Senate President Jeff Atwater said he is more than willing to hand over his Republican Party of Florida-issued American Express credit card statements but that the party’s new chairman, Sen. John Thrasher, won’t do it.

Reporters asked Atwater, who is running statewide for chief financial officer, about the notorious AmEx spending that’s embroiled former House Speaker and U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio and former House Speaker Ray Sansom.

“I asked Chairman Thrasher if he would release the statements of the RPOF credit card that was assigned to me and he said no,” Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said. “He said he has his internal process going on…I have asked him and he has said no. That is the party’s card. It is not my card. I do not have the statements.”

When pressed about why Atwater did not request the statements, he insisted he could not.

“I’m not the card. That would be RPOF. It’s RPOF’s card. So if RPOF were to request those statements I assume they could get them. At this point, it is the party’s card. And I have asked the chairman would you release any card statements that were associated with me? I have no qualms about what anyone would see on that and he said no, we’re doing our process.”

Atwater had one of the AmEx cards while he was recruiting Republican Senate candidates and raising money for the party in 2007 and 2008. He says he used the card strictly for party-related business.

The cards, issued to an undisclosed group of top elected Republicans and party officials, have been a continuing source of embarrassment as details have emerged of lavish spending by former Chairman Jim Greer (including that $3,600 meal at Brasserie L’Escalier), indicted former House Speaker Ray Sansom (his $173,000 in AmEx charges included a family trip to Europe and an $893 Starbucks tab) and former exec director Delmar Johnson ($133,763 in a single month last summer).

Rubio got his turn in the AmEx spotlight last week when someone, presumably a supporter of opponent Gov. Charlie Crist’s slumping GOP Senate bid, leaked records of Rubio’s $125,000 in charges from 2006 to 2008. No Greer-scale extravagances emerged, but the records showed a $133.75 visit to Churchill’s Barber Shop in Miami that Rubio said he paid himself.

Attorney General Bill McCollum continues to defer to GOP party leaders instead of ordering an investigation into possible criminal conduct regarding credit card abuses at the Republican Party of Florida.

McCollum today said he may ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into the matter but that he would wait until the new chairman of the RPOF – expected to be Sen. John Thrasher – is elected this weekend.

Also today, Florida Democrats shut down McCollum’s anti-corruption hotline, filling up the 800 number’s voice mail in an effort to draw attention to McCollum’s refusal to investigate the credit card charges even after other top Republicans want the books opened.

McCollum said he won’t ask for inquiry until an audit of the RPOF is complete and he gets direction from the new party chairman to move although Gov. Charlie Crist last week said that party officials should open the books now.

“I’m waiting about what the new chairman might discover. I don’t see any evidence at this point of criminal behavior,” McCollum said today after a speech to the National Federation of Independent Business.

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You could say its been a tough week for Jim Greer. The Republican Party of Florida chairman resigned Tuesday (effective Feb. 20), a casualty of the war between conservative and moderate members of the state party.

But tonight — the start of the annual meeting in Orlando — he strolled up to the podium in a ballroom at the Rosen Plaza hotel, and graciously welcomed some 400 Republicans. (Sorry in advance for sub-standard audio.)

Listen here.

For some more scribbles from the first day of meetings, continue reading.

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We caught up with Republican Gov. Charlie Crist on his walk Tuesday afternoon from the Capitol to a training session for new circuit, county and appellate judges to get his thoughts on Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer’s resignation. Here’s the rough transcript:

(Also, here’s our story about Greer’s resignation, the audio from Greer’s conference call and some reaction from Palm Beach County Republicans.)

CRIST: “I’m sorry to see him go because I know how hard he worked particularly in the area of minority outreach and I’m very proud of that. Having said that I think that Sen. Thrasher will do an extraordinary job as chairman. And I have great respect for John. And I think it’s very important to have a unified party as we enter into this new year and a very important election year. So, those are my thoughts.”

Q: Were your thoughts about Greer affected by the letter from the 12 fundraisers? Could Greer have remained in his job after that?

CRIST: I think that was a decision Jim wanted to make. And I respect that. You know, he’s got a family to think about, things like that. It’s been a little rough and tumble, obviously. And, you know, I supported him up to the end, but ultimately it’s a decision he and his family have to make.

