Although Jeff Greene was the first multimillionaire running for office in Florida this month to blast Barack Obama for his comments supporting a proposed mosque and cultural center two blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan, Rick Scott is one-upping his fellow mega-rich political insurgent by airing a state-wide ad that discusses "Muslim fanatics"
In other news regarding Scott, you might recall that incredible moment last week when a furious Rick Scott, about to begin a press conference in Tallahassee to rail against Bill McCollum, was handed a subpoena by a McCollum supporter who has sued Scott for release of a video deposition.
At the presser, Scott called McCollum the "Tonya Harding" of politics, after the McCollum campaign demanded access to that videotaped deposition of Scott taken during a civil lawsuit against his business venture Solantic.
Today Florida Health News reports that the state agency for Health Care Administration, won't deal with the issue, but instead punt it over to the feds:
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration will not investigate politically explosive allegations against a clinic chain founded by Rick Scott, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor. But AHCA has sent the allegations to federal Medicare officials.
An AHCA statement released with the documents late Friday afternoon said it had determined that physician Randy Prokes' allegations of overbilling by Solantic dealt primarily with Medicare, not the state Medicaid program. Thus the matter has been turned over to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "for further review and possible investigation," the statement said.
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2010.