Did I really just type those words?
Well, it's being reported that George LeMieux, Fort Lauderdale lawyer and GOP operator, is Crist's pick for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. This was actually pretty predictable. Crist, of course, is running for the seat in 2010, and LeMieux is Crist's boy. He definitely won't take the seat like Gollum and try to run off with it. With Shaw and some of the others, there was always that chance. With LeMieux, he'll just keep it warm with his loyal fanny.But it reveals Crist's character. How can you put any man or woman in a U.S. Senate seat who has never been elected to anything? LeMieux is a political operative, not a statesman.
For the second time in a day, I'm going to quote Roger Stone (a sign of the apocalypse, I'm sure). Perhaps Stone has a beef of some kind with LeMieux, or maybe he knows LeMieux is in the cross hairs of scandal. Maybe it's just another of Stone's dirty tricks. Either way, this announcement won't be good news for Stone (or his partner and blog sponsor, one would assume).
Stone predicts scandal after scandal for LeMieux, whom he calls "the little Frenchman," including some curious prognostication about alleged ties between LeMieux and one of the Pulp's favorite con men, Joel Steinger of Mutual Benefits. I know a little about this, and at the center of the Crist/LeMieux/Steinger nexis is, of course, GOP moneyman and Hollywood eye doctor Alan Mendelsohn, who is at the center of the Steinger corruption investigation. Steinger wore a wire in conversations with Mendelsohn, whom the Ponzi schemer hired to help him gain sway with Crist. Stone claims Steinger wore a wire with LeMieux, but that is unsubstantiated.
Read Stone's scathing words after the jump.
Governor Charlie Crist's former Chief of Staff George LeMieux has made millions since leaving state government. Now LeMieux's business dealings are likely to become the focus of Democratic attacks on U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Crist.
Huge State contracts with LeMieux's law-firm, awarded at the time LeMieux left the governor's office and which LeMieux claims he had nothing to do with, will be the focus of FOIA requests. LeMieux's role in the negotiating a gambling compact with the Seminole Indian Tribe which granted the Indians card-games not allowed by state law, and subsequent contributions to the Republican Party of Florida from the Indians, will also be the focus of Democratic attacks.
Who paid for LeMieux's accompanying Crist on his European Trade Mission and what kind of largesse LeMieux got from the RPOF are both likely to become public now that Tallahassee State's Attorney Willie Meggs is getting access to the GOP party records in the House Speaker Ray Sansom investigation.
Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, whose party disclosure reports to the Secretary of State hide more than they reveal, will be in the cross-hairs as well....Also worrisome to the Crist camp are conversations LeMieux had with indicted viatical scamster Joel Steinger of Mutual Benefits while Steinger was wearing a wire for the Feds. The Mutual Benefits scandal will take down more Florida politicians who the company approached to stem the federal investigation that ultimately brought the company down. LeMieux may be the biggest fish.
