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TALLAHASSEE — Jim Greer found a way to get even with Charlie Crist, but the question is how many people will believe it — or pay $32.95 to read about it. The disgraced and imprisoned former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida is the subject of a new book by St. Petersburg author Peter Golenbock. The Chairman: The Rise and Betrayal of Jim Greer is largely a 400-page rant by Greer, who went to prison more than a year ago after pleading guilty to stealing party money. Now at a halfway house in Orlando, he's due to be released...

Former Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer pleaded guilty Monday morning to four charges of grand theft, avoiding trial in a case that could have potentially embarrassed former Gov. Charlie Crist and much of the state’s Republican elite.After two weeks of behind-the-scenes wrangling, former GOP party chairman Jim Greer walked into court Monday morning and pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering charges that could put him behind bars for 3 and 1/2 years. Greer responded “guilty your honor’’ to charges he stole and laundered GOP campaign contributions through a company he created, Victory Strategies. He declined to talk with a...

TALLAHASSEE — In a wide-ranging deposition that spanned two days in late May, former Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer denounced some party officials as liars and "whack-a-do, right-wing crazies'' as he described turmoil in the months before his resignation. Greer said some GOP leaders were meeting to discuss ways they could suppress black votes while others were constantly scheming against each other. He blamed criminal fraud charges filed against him in 2010 on legislative leaders and other party officials who he says orchestrated an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the statewide grand jury to avoid...

Tallahassee - Rumors that former Florida governor Charlie Crist is gay have been around for years, but new allegations have surfaced that he had affairs with two men and paid them to leave the state to avoid embarrassment. The allegations are made in Discovery documents related to Jim Greer's case involving alleged illegal use of Republican Party funds, according to a 10 News WTSP report. Damon Chase, attorney for Greer, who is set to go to trial on July 30 for allegedly paying himself to raise money for the Republican Party of Florida, says Crist is homosexual and once tried...

The Republican Party of Florida released a long-awaited audit of party spending during the tenure of indicted former Chairman Jim Greer on Friday, detailing how party donors footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable expenses for Greer and associates including Gov. Charlie Crist. In all, auditors with Alston & Bird LLP said they discovered $381,786.12 in expenses that were not “primarily” related to party business, including $13,345.59 in charges for a June 2009 trip the Crist and Greer families took to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios; $3,376.43 on a September 2009 trip to New York...

Last year, former RPOF Chairman Jim Greer made national news by raising a ruckus about President Barack Obama’s speech to school kids. Greer complained that Obama was trying “indoctrinate” children. Well, a year later, Greer’s been forced out as party chairman, is facing criminal charges over his handling of RPOF finances and is engaged in a scorched-earth campaign with his former associates. Over the weekend, the party said it might sue Greer — and Gov. Charlie Crist — to get back money spent inappropriately. So how did Greer respond? With a text message today slamming the GOP and saying he...

State Republicans moved the three-way U.S. Senate race to a new level Saturday, with party leaders pointing to an audit of their books they say implies Gov. Charlie Crist — now an independent candidate for U.S. Senate — ran up potentially "hundreds of thousands" of dollars in inappropriate charges. Party Chairman and state Sen. John Thrasher said the expenses came to light during the just-completed forensic audit by Alston & Bird LLP — which was the examiner in energy giant Enron's 2002 bankruptcy. He said the party may sue their former standard bearer to get the money back. The announcement...

Jim Greer is the recently arrested former head of the Florida Republican Party. Greer was arrested at his home last week by Federal officials and charged on six counts of theft. Current Florida Governor and (former republican) Charlie Crist is now running as an Idependent for the Florida senate against republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek. Greer's lawyer has just implicated Charlie Crist by saying that he (Charlie Crist) was aware of the "arrangement". This story just "got legs"! . . . . .

<p>Breaking hard--Jim Greer has been arrested at his home. Charges currently unknown.</p>

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer announced his resignation Tuesday amid criticism the party has been wasting money and not raising as much as it should. Greer will step down Feb. 20, more than three years after Gov. Charlie Crist hand-picked him to run the state GOP. In recent weeks, major party donors and other leaders have called for his resignation, citing questionable party spending, lackluster fundraising and division among party loyalists. In his resignation letter, Greer said he has the support of most party executives, leaders and donors, but the few who oppose him are...

In what has to be the toughest choice since deciding what his position is on Obama’s stimulus plan this week, Charlie Crist is expected to announce Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer will resign this month to “focus on his family.” No word on the exact date of the announcement, but likely in the days around Christmas when no one is paying attention to the news. Greer recently survived a “confidence” vote by the RPOF leadership, however, according to Hillsborough County State Committeeman A.J. Matthews the board was hoodwinked into the lopsided vote of support for Greer and this...

