When the families of Charlie Crist and Jim Greer spent four days vacationing together at Disney World last year, donors to the Florida Republican party picked up the $13,400 tab.
When the son of former state GOP chairman Greer was baptized, Charlie and Carole Crist were on hand, toasting Aidan with champagne. Republican party donors paid $5,600 in photography expenses.
And when the governor headed to a U.S. Senate campaign fundraiser in New York City last year, Florida GOP donors paid for Greer's wife, Lisa, and Florida's first lady to head up to Manhattan a few days early, charging nearly $1,600 on the party's credit card.
It's all part of a stinging internal investigation into the scandal-rocked Florida GOP under the chairmanship of the now-indicted Greer.
While much of the report released Friday focuses on Crist and Greer -- enemies of the current party leadership -- it portrays the party of fiscal responsibility as having lacked basic financial controls and accountability.
Helpful to prominent Republicans on November's ballot -- including U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, Chief Financial Officer candidate Jeff Atwater, and House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon -- it also absolves free-spending Republican politicians who only reimbursed the party for personal expenses after the media started asking questions.
Crist called the accusations ``absurd.''
``Wherever I go, I pay for it personally with my wife, and the notion that the partisan Republicans would attack the independent candidate shouldn't surprise anyone,'' Crist told reporters in Miami after taping a U.S. Senate debate. ``We're about 47 days from an election. It's pretty obvious what's going on.''
The auditors found nearly $500,000 in expenses that appeared to have little to do with party business, but cited no red flags with Republicans still in office. Among other details in the report:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/17/v-...z0zroTd5Ms
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Charlie Crist went to Disney World on a Florida GOP Credit Card...
