Daniel TilsonIt’s time we heard what Charlie Crist thinks about Rick Scott’s latest scandals.
It might help us make better sense of the mess Scott made out of firing Gerald Bailey, longtime and widely respected commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), not to mention new whistleblower allegations that Scott ignored and covered up fatal failures of our state prison system.
You may be wondering, what if any role did the Florida Cabinet play while all this was going on?
Crist is uniquely positioned to offer insight into how the balance of powers is supposed to work in the Cabinet, how it worked when he was governor, and why it tilted so heavily towards unilateral decision-making and actions by Gov. Scott and his staff in recent years. And given that Bailey was his FDLE chief for four years, it’d be interesting to hear what Crist thinks of the popular commissioner’s proudly independent style of public service – the one that ran him afoul of Scott’s inner circle.
Scott’s immediate predecessor as governor, Crist was joined on the Cabinet by Attorney General Bill McCollum, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink.
Sink was the lone Democrat and presumably did what she could to maintain some measure of checks and balances on then-Republican Gov. Crist’s power. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work. One had the sense that Crist and the bipartisan Cabinet functioned with one another pretty much as intended by the Florida Constitution.
Then came Rick Scott and his history as a cutthroat healthcare CEO who ruled Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. in “My way or the highway” fashion – until the FBI raided a number of its hospitals as part of a massive Medicare fraud investigation. Scott resigned shortly thereafter, before the company he ran for 10 years pled guilty to 14 felonies and was fined a record $1.7 billion.
Past being prologue and all that jazz, Scott seemed from Day One a governor desperately in need of as many checks and balances as possible. But he hasn’t gotten them from the Florida Cabinet or from the Florida Legislature.
As a result, we’re left with allegations by Bailey that the governor and his staff went into power-mad mode, perhaps to the extent of committing constitutional violations and criminal acts.
That only makes it more relevant to hear what Charlie Crist has to say. Before he was governor, he was Florida Attorney General and part of the Cabinet under Gov. Jeb Bush.
His thoughts about what’s gone so wrong with the Florida Cabinet during the Rick Scott years, his insights into the role Attorney General Pam Bondi has – or, rather, has not played – and his sense of how to move forward with investigating the whole affair all would be most welcome now.
And hey, if handled deftly, it’d be pretty good politics for a guy still dedicated to public service, perhaps still intent on seeking public office.
So call me, Charlie! I’d love the exclusive…and the public sure could use your input.
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
