Enough is enough. The culture of corruption and abuse of power by bureaucrats and elected officials must stop. 

By Chris Ingram 

Having watched the unfolding saga known as the Hillsborough County Commission the last few years, I have begun to wonder if you could write fiction as good as this. I mean seriously folks, we’ve got a commissioner who was convicted in civil court of sexual harassment (which county taxpayers are on the hook for to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars), a county administrator and county attorney who allegedly gave themselves secret pay-raises, and now we discover the same two clowns were inappropriately collecting e-mails involving them and an ongoing Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigation. These people could make Congress blush. 

I for one have had enough. 

We elect the bozos who hire (and have the authority to fire) these people. So ultimately ”we the people” are to blame if we wonder why these court jesters are still around come Friday. 

After watching the county commissioners do next to nothing (with the exception of Mark Sharpe up to this point), I took this issue into my own hands and have filed the following complaint against Hillsborough County Attorney Renee Lee with the Florida Bar. 

If you too have had enough, contact your county commissioner at (813) 272-5660 and tell them to fire Pat Bean and Renee Lee — and if they don’t, tell them you plan to fire them come next election whatever they are running for! 

The complaint against Ms. Lee is below. If there were an organization that oversaw the “ethics” of Pat Bean, I’d be filing a complaint against her too. (more…)

The B.S. meter broke trying to measure all of Jeff Atwater’s lies on this one…

By Chris Ingram

If you ever had any question about what is wrong with American politics, Jeff Atwater who is the Florida State Senate President and is a  candidate for Chief Financial Officer should erase any doubt. This guy is so full of bull-sh*t and double-talk he ought to get an Academy Award.  

His performance was captured on video by the Times/Herald — a link to the clip is shown at the end of the column.

With not exactly a straight-face (though he tries) Atwater claims: (more…)

An occasional look at what people are talking about in politics.

By Chris Ingram

Atwater’s Hypocrisy

Kudos to the St. Petersburg Times for its editorial in today’s paper exposing the two faces of Florida State Senate President (and candidate for CFO) Jeff Atwater. The Times may be a little slow catching on (Irreverent View exposed Atwater’s hypocrisy in columns on Dec. 12th and again on Dec. 31st) but better late than never.

The Times piece points out (more…)

Ding or death knell? Voters will decide.

By Chris Ingram

It comes as no surprise that the Charlie Crist campaign or someone associated with it released Marco Rubio’s Republican Party of Florida corporate American Express card statements to the media. As a result, Rubio “came clean” and admitted his own inappropriate charges yesterday.  Now take note, the inappropriate charges weren’t for strip clubs or trips to Europe, but rather for things like fixing the wife’s minivan and purchasing supplies at a lumber company; things that hardly fall into the category of legitimate Republican Party expenses. While this certainly puts a dent in the armor of Rubio’s Boy Scout image, it probably isn’t the smoking gun Chuckles the Clown needs to completely derail Rubio’s campaign.

Still, for many Rubio supporters they will be asking themselves “is this guy who he purports himself to be, or is he just another typical politician?”

While Rubio demonstrated poor judgment in using an RPOF provided Amex card for personal expenses, it should be noted he probably did not break the law. Further poor judgment was shown when Rubio failed to (more…)

An open letter to Republican Party of Florida Chairman John Thrasher

By Chris Ingram

Dear Chairman Thrasher:

Congratulations on your election as Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. I wouldn’t wish this job on my worst enemy. Sharon Day should be relieved she lost and doesn’t have to herd all the cats on the committee with all the dogs in the legislature.

While I didn’t support you for reasons that I have previously made public, I have to hand it to you, I liked what you said in your campaign speech last Saturday in Orlando. I particularly liked the part about (more…)

Irreverent View exclusive — Former Ambassador Al Hoffman who is a big GOP fundraiser and supporter of John Thrasher over Sharon Day responds to Chris Ingram’s question: “If Sharon Day wins, will you assist her with fundraising for the RPOF and GOP candidates, or would you (as a lot of Thrasher supporters are suggesting would happen among a lot of the state’s GOP money raisers) sit on the sidelines and not help with fundraising for the party?

Ambassador Hoffman’s verbatim reply:

Chris, this is all on the record. 

I told Sharon Day (more…)

What Makes Elephants Forget Last Year’s Lesson?

By Rep. Lindsay M. Harrington — exclusive on Irreverent View

Have today’s Republicans become young again, and forgotten the life experiences that we learned, which allowed us to thrive until today? Some would say, “Yes, the Republicans have lost their way, forgotten their values, and are behaving like young calves re-born, but ignorant of the past.”  (more…)

Two wrongs don’t make a right, but these two women might.

By Chris Ingram

Principled grassroots conservatives have a chance to send the moneyed muckety-mucks a message this weekend at the RPOF meeting in Orlando when they vote for the replacement of disgraced former chairman Jim Greer.

The message is clear: Sharon Day is the only principled conservative in this race. Add to that that her primary opponent John Thrasher is (more…)

The governor visits the Fair

By Chris Ingram

It was a sunny day in Tampa. The wind wasn’t as brisk as it had been the day before, but it was windy enough to spread the smell of cow dung, cotton candy, and corn dogs around the midway of the Florida State Fair.

There were more muckety-mucks gathered on the Fairgrounds this fine February morning than there would be gathered the rest of the week. Muckety-muck types preferring Starbucks and Berns to elephant ears and deep-fried Snicker bars don’t come to the fair unless there is a good reason.

So in fact, the political elite from the Tampa Bay region had gathered at this unlikely location for what seemed to them a very good reason: (more…)

Now the sewage is starting to back up

By Chris Ingram

A few weeks ago when Jim Greer finally announced his resignation I pledged that I wouldn’t write any further columns about Greer. But good golly, if you’ve been reading the papers about the Delmar Johnson saga, you’ve got to know it’s taking a lot of restraint to honor my pledge.

Unfortunately, no one (other than Paula Dockery) including Governor Crist, Attorney General McCollum, or either of the main candidates for state party chairman are giving any indication as to how they will ensure this kind of fiasco (which started with Too-Tan Charlie) will never happen again. That’s because there is a void in real leadership in the Fla. GOP which is due to the fact that no one in a position of leadership has any  (more…)