scary: Greene takes lead in senate primary
- Thread starter 30ashopper
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Slimey. At a recent GOP breakfast in Tampa, Scott was confronted -- not for the first time -- about his role in the scandals at Columbia/HCA, the massive healthcare company that Scott ran for 10 years. Scott resigned in 1997 amid an FBI probe that ultimately led to the company paying a record $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud.
It's the paradox of Scott's upstart campaign: The novice candidate has touted his stature and experience as the get-things-done CEO of what was once the nation's largest for-profit healthcare company, while also trying to distance himself from Columbia/HCA's notorious legacy of fraud.
The strategy has worked so far. Thanks largely to a $16 million advertising blitz he financed himself, Scott -- who moved to Florida seven years ago -- now leads in the polls over fellow Republican Bill McCollum, the state attorney general and former congressman.
``As I have said repeatedly, Columbia/HCA made mistakes, and I take responsibility for what happened on my watch as CEO,'' Scott said in a written statement Friday. He has denied knowing frauds were taking place while he was there, and he was never charged with any crimes.
However, federal investigators found that Scott took part in business practices at Columbia/HCA that were later found to be illegal -- specifically, that Scott and other executives offered financial incentives to doctors in exchange for patient referrals, in violation of federal law, according to lawsuits the Justice Department filed against the company in 2001.
The doctor payments were among 10 different kinds of fraud identified by the Justice Department in its 10-year probe of the company, records show. Three years after Scott left Columbia/HCA, the company admitted wrongdoing, pleading guilty to 14 felonies -- most committed during Scott's tenure -- in addition to paying two sets of fines totaling $1.7 billion.
All I got to say about politics right now is I HATE POLITICAL SIGNS and consider them a BLIGHT on the landscape.
Off topic I know, but I just HATE them. When I was a scouting leader we had to go around after elections and take them all down. Well, we didn't have to but I thought it was a good community service project.
I wish they were banned. They cost energy and $$ to make, energy and $$ to drive around putting them out, and to retrieve them (that's a laugh) PLUS they are ugly, they fall down, get blown down and well, I just can't say anything good about them.
Carry on - just had to throw that in.....
Off topic I know, but I just HATE them. When I was a scouting leader we had to go around after elections and take them all down. Well, we didn't have to but I thought it was a good community service project.
I wish they were banned. They cost energy and $$ to make, energy and $$ to drive around putting them out, and to retrieve them (that's a laugh) PLUS they are ugly, they fall down, get blown down and well, I just can't say anything good about them.
Carry on - just had to throw that in.....
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Jeff Greene's path to Senate campaign shows he is uncompromising, sometimes to a fault - St. Petersburg Times
All about Jeff Greene - democrats presumptive senate nominee.
All about Jeff Greene - democrats presumptive senate nominee.
I have to give props to the firefighters on this one -- after the last election they were kind enough to call the DEC headquarters and offer to go and pick up signs. The signs are expensive -- especially the wire part that holds up the sign. The firefighters reuse the wire parts to save money on their endorsement signs in the next election cycle, and decluttter the landscape pretty quickly after the election is over.
Not to get off topic or anything. To redirect --
Jeff Greene told reporters that political parties don't matter anymore. With the recent Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United v. FEC and the Republican filibuster of the proposed bill to prevent corporations from having total control of elections, maybe he's right.
One thing is for sure, both Greene's candidacy and Rick Scott's raise questions about how important broad agendas and message and building grassroots support will be in future elections. Why build strong support within the party when you can buy soft support from the many with the use of well produced commercials on heavy rotation? Both men have gone outside the old party system, and are leading polls going into the primaries, despite the fact that an argument could be made that both made their money in ways that could be describe as not completely honorable.
Having worked in contracting for BCBS when Rick Scott was CEO of HCA, I can assure you the company he ran was constantly looking to use government regulation to their advantage, creating hospital monopolies in strategic regions, and defrauding private insurers and Medicare alike, and balance billing patients in violation of contracts as a matter of course.