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In announcing his resignation Tuesday, besieged Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer accused his critics of sowing dischord and said he “cannot be a participant in the shredding and tearing of the fabric of the Republican Party.”

But Palm Beach County Republican State Committeeman Peter Feaman — one of only two state executive board members to cast a vote of no confidence in Greer last month — says Greer had been stressing the GOP fabric since November, when Feaman said the chairman resisted calls to resign from executive board members at a closed-door meeting in Lake County.

“We said to him at that time, ‘Do what’s good for the party and step down.’ And he refused until now,” said Feaman. “So my question then is, who is it that’s tearing at the fabric of the Republican Party of Florida?”

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer said this afternoon he will resign effective Feb. 20. Some background on his recent troubles here.

“This distractions and attacks on each other within the party is not what we should be doing. These individuals who have turned their guns on fellow Republicans instead of focusing our efforts on defeating Democrats have done nothing to serve our party. But at the end of the day the future of the party must come first.”

Listen to the conference call here. (Questions start at the 11:10 mark)

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer is preparing to resign, sources told The Palm Beach Post. He will be replaced by Sen. John Thrasher of Jacksonville. The party has confirmed Greer will hold a 1:15 p.m. conference call with reporters.

“Jim has long been a loyal servant to the Republican cause, and I appreciate the many sacrifices the Chairman, his wife Lisa, and their four children have made to ensure our Party’s continued success in the Sunshine State,” Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement.

“I call on Florida Republicans to unite behind our common values of less government and more personal freedom and sincerely hope that we can move forward together to ensure statewide Republican victories in 2010.”

Greer has been negotiating his exit since a letter
from party fundraisers last week saying he had to go. In addition to Thrasher, other names discussed included former House Speaker Alan Bense of Panama City and former Senate President Ken Pruitt of Port St. Lucie.

Negotiators were far apart over the weekend, but found had a breakthrough late last night.

The transition is a hit to Gov. Charlie Crist, whose U.S. Senate campaign has benefited from his close relationship with Greer.

Thrasher, meanwhile, is more closely aligned with the Jeb Bush-wing of the party, which has always had a rivalry with the Crist team and given significant support to Crist’s primary opponent, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

News of Thrasher replacing Greer was first reported by the Times/Herald.

UPDATE: Florida Democrats are giddy about this news. They’re not claiming they’ll collect more money than the RPOF this year. Instead, they say their analysis shows that “the Florida Democratic Party has never been in better financial shape entering an election year.”

The Republican Party of Florida announced today it raised $4.5 million for the final three months of 2009.

That would be the largest quarterly total of the year, and slightly more than the $4.3 million the party collected in the same time in 2007 – the last non-election year. For the year, the party collected about $1.6 million less than it did in 2007.

2009 RPOF fundraising:

1Q: $3.9 million

2Q: $1.3 million

3Q: $3.8 million

4Q: $4.5 million

The announcement comes just days before the party’s annual meeting in Orlando, where party Chairman Jim Greer’s job is expected to be a main topic of discussion. Last week, a dozen of the party’s top fundraisers signed a letter calling for Greer’s removal.

A dozen of Florida’s top Republican fund-raisers called for the resignation of their state party chairman in a letter late Tuesday, saying without his removal Republicans had a “diminished” chance for success in a crucial election next year.

“There must be a change in leadership to successfully execute the strategic plan for victory in 2010 election cycle for Republicans,” according to the letter.

Jim Greer has resisted several resignation calls this year from party activists. “He intends to serve the remainder of his term,” Greer’s spokeswoman said Wednesday.

But the letter from the fund-raisers, who have combined to personally donate more than $2.1 million to the state party in the past decade, is the biggest hurdle yet for Greer, Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinerstein said. The letter includes names of Republicans with national fund-raising reputations, including Ned Siegel of Boca Raton and Al Hoffman of Fort Myers.

Story here. Read the letter here.

Republican Party of Florida Jim Greer, under fire from GOP discontents trying to oust him from his post, removed the party’s grievance chairman Tony DiMatteo from the committee set to deal with a complaint about the party infighting.

Greer accused dissidents of “treason,” “slander” and “libel” in a letter to party leaders.

