Choose Lawsuit
by digby
Here’s a lovely story about Rick Scott the fascist corporation in a suit who’s running for Governor of Florida. It looks like the Schiavo circus is coming to town:
Rick Scott is reaching into his corporate past to woo a key electorate in the Republican primary for governor and bolster his claims as a “pro-life leader.””We lost a $43 million lawsuit because we saved the life of a child that the parents didn’t want us to,” the former Columbia/HCA health care CEO said on a recent Panhandle campaign swing. “Everything I’ve done in my career … I care about life.”As antiabortion issues begin to dominate Scott’s contest with Attorney General Bill McCollum, Scott’s lack of a voting record stands in contrast to McCollum’s lengthy history from two decades in Congress and repeated bids for elective office.But as he courts core conservative voters, Scott is thrusting a Texas family’s 20-year-old turmoil into an increasingly bitter dialogue on the topic of life.
And why not? It’s so easy to fool a bunch of pro-life zealots into believing that you actually care about their cause when what you really cared about was saving your corporation money.
You see, 20 years ago the family in question had a very premature child with many complications who they requested not be treated with extraordinary methods. The hospital instituted a policy of treatment of such infants regardless of the parents wishes and the parents later sued the hospital. It was only after that, that Rick Scott’s conglomerate bought the hospital. It obviously fought the lawsuit not because of any moral stand — it’s a corporation — but because it was financially advantageous to do so.
Not that it matters to the “pro-life” cultists. As long as someone is willing to police people’s most difficult and intimate personal and family decisions, they don’t care what the motivations are. They are perfectly happy to have a mendacious, corporate monster as Governor as long as he pays them lip service. They should probably be aware, however, that if it saved his corporation money to force all Christians to have abortions, he would back that too.
Update: This post is by digby — I had to use Dennis Hartley’s account for technical reasons.