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Original Article brought to you by SemDem for DKos Florida Tue Mar 29, 2011
I don't know if you realize this, but our state government has a reputation for corruption. (And all of this was before we elected a criminal to lead us.)
Well, our new Teabag overlords in the state legislature have finally figured out a way to end the illegal practice of taking payoffs under the table for favorable legislation.
They made it legal.
Just a few days ago, the GOP leadership overwhelmingly fast-tracked a law to bring back slush funds that will be, get this, directly managed by our legislative leadership.
The ignorant massess are none too happy. Here's columnist Howard Troxler from the St. Pete Times:
The Florida Legislature proved this past week, once and for all, that it is the utter Whore of Babylon.It is now legal in our state to pay off the Legislature directly. Who says so? The Legislature.
This is not a joke.
This is not satire.
This is Florida — where the laws of our democracy are now openly, officially For Sale.
First time our legistlature has been called a whore, won't be the last.
The teabag lawmakers who even bothered to try to justify it (and really, why bother?) actually said it would be better to take direct payoffs because it is more "transparent". And besides, they are just sick of trying to hide it.
Former gov. Charlie Crist vetoed this last year, saying these funds were a "vestige" of Florida's corrupt political past and pointed out that the MASSIVELY scandal-ridden Florida GOP shouldn't be fighting so hard to bring them back. (A Democratic-controlled legislature banned these slush funds over 20 years ago.)
These funds will be HUGE special-interest fundraising machines for the GOP. Now, our legislative "leaders" are allowed to steer these unlimited amounts of campaign cash directly into separate accounts they control.
The worst thing about this isn't the fact that they will be taking bribes, even though this legislation streamlines the process. The worst thing I foresee is that our corrupt legislators will be able to "shake down" certain groups or businesses for contributions for exemptions to some of the draconian laws they are poised to pass. (So, eh, MickeY, right? Enjoying your little gun exemption? Ya know, some of the boys think it time we allow MAC-10s to be openly carried in the park. I might be persuaded to call it off, but I could use a little more "encouragement"...)
Everytime I think they can't go any lower, they pull out a stick of dynamite.
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