You can't blame him. It takes a lot to suspend disbelief around here when you follow the political roster. For example, Crist works from the John Morgan law firm--the same John Morgan who President Obama visits whenever he's in town. In the same law firm you will find Frank Kruppenbacher, who was listed in yesterday's paper (Orlando Sentinel) as the 23rd most important person in Central Florida. He's the chair of the Aviation board, where he tried to push through hefty budgets for future construction plans. (I wonder who was going to benefit from all that construction money?) The O.S. reported on the matter, which I'm sure helped bring the budgets down considerably. Mr. Kruppenbacher is a known rainmaker for Republicans. Per the paper he is closely affiliated to Rick Scott. When Crist was Governor, I'm sure he enjoyed some of the donations from donors who responded to Mr. Kruppenbacher's meet and greet emails.
For many of us who have followed Mr. Kruppenbacher's trail of political decisions in the public sector, you can't help wondering if it is this close relationship to Democrats and Republicans that continues to buoy his career. Because seriously, there are some decisions that just boggles the mind.
Personally, my opinion is that this close association between political parties under the same legal roof is a terrible model for lawyers everywhere. It creates conflicts that constipates justice for the rest of us. For example, in a meeting where his client, the city, was wronged by a lawyer (Ross & the dueling Mall issue, '95), Mr. K, who was the city attorney, had to bring in a special attorney to review the matter because Mr. K said he knew lawyers in the same law firm. In other words, he would not personally file a grievance against a lawyer that wronged his client because he knew lawyers who worked in this lawyer's law firm. Do you have any idea what message that sends to the rest of us? It tells me that if a lawyer knows anyone on a directory of a law firm, he will not personally take action against a lawyer who wrongs his client! I don't remember seeing this on the list of rules for Professional ethics for lawyers.
I haven't been able to wrap my head around that one and I've had many years to try. Here's my quandary, if city attorneys aren't turning in questionable attorneys or corrupt elected officials because they have private business they're afraid to jeopardize, then who is left to clean up the corruption? Are they seriously expecting housewives with no financial resources to do all the hard work? No offense but, WTF!
See how crazy our world has become for us in Florida?
So, I'm sure you'll forgive us if many of us have the Chinatown syndrome with Crist, where we alternate between, "He's a Democrat, He's Republican, He's a Democrat, He's a Republican..." We really don't know.
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