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South Florida attorney Scott Rothstein might have run a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme and is, in general terms, a giant asshat with gaudy taste, but if he had his way, no one in the lower 48 would have ever heard of a certain pit bull in lipstick.
Bob Norman at New Times Broward-Palm Beach reports Rothstein funded the fledgling efforts to put Gov. Charlie Crist in the McCain campaign’s VP slot. The Ponzi schemer was the fourth-ranked fundraiser for the GOP candidate in the nation and used that influence (he apparently had McCain’s number in is cell phone) to ensure Crist, a close friend, made the shortlist.
Naturally, Rothstein wanted his good friend Crist on the ticket and is said to have promised McCain personally that if Crist were chosen, he would raise the money to bring Florida to the GOP’s side of the ledger in the general election. Rothstein put vast resources into the Crist-for-VP effort, paying for travel, hotel suites, meals, mailings, and other expenses, according to the insider. He allegedly paid Republican political consultant Roger Stone $50,000 to get to work to make sure Crist was named on the VP shortlist of three in the national media.
Of course, Rothstein failed at the one possibly good thing (even if it was as shady as everything else he did) that could have come out of all of this, and we’re all doomed to read about stupid Sarah Palin Facebook updates like they’re actually news, follow the nude modeling career of her daughter’s baby’s daddy, and pray that we don’t have to endure a 2012 Palin/Bachman campaign.
