Charlie Crist's ACORN Association Bites Again. Marco Rubio Comments

In a press release today, Former Florida House Speaker and republican senatorial candidate Marco Rubio issued the following statement regarding Florida's flawed felon's rights restoration program.

Miami, FL–U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio today issued the following statement regarding Florida's felons' rights restoration program, which has mistakenly authorized restoring the rights of 13 felons, including a child rapist:


"In 2007, Governor Crist sided with ACORN in pushing for the expansion of a felons' rights restoration program in Florida. His flawed, mismanaged program has now erroneously allowed a child rapist and 12 other felons to have their rights restored.

"Governor Crist was wrong to support this program's expansion and he has failed to oversee its proper implementation. In light of the flaws that have come to light, Governor Crist should suspend this program indefinitely to ensure more of these mistakes are not made on his watch."

In April 2007 the St. Petersburg times ran a huge story about the Felons Rights Restoration Program. It is a MUST read to learn more about opposition to the program and how Charlie Crist ignored many of his own administration to aprrove it. It also mentions a number of liberal groups that influenced Crist's decision.

Calling it "simple human justice," Gov. Charlie Crist and two Cabinet members voted Thursday to reverse decades of Florida history by automatically restoring some civil rights to tens of thousands of felons...

...Attorney General Bill McCollum, however, called the change "reckless and irresponsible." His criticism of Crist during the meeting appeared to open a rift between the state's two top Republicans..."I'm just very upset about this," McCollum said. "I think we're making a grave mistake today."...

...As a candidate for governor last year, and in his first weeks in office, Crist demanded an easing of full citizenship barriers for felons, despite a poll showing most Floridians and law enforcement groups which supported his candidacy opposed the idea...

A tense, hourlong debate before the vote exposed deep philosophical differences between McCollum, who replaced Crist as attorney general in January, and the man who calls himself "the people's governor."


McCollum cited opposition from the Florida Sheriffs Association, Florida Police Chiefs Association and Fraternal Order of Police, among others.

I don't know McCollum very well yet but I certainly liked his position on this issue.

Charlie Crist Plays Word Games with the ACORN Controversy

Charlie Crist is playing political word games to support his position on the ACORN controversy. Crist's office was quoted this week as saying, "...there is "no evidence" of a "voter fraud problem" in Florida...". This simple statement on it's own may be true but it is an obvious attempt at diverting attention away from "Voter REGISTRATION Fraud".


It stands to reason that one would first have to commit voter registration fraud before voting fraudulently. If that somehow escapes Charlie Crist then he needs to have his advisors educate him on the voting process.

Voter registration fraud is a FELONY and Crist acts as if it never happened. Maybe he needs to talk to Florida state attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle. I'm sure he can find her number.

The case in Florida is simple and the information is readily available to those who are actually willing to take the time investigate a little.

Here is a story via FoxNews

"...Federal and state authorities in Miami are still searching for five of the 11 people suspected of falsifying information on hundreds of voter registration cards -- including registering the name of the late actor Paul Newman -- the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told FOXNews.com Thursday.

Six people were taken into custody Wednesday as arrest warrants were issued for 11 workers hired by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- or ACORN -- on charges of voter registration fraud.

Florida state attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said the 11 workers hired to register voters by ACORN in Homestead, Fla., submitted 888 fraudulent names -- which included names of people who were already registered voters, fictitious names, and the name of the late actor Paul Newman, who died in Sept. 2008...

...In a statement sent to FOXNews.com. on Wednesday, Florida ACORN board member Leroy Bell said, "We want to commend the state attorney for taking decisive action. Today's action demonstrates the seriousness we brought to the task of not only expanding the electorate, but also of protecting the integrity of the voting process. "...

The story gets a little more interesting when you look at the actual arrest affidavit.

It seems that only 25% of one workers cards were analyzed out of a total of about 160 for a total of 40. Out of the 40, 37 of them could not be matched to a living person.

If you extrapolate that out to the total number submitted by Williams you would come up with 147 Fraudulent Voter Registrations out of 160. Extraordinary that Charlie Crist does not seem to find this a problem.
 

This is just ONE OFFICE in the whole state and ONE person.  The next question I have for Governor Crist is how many of these fraudulent submissions have been accepted and are you willing to follow thru and investigate ALL of them to see how many people may have been able to cast invalid votes during the 2008 election?