In the letter, Greer, handpicked by Gov. Charlie Crist, warns he won’t back down from his leadership spot despite efforts by what he calls Marco Rubio backers to get rid of him. (more…)

GOP money man Al Hoffman, a developer and former finance director for the Republican National Committee, wrote a scathing letter to Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer asking him to step down.

“It is time for you to resign in order to end the excessive, irresponsible, unethical, and perhaps illegal spending that has marked your administration,” Hoffman wrote to Greer in a letter dated today.

Greer blew off Hoffman’s request after the state party executive board gave him a 25-2 vote of confidence this afternoon.

“It reminds me of a World War II United States Army general when he was asked to surrender. He wrote one word back on a piece of paper. And it was ‘nuts.’ So that’s all I have to say about the letter,” Greer said.

He said Hoffman’s out of touch and hasn’t done much in the way of fundraising for the state GOP in the past three or four years.

Maybe that’s because Hoffman was out of the country at the time.

President George W. Bush appointed Hoffman to serve as ambassador to Portugal in 2005.

The Republican Party of Florida board of directors gave Chairman Jim Greer a vote of confidence today at their quarterly board meeting in Tallahassee.

Palm Beach County GOP state committeeman Peter Feaman and Charlotte County GOP Chairman Bob Starr cast the two votes against Greer. There were 27 board members in attendance.

GOP National Committeeman Paul Senft made the motion to take a vote of confidence in Greer “in the interest of party unity and for clarification.”

“We’ve got to not throw the party under the bus,” Senft said before making the motion.

The state GOP executive committee is huddling in a private meeting with RPOF Chairman Jim Greer appease demands from numerous county chairmen that he back down from what critics say are heavy-handed tactics.

Greer’s folks at Republican Party of Florida headquarters aren’t revealing anything about the meeting in Howey-in-the-Hills in Lake County. It’s the second meeting in as many weeks aimed at reuniting a splintered party made even more divided over the U.S. Senate race between Gov. Charlie Crist and ultra-conservative favorite former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Greer’s spokeswoman Katie Betta would not provide a list of attendees and said Greer probably won’t agree to an interview afterwards to debrief reporters on what went down.

“As far as the meeting goes, the Chairman has asked that we not release any information on the executive board retreat due to the confidential nature of the meeting,” Betta responded to a request for information in an e-mail. Greer “does not want to discuss the meeting,” she added.

Palm beach County GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein can’t attend the GOP powwow because he has a Palm Tran meeting today. He said he thinks some board members will try to oust Greer, but the measure won’t succeed. Dinerstein has criticized Greer’s favoritism for Crist in the past but has said he does not favor booting Greer.

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Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer offered a helping hand to Sen. Paula Dockery, who’s complained that her party isn’t doing anything to aide her gubernatorial bid.

Dockery announced yesterday she’s challenging Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum in a bid for governor and defying Greer’s wishes to avoid GOP primaries in high-profile (and expensive) races.

Then Dockery lashed out today after the RPOF sent out an e-mail from McCollum’s campaign touting his endorsements from GOP bigwigs.

RPOF spokeswoman Katie Gordon Betta responded with the following e-mail to Postonpolitcs.com:

“I spoke to the Chairman and he wants to clarify that the RPOF authorizes payment of certain allocable and non -allocable expense for statewide candidates at the request of those candidates. We aren’t ‘spending money’ on the McCollum Campaign – we are paying for certain expenses at the request of the campaign – just like we do for the other primary campaigns.

“Senator Dockery has not spoken to the Chairman or the RPOF regarding these resources. The Chairman congratulates the senator on her decision to seek the Republican nomination. The RPOF is willing to extend every courtesy to the Dockery Campaign, but to this point Senator Dockery’s Campaign has made no contact with the RPOF regarding her candidacy,” Betta wrote.

Dockery’s campaign spokeswoman Rosemary Goudreau came back with a less-than-tepid rejoinder.

“The ‘People for Paula’ campaign welcomes the party’s support and looks forward to having a conversation with the chairman,” Goudreau wrote

The day after she officially joined the governor’s race, Sen. Paula Dockery lobbed a shot at the state GOP political machine that seems to be doing its best to ignore one of its own.

The front page of the Republican Party of Florida’s website has no mention of Dockery, a lifelong Republican from Lakeland, but does prominently feature a press release from her GOP opponent Attorney General Bill McCollum touting Jeb Bush’s support for him.

