As if Chain Gang Charlie isn't up to his eyeballs in hot water over his unconscionable decision to offer up Florida's coastline as a sacrifice to the oil gods, I ran across this little jewel over at North Country Gazette--published 6-7-2008--just previous to the most well-documented flip-flop by a sitting governor in Florida political history.
Appears the Pinellas-Pasco County indigent are getting beat with the short end of the state budget cut stick with Public Defender Bob Dillinger hammering down the working end on the heads of the poor.
Dillinger is crying "we ain't got no money, honey" and is refusing to provide legal representation to persons arrested for a misdemeanor crime, those who are unable to afford an attorney to answer the charges in a court of law.
Yep. You read that right. The Public Defender has decided that the indigent will appear in court without the benefit of counsel. Their constitutional right. Denied.
And that ticked off NCG.
Big time.
Listen up Dillinger, perhaps you and Charlie could do a tag team a lesson in constitutional law to the Florida Legislature and Pinellas-Pasco Counties who Dillinger says have cut $1.5 million from his $15 million budget. Surely there are other places in the budget where cuts could be made in order to ensure that the counties are compliant with the law and ways to raise additional revenues other than property tax. Dillinger acknowledges that indigents are entitled to a lawyer. “I just can’t provide it”, Dillinger says.
The Florida Legislature announced in late April a $66 billion state budget for 2008-09 that featured diminished funds for most state agencies.State Sen. Victor Crist, chairman of the Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, has been quoted as saying that some state attorneys are grandstanding “because the cuts weren’t that severe, and they can find better ways to deal with them.”
Perhaps the best place to start cutting money in order to restore it for public defenders offices in the state is to start trimming the salaries of state legislators and judges.
Ultimately, the fault for the fiscal woes in Florida lies squarely at the feet of Ching Chang Charlie, also known as Gov. Charlie Crist. He and his Republican-led Legislature have adversely affected virtually every person in Florida from the mentally ill to the elderly to kindergarten students with their $5 billion budget cuts.
Crist has refused to raise revenues without raising property taxes, he has refused to close corporate tax loopholes that benefit himself and his buddies, He and his fellow Republicans could have raised an estimated $500 million by expanding gambling to other licensed pari-mutuels. But nope, not Charlie. He’d prefer to cut the courts, social service programs and education.
Crist needs to get his priorities in order and stop campaigning to be John McCain’s vice presidential candidate. The nation is already in enough trouble thanks to George W, for sure we don’t need Charlie Crist in the White House.
Ching Chang Charlie, after raising a record $24 million in campaign contributions, he wanted donors to throw in $500,000 each to fund his $2.5 million inaugural ball. Republican donors were asked to donate $50,000, $100,000 or $500,000 to get tickets to the inaugural and wow, for that they could have their picture taken with Mr. Big Spender, get engraved cuff links, a tote bag and silk tie (not sure what he planned on giving women donors but women don’t seem to figure much in Crist’s agenda). Let’s not forget the preferred seating at a prayer breakfast at Florida A&M University the big donors would get.
Ultimately Crist abandoned that plan when it came under fire. Maybe he should resurrect it now and use the revenues to restore needed programs and staffing to the budget. Maybe he could raise funds for the budget like he raised for his campaign.
Crist isn’t the brightest light bulb in the lamp, twice failing the bar exam before passing it, has been the target of prior ethics accusations that miraculously disappeared. No wonder he entered politics, its doubtful he would have had much of a career as lawyer, probably would have had more legal malpractice claims than escrow accounts.
Time will tell if Floridians have enough in their bank accounts to survive the Crist administration. God help the USA if he should somehow charm McCain into choosing him for his running mate.
NCG, we could only be so lucky.
If Chain Gang Charlie somehow gets past the Rep VP vetting squad and resigns as Governor to run as McLame's #2, we Sunshine Staters can all sit back with a stiff margarita and watch as Obama blows both of them out of the metaphorical waters.
And yes, I can use "stiff" and "blow" in the same sentence with Charlie Crist...
..with every pun intended.
