In Florida ‘Debate-Gate’ Sink broke rules then denied responsibility
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 9:12AM Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (D) is dealing with after-effects of what we might call ‘Debate-Gate’ in her bid to become Florida governor. Sink technically cheated during a commercial break in a debate.
Throughout the campaign, Sink’s focus has been an attack strategy. With compliance from docile media, she has given the impression to voters that something in her Republican opponent Rick Scott's past—something he readily acknowledged publicly—is the best reason to elect her. Few if any newspapers, or for that matter, TV stations, have presented the facts in full context.
The Democrat candidate has explained away her own past and media have largely given her a pass. This is typical when it comes to the so-called ‘progressive’ roster.
During the CNN-hosted debate on Tuesday, Sink read a text message from her campaign staff. She studied the device, she didn’t just give it a nod and push it away. She then explained she did it because she was a mom and her daughter was in Europe. She fired a staffer, presumably the individual who arranged for the makeup artist to carry the device to Sink.
Tallahassee.com said, “Rules of the debate—agreed to by both sides—forbade notes, consultation or messages from staff.”
CNN has posted the video of the incident. The text message Sink’s staffer sent instructed her on how to deal with a controversial issue of her own detailed at TampaBay.com—a lawsuit from a past Sink has portrayed as holier-than-thou. We might recall electing another holier-than-thou candidate who is presently in the White House. You’d think we might learn from that.
The one-term chief financial officer has made much of the fine Scott’s company paid over government insurance billing practices. The fine was large but the company was one of the largest if not the largest in the nation.
Gulf Coast Business Review put the matter in perspective, naming other high profile medical institutions that were fined for practices. The magazine said, “The overbilling practices for which Columbia-HCA was fined were common, accepted and consistent practices in the hospital industry prior to the Columbia-HCA raids. One illustration of that is the list on page 16 of hospitals and pharmaceutical companies that also paid Medicare-overbilling fraud fines. They include some of the most prestigious education institutions in the nation.”
Sink broke the rules.
The most troubling aspect of the act is that she refuses to admit culpability, instead attempting to establish political fact. She even used the Mom card. That is a political strategy that has caused the Sunshine State economy to—well, just about sink. (Commentary by Kay B. Day/Oct. 27, 2010)