After Dockery announced she was running for governor, the Republican Party of Florida issued a release on behalf of McCollum’s campaign highlighting his GOP endorsements.

That earned this jab at RPOF Chairman Jim Greer from Dockery today.

“Just today, the controversial and embattled head of Florida’s Republican Party told the Orlando Sentinel that the state party would spend no money to help my opponent in the gubernatorial primary.

“Hours later, he used the party’s resources to send out an email of support for my opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum.

“This is exactly the kind of double-speak that, under Greer’s leadership, has disenfranchised grassroots Republicans from the state party.

“Party bosses shouldn’t tell the people what to do. That didn’t work for the Politburo and it won’t work for the Republican Party of Florida,” Dockery said in a press release entitled “What are they afraid of?”

RPOF spokeswoman Katie Gordon said McCollum’s campaign was using a service that’s also available to Dockery.

“The RPOF has a long-standing policy of distributing campaign press releases to our subscribers thru the RPOF blast e-mail system at the request of any of the statewide candidates. At this point, Sen. Dockery has not requested that RPOF resources be utilized to distribute her press releases to our subscribers,” Gordon said.

PALM BEACH — Carole Crist, who has kept a low public profile since marrying Gov. Charlie Crist in December, was here this afternoon for a lunch to raise awareness of ovarian cancer.

About a dozen people attended the event at the Brazilian Court hotel, including Palm Beach Mayor Jack McDonald and Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer. It was part of a national awareness effort by the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund using governors, first ladies, lieutenant governors and state health secretaries across the U.S.

Carole Crist noted in brief remarks to the audience that ovarian cancer lacks a method of early detection akin to a mammogram for breast cancer.

“We need to change this. This is a major women’s health issue,” she said.

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President Obama’s controversial speech to the nation’s school children is today at noon. Schools in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties have the green light from administrators to show it and parents who object can get their children excused from participating.

Our Kimberly Miller breaks down the local situation here.

Many conservatives and Republicans were critical of the speech last week, with Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer accusing the president of trying to indoctrinate America’s youth with “socialist ideology.”

Redistributionist economic policies are nowhere to be found in an advance copy of the speech released by the White House. The “birther” movement, however, might pounce on the fact that Obama mentions his childhood years in Indonesia. And those who oppose an expanded government role in health care might find significance in the leader of the free world advising students to wash their hands to minimize the spread of flu.

Read the entire text after the jump….

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The Wall Street Journal‘s conservative editorial page says federal educrats appear to be “aggrandizing” President Obama with the curriculum they’ve suggested to accompany Obama’s Tuesday address to the nation’s school children. But even the right-tilted WSJ editorial board says Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer was “overwrought” in his criticism of the speech.

Read the whole thing here.

Meanwhile, our Laura Green reports that Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie county schools will all allow students to hear the Obama speech. Palm Beach County Schools Supe Art Johnson says parents can send a written request to excuse their students from the broadcast.

The partisan dustup over President Obama’s planned nationwide address to schoolchildren next week has inspired some speculation about what would happen if the shoe were on the other foot:

What if this were a Republican president, perhaps one named Bush, trying to drum up support for one of his programs? Would liberal school administrators even allow the kids to watch it? Would Democratic parents pull their children from the classroom that day?

Well, maybe we don’t have to guess. It turns out that then-President George H.W. Bush made a nationally televised speech to students on Oct. 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C., urging them to “make it your mission to get a good education” and to “block out the kids who think it’s not cool to be smart.” (The president’s sound bite of the day was apparently, “I can’t understand for the life of me what’s so great about being stupid.”)

Update: As a Palm Beach Post reader has helpfully pointed out, then-President Ronald Reagan spoke live to students nationwide in May 1986. And it seems that the first President Bush also made a 15-minute televised speech in 1989 urging students not to use drugs.

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Having America’s youth listen to a speech by President Obama and then, at the suggestion of the federal Department of Education, write letters to themselves about “what they can do to help the president” sent many conservatives and Republicans into rhetorical orbit this week.

Our Laura Green reports that Palm Beach County school district officials haven’t decided whether to air Obama’s remarks to students on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education appears to be backing away from its “help the president” language, instead suggesting that students should write letters about “how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.”

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