There comes a time in politics when the particular details of a leader’s transgressions become a moot point. During his tenure as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Jim Greer has reportedly presided over lavish and irresponsible spending of donor money, the purging of critics and the use of dirty tricks like fake Twitter accounts to attack fellow Republicans. He also has rammed through dictatorial rule changes that would make Fidel Castro blush and used the RPOF as a club in the service of a single Republican politician. -snip- Greer likes to blame his troubles on Marco Rubio supporters...

The interests of Floridians — not political parties — should be paramount as candidates jockey for position in the state’s 2010 elections. The dominos officially began tumbling this week when Gov. Charlie Crist announced, to no one’s surprise, that he’ll run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. Crist, who has vied for four statewide offices in the past 13 years, was immediately endorsed by state Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer. While anointing his friend (who installed Greer as chairman in 2007), the GOP boss said he would work to limit primary contests for governor and the...

GOP's Fierce Florida Fight by Jillian Bandes The tribulations surrounding the GOP’s endorsement of Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio – and the implications it could have for the moderation of the national party - are wrapped up in internal squabbles among Florida politicos. At issue is Florida’s “Rule 11,” which holds that party members are able to block out a given candidate in a primary election if they deem the candidate unfit to run. After the rule is invoked, no primary race is held – instead, GOP insiders get to decide the election. In Florida’s GOP, Republican Party of Florida...

Republican Backlash Brews TALLAHASSEE -- A Republican backlash is brewing against the state and national party as they anoint Gov. Charlie Crist's U.S. Senate campaign -- thereby dissing that of his rival, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio. From South Florida to Tampa Bay, a few county Republican parties are discussing or passing resolutions telling the state party to butt out of the Senate race or any other primary. If the state party presses forward, Crist's election could be rockier than expected and his hand-picked Republican Party of Florida chairman, Jim Greer, could find it tougher to hold on to...

- - The Republican Party of Florida is facing a call for an audit after logging expenses for such items as trips to Disney World. Party bosses defended the expenses. Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer is being asked to answer to a call for an audit of party books amid questions from top Republican leaders as well as rank and file members about spending on chartered jets, five-star hotels, sports tickets and even men's clothing shops this election cycle. ''There are many folks who believe it's time for the RPOF to run the party with an eye toward...

- - Republican governors meeting in Miami say their party has to shift its emphasis from ideology to voters' everyday issues. The Republican Party, still grappling with last week's election results, should position itself as a pragmatic problem-solver for working people, GOP governors meeting in Miami said Wednesday. Without unequivocally stating that the party should move to the ideological center to appeal to moderate voters, leaders at the two-day Republican Governors Association meeting urged their colleagues to tackle education, energy and the environment to broaden the party's base. Largely absent from their discussions at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami:...

In a nation turned blue, the South remains largely red. That's the takeaway from the 2008 election, and the Republicans' best hope for resurrecting their party. John McCain — for all his political waffling and personal idiosyncrasies — still held on to the South. Except for Virginia and Florida (two states heavily infiltrated by Northerners) and North Carolina (a race so close it couldn't be called until three days after the election), the South remained solidly in the GOP column. From Florida's Panhandle to Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, McCain actually garnered a higher percentage of votes than George W. Bush...

The following names have been bantied about regarding the race for the RNC Chair: Katon Dawson - South Carolina GOP Chair Newt Gingrich - former Speaker of the House Jim Greer - Florida GOP Chair Saul Anuzis - Michigan GOP Chair Each one has their strong points and weak points. I love Newt, but I don't know if he's suited for the chairmanship. It seems like we need a talented grassroots organizer to build the party from the ground up. Of course fundraising is an important skill as well. Please post your thoughts.

1. Norman Hsu Gave to Kennedy, Kerry, Obama, Others Already posted separately on the forum. 2. Hillary Fundraiser Curses Out GOP When Florida’s Republican Party attacked Hillary Clinton for enlisting a fundraiser once accused of racketeering, the fundraiser responded with a profanity-laced tirade — and later apologized. Former Hialeah, Fla., Mayor Raul Martinez was brought up on federal corruption charges nearly two decades ago. He was convicted but successfully appealed, and two more trials ended in hung juries, the Miami Herald reported. After the Democrat hosted a Clinton fundraiser at his home on Monday, Sept. 10, Republican Party of Florida...