Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Rick Scott loses Monty Python court case, gets spammed by Floridians

Practically every other person in Florida has sued Gov. Skelator Rick Scott, including the Teamsters.  He's been taken to court for pulling the plug on a high-speed rail project, for drug testing state workers and for privatizing prisons, among other things.

Today, the nation's most unpopular governor lost his first case, a lawsuit brought by Rosalie Whiley, a blind woman on food stamps. She argued -- successfully -- that Scott overstepped his authority by freezing all rules until he could approve them. Whiley argued that Scott's edict delayed a rule that would have made it easier for her to order food stamps online.

The Miami Herald reports Florida's Supreme Court sided with Whiley. According to the Herald,
The court, in a 5-2 opinion, concluded that rule-making authority belongs to the Legislature, not the governor.
Hah! Even better, Whiley's lawyers had made fun of Scott for claiming he had "supreme executive power." According to Tampa Bay Online, the lawyers said
... "the Governor's theory seems to have come from a Monty Python skit. See the discourse between 'Arthur, King of Britons' and 'Dennis the Constitutional Peasant,' from Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
In that scene from the 1975 cult classic comedy, King Arthur explains to Dennis, a filth-covered peasant, that Arthur rules over all Britons because a mystical Lady of the Lake "held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king."
Dennis responds: "Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony … You can't expect to wield supreme executive power because some watery tart threw a sword at you."
And now Wonkette is reporting that Floridians are returning Scott's annoying robocalls. Scott has been trying to improve his popularity by calling people during dinnertime to tell them what a great job he's doing. A website called Pink Slip Rick offers voters the chance to record their own robocall to the governor, which will then be dialed in to his office.

The calls are not flattering.