Prince Charlie: Out of town, out of touch

As a beaming Gov. Charlie Crist and his fiancee Carole Rome posed for pictures in London Wednesday with the Prince of Wales, state economists were wailing about the latest signs of Florida's deteriorating condition.

"Governor Crist discusses climate change with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales," headlined the news release from the governor's office. It was one of three distributed Wednesday with Internet links to pictures of Crist enjoying a midsummer visit to four European nations.

In Tallahassee, economists predicted Florida's economy will keep tanking until at least the first half of 2010. (Steve Bousquet's column here)

Comments

Remember in November.

The Governor of Florida does not to be meeting with foreign dignitaries. Anything they work on is just for posterity. He needs to be in Florida and he needs to shrink his head a little bit. Oh, and the whole Carol Rome thing will blow up in his face when he doesn't get the VP nod.

Wonder if the Prince of Wales buys his suits from his jeweler?

[Rockabilly]

The Prince looks like he should be in a wax museum. And perhaps he is.

Who needs state economists to tell us things are bad in Florida. Ask any of Florida's 18 million residents what they think of Florida's economic climate. It is bad and Crist is carrying on like everything is rosy.

Which prince are you talking about RB?

[Omega83]

A historical note on the phrase "let them eat cake."

Cake - in the 18th century sense, also meant the yeast residue left behind from baking bread in a stone oven...i.e. the left-over backwash.

Thus when Marie Antoinette uttered her now infamous phrase, what she was really saying was if they could not afford bread, they could make do with the scraps in the oven.

It was a comment more of arrogance and hubris, than of cluelessness.

You know how her story ended...

This trip and associated "news releases" are proof writ large that the Crist administration is only concerned about Crist's appearance and not the people of FL.

They aren't even pretending to act like they care about FL. They used to be able to at least fake it.

Carol and the Prince Chucks...playing live next weekend at Brother's Tallahassee - be there!

The look on Windsor's face seems like Crist just tried to give him the shocker with his right hand...

Why has it taken so long to see that our esteemed governor wears no clothes? Stop calling him an empty suit. The naked truth is that he does not have a suit to be empty. He is surrounded by fauning tenty something year old neophites who applaud his every platitude while Florida sinks deeper into the swamp. Why can't we find another Jeb Bush, Reuben Askew,or Leroy Collins lead us?

[Donald Lance]

I will not defend Charlie(the gov-not the prince) but being that he is on this misguided "Green" kick, Charlie (the Prince) knows something about sustainable farming. Since Ag is a major industry in FL, I'm certain Charlie (the Gov) is picking his brain. This link is from May 2006 National Geographic Mag.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/europe/england/cornwall-text

Thank you Steve. Dig deeper. There's much more the public needs to know.

Steve...you're an idiot. YOu could just as easily talk about the Governor's foresight to schedule a trade mission in advance of the economic slowdown...this trade mission will result millions (if not billions) of dollars in new trade agreements with these countries, and will also create jobs in Florida. The Governor is doing exactly what he should be doing...being proactive and working to expand the economy of Florida.

Will someone tell Charlie how to stand - you know, look like a real man???? Please!

[Debbie]

Has the heat had that much affect on the people in Florida? Wake up. This pathetic excuse for a governor needs to go. The fact that he has managed to make it all the way to the governor's mansion on no more than a 'charming personality' speaks volumes regarding what people are voting for. The SPT needs to be more aggressive in printing things that are not so rosy about him and his ineptitude.

McCain and his people are not dumb enough to add this idiot to the ticket. And once that has been confirmed, Ms. Rome will take her cocktail ring and her memories of meeting the Prince and others on to the next person who can provide her the constant exposure that she so desires.

Please, we beg of you, let the vetting process begin. It will be the beginning of the end for the sham that has been Charlie Crist's 'career'. Our only hope could be that it will happen before he puts the final nail in Florida's coffin.

The governor's foresight? In what? Making sure he had a female on his arm when he made this trip?

