I Need Your Help

Charlie Crist's sock puppet Senator Lemeiux has a survey up and he wants some feed back about health care reform. I say we give it to him ;)

The Puppet Speaks

Charlie Crist crony and the newly minted junior Senator for Florida, George LeMieux had his first floor speech as a member of Congress recently. The St. Petersburg Times was not amused.

In Tallahassee, LeMieux, Gov. Charlie Crist's former chief of staff, was credited with helping the governor's populist appeal. But Wednesday, he sacrificed candor in a predictable play to a partisan constituency. He reasonably equated Congress to a family who recklessly relies on credit cards to pay the bills. But he implied the runaway spending stems from Democratic control, ignoring that it began under President George W. Bush.

LeMieux really lost the high ground when he bragged that Crist and the Florida Legislature have cut spending by nearly 10 percent, or $7 billion, to balance the budget. LeMieux's omission: This year's state budget was balanced only because of $5 billion in federal stimulus dollars and $2.2 billion in new taxes and fees. Florida didn't live within its means. In fact, it was more like the spoiled offspring of a wealthy family who called Mom or Dad for a bailout.

Just remember that whenever LeMieux's lips are moving its really Crist's voice that you are hearing. If you think that Crist will bring any kind of change to the "Party of No" in the Senate you are sadly mistaken. All you have to do for the next 16 months is take note of what his hand picked seat warmer says and you will see all you need to know about how Crist would govern as a Senator.

The choice here is clear. You can have Crist as your Senator serving his party rather than his constituents in petty partisan games, or you can have a strong advocate for Florida with Congressman Kendrick Meek. I report, you decide...

Charlie Crist Shafted The American Worker With The Help Of George LeMeiux

Watch this video about how a company by the name of CYVSA in South Florida abused the H-2B visa program in order to bring Mexican workers to Florida to work on the St Regis construction project for less pay that unemployed sheet metal workers here were eminently qualified to do. And keep in mind that this all happened in the middle of one of the worst recessions in our country's history.



Now what was left out of that video? Well for one thing they left out which law firm represented CYVSA in applying for the H-2B visas.

The law firm led by newly appointed U.S. Senator George LeMieux was responsible for securing dozens of visas for foreign workers to enter the country and help construct the St. Regis hotel and condominiums in Bal Harbour – a move that left American sheet metal workers out of a job.

LeMieux is chairman of Gunster Yoakley, a Florida-based law firm which specializes in helping companies hire foreigners to replace American workers inside the United States.

In the case of the St. Regis project, Gunster Yoakley represented CYVSA International, a Mexican sheet metal firm which wanted to bring its own workforce into the country.

That's right, Charlie Crist's puppet, George LeMeiux, just so happened to be the chairman of a law firm that applied for and received H-2B visas for these workers from Mexico. But was it really a coincidence? I mean after all, one of the people who had to sign off on the visa requests was Crist's hand picked director of the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.

What we have here ladies and gentleman looks like a lot of back scratching if you ask me. I don't really believe in coincidences, and the fact that the man who spear headed this travesty against unemployed construction workers here in Florida is now a member of that US Senate, chosen by the man who helped push this through should give every Floridian pause. You really have to look no further than the Republican Congresswoman that represents that district to get to the heart of the matter.

Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – whose district includes the St. Regis construction site – blasted the use of foreign workers on the project.

"How can you bring folks from another country – no dis on Mexico – to do this construction project when you have so many folks here who could use the work," she said back in March. "It leads me to think that something is happening below the surface and were not being told the truth. Something happened along the way that this company has a cozy relationship with certain bureaucrats who give out these visas."

Told this week that it was LeMieux's law firm that was lurking below the surface, engineering the visas for the foreign workers, the Republican Congresswoman grew defensive.

"I don't know George LeMieux," she said. "I'm not defending George LeMieux. I'm not attacking him. Law firms have lots of clients. I don't criticize law firms for the clients they have."

But she added: "Shame on anyone who was involved in scamming the system."

Yes Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, shame indeed!