Florida’s papers and political press have had a field day in the last week buying into a Republican Party fueled narrative about the “close ties” between Scott Rothstein based largely on the court testimony of the convicted fraudster and ponzi-schemer this week.

It appears to many a neutral observer that Rothstein’s shots at Crist could be based around bitterness that the former Governor did not intervene on his behalf when things went pear-shaped for the Fort Lauderdale lawyer. Rothstein believed he had bought access to Crist that would protect him and his scheming. But once the full details of Rothstein’s transgressions became known politicians tied to the discredited lawyer began running for cover, including Crist.

The Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) were quick to seize upon this firestorm, which they no doubt were largely responsible for fueling.

“For a guy who claims to be ‘the people’s governor,’ this is devastating,” state Republican communications director Susan Hepworth emailed reporters. “He was owned by a Ponzi-schemer his first time as governor.”

Certainly Crist was a beneficiary of Rothstein’s generosity. But so was the RPOF itself, the Florida Democratic Party and politicians running for office in both parties. In fact, Rothstein gave twice as much money to the FDP in the 2008 and 2010 cycles than he did to Crist’s 2010 Senate campaign.  Rothstein also gave lots of money to Republicans across the country, including Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), the 2008 GOP Presidential nominee.

Florida Republicans have over the past decade worked to create a class of entitled politicians who lack intellectual curiosity or any governing wisdom. They are not conservatives as much as many of them are more-or-less simply political whores for power and certain big business interests in the state. They have lived for years on easy street being opposed by an impotent Florida Democratic Party that lacked organization or the courage in its own convictions to take the fight directly to the Republicans. The Democrats have benefited from these same tendencies in liberal southeast Florida, where it seems half the elected Democrats at the county level have been at one time or another linked to scandal, while the Republicans sit as a helpless opposition. To pretend Charlie Crist is somehow unique in the cesspool as has been strongly implied this week is laughable.

It seems to be an easy defense mechanism for the GOP in Florida to project all its weaknesses with regards to alleged corruption and cronyism on Crist. But the former Governor was just another cog in a wheel built by his former party on cronyism, “pay to play” schemes and alleged corruption. Now Crist represents a grave threat to the way business is done in Tallahassee as he has begun a populist campaign for Governor as a Democrat exposing the close ties between the GOP and special interests.

No doubt Crist has significant skeletons in his closet many of which we have discussed at length on this website. But somehow many in the political press have gone for the easy story rather than tying together the entire themes and environment that could create a Scott Rothstein. It is that environment and culture Crist now appears to be railing against (whether this is seen as hypocritical or not is for the voters to decide) and yet nobody this week is tying the other pieces together. Scott Rothstein was a wanna be political player in a state filled with corruption. He bought access, to everyone he could in both political parties. Crist happened to be the Governor at the time in a political party that had thrived on relationships with special interests. The issue isn’t Charlie Crist, it’s the system and the gutter this state has become politically.

It is advantageous for the RPOF to redirect the discussion away from their own problems and back on to Crist. With potentially $100,000,000 at their disposal to help redefine Crist and the parameters of the Governor’s race, the RPOF doesn’t need help from the media. Yet, many in the political press have failed to qualify the dubious commentary and claims of Republicans the last few days. Personally, this has shocked me as we have some very smart newspaper reporters in Florida, and regardless of their views of Crist, they ought to be able to understand clearly the agenda of those making allegations against him.

No doubt exists that Crist raised substantial amounts of money from Rothstein. It’s is also fairly obvious the attorney got access to the Governor that many other top donors, but few public citizens received. But to pretend this is somehow unique or limited to Crist is laughable and quite honestly irresponsible. Let’s hope the coverage becomes more balanced in the next few days.