Tag: charlie crist

One pre-emptive Crist observation.

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

If Crist really does declare an independent run this afternoon Sen. Cornyn of the NRSC will wind up looking foolish, true. Only thing is, Sen Menendez of the DSCC is going to end up looking even worse. He’s the one who recruited a candidate that Rasmussen has in third in a GOP split and who PPP reports is less popular than Crist. And now the DSCC actually has to go all-in on a bad fundraiser and an uninspiring candidate*.  That’s bad enough in a year where they’re playing offense – which is to say, a year that’s not 2010.  In short, the Democrats could have been walking into this the presumptive winner.  Instead, they’re even now trying to figure out how to torpedo Charlie Crist themselves in order to maintain their shot at the seat.

Oops?

Moe Lane

*Not that the DSCC has very many inspiring ones this cycle, either.  But Kendrick Meek is especially noteworthy in his blandness.

Crossposted to RedState.

#rsrh DC a ‘national blight’?

Jim’s being unfair.  To national blights.

This paragraph from Jim Geraghty – larger topic: Charlie Crist’s unforced errors – resonates beyond Crist’s apparent decision to decay his orbit and burn up in the upper atmosphere:

Many Americans see Washington, D.C., as a national blight combining the high morals of late imperial Rome, the good character and widespread honesty of post–Cold War Moscow, the financial restraint of modern Athens, and the respectful modesty of Beijing — and Crist is running on the message that he can work well with everyone who’s already there.

Well, it seemed like a good idea in 2008.  That’s going to be on a lot of political gravestones, by the way; mostly Democratic ones, but Crist is apparently willing to volunteer for one last bout of ‘bipartisanship’ in that regard.

QotD, Charlie Crist edition.

Gee, where did we see this before?

“He got elected education commissioner and spent the entire time running for attorney general. He got to be attorney general and spent the entire time running for governor. When he got to be governor, he spent the first two years running for vice president and the last two running for the United States Senate,” said Slade, the former state GOP chairman.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) It’ll come to me in a second, I’m sure.

Moe Lane

PS:
RU-BI-O.
RU-BI-O.
RU-BI-O.

#rsrh Will Crist jump into the shark tank?

Jim Geraghty apparently thinks so, based on that Q-poll that currently has him barely winning a three-way race and the news that former Senator Connie Mack has quit the Crist campaign after the governor vetoed the education reform bill.  And I will admit that yes, Governor Crist could run as an independent.  Governor Crist could also repeatedly slam a silverware drawer on his hand until he passes out from the pain; which would be the rough equivalent in terms of results.  I’m sure that people are telling him about Lieberman and Specter; but Lieberman didn’t preemptively reject his party prior to the primary (or at all, really), and the real race in PA is over which party gets to make sure that Arlen Specter returns to private life.

Granted, Crist could still do it.  Hope springs eternal, right?

Moe Lane

PS: Rubio for Senate.

1Q 2010: Crist raises 1.1 million to Rubio’s 3.6.

It’s not your time, Governor.

Via Hot Air: Allahpundit independently makes the same suggestion…

If I were Crist, here’s what I’d do. First, I’d dial up Jeb Bush and ask him whether there’s any chance whatsoever that he’ll endorse me. If he says no (which seems likely), either because he’s backing Rubio or staying out of the race, then I’d dial up Rubio and offer him a deal. In return for me dropping out right now, endorsing him, and helping him fundraise, I’d ask for a commitment that he’ll help me beat Bill Nelson in 2012. That’s really the only way at this point that Crist can regain his standing among the base, whom he’ll need to have onboard for any shot at the Senate.

…that I did last month, only I didn’t bother with suggesting that Crist give Jeb an opportunity to bail him out.  It’s not too late, Governor: you still have something to trade.  We don’t have to let this situation deteriorate further.

But the clock’s ticking.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Does Charlie Crist have permission to use all those articles?

Specifically, the ones written by Alex Leary for the St. Petersburg Times, and which are now showing up on Charlie Crist’s anti-Rubio hit site. Compare a post from said hit site:

Rubio1

…with the original:
Rubio2

Unless Mr. Leary is actually involved with this project, and the St. Petersburg Times, this is an embarrassing failure to understand the Internet. Why? Because of this:

ARR

Reproducing other people’s articles and posting them under your own name? Definite no-no. I’m curious to why the Crist campaign thinks that it’s entitled to do this. Perhaps it just thinks that it’s entitled in general?

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

‘Watchmen on the wall of world freedom.’

A quote from Kennedy’s last, undelivered speech – and one quoted by Florida Senatorial candidate Marco Rubio as part of his farewell speech to the Florida legislature.

Via And So it Goes in Shreveport. No transcript yet, sorry.

I’ve been personally staying out of the entire Crist/Rubio NRSC endorsement brouhaha, mostly because we’re going to have Senatorial candidates that are going to need the NRSC’s help – but I do have to ask: does Charlie have anything that can beat that?

Seriously. Does Crist play at that level? – Because if he doesn’t, this is going to be an interesting primary.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Stopping more Tax Hikes on the poor in Florida.

This ad comes from Grover Norquist’s Americans For Tax Reform, and it’s aimed squarely at the Florida legislature’s attempt to emulate the Obama administration’s recent lower-class tax hike:

The argument here is actually very simple: cigarette taxes are in fact taxes, not ‘user fees’ or any other kind of bureaucratic nonsense. People like to pretend otherwise because it’s easier to pass something that’s not called a tax, and because in this particular case the the average member of the group that Rasmussen likes to call the Political Class probably doesn’t smoke anyway. In other words, if it’s not affecting them personally, it’s not their problem. This is not a particularly inclusive attitude, but then nobody was accusing the Political Class with an excess of empathy anyway.

Continue reading Stopping more Tax Hikes on the poor in Florida.