Strange Market-Shorting Billionaire Monster Would Also Like To Be Florida's Senator

Just as the months-long war between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio is ending and a three-way battle along with Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek is finally ready to take the political spotlight in Florida, some nutter ex-Republican billionaire who made his fortune betting against the housing market has decided that he would like to purchase the Democratic nomination after all, to screw up everything. Who is this slurring tropical money dragon, this Jeff Greene, who wants to spend all of his economy-destroying fortune on Florida's junior Senate seat? And why is he so gay for Mike Tyson, anyway?

A minted member of the Forbes 400, Greene has the type of private wealth that can make him a force (and for national Democrats, a headache) in the primary race against Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) Naturally, Democratic officials aren't taking his entree into the race lightly -- expressing moderate frustration with the turn of events.

But the baggage Greene brings to the race is so profound as to eclipse the "outsider" message on which he is running. It's been widely reported that he got rich on the housing market's collapse; that he took investment advise from John Paulson -- the hedge fund manager at the current center of the controversy surrounding Goldman Sachs; that he counted the mercurial Mike Tyson as a best man at his $1 million wedding; and once lived with the notorious madam Heidi Fleiss.

"He's renowned for throwing lavish parties,'' his Rabbi, David Baron, told The Miami Herald in December 2009. "If you were single, it was a great place to hang out. There were a lot of terrific women there."

What the hell is even happening?

The person who could throw $1 million epic fuck-parties at his various mansions every night for the forseeable future wants to be a junior Senator from Florida instead -- and expects people to believe that there are no special interests urging him to do so? Please. We all know that Mike Tyson has many scores to settle in Congress, and Jeff Greene is just his vehicle.

[ HuffPo ]