Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who leads the charge to block the healthcare bill says, ''This is not a partisan issue . . . It's a question [about] the rights and freedoms of the individual citizens. . ." (1)
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It only took a few minutes for McCollum to file a lawsuit against the healthcare bill, as he attempts to deny healthcare to millions of Floridians who are uninsured, let alone the millions of uninsured Americans across the country. Yet it took four years for McCollum to weigh-in on the rights of voting Americans in Florida, a state plagued by faulty elections.
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When the For-the-American-People card is played selectively, liberty rings hollow.
- Was McCollum concerned about Americans' rights when the statewide "glitch" in Florida's voting machines gifted him some 89,000 to 232,000 votes toward his win to Attorney General? Unless there's another "glitch" that ES&S, the voting machine company, hasn't told us about, counting these lost votes would not have given McCollum's opponent the win. But elections across the state produced similarly invalid results.
- Was McCollum concerned about Americans' rights when voting machines were to blame in Sarasota, Florida's hotly contested, court-ridden 2006 District-13 race? Could he/should he/did he say, "Hey, wait. Those voting machines are broken. Take this election back to the voters. Let them decide."
- Definitely, three months after ES&S's power grab clinched their monopoly across the U.S. and especially in Florida, and now that he's running for governor, McCollum did announce that he was investigating the merger. But McCollum's mid December weigh-in on the ES&S monopoly could be seen by some as insincere, especially since the ES&S-Diebold merger was finalized September 2, 2009. And particularly since we now know how swiftly McCollum can file suit.
- Now Sarasota, Florida elections are in the news again as Elections Supervisor Kathy Dent refuses to spot-check audit last Tuesday's election.
Will McCollum jump into action to protect Americans' rights in this issue? Taking a stand for "the American people" when it's politically convenient doesn't garner the respect it would if you were standing up for all Americans all the time. Does it make for a better politician? Four years to man-up for Americans' right to vote, minutes to rally against healthcare for all Americans. It's so easy to criticize someone else's idea, not so easy to offer one of your own. Oh, wait; the health insurance mandate was a Republican idea.
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References:
(1)"Pollsters and political strategists are split over whether Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's court fight is a vote-getter or a risk to his gubernatorial bid," Marc Caputo, Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
See also:
Group wants action on no-audit decision, Dale White, 03/22/10
Individual health insurance mandate started as a Republican idea, John Dorschner, 03/23/10
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