In the past, Rick Scott favored Arizona's strict "papers please" immigration laws, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed children of illegal immigrants to get temporary Florida driver's licenses, and members of his staff recently angered his top campaign fundraiser who left his campaign after they made ethnic and racist jokes.
Yet suddenly in an election year, when polls have Charlie Crist in the lead, Scott has done an about-face and claims in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants is a must. He's demanding that the legislature push a bill through for him to sign so he can pander for much needed votes from those he's ignored up until now, unless you count the times where his staff made fun of them.
A bill on in-state tuition already passed in the House, where Speaker Will Weatherford admitted that his main legislative goal this session was "to put points on the board" to help Rick Scott. (Not Floridians, just Rick Scott.) So it seems he fulfilled that goal in terms of this particular bill.
On the Senate side, however, things are a little different, or at least for now, as the bill has stalled there. The question of why it's stalled there is up for interpretation, and some believe this too is nothing more than political football:
A few hours after the Senate Appropriations Committee refused to hear an amendment granting in-state tuition to children of undocumented immigrants, Gov. Rick Scott turned to the media Tuesday to keep the issue alive.
The legislation has already cleared the House. But it has hit a roadblock in the Florida Senate where Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Senate Budget Chair Joe Negron, R-Stuart, say they will refuse to schedule it.
On Tuesday, Senate Rules Chairman John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, ruled the in-state amendment out of order.
But since Thrasher doubles as Scott’s campaign chairman, the move fed Democratic suspicions that the standoff is mostly political theater — orchestrated to make Scott look heroic among Hispanic voters, with whom polls show he is far behind Democratic rival Charlie Crist.
“This looks like an election year ploy, and that’s pathetic,” House Democratic Leader Perry Thurston of Fort Lauderdale earlier told the Palm Beach Post.
For his next act, Scott then turned to another group he's all but ignored in the past, so he could declare himself a savior for those students: reporters. Scott flees the press and their questions at every turn, but when he wants to dictate and control his own message, suddenly it's time to talk, while remaining unchallenged.
In the wake of his latest political theater, there's another wrinkle for Scott. Those in the Senate claim Scott never even mentioned the in-state tuition issue until a couple of days ago. If this sounds famliar, it should. Scott did the same thing with Medicaid last year, claiming briefly that he wanted the legislature to act. They didn't, of course, and Weatherford, who blocked Medicaid expansion there, said he never heard a word from Rick Scott about it. Scott has never brought that subject up again since. According to some, a similar thing has happened here:
Gaetz said last week that he only recently learned of Scott’s support for the tuition bill, and that the governor had not sought to lobby him. But last week, Scott was joined by former Govs. Jeb Bush and Bob Martinez in calling for action on the bill, a day after Negron said he would not hear the measure in Tuesday’s Appropriations Committee.
Charlie Crist's campaign responded to Scott's action, or inaction, depending on what specific part of this whole charade you're talking about:
“Rick Scott’s continued failure to help innocent, bright undocumented students is as deplorable as his refusal to accept responsibility for anything. The Senate President said that he hadn’t heard a word from Rick Scott on this issue until two days ago. That sounds a lot like what the Speaker of the House said about Medicaid expansion last year. Rick Scott's desperate accusations are fraudulent."
Last week, Crist criticized both Scott and the Republicans in the legislature who refuse to budge:
“It's just sad that Rick Scott’s failed leadership means that some of our state's best and brightest immigrants may still be denied access to in-state tuition. This is an issue where Republicans like Speaker Will Weatherford, working with Democrats, were trying to do the right thing. This is another example of Rick Scott holding Florida back from her full potential – putting a college education further out of reach for bright, innocent students."
Sad indeed.
Scott and legislators alike seem to think that the very people they pander to in election years only can't see them for what they are, and will ignore everything they've done to work against them in the past. They truly must think the voters are stupid.
Insult to injury anyone?
