Perspectives

I didn’t think it remotely possible. That Republicans could run a candidate for governor worse than Bill McCollum. But out of the corporate mud of infamy comes the shiny, beady-eyed dome (visualize: “The Terminator’s” Evil Robot Head) of Rick Scott, the “Sergeant Schultz” candidate to be Florida’s governor.

You remember Sergeant Schultz? He was that good-natured numbskull on “Hogan’s Heroes”, a TV show from the 1960s. He played a German prison camp guard who always said, “I know nothing!” Rick Scott is the I-know-nothing Republican candidate for governor.

Oh, Rick Scott knows something about illegal immigrants. He knows enough to ape the Arizona governor and her recent push for “IDing” little brown people who just might be here illegally. You know, folks from “south” of the border who do our roofs, clip our grass and clean your “Alzheimeric” grandma’s bedpan at the nursing home.

Yes, and Rick Scott is a businessman. He tells you exactly that in his TV ads where he lambasts McCollum for being such a liberal weenie on immigration reform. McCollum, a candidate of righteous virtue, is beginning to see the light and he too may now want to round up Florida’s little brown people to see if they all have their papers in order.

Lest we forget, Rick Scott is a successful businessman. He understands how the corporate world works. He does actually. You see, Rick Scott ran Columbia/HCA, a hospital corporation that in 2003 was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare and Medicaid fraud. That’s $1.7 billion for F-R-A-U-D!

Rick Scott was President of HCA but he knew nothing. “I know nothing,” said Rick Scott, ur, Sergeant Schultz. Scott knew nothing of what was going on in “his” billing department! But he can run Florida! Scott had already been forced out of his job (by 2003) but unfortunately (for us) he settled in South Florida with a reported $300 million golden parachute severance.

Let’s get personal. True story follows. At one point in his career, Rick Scott administered Winter Park Memorial Hospital as part of the HCA chain. Suffice it to say the quality of health care service WPMH had built its reputation on had evaporated. A longtime, socially prominent Winter Park resident was hospitalized with a life-threatening condition. The care was relentlessly deplorable, and the spouse went directly to Rick Scott’s first floor hospital office to register disgust at the appalling level of service.

Did Rick Scott register remorse, concern or shame over how a longtime hospital benefactor (when it was a nonprofit hospital), now a patient, had been treated? No! Did Rick Scott inquire into the current status of the patient? No! Did Rick Scott show contrition or present an attitude of “We’ll do better!” No!

The dismayed spouse finally said, “We’ll never set foot in WPMH again.”

Rick I-know-nothing Scott said, “I wouldn’t either.”

I wouldn’t either?!

Even consider Scott as a tar ball collector for Florida’s Panhandle beaches, let alone a gubernatorial nominee. But then, I’ve not the high standards of the Republican Party.