Rick Scott – Douche Bag of the Day
Let’s just get it over with, and give Scott his award. He’s working hard to earn it. We can start with the economic devastation for the hospitality and tourism industry brought on by the Red-Tide outbreaks and fish kills. Yes, these tie right back to Scott’s dismantling existing environmental protections, to the point of forbidding, by policy, the use of the term “climate change.”
But the big one is his 9 most recent campaign ads, all of which have been determined to be false by Politifact. But let’s start with a little background on Scott, that should eliminate any sense of surprise by his actions. Eight years ago Scott was running against Bill McCollum in the primary for governor. No one gave Scott much of a chance because he’d been determined to be a crook. In fact, pulling off one of the biggest heists in the history of the country. About ten years ago, as CEO of Columbia/HCA, the company was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare fraud. Rick Scott took the 5th Amendment 75 times during his deposition.1
Guess how he won? He deployed the same game I wrote about Susan Collins using in a previous article (If a Republican is accusing someone else of doing something wrong, you can usually bank on the fact they are actually the ones doing it.) Scott claimed McCollum was the corrupt one, accusing him of unethically using taxpayer resources and of trying to orchestrate a cover-up for a GOP leader who ultimately went to prison. McCollum actually helped lead the investigation that put the former party head in prison, but you know, who cares about little things like “facts.”
So now, Scott is in a campaign with Bill Nelson for a United States Senate seat, and he’s pulling the same thing. As the Orlando Sentinal reports:
…to distract from his own company’s theft, Scott has an ad that accuses Nelson of being a thief, claiming Nelson was caught “stealing money from Medicare.” It’s not true. Politifact rated the convoluted ad (that attempted to equate hiring contract workers with theft) as “mostly false.” Similarly, Scott — a strident partisan — has accused Nelson of being a party-line voter. Again, it’s simply untrue. Check the record.
So, Rick, for upholding the Republican tradition of claiming your opponent is doing the very thing you’re doing, we present you with Today’s Douche-Bag Award. Have a nice weekend.
- Rick Scott ‘oversaw the largest Medicare fraud’ in U.S. history, Politifact Florida, Amy Sherman on Monday, March 3rd, 2014
