EXCLUSIVE! Michael E. Arth Interviews Rick Scott. Shocking New Revelations!
Me, asking the slippery Rick Scott an important question
Okay, I admit that the term “interview” is an exaggeration, and that the “shocking new revelations” consist of information that is hidden in plain sight, yet ignored at everyone’s peril. Rather than focusing on past sins or scandals, which you will also read about here, the most outrageous facts concern our political system, and how something far worse than individual malfeasance threatens the very foundations of our democracy.
People with active critical thinking faculties are generally discouraged from interviewing commercially viable candidates. This is especially true of Rick Scott, who golden-parachuted into the Florida gubernatorial race in April, and quickly bought himself front runner status.
In recent polls, Rick Scott was leading in both the Republican primary and the general election. A Mason-Dixon poll released today puts Bill McCollum slightly ahead, and Alex Sink slightly ahead of both Scott and McCollum (both polls are statistical dead heats), but do not underestimate the power of money, combined with the power of the duopoly, to sway large numbers of undecided. So far, all the major political events, especially Scott’s, have been carefully orchestrated to avoid hard-nosed reporters, back-and-forth questioning, or gubernatorial rivals. So the fact that I could get close and personal with Scott and ask two questions, qualifies as something special in this pathetic excuse of a gubernatorial race.
Ann Scott playfully pulling at my name tag without knowing that I
am also running for governor.
Me finishing the job for her, while we wait for the photo op.
Only because I have been so marginalized by the two parties and our broken electoral system, which functions more like an auction than an election, was I able to attend one of Scott’s private events by simply signing up at one of his campaign websites. My name went unrecognized during the entire event, even while having two exchanges with Scott, and even after Rick’s wife, Ann, had playfully helped me remove my name tag for a picture of the three of us together. At the photo op, following the first question, which I will return to in a moment, I asked Rick, “Do you know that I’m running for governor in this race?”
I think it startled him for a second, but he quickly recovered and chirped, “No I didn’t know.” Whereupon, he immediately went back to posing for the picture and then scurried out before I could follow up.
The Photo Op
Michael E. Arth: “Rick, did you know I’m running for governor?”
Rick Scott: “No, I didn’t know that.”
Ann Scott: “Cheese”
I have been in the Florida gubernatorial race since June 2009. I have written a book about the campaign, ridden my bicycle from Key West to Pensacola, met thousands of people, and been at dozens of events. Nonetheless, I was able to mingle unnoticed by Scott, his wife, his handlers, bodyguards, and supporters. From their perspective, I am irrelevant because money, and the propaganda it buys, is what really counts in their world, not ideas or qualifications.
Even a highly questionable past can be whitewashed if you buy enough paint. In 1997, Rick Scott was forced to resign as CEO from Columbia/HCA, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the U.S. This occurred after FBI raids, which lead to his company pleading guilty to “14 felony charges stemming from a massive federal fraud investigation.” As a result of these charges, his healthcare company paid a record $1.7 billion in both criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud. More recently, according to press reports, Scott’s new company, Solantic Urgent Care, has been sued 10 times by former employees.
Scott, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer, either knew what was going on at Columbia/HCA (which included two sets of books that concealed blatant theft of the common wealth), and he is criminally and morally responsible, or he didn’t know, and earned $10 million in severance and $300 million in stock for incompetence. To date, he has earmarked an estimated $33 million of his family’s largesse in his bid to buy his way into office through attack ads and a 527 group. Like most politicians, and a majority of our Supreme Court Justices, Scott characterizes private campaign finance as “free speech.”
Many people, especially those on the right, are so angry at incumbents it appears that they would even vote for Charlie Mansion, if he said he would cut taxes, create jobs, shrink the government, and be willing to part with a considerable portion of a $218 million fortune, as Rick Scott has.
Knowing this, in the first three months of his campaign, Scott “loaned” his campaign $23.9 million and raised $430,000 in donations, 30% of which are from out-of-state influence buyers. Scott has already spent more money on the gubernatorial race than any previous candidate of any kind in Florida, ever. Scott entered the race in April, with his Florida name recognition going from nearly zero to nearly ubiquitous within a few months, almost solely because of paid advertising. Trial lawyer Steve Andrews, who is trying to obtain a video deposition related to lawsuits against Solantic, and who reportedly has contributed to gubernatorial candidates Bill McCollum and Alex Sink, called Scott “the corporate spawn of Satan.”
While I don’t believe in a literal Satan, I do find Scott to be a bit of the proverbial silver-tongued devil, and able to glide through the issues with prepared answers, while also assiduously avoiding back-and-forth interviews or debates. For example, yesterday he failed to show up for the last of three debates with Bill McCollum, in favor of meeting a few select people, including me, presumably out of the glare of the media.
