Read indictment of Jim Greer

Gannett and the Orlando Sentinel and others are reporting that lavish-spending former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer was arrested this morning in Orlando.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has slated a news conference in Orlando at 11:30 a.m. that we’ll be monitoring.

In the meantime, an apparent mug shot of Greer is already on the Internet.

Palm Beach billionaire and Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene spent most of the last three decades registered to vote with no party affiliation, except for a period in the 1980s when he was a Republican in California, voter records show.

Greene, an unsuccessful Los Angeles-area GOP congressional candidate in 1982, gave money to California Republicans Pete Wilson (1988) and Meg Whitman (2009) before opening his checkbook in a big way to Democrats last year.

Greene registered as a Democrat when he moved to Florida in 2008.

Greene’s spokesman says Greene’s registration history proves he’s an outsider and an “independent Democrat.”

Read about it here.

Doing his best Ronald Reagan “There-you-go-again” imitation, wealthy Republican governor candidate Rick Scott addresses the Columbia/HCA Medicare fraud scandal in a new 60-second ad.

“Bill McCollum’s been in politics 30 years. You’d think he’d want to talk about his record. Instead, he’s just attacking me. That’s what career politicians do,” Scott says of the attorney general and rival GOP gubernatorial candidate.

Scott, the former chief executive officer of Columbia/HCA, acknowledges the hospital chain “was fined by the government for Medicare fraud,” though he doesn’t mention the dollar figure — more than $1.7 billion in fines and settlements after Scott’s 1997 departure.

“I wasn’t charged or even questioned by the authorities. But that’s not what matters. What matters is that the company made mistakes. And as CEO I take responsibility and learn from it,” says Scott, who then goes on to extol the quality and cost-effectiveness of his former hospital chain.

The Scott campaign has also launched a Truth About Rick Scott website to counter criticism.