Jim Greer: Racism and Dead Bodies Ahead [View all]

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Hidden among the shadows in a cavernous banquet hall, Florida's most notorious backroom politician sips his third cup of complimentary coffee and begins to cry.

Jim Greer, the 50-year-old embattled former state Republican chairman, is confessing. Sitting cross-legged on a cushioned chair at the Delray Beach Marriott, he's bearded and thinner than he was when he ruled the GOP from 2006 to 2010. After fidgeting and wringing a napkin, he sighs and says he has caused his family so much pain. Then his blue eyes glaze over. If only he'd been smarter. If only he'd been wiser, less arrogant, less greedy.


Jim Greer: "There is an element of racism in the Republican Party."

Then, perhaps, he and his wife wouldn't have panicked last year when they'd learned she was pregnant with a baby girl. Should we bring another child into this nightmare? they thought.

"I believe I've made decisions that aren't ethical, yes," he recently told New Times in his most in-depth interview in years. "But making unethical decisions doesn't mean you're not an ethical person. Still, there were terrible mistakes." Those mistakes cost him. In June 2010, six months after he abruptly resigned as chairman, prosecutors hit Greer with six felony charges: organ­ized scheme to defraud, money laundering, and four counts of grand theft. Trial is set for February 11 in Orlando Circuit Court.

Now, on the eve of quite possibly the most anticipated political corruption case in state history, Greer still has some fight. He might not have been a good chairman at the time of his resignation, he says, but everything he did was legal.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2013-01-31/news/jim-greer-racism-and-dead-bodies-ahead/