Florida Governor Rick Scott Writes Letters So You Don't Have To

I found this through the Washington Monthly, and I'm just amazed. The original source story is through the Orlando Sentinel:

For a guy who claims not read newspapers — or care what the polls say or the public thinks — Rick Scott sure is putting a lot of effort into trying to score some good publicity.

In fact, if regular old rank-and-file Floridians won’t write nice things about him in letters to the editor, Scott has decided to write the words for them.

One of the newest features on www.rickscottforflorida.com is a page where Scott supporters can send pre-written letters of praise for Scott … written by Scott’s campaign team. Just pick the newspaper you want to contact. (Yes, the Sentinel is one of the seven.) And then you can add your name to a letter that says: “While politicians usually disappoint us and rarely keep their promises,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Rick is refreshing because he’s keeping his word. His policies are helping to attract businesses http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifto our state and get people back to work.”

It’d be even more refreshing to read letters sent by people who actually wrote them themselves. But it appears that Scott has reached the point where he doesn’t care about such nuances.

You can read the full pre-written letter – and attach your own signature to it – here: http://www.rickscottforflorida.com/2011/06/14/email-a-newspaper-editor/

I'm having trouble trying to wrap my head around this. Apparently Rick Scott is one of the least popular governors in the U.S., drawing a 57 percent disapproval rating from Florida voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, on May 26, 2011. Rick Scott has been a disaster for Florida. He's cut unemployment benefits, teacher's pay, and low income health services to fund corporate tax cuts. Scott has rejected Florida's receiving federal funds to build a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. Scott has signed legislation, creating a pilot program that will place "hundreds of thousands of low-income and elderly Floridians into managed-care plans" as a Medicaid overhaul. This pilot program allows a company called Solantic, a chain of urgent-care clinics, to receive funds from this pilot program. Solantic was founded by none other than Florida's governor Rick Scott. There are even more reports of fraud that took place at a Columbia/HCA, when Scott was head of the company. It is no wonder that Scott has a disapproval rating of 57 percent.

So Rick Scott wants to improve his publicity. He could try to create legislation to benefit the people of Florida, rather than himself, the corporate, or ubber-rich monied interests. Forget that--let's create web-based, formed email letters that Florida's citizens can sent to their local newspapers! It is beyond ridiculous! What is even more crazy is that it is Rick Scott's staff that wrote the emails--you just have to sign your name and email address, allowing the Rick Scott for Florida campaign to bombard your email address for campaign donations. It is almost like a publicity stunt that the Scott campaign has created for the 30-percent conservative crazies to accept their marching orders from Der Leader.

If you write it, the crazies will come.