8:39 - You're the idiot. No trade mission in the state's history has resulted in billions of dollars worth of jobs for Florida. This trip was pushed by Carole Rome and her buddies - it's all play and no work...and Crist's poor attempt to shore up his international creds in order to yet again shamelessly pander to team McCain in hopes of a VP slot. I'm just glad Bousquet has finally gotten a clue and started to report on the facts rather than the fiction of the Crist administration. It's taken him long enough to stop being a PR agent for team Crist and get back to being a reporter for what used to be Florida's paper of record.

[Where is Charlie Crist?]

Charlie's Summer Vacation:

*Squandered billions of dollars on shady U.S. Sugar bailout engineerd by his lobbyist friends.

*Went sightseeing and photo-opping in Europe on the taxpayer's dime.

*Lost Supreme Court Case 7-0 because he didn't understand the basics of the Constitution.

*Presided over the worst job loss of any state in the country.

*Spent more time campaigning to be Vice-President than he did governing (although given his record as governor, this might actually be a good thing.)

Sugar Deal Is Not So Sweet
Charlie Crist gets a bogus hero medal for bailing out Big Sugar.

By Bob Norman
Published on July 17, 2008
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's plan to buy U.S. Sugar for $1.75 billion has been described by Florida newspapers as "bold," "ambitious," and "grand."

*
Kyle T. Webster

Subject(s):
Charlie Crist, Big Sugar, U.S. Sugar, Florida Crystals, sugar industry
Now it's time to throw "stupid" and "irresponsible" into the mix.

It's true that the deal, in its broad strokes, might look like a masterpiece. It will conceivably rid the Everglades of the lion's share of its pollution and set the stage for the ecosystem's rebirth. In the long run, it's something that needs to be done, and that makes it difficult to argue with.

The devil in this deal, however, is in the details, and they stink like the blackest swamp muck in the stopped-up River of Grass. Not only does the plan present a possible financial nightmare for the state, but also it obviously overprices U.S. Sugar and reeks of undue influence from both the industry and some of the governor's closest allies in state government.

Begin with the bottom line, the $1.75 billion price, which the state intends to borrow and pay off with property tax dollars over 30 years at an actual cost of $3.5 billion. The state, to make the plan work, must also negotiate a major land deal with the other Big Sugar concern in the state, Florida Crystals, which is run by the notoriously tough Fanjul family.

This is in the midst of what looks to be a long recession where homeowners are already overburdened and the state is so broke it cut $1 billion from public education.

"People can't afford to drive down the road to get something to eat," Hendry County Commissioner Darrell Harris says. "Teachers are getting laid off, state workers are getting laid off. And [Crist is] spending $1.75 billion on this?"

Understand that Harris, like most of the 40,000 people in his county, doesn't like this deal. Part of the reason for that is it will likely decimate Hendry's economy.

Still, if the deal was a good one for the state, the timing might be forgiven. Now consider what the state is buying. U.S. Sugar is saddled with debt, under pressure from lower-priced sugar imports, and dependent on massive federal price subsidies to turn whatever relatively meager profits it is making right now.

Oh, and the company also created all of that pollution we're spending all of those billions to clean up. For that it gets a huge buyout (or bailout, if you prefer).

Harris says he believes the state is about to pay way too high a price for the sugar company and its 187,000 acres. Asked what he thought would be a fair price, he said, "About a billion."

Gaylon Lawrence is pretty sure the state is overpaying, too, and the wealthy banker and landowner ought to know. He recently thought he'd bagged Big Sugar himself, before it got away.

The 73-year-old Missourian, who splits his time in Vero Beach, wanted to buy U.S. Sugar, and in 2005 found a willing seller in the company's CEO, Robert Dolson.

The price: about $1.1 billion, including a $575 million sale price plus the assumption of about $500 million in debt, taken on by the company, to update the sugar plant.

