$1.3 Million charged to GOP staffer's credit card

[GoodWitch58]

Junior Florida Republican Party staffer had $1.3 million charged to party credit card - St. Petersburg Times

She was a 25-year-old junior staffer when the Florida Republican Party gave her an American Express card.

Over the next 2? years, nearly $1.3 million in charges wound up on Melanie Phister's AmEx — $40,000 at a London hotel, and nearly $20,000 in plane tickets for indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom, his wife and kids, for starters. Statements show thousands spent on jewelry, sporting goods and in one case $15,000 for what's listed as a month-long stay at a posh Miami Beach hotel, but which the party says was a forfeited deposit.

The credit card records, obtained by the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald, offer the latest behind-the-scenes look at extravagant and free-wheeling spending by the party touting fiscal restraint

Now, I'm just asking, are these really the people we want determining how our children's teachers are selected and their performance reviewed...if they are this careless with their own doners money, what can we expect them to do with tax payer money?

 

[30ashopper]

Cleary Sansom was a bad egg. Anyone involved with his wrong doings should be tar'd and feather'd.

Generally though, comparing the financial state and taxation levels over the last two decades, I'd say republicans have done a better job of managing state finances.

 

[GoodWitch58]

Cleary Sansom was a bad egg. Anyone involved with his wrong doings should be tar'd and feather'd.

Generally though, comparing the financial state and taxation levels over the last two decades, I'd say republicans have done a better job of managing state finances.

Well, I don't know where you get your info; and I am not interested in arguing with you; but, from someone who has been there in the trenches, I'd say what they have done is a real good job of privatizing a lot of business to their friends and family. (For reference just look up any Auditor General report for the last 10 years or so).

I am not saying it's just the Rs, who need to be held accountable--every elected official needs to be held accountable. I suggest anyone who really cares go spend a few days in Tallahassee and listen/watch some of the debate on the floor...

Seldom is one ever able to find the "problems" with a bill in the language as it is written; it is the meaning behind the words and the connections of the sponsors that you have to watch out for. It's a matter, as they say, of "connecting the dots." and, IMO, and many others too, when one connects these dots, it is not the students in Florida's public schools, or the teachers who teach them, who win the prize.

 

[30ashopper]

Well, I don't know where you get your info; and I am not interested in arguing with you; but, from someone who has been there in the trenches, I'd say what they have done is a real good job of privatizing a lot of business to their friends and family. (For reference just look up any Auditor General report for the last 10 years or so).

I am not saying it's just the Rs, who need to be held accountable--every elected official needs to be held accountable. I suggest anyone who really cares go spend a few days in Tallahassee and listen/watch some of the debate on the floor...

Seldom is one ever able to find the "problems" with a bill in the language as it is written; it is the meaning behind the words and the connections of the sponsors that you have to watch out for. It's a matter, as they say, of "connecting the dots." and, IMO opinion, and many others too, when one connects these dots, it is not the students in Florida's public schools, or the teachers who teach them, who win the prize.

We'd be living in a perfect world if politicians didn't hand out special favors to special interests. It seems a pinch of bad almost always gets mixed in with a pound of good when it comes to government. I wish that weren't true, but unfortunately it is.

 

[hnooe]

The Republican Party of Florida now has about as much credibility as the Pope in the Vatican.

 

[beachFool]

FCNO=Fiscal Conservative in Name Only

We call them Finkos.

 

[Lake View Too]

I thought you were suppose to use the money to butter-up the lobbyists, not your own mother and the Ray Samson family.

 

[GoodWitch58]

We'd be living in a perfect world if politicians didn't hand out special favors to special interests. It seems a pinch of bad almost always gets mixed in with a pound of good when it comes to government. I wish that weren't true, but unfortunately it is.

Yes, but there are some times when "looking the other way because that is the way the game is played" is not acceptable.

and, when the education of our children (SB 6) is on the line; or the lives of our military; or the protection of our citizens, those are the times, when we, as citizens, can not afford to look the other way.

People who will spend other people's money as recklessly as this, have a character that will allow them to do anything as long as they are getting what they want...there is much too much of that character trait in today's Florida legislature IMO.

and it is the responsibility of every citizen of this state to stand up and so something about it. Otherwise, we are just as responsible for the results as they are.