio, Virginia, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Iowa and a number of other states this year.
So who will be stepping up for those reviews? If the President was serious on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning during his victory speech when he declared “we have to fix” the problem of voters standing in line for hours on end just to vote, then might we recommend he start by directing his Dept. of Justice to begin a criminal investigation of this national disgrace — and this direct, purposeful, unapologetic assault on the most sacred American value of democracy — immediately.
I don’t know how you champion this cause without losing it. The fact that this criminal, this treasonous GOP mutant will probably serve out his 2 yrs untouched assaults my sensibilities.I’m incensed because what he did was as racist & atrocious as when minorities had to fight for the right to vote. In 2012 he set voting rights back decades & he’s not being investigated for his crimes. He’ll get away with it, as will Jon Husted & the Bennett moron who said he wants to make voting harder like in Africa. Unless Obama really steps up to the plate & does something NOW, it’ll be the same voter purging, registration fraud, intimidation, suppression in 2016.
That he could pretend what he did was anything but criminal & spew the shit that the right thing was done makes me feel I’m living in an alternate universe. That he could have one of his GOP cronies pretend to “review” this mess is an insult to every voter in america. He knows what he did. Reporters throw him softballs. Asked why didn’t you extend hours. Why didn’t they ask why did you cut hrs from 14 to 8. Are they scared of him?
I’m convinced this man is a greedy, deranged psychopath & nothing will stop him unless he’s forced out of office & under criminal investigation. I’m going to still read your blog, but I’m not following Rick Scott news anymore until I read he falls off the face of the earth.
Maybe Florida deserves him. How the living hell did he get elected? His looks & crazy eyes scare the hell out of me.
I live in TN, big red state & it took me 5 minutes to early vote. There is no excuse for Rick Scott & his ilk.
That’s all I’m saying about this destructive, greedy, mega-maniac until he’s disappears.
I should have made clear it took me 5 minutes to vote for Obama/Biden..of course. Democrat down the line & when a Republican had no challenger I voted no one. Because no one is better then a psychotic, ass backwards tea bagger
Putting Ken Detzner in charge of a review of Florida’s dysfunctional election system is like putting an arsonist in charge of a fire department.
Ken Detzner reviewing Florida’s corrupted elections is tantamount to putting serial-killer Ted Bundy in charge of security for female college dorms.
I moved to Floriduh from New York 12 years ago…I’m really embarrassed to be living in such a corrupt and backwards state. Our current Governor Rick Scott, previously convicted of ripping off Medicare…. never should have been permitted to run for public office…
Florida has a religious fundy problem like every other red state. The good news is that if we got everyone out to vote, the wedge issues wouldn’t mean a thing because rational people who can see through the bullshit outnumber kooks…
Compulsory Voting…Because Mandatory Voting sounds too harsh, lol
Voting ballots need to be hand-counted for the same reason that cash is hand-counted – to ensure honesty and accuracy.
Rick Scott has made it abundantly clear that what ever a Republican says, you have to think the opposite. “Lets get to work.= Lets reject a 2.4 Billion Fed Grant for high speed rail that would have created 20 to 30 thousands well paying jobs. Then lie through your teeth spouting bogus, Tea Party crap based on fear as your excuse. Ripping out half of the education budget to Better Educate our youth. etc.
Thanks to our two tier justice system someone stealing $100.00 gets charged with a felony and is unable to vote. Some CEO steals millions they fine him and he runs for Gov and people vote him in office. What does that say about the people that vote for people like that. When a supreme court justice cheats on his taxes for years and then the IRS opens on a sat so he can go in and update his records just shows where our country is failing us.
Bear in mind it’s not Detzner’s fault. He was just a beer lobbyist in his former life.
Beer lobbyist knows little about voting
Beer lobbyist knows little about voting
{Ed Note: Spam comment deleted.}
First, the comment by Farmville Buildings is all over the Internet: https://www.google.com/search?q...ome+back+again
Second, why isn’t the Justice Department going after Rick Scott and Ken Detzner to send their criminal asses to jail where they obviously belong?
I see nothing in the news about the US Department of Justice going pursuing criminal investigations of
Rick Scott and Ken Detzner. Imagine if they went after criminals who cause immediate direct damage against the United States rather than fantasy-based bogeymen….
This is the most I could find. What is this? It’s nothing!
http://politics.heraldtribune.c...-election-law/