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Revealed: Pictures Of Gov. Crist's $50K Birthday Cake From Accused Fraudster

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Cake image courtesy of Miami Herald; Crist image courtesy of Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

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Two Florida newspapers have published pictures of the birthday cake for Charlie Crist sponsored to the tune of $52,000 by Fort Lauderdale super attorney Scott Rothstein.

Remember, Rothstein has been accused of orchestrating a gigantic fraud scheme out of his firm, but Gov. Crist claims that Rothstein is just another supporter, suggesting this week he hardly knows the man.

"Well, he had supported me like he did to many others. ... And that's about the extent of it," Crist said Wednesday. But many news reports and sources suggest, on the contrary, the two were close friends and Rothstein was a top moneyman for Crist, who used his relationship with Rothstein to reap benefits for the state GOP.

Enter the double-layer chocolate birthday cake.

The 2008 party to celebrate Crist's 52nd was at The Breakers in Palm Beach, the oldest hotel in Florida, and one of the poshest. Lobbyists and industry groups shelled out a sponsorship fee of $5,200-per-candle on the cake, the Miami Herald, which obtained the picture, reports.

But Rothstein wanted to show up those bit players -- companies like Disney and the private prison giant GEO Group -- so he paid $52,000 to sponsor the entire confection. Thus, the cake was bedecked with delicate white chocolate sheets reading, "Happy Birthday, Governor Charlie Crist. From Scott and Kimberly Rothstein." (It does not appear to feature, as we reported yesterday, a logo of Rothstein's law firm.)

And it didn't stop there. Rothstein actually joined Crist and Carol Rome, now Crist's wife, in blowing out the candles.

Check out this picture that was displayed in Rothstein's law firm office, courtesy of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times:

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10 comments

Recommend Recommend (5)

November 6, 2009 3:25 PM   

All the money in the world won't buy you an ounce of taste. It looks like a shitstorm on a hedgehog.

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November 6, 2009 3:40 PM   

When this story first started busting this summer, this hilarious piece appeared in the Broward County New Times:

Mega-wealthy lawyer, businessman, and political backer Scott Rothstein called me last week and told me he was the "Jewish Avenger" and was out to destroy me.

​Rothstein wasn't joking; he was seething. He told me he was going
to sue me and my wife and bankrupt my household. Rothstein, the managing partner of the law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt & Adler, said he would throw all his legal might at me until I could never "participate in the journalism community again." He even said he was going to throw a news conference about me for the TV stations.


"Most people figure if you're left alone, you'll go away," Rothstein told me. "They figure they should let a sleeping dog lie. I like to jab the dog in the eye. And if it bites me, I'll jab its eye out."


Rothstein once told me he had 43 voices in his head, ranging from lawyers to businessmen to guys from the Bronx streets where he grew up. I felt like there were about five of the latter type on the phone line. It was sort of a phone-call version of being mugged by a gang of hooligans in Central Park.

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November 6, 2009 3:43 PM    in reply to San Fernando Curt

Forty-three voices in his head. Here's the link, by the way.

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November 6, 2009 3:57 PM   

"They figure they should let a sleeping dog lie. I like to jab the dog in the eye. And if it bites me, I'll jab its eye out."


That's enough reason for me to despise this guy.

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November 6, 2009 6:30 PM    in reply to lousgirl84

C'mon... There's a movie here. What a character! Ponzi scheme. Voices in his head. Has the calm, cordial temperament of Imperial Japan. I want to hear those 43-way conversations on a soundtrack.

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November 6, 2009 3:58 PM   

Trouble for Charlie,. The crazies are out to get him

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November 6, 2009 4:54 PM   

Does this remind anyone of George W. Bush saying he barely knew Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay, claiming that Lay was "just a supporter"?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushlay1.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_and_the_Enron_connection

Of course, ol' G.W. never did suffer any blowback from the Enron debacle, in spite of the obvious connections. We'll see if ol' Charlie Crist is as lucky.

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November 6, 2009 7:43 PM   

That is the ugliest cake I ever saw! And whoever heard of putting "credits" on the top of the cake? What a bunch of classless losers!

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November 7, 2009 10:28 AM    in reply to CVille Dem

This so belongs here:
http://cakefailure.blogspot.com/

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November 7, 2009 2:08 AM   

The more ethics investigations the better.

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