It’s disconcerting to think Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll (R) might actually believe her own rhetoric.
“On Monday, we’re going to be celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and I can’t think of anybody currently in my life right now that more epitomizes the values and the vision of Dr. King than Gov. Rick Scott,” she said.
“When the governor selected me to be his running mate, he did not look at the color of my skin,” said Carroll, who was the only black Republican in the Legislature in 2010. “He looked at the content of my character and my integrity and work ethic, and what I brought to the table. This is the dream of Dr. King that was realized for me.”
Hmm. Carroll would have us believe Rick Scott chose the only black Republican in the entire Florida legislature as his running mate, and that race had nothing to do with his selection. It was just a coincidence.
Whether one is inclined to believe that or not, when considering the King legacy, Florida’s lieutenant governor may want to avoid comparisons to this guy.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) really has trouble learning his lesson. Earlier this year, he invited a group of black Florida legislators over to the Governor’s Mansion for lunch. In an effort to relate to them, he suggested that he was just like them because he “started school in public housing” and his “dad had a sixth-grade education.”
Yesterday, Scott called for Florida A&M University President James Ammons to be suspended following the death of a drum major at the university, allegedly due to hazing. In protest, several hundred students from the historically black university “marched from campus to the Governor’s Mansion.” When Scott came out to meet the students, he reportedly started his speech by again referring to his childhood in public housing, which prompted one student to yell out, “We’re not poor!”