"That was [Dolson's] suggested price, not mine," Lawrence told New Times last week in his first interview regarding the deal. "We settled on $575 million plus the debt. We thought we had a deal.... We were looking at this as a keeping situation, as a family situation. It would have taken us five years to make it a good solid investment."

It's no wonder Dolson thought the price, which amounted to just more than $1 billion, was good for the company. It represented a 50 percent premium in the private stock price, from $200 a share to $293 a share. Most businessmen would call that a sweet deal.

Lawrence says he and Dolson were confident the terms would be accepted by the board, which is controlled by the descendants of U.S. Sugar founder Charles Stewart Mott, who made his initial fortune as a General Motors partner and shareholder. The Flint, Michigan-based C.S. Mott Foundation, with more than $2.5 billion in assets and related entities, still owns a majority of U.S. Sugar, while workers have a 38 percent stake.

The current chairman of the U.S. Sugar board is William White, the husband of Mott's granddaughter. As much as the late Mott was respected in Clewiston, White is distrusted, viewed as a distant landlord who cares little about the company while collecting the government-subsidized dividends for the foundation.

White and the board rejected the offer from Lawrence, and Dolson was soon sent packing from his CEO job with a $10 million company parachute (though Lawrence says he doesn't believe the rejected offer had anything to do with the departure).

"The farther [the Mott family] gets away from the source, the less they know about it," Lawrence says. "They thought they were doing right."

The Lawrence negotiations were never revealed to the workers, whose stock continued to be valued by the company around $200 despite the Lawrence offer. A group of former employees sued U.S. Sugar earlier this year alleging the Lawrence negotiations were proof the board defrauded them.

The Crist deal values that same stock at $350 per share — nearly doubling the share price and offering about 30 percent more than the businessman did.

"Your wife spends your money easier than you do," Lawrence says. "Tax money is spent easier than the money that's made a nickel and a dime at a time out here. The state always overpays."

"Have you ever seen the state pay the right price for something?" Harris asks.

The real crime in all of this is that the state held all the cards in these negotiations. In addition to the obvious problems with the industry, U.S. Sugar is facing the shareholders' lawsuit, which is asking for at least $150 million in damages, and last year the company was barred from polluting Lake Okeechobee — a move that was going to further decimate its already tax-subsidized business. (Crist, to his credit, was largely behind that move, so he knew all about it.)

Current U.S. Sugar CEO Robert Buker admitted to concerned workers after the deal was announced that "the company had no choice but to sell, because the state had the upper hand and could have pushed them off the land with laws rather than with $1.7 billion," according to an article in the New York Times.

We'll take Buker's word for it. So why didn't Crist use more of that leverage? Why would he rush a deal through at a price that is only sure to enrich a family in Michigan while leaving the taxpayers holding the bag for the Everglades' restoration?

The timing of the announcement might have to do with his obvious ambition to become John McCain's running mate (much like his recent announcement that he has become engaged to be married). But another clue might come from Crist's evolving relationship with Big Sugar — and its relationship with some of his closest friends and advisors.

When he was vying for the U.S. Senate in 1998, Crist railed against Big Sugar. He refused to accept campaign cash from sugar firms and said the industry, rather than the government, should pay for damaging the ecosystem.

"If Big Sugar is responsible for most of the pollution in the Everglades," Crist said at the time, "then Big Sugar should pay for it."

Less than two years after losing that race, Crist loosened up and accepted $2,500 from Big Sugar (including $1,500 from U.S. Sugar and $1,000 from the Fanjuls' Florida Crystals).

But it wasn't until Crist's run for governor in 2006 when U.S. Sugar really came to his side. The company put millions into a campaign to sink his Democratic challenger, Jim Davis. At the same time, it contributed to Crist's campaign directly and put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the coffers of the state's Republican Party. That included a splurge of $242,500 in the last three months of the campaign.