Identifying the fraudulent registrations is only the first step. Will you demand that the second step be taken or are you in the same camp as Barack Obama.

''I think that there's probably less [fraud] than is being discussed. As we're coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos,'' Crist told reporters. Crist made his comments as the Republican National Committee hosted a conference call with reporters to tie Democrat Barack Obama to suspicious voter-registration cards submitted by ACORN across the nation and in four Florida counties, including Broward.- Charlie Crist via The Buzz

"... it's[The Acorn Scandal] not something I'm paying a lot of attention to."

         --Barack Obama Here is the video.

Marco Rubio sends Letter to Charlie Crist regarding ACORN

I decided to ad a separate post to show Marco Rubio's letter to current Governor Charlie Crist outlining his concerns over the ACORN controversy. Check out the last paragraph. Its a zinger!
Here is the letter again:
The Honorable Charlie Crist
The Capitol
400 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399

Dear Governor Crist:

As you are no doubt aware, the community organizing group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is now under intense scrutiny for recent reports of its involvement in questionable behavior and potentially illegal activity in several states.

In addition to the damning video reports of ACORN employees now familiar to most Floridians, just last week the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced that arrest warrants were issued for 11 former ACORN employees accused of faking voter registration cards. While it is commendable that ACORN assisted in the investigations that led to the arrests, it begs the question: why were so many people capable of these crimes working for ACORN in the first place?

Last Friday, the Census Bureau severed ties with ACORN. On Tuesday, U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and George LeMieux joined 81 other Senators in an overwhelming and bipartisan vote to strip federal funding from ACORN. Just yesterday, Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota took similar action, asking officials to investigate ACORN’s behavior in their respective states and prevent state taxpayer funding of the group.

Based on the mounting evidence against ACORN and the serious questions surrounding this organization, I respectfully ask that you follow the lead of the other elected officials I mentioned above and take immediate steps to initiate a thorough investigation into ACORN’s activities in Florida, including a detailed accounting of what state funds, if any, ACORN may be receiving. If it is discovered that they are receiving state funds, I believe further steps should be taken to cut off any taxpayer funding of ACORN.

The St. Petersburg Times also reported yesterday that your office may have partnered with ACORN in the past on several initiatives, including your 2007 effort to restore voting rights to convicted felons in Florida. If you partnered with ACORN, I have no reason to doubt you did so unaware of ACORN’s propensity for questionable activity, and with what you believed at the time to be the best interests of Floridians at heart. However, given the recent revelations about ACORN, I believe it is now in the best interest of all Floridians for your office to provide a thorough accounting of its relationship with ACORN and what, if any, influence ACORN may have had in any actions you have taken on behalf of the people of Florida.

Lastly, during last year’s presidential election, despite what now seems to be a prescient chorus of concerned parties asking for an investigation into ACORN’s election-related activities, you insisted that you were unconcerned with ACORN’s activities. In light of the recent allegations against ACORN, I suggest you reconsider your position, demand a full investigation of ACORN’s election-related activities, and take whatever steps available to you to prevent ACORN from engaging in voter registration and other election-related activities until the questions surrounding this organization are resolved.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio asks Charlie Crist to Investigate ACORN

From Tampabay.com

Does this explain the state GOP's silence over ACORN?

Huffington Post: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, for example, partnered with ACORN in March 2008 for a "Homeownership Promotes The Economy" taskforce. More recently, Crist declared that -- contrary to GOP outrage -- he was not upset with the group's voter registration efforts in his state. The New York Times reported that ACORN supported a law signed by Governor Crist, which "changed the rules last year to restore the voting rights of about 112,000 former convicts."

The Buzz: "Breaking with the talking points of his fellow Republicans in Washington, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said he does not think voter fraud and the vote-registration group ACORN are a major problem in the Sunshine State. ''I think that there's probably less [fraud] than is being discussed. As we're coming into the closing days of any campaign, there are some who enjoy chaos,'' Crist told reporters. Crist made his comments as the Republican National Committee hosted a conference call with reporters to tie Democrat Barack Obama to suspicious voter-registration cards submitted by ACORN across the nation and in four Florida counties, including Broward. (photo from Acorn Web site)

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Also,I found this. Marco Rubio sent a letter to Governor Crist asking him to investigate ACORN Florida. Rubio did not hold back. Here is the letter: