Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet’s pardon of the late iconic rocker Jim Morrison nearly 40 years after his death wasn’t enough, his Doors bandmates are saying.

In fact, it was unnecessary, The Doors’ remaining members Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger contend, because Morrison never did what he was accused of.

“Four decades after the fact, with Jim an icon for multiple generations – and those who railed against him now a laughingstock – Florida has seen fit to issue a pardon,” the band members and the Morrison family wrote in a press release. “We don’t feel Jim needs to be pardoned for anything.”

What they want instead is an apology.

“If the State of Florida and the City of Miami want to make amends for the travesty of Jim Morrison’s arrest and prosecution forty years after the fact, an apology would be more appropriate – and expunging the whole sorry matter from the record,” they wrote.

Morrison was convicted after police reported he taunted a crowd March 1969, at the now-defunct Dinner Key auditorium in Miami with verbal sexual come-ons and simulated oral sex, then pulled down his pants and exposing himself to thousands of fans. He was convicted in 1970 of public profanity and indecent exposure and sentenced to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

He died in a Paris bathtub in 1971 while his appeal was pending.

Read the entire press release after the jump.
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Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner-elect Adam Putnam has his new team ready to go with less than two weeks until he takes office on Jan. 4.

Putnam has hired Sterling Ivey, who’s been Gov. Charlie Crist’s spokesman since Crist took office, as his press secretary. Ivey also served as spokesman for the Department of State under Gov. Jeb Bush.

Putnam’s tapped more than a dozen long-serving government workers such as his chief of staff Mike Joyner, who spent more than 25 years working for the state including a stint as chief of staff at the Department of Environmental Protection.

And Putnam’s hanging on to several of current Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson’s employees, many of whom have worked in the department for years.

See who’s on Putnam’s administrative team after the jump. (more…)

Gov. Charlie Crist appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball this evening after attending the startup “No Labels” nonpartisan political group meeting in D.C. today.

Crist responded to Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s flat-out rejection of compromise (“I reject the word”) on 60 Minutes.

“It’s unbelievable,” Crist, an independent, told Hardball host Chris Matthews.

“To have common sense means that you have to compromise, trying to do what’s right for the people instead of the party. I think what you see is evidence of the fact that there are certain segments of both parties that view compromise as a dirty word. And if you say you’re willing to compromise, in other words use common sense, try to do what’s right for the people instead of the party, then you may get shunned by your political party,” said Crist, who was indeed shunned by Florida Republican leaders after dumping the party and running as an independent for U.S. Senate. Crist lost to Republican Marco Rubio.

Matthews called Crist an Eisenhower Republican, prompting Crist to identify himself with other moderate Republicans, including Ronald Reagan.

Matthews interrupted him.

“No, no you’re not a Reagan Republican. No you’re not,” Matthews insisted.

Crist pointed out that Reagan and then-U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat, worked together despite their ideological and political differences.

“They had the common sense and the civility to be able to get together after hours, a couple of Irishmen, and have a cold one,” Crist said. “We have to get back to that point where there can be personal relationships where some people in one party and those in another party are really treated as traitors if they dare to break bread with somebody else. Especially in this season, that’s just not the right thing to do. We need to come together for the country and put the country ahead of the party in order for the people to be victorious in the end.”
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Two top-tier Florida candidates – Gov. Charlie Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink – won the dubious distinction of making MSNBC’s “Worst Candidate of 2010″ list this morning.

Crist – an independent who jumped the GOP ship when it looked like he couldn’t win a primary against Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate race – and Sink – a Democrat who lost her bid for governor to Republican Rick Scott – were named as two of the three “worst candidates” by MSNBC hosts Chuck Todd and Savannah Guthrie.

But the worst of the worst, according to MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” hosts?

Sink.

“You lost to a guy who defrauded Medicare,” Todd said when announcing the “winner, pausing for effect. “In Florida! Okay? More people on Medicare in Florida than maybe any other state.”

Scott started up and was CEO of the Columbia/HCA hospital chain that wound up paying an historic fine to the federal government – $1.7 billion – for Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Whether or not the “Lizard King” unzipped his pants and exposed himself to a crowd of thousands more than 40 years ago remains a mystery.

Jim Morrison’s alleged antics will remain forever a part of the late rocker’s legacy.

But the charges against him for indecent exposure and public intoxication won’t.

Gov. Charlie Crist, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum, acting as the state Clemency Board, granted Morrison, the lead singer of “The Doors,” a pardon Thursday afternoon as one of their final acts as a panel before leaving office.

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An angry former Miami cop showed up at the Capitol today to protest Gov. Charlie Crist and the state Clemency Board’s expected pardon of the late “Lizard King” rocker Jim Morrison.

Angel Lago said he served on the police force with the Theodore Seaman, the officer who charged Morrison with indecent exposure and public profanity, and that the pardon is an insult to Seaman’s reputation because it implies that Seaman lied in his arrest report.

Lago, who said he retired from the police force because he is disabled, said that Morrison, who was found dead in a Paris bathtub from an apparent overdose, does not deserve to be exonerated.

“What example are we giving our children? Party hearty and die young?” an angry Lago said. “All Mr. Morrison ever did was do drugs and sing songs.”

Alan Mendelsohn, an influential South Florida eye doctor and prominent GOP fundraiser, admitted in court this morning that he steered $82,000 to former state Sen. Mandy Dawson while she was in office.

Mendelsohn, who pleaded guilty in a federal corruption case, also admitted he skimmed more than $300,000 from political committees he oversaw and failed to report more than $600,000 in taxable income from his lobbying and medical work.

Mendelsohn, a member of Gov. Charlie Crist’s 2006 transition team, said in court today he paid $82,000 to a close friend of Dawson’s and that the money was funneled to the Ft. Lauderdale Democrat whose district included part of Palm Beach County.

Read the full story here.

Nearly 50 years after civil rights struggles rocked St. Augustine, Gov. Charlie Crist and the rest of the state Clemency Board issued an apology to hundreds of black activists – some of them schoolchildren -as their first action at their final meeting this morning.

Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson approved the resolution expressing “profound regret” and clearing the way for hundreds of civil rights activists arrested in 1963 and 1964 to have their records expunged.

“I think it makes a great statement about where Florida is today versus where part of Florida was back then,” Crist said this morning.

Sen. Tony Hill, a black Democrat from Jacksonville, asked Crist to sponsor the resolution after he failed to convince lawmakers to pass a bill clearing the civil rights activists’ records.

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In a typical move as he prepares to leave office, Gov. Charlie Crist today asked for the resignations of his agency heads, their senior staff and Crist’s own workers.

“In an effort to ensure a smooth and seamless transition for Governor-elect Rick Scott’s executive and management team, I requested today letters of resignation from my senior executive staff, agency heads and their management teams, as well as all staff within the Executive Office of the Governor,” Crist said in a statement.

“There is no greater calling than to serve others, and I thank each of the dedicated public servants of my administration for their service to the people of Florida. The efficient transition from one leader to another is a testament to our nation’s democracy, and my administration stands ready and willing to assist as needed,” he wrote.

Scott’s amassed a transition team of more than a hundred individuals from Florida and throughout the country as he prepares to take office on Jan. 4.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott will revive the inaugural ball, a fete abandoned by Gov. Charlie Crist four years ago, as part of his two-day celebration of the Republican’s election as the state’s 45th governor.

Tickets for the event will cost $95, according to members of Scott’s inaugural team. Crist originally planned a ball after his 2006 election, but canceled the event after an outcry over the so-called “people’s governor” collecting contributions for the fancy-dress event during a time of economic crisis for the state.

Scott, who spent at least $73 million of his own vast fortune to finance his campaign for governor, is also hosting a variety of free events, including a youth concert, an event for military families and an event geared toward honoring the historic election of the state’s first black lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, and first female attorney general, Pam Bondi.

“The people of Florida have plenty to celebrate with the inauguration of our state’s next governor, including the implementation of an aggressive jobs plan and a new focus on revitalizing the state’s economy. Floridians are invited to participate in the Inaugural festivities, many free and open to the public, as Rick Scott prepares to forge a new path towards prosperity for all Floridians. We look forward to announcing event details in the coming weeks,” Scott’s inaugural committee spokeswoman Erin Isaac said in an e-mail.
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Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon dropped two suddenly contentious bills from their veto override list after objections from Gov.-elect Rick Scott and GOP donors.

One of the measures (HB 5611) would have taken power away from the governor by removing the Department of Management Services from the executive branch and putting the agency under the governor and Cabinet.

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the bill this summer saying it was an encroachment of executive powers. Lawmakers gave the bill received near-unanimous consent this spring.

Cannon and Haridopolos said as late as last week that it was not a power-grab by the legislature, but Haridopolos said Scott asked him this weekend to drop the override.

The other measure would have imposed new restrictions on doctors’ repackaging of prescriptions and would have lowered workers’ comp costs for the state and private companies.

But Automated Healthcare Solutions, a Miramar company headed by two South Florida doctors, supported the veto and spent $1 million on political committees headed by Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, and Cannon, R-Orlando, this summer.

Associated Industries of Florida, which supported the override and is also a major contributor to GOP campaigns, was one of the many business groups opposed to the legislation.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott scoped out the Capitol today for the first time since his election one week ago, meeting with Gov. Charlie Crist and House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon and staying on message about “getting the state back to work.”

A tight-lipped Scott took few questions from reporters after meeting briefly with Cannon, R-Orlando, and Crist, who said he and his successor had “a great talk.”

Scott said he asked Crist for his best advice on being the leader of the nation’s fourth-largest state.

“First thing he said was follow your heart, which makes all the sense in the world to me,” Scott told reporters during a brief photo op with Crist.

Scott said he has no problem with a bill lawmakers plan to override during a special session Tuesday that takes power away from the executive branch agencies’ ability to promulgate rules.

“I don’t think anybody’s trying to go after my power. They’re following through on things they believe in,” Scott said.

And the governor-elect said he has no plans to ask lawmakers to include an Arizona-like immigration reform bill during their one-day special session next week.

Instead, he launched into his campaign refrain about creating jobs.
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Now that they’ve got a veto-proof majority in both the state House and Senate, GOP legislative leaders will override nine bills axed by Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this year as their first course of business later this month.

Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon are holding the special session on the day they officially take over their chambers during the typically ceremonial organizational session beginning Nov. 16.

“We chose issues that had one or two negative votes, most, in the Senate, most of them unanimous,” Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, told reporters this morning. “Once we take these off the table, we can focus on jobs, jobs, jobs, because that’s what people care about.”

Lawmakers steered clear of two controversial measures – a bill that would have required pregnant women to view a sonogram before having an abortion and a measure (SB 6) that would have done away with teacher tenure.

Instead, most of the nine bills they selected received unanimous or near-unanimous approval.

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ORLANDO _ Florida GOP political icon Jeb Bush pumped up support for the Republican statewide candidates at a rally in Orlando this morning.

About 150 supporters crowded into a hangar at a private airport in Orlando to cheer on gubernatorial candidate, who made the Orlando event his first on the fifth day of his week-long statewide bus tour.

“There’s a cloud on our state. I think there’s a lot of pessimism in our state right now. I think we need a can-do leader that lifts the cloud,” Bush said in his introduction of Rick Scott. “I want a tax cutting, budget cutting, job creating governor and Rick Scott is the one.”

The rally was the first event on the fifth day of Scott’s week-long statewide sweep leading up to Election Day.

Bush and his lieutenant governor pumped up the crowd for the GOP Cabinet slate, who also joined Scott on the platform with Bush and his former lieutenant governor Toni Jennins.

Scott kept to his jobs, jobs, jobs theme in a brief speech before heading to a Tea Party rally in Jacksonville.

“All of us up here know we create jobs by getting government out of your life…and an attitude that business people are the lifeblood of the country,” he said.

Bush praised Scott to reporters after the brief event.

“I think he’s the right guy for the right time,” he said.

Bush said he was disappointed in Gov. Charlie Crist, who abandoned the GOP to run as an independent in the U.S. Senate race against Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek.

“He responds to heat and light” rather than being true to his core convictions, Bush said.

Scott’s Democratic opponent Alex Sink is slated to be in Orlando later this morning.

Rick Scott frequently says “I’ve never done this before” when asked to weigh in about voting, polls and other political goings-on.

But Scott’s staff made a quintessential campaign stop to get a haircut at the Bent Pole barber shop in Titusville with a busload of reporters – and their cameras – in tow Thursday morning.

Dee Moreland, who’s been cutting hair for 42 years, gave Scott a “1/2-all-over” cut he maintains with a weekly visit to the barber at home in Naples.

Moreland said she was voting for Scott “and not just because I’m cutting your hair today.”

The buzz set Scott back $10.

“That’s fair,” Scott, a multi-millionaire who’s spent more than $60 million of his own fortune on his campaign so far, said.

Moreland wouldn’t say how much he gave her but that “he tipped very well.”

The Tallahassee barber who cuts Gov. Charlie Crist’s hair might welcome a Scott win.

The notoriously tight-fisted Crist always tipped $1 on a $10 haircut. Even with reporters watching.

A heckler interrupted Rick Scott’s stump speech in Melbourne this morning for the first time since the GOP gubernatorial candidate kicked off a week-long sweep of the state leading up to Tuesday’s election.

Joseph Concannon didn’t have far to go to voice his dissatisfaction with Scott. Concannon works at Buz’s Automotive repair shop next door to That Little Restaurant where Scott’s caravan made a brief stop.

Scott ignored the interruption as he introduced one of his two daughters to a small gathering of supporters.

“Does she know you’re a crook? We do,” Concannon yelled.

Concannon said he was referring to the $1.7 billion fine Columbia/HCA paid to the federal government for Medicare and Medicaid fraud shortly after Scott was forced out as CEO of the hospital chain he founded.

Concannon was on a cell phone talking to his wife, Stephanie Hosala, a member of the local Democratic Executive Committee. He said she didn’t ask him to come to Scott’s event but he went over to voice his opinion when he saw Scott’s bus arrive.

Concannon conferred with his wife when asked who he backs in the U.S. Senate race.

“Charlie Crist,” he answered.

When asked why he wasn’t voting for U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democrat vying with independent Crist for his party’s votes, Concannon repeated the answer his spouse apparently gave him.

“Meek is so far behind he doesn’t have a chance,” the Palm Bay resident said.

House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon essentially gave Gov. Charlie Crist a cease and desist order telling the governor to quit enabling the federal government regarding health care reforms.

Cannon, R-Orlando, accused Crist of “commandeering of state insurance regulatory resources” by allowing executive agencies to begin implementing the federal health care reforms even as the state is suing White House agencies over them.

Read Cannon’s letter to Crist here.

Cannon’s demands could set up a possible showdown between the executive and legislative branches of government over the health care reforms, which Crist, the independent candidate in the U.S. Senate race, says he supports in part.

Cannon gave Crist until Nov. 15 to tell him how much the state is spending on workers and other resources to comply with the reforms and told him that Crist will need the legislature’s approval before taking any further action.

Cannon complains in the letter to Crist that the Office of Insurance Regulation is jumpstarting new insurance regulations by developing data systems. But that office is overseen by not just Crist. He and the Florida Cabinet – including Attorney General Bill McCollum, who filed the lawsuit over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act – make up the Financial Services Commission that’s in charge of OIR.

Department of Management Services Secretary Linda South should quit her job because she signed off on runaway spending on an appellate courthouse dubbed the “Taj Mahal,” Senate President-designate and government penny-pincher Mike Haridopolos is demanding.

South approved a no-bid contract for the $48 million 1st District Court of Appeal courthouse in Tallahassee even though the rent from the building won’t be enough to pay its debt service, an audit by Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink found this week.

“Because of your irresponsible oversight, which has clearly wasted millions of taxpayer dollars, I call on you to submit your immediate resignation as Secretary of the Department of Management Services. You have failed to provide proper leadership and the abdication of your responsibilities has further weakened the public’s trust that their elected and appointed leaders will use their money wisely,” Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, wrote to South in a letter today.

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The League of Women Voters and PBS canceled debates between the U.S. Senate and gubernatorial candidates because GOP candidates Marco Rubio and Rick Scott refused to participate.

The League’s president Deidre MacNab said the debate, scheduled for Oct. 14, would have been the only one to reach all television viewers throughout the state.

The League could not get Gov. Charlie Crist, the independent U.S. Senate candidate, to confirm to appear either, MacNab said, meaning only U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democrat in the three-way U.S. Senate race, had agreed to show up.

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In the midst of chatter about whether U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek should drop out of the U.S. Senate race, Gov. Charlie Crist nailed down the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Crist, a lifelong Republican who turned independent to avoid running against Marco Rubio in the GOP primary, will appear with Kennedy in Deerfield Beach this morning to make the endorsement announcement.

Crist first hooked up with fellow environmentalist Kennedy at Crist’s climate change summit three years ago.