The kicker came after Crist won the race and began collecting money from businesses to hold a swanky inaugural ball. His inaugural committee — cochaired by a man he calls his "great friend," lobbyist Brian Ballard — raised $500,000 from special interests, with $50,000 of it coming from U.S. Sugar.

When news of the extravagant party hit, Crist cancelled the plans and returned the money out of embarrassment.

After U.S. Sugar was banned from pumping polluted water into Lake Okeechobee, the company hired Ballard — Crist's friend and longtime ally — to lobby the governor. That's when Crist allegedly came up with the idea to buy the company.

Handling the negotiations for U.S. Sugar was the law firm of Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart. Crist also has a big connection to the firm: His former chief of staff, George LeMieux, the man the governor calls "The Maestro," now works in Gunster's Fort Lauderdale office, where he continues to promote Crist at every turn.

There is no evidence LeMieux played a direct role in the negotiations, but the ties to Crist's political associates in the deal, as well as the role the company played in his election, might help explain why the governor is playing so nice with U.S. Sugar.

While it looks disastrous as public policy, the plan has indeed been, so far, a masterstroke politically. Environmental groups are hailing him as a hero, and Democrats haven't shown the courage to question it in any meaningful way yet. His political machine is emboldened, and the press is largely playing along.

In short, it's been very good for Charlie Crist. So far. And why shouldn't he bask in the glory while it lasts, possibly riding it to the vice presidential nomination? He won't have to pay for it, after all.

Trade missions in the name of economic development are the biggest con in government. It's an excuse to travel abroad on the taxpayer dollar. Business will go to where it makes sense for their business to go and they are very capable of doing their own homework; it doesn't take the governor of a state, especially a state like Florida, to remind them that the state exists. That's what the Internet is for. Charlie should be at home working on solutions to crumbling infrastructure and an uneducated workforce, not traveling abroad pretending he's royalty, and when he's home not spending his time on joke issues like the film industry and global warming. If he and the legislature would focus of fixing - or just improving - the issues that are keeping busines away they will find us. Instead, he's off galavanting around the world, leaving a bunch of sophmoric kids to run the governor's office who are more focused on promoting their personal agendas than commonsense solutions. What do we need to do to recall this guy!?!

9:18 - while I did not read the entire cut and paste you provided...

Here is an idea... why don't we impose some stick anti-pollution efforts on the sugar industry, and when they determine they can't afford to keep in business, they will put up their property for sale...

Oh nevermind...

Charlie... however, if you take the above scenario and let it work, the price would be next to nothing because the property would be useless for anything.

dunno what I was thinking - stick shoud be strict

Why did Bob Norman leave Crist's other supporter. lobbyist and insider out of his story? He represented US Sugar on this ripoff. Lawton Chiles' tobacco deal to enrich his lawyer cronies stunk up Tallahassee. But this overpriced land deal stinks even more. Florida has become a banana republic where the Governors sell the state to their buddies, and then live off the largess after they leave office. Lawton Chiles didn't quite make it, but that doesn't mean he didn't try.

Let's face it, even if Crist was in Florida, he wouldn't be working on anything of substance anyways.

9:35 Do you mean Mac Stipanovich, aka Zenator?

Last time they had a bad news cycle, the Crist Team popped out the engagement story to change the news.

What will they do this time around?

I can't wait to read "Charlie Crist Undressed", by Carole Rome.

This trip will be seen as one of the great political false notes of our time. Nero fiddles (on foreign soil no less) while Rome burns. And all the sycophants, the Myth-stro chief among them, raising the decibel level of their praise to drown out the angry screams of the disaffected in the streets below.

[Dick Cheney]

Hi All Dick Cheney here,
say, listen, dont blame ME for all the soldiers getting killed by electricution form faulty work of my company KBRhttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003829135

you see it costs alot of money to take those hunting trips...
I have to order the pheasants before I go out to the field and they are like $120 each and I shoot many of them when i go. You see I hunt like a girlie
I order the birds from the hunting store...the men take the birds clip their feet and stick them in the brush.
That way I CANT MISS! Except when i shoot my friends

Carole is really perplexed as she thinks they are slumming it staying in a room for under 1,000 pounds.

