RPOF Chairman Jim Greer sounded like he was still in Halloween mode when asked this afternoon if he turned down an offer by Ray Sansom to pay for the European trip Sansom took his family on and paid for with a party-issued American Express.

"Mhhhhhaaaaaaaaaawwwww," Greer bellowed with laughter.

State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, told the Buzz today that as the spending story broke he called Sansom and asked if it were true. "I asked him if he used the party credit card to fly his family to Europe and he said that he did but said he offered to pay the party back. He said Chairman Greer did not accept the check."

But Greer said that's not quite how things played out.

"There was some discussions I had with the speaker last year when I made the decision to end the ability to spend (translation: He took Sansom's card away) and there were some talk about reimbursement. But they never came to fruition. The party was never reimbursed," Greer said."That's all I'll say."

Records show no reimbursements from Sansom for any of the more than $170,000 he spent in 2006-08

In what little Sansom has said about the charges, which have been roundly criticized by fellow Republicans, he defends them as necessary to raise money for the Party and to maintain the sizable GOP advantage in the House.