Seems to me you deserve to know what I've got so against Charlie Crist. I get that question a lot.So ... becauseI plan to pile it on a few times between now and Election 2014, I thought I ought to come clean.
Actually, it isn't what Charlie did to me, it's what he did to Florida -- but, I admit, I take it personally.
He lied. Lied to teachers, lied to me. Lied to all of us, one on one, on a sunny May day in Fort Pierce in 2001.
For 20 years Charlie's been the jolly conductor on a Florida train to nowhere, stopping at stations, picking up people bound for some promised destination, but Charlie's train never arrives.
He offers great entertainment along the way -- I mean, the man can tap dance on a tightrope, pirouette you through a personally choreographed Nutcracker Suite -- but just like that, he's gone. Passengers are out in the middle of nowhere and he's on another train, promising new travelers another wonderful, mythical destination.
Charlie is a human Ponzi scheme. A con job on two legs. The promises he's made never have to come home to roost because he doesn't stay around long enough to pay the bill. But it's still brilliant how he makes it all come together with a tan, a smile and a promise. Like all hustlers.
Mark Alan Siegel, a former Palm Beach County Democratic chairman, called Charlie "the best retail politician I have ever seen in this state." You bet he is. Too bad he doesn't have a little integrity about the products he's selling.
In 2001, I was writing columns for The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News, now Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. Charlie was the commissioner of education. In fact, he was the last one to serve in the office while it was a Cabinet post. That was the first day I got a look at the whole package -- the whole act, start to finish.
Charlie was already campaigning for attorney general. He was looking to teachers for votes -- something he's honed to a fine art today. He stood up before a group of teachers at Garden City Elementary in Fort Pierce, flashed that viper smile of his, and told them all educators in Florida would be earning "six-figure salaries by the end of the decade."
Yes, six-figure salaries by the end of the decade. Teachers who heard him burst into applause.
(The end of the decade expired three years ago, while Charlie was governor.)
But he was giving the peeps what they wanted to hear. Later that day, when I interviewed him, he looked at me with a kind of earnest excitement and asked, "Did you hear those cheers?" I told him, yes, I'd heard them, and asked if he really meant what he said about the six-figure salaries. "Yes, I do," he replied. And when I asked him who was going to pay for that, he told me, "Why, the good people of Florida."
Charlie didn't expect what I wrote. I invite you to read it, "Champion for Education? Not Crist," reproduced from The Stuart News in 2001. (You will find it in the attachment at the end of this story.)
I've followed his career for 12 years. His behavior is serial deception and even when I have fun with him in a column, I have to admit I don't think anything about him, or any Ponzi schemer, is funny. I think it's criminal.
I had just started at Sunshine State News in January 2010 when Charlieembarked on one of his whatever-you-want-to-hear tours. That was just ahead of the legislative session, when he was running for Senate while pretending to be governor. In St. Petersburg he promised a $535 million increase for public schools; in Naples, $100 million for the Everglades and environment; in Panama City, tax cuts for corporations and back-to-school shoppers. Impossible promises. Leaders in the Legislature, members of his own party, were pulling their hair out.
Over and over again in 2010, Charlie pledged to run as a Republican, never as an independent, and support the Republican winner of the Senate primary. He was so adamant so often, that when he did go independent, eventual winner Marco Rubio made a campaign ad of it.
Later on, of course, while Charlie was running as an independent and Bob Dole was recuperating in Walter Reed Army Hospital from knee surgery and pneumonia, Charlie promised Dole, if elected, he would vote for Republican control of the Senate. Who cares if it was true, apparently. It's what the 87-year-old former U.S. senator wanted to hear.
All that was within days of Charlie asking Bill Clinton to lean on Democrat Kendrick Meek to drop out of the Senate race. In exchange, Charlie promised guess what? To caucus with the Democrats in the Senate. Actually, the story was so sleazy -- even by silly-season standards -- that it went viral. And for the first time that I can recall, Charlie was caught.
In a classic interview, Charlie appeared on Fox News' "On The Record with Greta Van Susteren," and could not answer basic questions about who he spoke to or what was discussed in his backroom deal to force Kendrick Meek to drop out of the U.S. Senate race. Usually that tap-dancing talent I told you about, Charlie head-bobbed and bumbled his way through the interview. The way he ended it ... was that a "hello, hello, sorry, can't hear you" ruse to end the embarrassment, do you think?You have to see for yourself.
One last observation -- good in 2001, good now: Charlie never wants the job he's got. I know you hear that a lot, but there are numbers that prove it.
Look at the last time he was governor. In 2006, in his first gubernatorial campaign, Charlie promised Floridians: Ill work for you every day. Well, he even ran an ad using an empty chair to symbolize missed votes in Congress by his Democratic opponent, Jim Davis. You know what happened after that, right? Charlie was sworn into office Jan. 2. Three days later he took the day off. After that, he took another 123 days off and worked 238 half (or less) days (excluding weekends), which is equal to an additional 164 days off.
Even the Sun-Sentinel reported at the time, "As Floridians struggle with job reductions, home foreclosures and dwindling bank accounts, Crist has enjoyed a jet-setting lifestyle, mixing with celebrities, attending charity balls, staying at grand hotels and relaxing in his new wifes $4 million condo on Miamis Fisher Island."
It was on that very subject in 2010 that the Democrats ran one of the funniest political ads I've ever heard. Floridians were encouraged to call the governor's hotline, ask for Charlie, and when he didn't answer they were given four menu options:
- Press 1 to continue to hold for Charlie
- Press 2 to schedule a private yacht cruise with Charlie
- Press 3 to meet Charlie at a Miami Heat game
- Press 4 to receive a text message when we have more information on where Governor Crist has been hiding all this time.
The ad since has disappeared from the original site. You can imagine why Democrats might not want it hanging around now. (If you find it somewhere else, send the link and I'll add it here.)
In his second coming, his official announcement in St. Petersburg Nov. 4, Charlie was at it again, promising, promising. Elect Charlie, and "by 2020, Florida will be in the top 10 percent not just in America but in the world, in reading, math, science and technology." He alsopromised tax cuts for the everyday people and small businesses, high-speed rail and renewable energy.
Blah, blah, blah.
Somebody asked me last week why I kick Charlie when he's down. Simple answer: He keeps getting back up.
And, by the way, he's not down now. He's in the race, he wants to be governor for at least five minutes, all's fair.
In the meantime, I'm asking you to listen for promises as he makes his way down the campaign trail. Start paying attention to each one. You'll understand better why I want him held accountable.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews or at 228-282-2423.
