New College's Richard Corcoran is a much better grifter than UF's Ben Sasse

Ron DeSantis promises to "investigate" his UF henhouse. Look to the many lives of Corcoran to see how that's gonna go.

I have an actual image of Ron (“I was not somebody that was involved, necessarily,” in hiring Ben Sasse) DeSantis and Mori (“applauded [Sasse] for putting his family first”) Hosseini debating who will take the L for their equally shared UF apocalypse of grift.

And here is actual footage of state CFO Jimmy Patronis’ heartfelt outrage at all the lazy GOPers who made bank off taxpayers and scholarships and donations in the name of Sasse’s UF “disruption.”

LOL. These people are nothing if not funny.

Corcoran is a much better grifter than Sasse, which is why DeSantis can’t touch him

The last time a DeSantis crony was as disgraced and humiliated as Ben Sasse, it was Richard Corcoran in spring of 2022.

His Manny Diaz-powered charter school takeover of Jefferson County public schools had collapsed in failure and bid-rigging; FSU had laughed Corc out of a presidential interview process he thought was rigged for him; and DeSantis had promised a “holistic” and “all of the above” investigation of everything (including Corcoran) involved in DoE Jefferson.

I detailed the full extent of Corcoran’s degradation — and dubbed him “Dark Helmet” — in the article I’ve posted below from 2022.

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Of course, as we all know, Corcoran bounced off his giant helmet to land comfortably on his feet with the long-standing and ongoing UF-style grift and bust-out of New College.

That’s because Corcoran is much better at grifting than Sasse.

Corcoran laundered his giant salary grab — and suckered DeSantis and the gullible Ricketts billionaire — with anti-woke bullshit. Now DeSantis can’t touch him because all the headlines and mockery would be about DeSantis’ failed anti-woke adventure.

DeSantis, like Trump, can’t take an L or laughter. Corcoran understands this; and I understand Corcoran.

By contrast, Sasse’s eye-roll worthy pretensions were his downfall. His platitudinous pantomime of respectable independence ruined him.

In the same way Sasse conned useless national political reporters with vague Trump lamentations while always bending the knee, he pretended to act like a real university president at UF, an act he could not deliver on in basic administrative competence.

If he had gone full Corcoran, if he had embraced non-stop anti-woke stunts and grifting, he’d be covered like Corcoran is — at least for now. Corcoran really makes no pretensions that New College is anything but a temporary feast for grift locusts.

Stuff like Thursday’s massive, showy, Reich-adjacent physical book dump at New College is how Corcoran keeps DeSantis on his leash — and keeps the checks coming, at least for now. (I do get the vibe that financial and operational walls are closing in on Corc at New College that even he may struggle to survive. More later.)

I’ve noted many times that no Republican in Florida has ever done more damage to DeSantis than Corcoran. Here’s a good accounting of that.

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Indeed, DeSantis was at his peak of possibility against Trump when Corcoran’s hilarious New College salary got announced — wrecking the triumphant anti-woke takeover narrative forever.

For DeSantis, it was weird, cowardly, ineffective defense against the old felon from there on.

Meanwhile, Corcoran continues to dance like no one’s watching in Sarasota, while DeSantis pretends to “investigate” Sasse — just like he pretended to investigate Corcoran over DoE Jefferson — but did not actually do any investigating.

Great work, Garrett. Now write the “what did Mori Hosseini know; when did he know it” story

All this fake Sasse investigation talk is especially hilarious because the University of Florida refuses to acknowledge there is anything to investigate. Lalalalalalala.

The official UF story of Ben Sasse remains this bit of hilarity, from the minutes of his resignation emergency meeting Board of Trustees meeting:

Board Chairman Hosseini and Trustees applauded him for putting his family first and extended prayers to him and his family. Additionally, they expressed thanks to the President for his tireless dedication to the university, including how he expertly handled the events after October 7th with the Jewish communities and protecting First Amendment rights. Trustees also thanked Board Chairman Hosseini for his leadership. Board Chairman Hosseini asked for a motion to accept President Sasse’s resignation, which was made by Vice Chair Patel and seconded by Trustee Cole.

Independent Alligator reporter Garrett Shanley has done an incredible job in detailing the Sasse story. But honestly, that story is over. Sasse was and is a substanceless chimera, blown away by breeze of his own incompetence.

DeSantis and Hosseini are the story now.

They — and nobody else — own the handsome grifting family man they rigged their own search for in secrecy.

Who actually is in charge of the University of Florida is the story now.

The silent incompetence of the BoT is the story now.

Those are the meaningful stories now, whether the UF BoT wants to participate or not.

Writing those stories is how we start to get at Corcoran and the smarter grifters. It’s how to prevent Sasse — or the next Sasse — from popping up again in a year or two at some Florida economic development think tank mouthing nonsense about disruption and grit.

Let’s go, Garrett.

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Here are my first two Sasse-scandal stories for reference.

Did UF fire Ben Sasse? If not, why not?

Yep, Sasse's story was a gross cover