If Democrats were thinking that Charlie Crist looked like a better alternative than Kendrick Meek to knock off the GOP’s rising star Marco Rubio, they might want to reconsider. The Miami Herald reports:

Gov. Charlie Crist personally signed off on his former Republican party chairman’s confidential fundraising role with the state party – according to Jim Greer’s attorney, whose allegation contradicts the governor’s statement that he “didn’t know anything” about the deal now part of a criminal investigation.

State investigators say Greer and the party’s former executive director, Delmar W. Johnson III, secretly set up a shell company called Victory Strategies to divert party money and enrich themselves. Greer was charged Wednesday with fraud and money laundering.

Greer’s attorney says it’s all perfectly legal and that Crist’s Senate appointee and former campaign manager came up with the idea for the scam. Crist’s defense it that he was out of the loop on the specifics. (“Jim thought a change would be a good idea and I said, ‘Whatever you think needs to be done, and if you need to bring in Delmar, that’s fine.”) It is further confirmation that Crist may be precisely the wrong candidate at the wrong time. In an election year in which inside deals are under scrutiny (with the Sestak and Romanoff scandals swirling) and establishment candidates face a hostile electorate, Crist may find there is little patience for this sort of thing. And it’s a good reminder that the GOP inside the beltway political gurus (who backed Crist) often get it very, very wrong.