Is It Fair To Assume What Kind Of A Senator Charlie Crist Would Make Based On His Actions As Governor?

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Rep. Bill Young is old-- he'll be 80 next time he has to face the voters-- and there's been chatter about him retiring for almost a decade. Last year it was all planned out how his wife would run, and he didn't wind up declaring his candidacy until a few hours before the deadline. He's represented Pinellas County since 1970, and even since the African-America precincts of south St. Petersburg were carefully gerrymandered out to keep it safely Republican, the district has trended more and more Democratic. Last year President Obama beat McCain 51-47%, while Young's downward election results slide continued. In 2000 he won with 76% and was unopposed in 2002. In 2004 he won with 69%, which decreased to 66% in 2006 and 61% last year. The DCCC has never taken FL-10 seriously, but they plan to target it and are pushing state Senator Charlie Justice, someone who could well beat Young.

There has been a great deal of talk about saving Young the indignity of ending his political career with a rejection at the polls by appointing him to fill out the remaining year of the Senate seat Mel Martinez is retiring from early. That way the mainstream conservative, someone generally respected and liked by his peers Inside the Beltway, could go out as a U.S. Senator and live out the rest of his life with people calling him "Senator Young."

Governor Crist, a candidate for that seat himself, and facing a very rough primary from grassroots far right extremist Marco Rubio, gets to decide who will serve out the rest of Martinez's term, and Young isn't what he had in mind. Instead, he appointed a sadsack crony of his, ex-campaign manager and chief of staff Georgie Lemieux, a man with no political following outside of Crist's immediate circle. He's generally being seen as Crist's puppet, and Crist has managed to offend Cubans by not appointing Bobby Martinez and the lunatic fringe religionist psychos who dominate so much of the Florida GOP by not appointing state Senator Dan Webster.

On the other hand, Crist, a barely closeted homosexual, likely felt that the vaguely pro-gay (for a Republican) Lemieux would protect his exposed rear flank.

Former Congresswoman Karen Thurman, currently Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, says Crist should have looked for someone who had the knowledge and skill to help solve the economic problems that the Bush Regime, coupled with years and years of Republican rule in Tallahassee, caused Floridians.

"Today, Charlie Crist decided to play political games with the public's trust by appointing George LeMieux to the U.S. Senate. This glaring example of political cronyism is the last thing Florida needed while we face these tough economic times and the Congress is tackling critical issues such as health insurance reform and global warming.

"In appointing LeMieux, someone who has made millions over the past several years selling access to Crist to the highest bidders among Tallahassee's special interests, Charlie Crist once again put his own political ambition above doing what is right for Florida.

"Floridians are sick of the Republican culture of corruption and the Tallahassee back room dealings that clearly led Crist to pick LeMieux, whose only qualification is being Charlie Crist's crony."

Now, were Crist a decent governor, who put Floridians' interests above his own unbridled political ambitions, he might say that Young's opposition to health care reform makes him ineligible for appointment to the Senate. After all, the reform bill Young is adamantly opposing would have a gigantic positive impact on almost 15,000 senior citizens in Pinellas County-- as well as over 18,000 small businesses. Just in Young's district over 71,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance if Young and other Republican allies of Big Insurance would start working for the good of the country instead of just trying to obstruct everything and demonize President Obama. A report that came out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has all the hard facts for people living in FL-10:

• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 18,600 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.

• Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 14,800 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.

• Health care and financial security. There were 1,200 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $78 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.

• Coverage of the uninsured. There are 90,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 14% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 71,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.

• No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 4,180 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 98.7% of taxpayers in the district.

But Crist doesn't give a hoot about any of that. In fact, for the last few years his pal LeMieux has been a special interest lobbyist raking in millions of dollars selling access to Crist to the highest corporate bidders in Tallahassee, including, of course, the same insurance companies that are financing the disruptive tactics at the town halls and making up all the lies for dull Republicans about death panels and government takeovers. LeMieux has never been elected to any office by actual voters and has only ever been beholden to Charlie Crist, Republican Party donors, and his special interest clients. That's why he was selected for the job-- another example of putting cronyism and corruption above the interests of Florida families.