Charlie, good try connecting to the Prince of Wales. But you have no chance of being the next Queen of England. Sir Elton John beat you to it.

He needs fired. Now. then see if he marries a "woman".

He's out of touch alright. In more ways than one can imagine.

[Sick N' Tired]

Guess where our insurance comissioner is now too.....in Europe, right along with Charlie C.

Isn't Sen. Pruitt there too?

Isn't Sen. Pruitt there too?

I'll toss Crist a bone - he planned this trip months ago, and who could have guessed Florida's economy and job-loss would be where they are today.

BUT, in light of these things, Crist should have the decency and respect of Floridians who are suffering to tone down this trip - $1800 suites? first class airfare? meeting with powerless members of royalty? (who are only kept around to promote the UK), talking about the climate? seriously, when people are losing jobs, cannot afford health/property ins, cannot afford gas, the climate is not on the front burner!!

Crist cannot find it within himself to be respectful of the plight of so many Floridians? Instead he is self-promoting, photo-opping, smiling, and idiotically proclaiming "all is good in Florida" as he travels across Europe in HIGH-STYLE with his "fiancee" on his arm.

919 is right - nothing of significance is ever accomplished on these trade trips.

I voted for this dope and strongly regret it. Hopefully, whoever out there is thinking of challenging Crist for re-election, your campaign just got real easy - Amendment 1, "drop like a rock", real estate agents "your phones are going to ring off the hook", flip-flopped on oil drilling, chased McCain around the US, a meaningless, ill-timed first class trip across Europe, and it goes on and on.

10:03 You prove the point that Obama supporters are filled with hate and ignorance about economics. If you are dumb enough to pay $100 for a pheasant, I would sure love to sell you some mature pheasants for $20 each. You attempt at sarcasm is just plain

dumb.http://www.woodfieldgamebirds.co.nz/WoodfieldGameBirdsPriceList.pdf

And everyone in Tallahassee knows which team the insurance commissioner is on. And i'm not talk red or blue...

[Your New High Society Pals]

Happy Birthday Governor Crist! See you soon in Palm Beach at the party.

[Questions]

Here is an interesting question ... does the Governor have to travel on $36 a day per diem? I don't believe you can eat for that amount in Europe!

All frosting and no cake makes you feel sick after a while.

Yes, but he is out, open, honest and one helluva good public servant.

Does our esteemed Governor remind you of the little man on the wedding cake? Former State Senator Ron Silver once hid inside a wedding cake for Senator Jennings. But he was dressed in a diaper, not a tux. Maybe Charlie does want us to eat cake, while he stands on it.

Mark my word, Crist will never, ever recover for the $1,800 hotel room issue. This is totally bizarre and so out of touch with the averge Florida taxpayer. Wait until you see his next poles. Eva Peron was cooked by her trip to Europe. Charlie fell flat on his face. Now let's all pray that Mesiah Obama will show his true colors.

11:07 stated - "I'll toss Crist a bone - he planned this trip months ago, and who could have guessed Florida's economy and job-loss would be where they are today."

Almost anyone of us here could have or did... knowing CC's all hype and no substance, it wasn't hard to predict his policies (amendment 1) would amount to nothing but empty promises...

Right after the photo-op the three of them were seen taking in opening night of Mamma Mia

If you substituted Obama for Crist in the following statement, it pretty well sums up the situation for Obama:

"Conversations with a variety of unaffiliated political operatives about Crist's prospects all produced a consensus: his knowledge of issues is a mile wide and an inch deep. His appeal to voters is based largely on who he is, not what he stands for. "

This trip proves that Crist really is a queen!

1146... 1107 here.. yes, you are absolutely right. I should have stayed on that thought another second or two, before i shared my disgust about Crist.

i'm taking that bone back!