McCollum held a one-sided debate without Scott being present, much as I have done with Charlie Crist, Alex Sink and Bill McCollum. I did this on two occasions after Florida’s top three leaders refused to show up to debate me. In my case, I brought cardboard cutouts of the missing candidates, which were no more forthcoming than the originals.
None of the top candidates are willing to debate, in any meaningful sense, because it is not required of them under our broken electoral system. We let attack ads, yard signs, party politics, and cold, hard cash determine who wins. This isn’t free speech, as Rick Scott asserted yesterday, it is the equivalent of yelling fire in a crowded theater and not worrying if people get trampled at the exits.
Rick and Ann Scott were escorted into a stars-and-stripes-draped conference center in Jacksonville, set up to look like an elaborate machine shop, in keeping with Scott’s “Let’s get to work” slogan. The pair made their way through the room, shaking hands with invitees at the “business luncheon,” which had followed a “Christian prayer pastors’ breakfast.”
As Sinclair Lewis supposedly once said, “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.”
Rick Scott delivered a well-honed stump speech where he talked about God, his role as the living embodiment of the American Dream, family values, his 38-year marriage to his high school sweetheart, his version of free speech (all the democracy you can buy) and how he intends to run the state like a business (but hopefully not like his private businesses). Four questions were allowed. Because I was on the front row, and impossible to ignore, I was warily given the last question. The Scott entourage is said to be on the lookout for McCollum’s people dogging their events with video cameras, hoping for a “macaca” moment, but we fooled ‘em with my cell phone that has high definition video. They thought we were taking pictures, and I’m sure we won’t get the opportunity again. You’ll see the choicest cuts in our upcoming documentary, Gov’nuh. Nevertheless, I was not trying to be deliberately provocative, or even macaca-tative so I did not say anything about his money or the fraud. That’s Bill McCollum’s job.
Instead, I pointed out that Florida has an incarceration rate that is 8 to 15 times higher than Canada, Europe and Japan, mostly because career politicians since Nixon have all supported the War on Drugs. I asked him how he was going to lower the huge prison population, and lower the rate of violence and crime that has been associated with drug prohibition, including the creation of 30,000 gang members in Florida, and 800,000 in the U.S. I brought up the three major causes including 1. the drug war, 2. the imprisoning of those with developmental disabilities who have been “deinstitutionalized,” and 3. the minimum sentencing laws. It’s undeniable that the War on Drugs is the biggest factor, and any inquisitive person can quickly discern the facts:
Nixon declared the War on Drugs in 1970. The incarceration rate has since then soared by 525%. Half of the drug arrests are for marijuana, for which there has never been a single, documented case of an overdose death. (Tobacco, alcohol, and prescription drugs kill 650,000 each year in the U.S.) This has become a war on poor, destroying family values, creating contempt for the law, and vastly increasing the level of gang activity, organized crime, and violence.
Scott danced around the issue in a manner that would have made a certain moose-slaying soccer mom proud. He talked about special needs children taken care of by his second daughter, about the need for parents to be able to choose which school they can send their child to. He said that education, both inside and outside prison, was important, as was job training. While all this may be soothing for voters to hear, he was, however, utterly silent about the drug war, gang problems, the rising contempt for the law, deinstitutionalization, or minimum sentencing. Like Palin, he is perfecting the art of the non-answer.
The problem in this gubernatorial race is not that the field is dominated by Rick Scott, an ego-tripping millionaire with a checkered past and a proven disregard for the common good; or Bill McCollum, a lackluster career politician, former paid lobbyist and lackey of special interests; or Alex Sink, a former bank executive who, along with fellow trustees Charlie Crist and Bill McCollum, mishandled the state’s nest egg under the State Board of Administration. (You will hear more about the hushed-up SBA scandal if Scott wins the primary, because it will become potent ammunition against Sink). The problem is that our broken electoral system consistently attracts inadequate leaders, or even criminals. In fact, Florida had 824 convicted public officials in a recent ten year period, more than any other state, and this is only the tip of the iceberg since most criminals get away with their crimes, and even if politicians are not technically breaking the law, they are still engaged in legalized bribery. We hate politicians and focus on their shortcomings, but they are only the boils on the diseased government body. We should be putting our focus on curing the whole body politic to bring systemic and institutional change, to attract the best and the brightest people to the most important jobs in the land.
So far, you all have been getting a bargain in my quest to find solutions that will benefit all of us. This is because I find fundraising to be awkward and degrading, and because begging for money and engaging in influence peddling goes against everything I believe politics should be about. As much as I hate to ask, I need money to continue my campaign. It’s not so much about me, or even winning this particular race, as it is about bringing forth the truth so that we can all share and enjoy the blessings of our country’s bounty. The goal should be to bring the greatest good to the greatest number, in the most efficient manner, to this and future generations. Nothing could be more important, yet even this simple formula for having a representative democracy is rarely articulated. We should be emailing everyone we know, which is the electronic equivalent of shouting from the rooftops. Please spread the word, by spreading this blog, and please donate now.
