Former Florida GOP chair slams party: Voter ID a 'marketing tool' to suppress minority votes

theGRIO REPORT - The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida is currently awaiting trial for allegedly paying himself to raise money for the party...

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

“Like selling a widget”

“People do not have any comprehension of what is at stake in an election,” Greer says. “It is not as much [about] who is going to hold the office. This is a business, just like selling a widget.”

“These people have so much at stake,” Greer says. “I mean the consultants, the extreme right of the Republican Party that’s in power in Florida… Citizens don’t know what’s going on behind the country. The Republican Party that’s in power today will tinker with the people’s ability to get to the polls and vote.”

Greer said he is still a Republican, but that his party has gone far astray.

“It’s hard to get people to understand what’s happening,” says Greer. “The Republican Party is very good at [saying] ‘look at this hand, don’t look at that hand.’”

The bad feelings between Greer and the Republican Party of Florida are mutual.

Reached for comment, RPOF spokesman Brian Burgess had this to say about Greer:

“Jim Greer was arrested by law enforcement authorities and is now facing a trial for multiple felony counts including charges for embezzlement and intent to defraud.  He is not viewed as a credible source on any of these matters and everything he says should be considered in light of those facts.”

Greer denies any wrongdoing, but he admits to making many mistakes as chair, including going along with a harsh critique of President Obama’s speech to school children, which Greer publicly objected to. He now says he read a statement written for him by staff, and that his only real objection was to a lesson plan that went with the speech which he believed was partisan.

“What people don’t think about is that someday the Republican Party is not going to be in power,” Greer says. “They have this illusion that everything they’re doing — changing the voting laws, putting tanks on every corner, they’re going to stay in power. But when the Democrats come back into power, it’s always a tit for tat, and they will have consultants who will come into power and say, ‘remember what those guys did to us?’”

“It’s not unique to the Republican Party, the idea of a power grab,” Greer says. “Republicans have a fundamental opposition to minorities that Democrats do not have, but I will say some of the things that happen will be simply to win the election. If Democrats came back in to power, probably the first thing to happen is to extend early voting ten times what it is now, because their consultants have told them” that will help them win.

“But the Republican Party has such a disdain for minorities, and for laws that provide access to the ballot for minorities,” says Greer. “That is what is unique to the Republican Party.”

“They don’t want me, or Crist or [retiring Indiana Senator Richard] Lugar,” or other moderates in the party, he says of the new, tea party-led GOP. “It’s a mob mentality in the Republican Party. They’ve got pitchforks and torches and they’re looking for Frankenstein. And they think [Frankenstein is] Barack Obama.”

Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @thereidreport

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