Today's Los Angeles Times has the story, "Crist's Senate Bid Represents Ideological Struggle for GOP":
It is a heated debate in the struggling Republican Party: whether to broaden its ideology or follow the advice of Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and others who argue against deviating from core conservative principles.Responding to the NSRC's announced backing of Crist yesterday, Robert Stacy McCain quips:
Now, the GOP has a chance to see whether a moderate can become a model for Republican resurgence, with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announcing Tuesday that he will run for the U.S. Senate in that politically important state.
Crist, who has bucked the GOP's conservative wing on voting rights, global warming and other issues, enjoys high approval ratings. But with the governor facing a conservative in the primary, Republican leaders across the country have seized on Florida as a battleground in the larger philosophical war over the party's future.
Crist won instant endorsements from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the GOP Senate campaign committee. The two see him as the best hope for keeping a Senate seat in GOP hands as the party tries to avoid falling below the crucial number of senators needed to block legislation, an outcome that many political analysts see as likely.
Crist's main primary challenger, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, went on the attack Tuesday, releasing a video showing the governor with President Obama and criticizing Crist's support of the Democrats' "reckless" economic stimulus spending.
"Our primary will offer Republicans a front-row seat to a debate about the future of the Republican Party here in Florida and across the nation," Rubio said. "My campaign will offer GOP voters a clear alternative to the direction some want to take our party."
Basically, the old wobbly moderate, Crist, is stepping on the career of the promising Latino conservative, Rubio. It's the exact opposite of what we need. It's a triple disaster: Crist will forego a reasonably safe re-election bid as governor, to waste NRSC money running for an iffy Senate seat, creating an expensive GOP primary in the governor's race. It's just bad basic politics, all the way around, and only an idiot like Cornyn could think this was a smart move for the NRSC.
6 comments:
in a sense, this appears to be a small replay of the joe lieberman campaign, only on the republican side.
I agree with you, Donald, completely! This is stupid, but unfortunately Crist will probably win. :(
Democrats in drag piss me off.
http://tinyurl.com/rch2ac
I am pulling for Rubio, even though Crist is the apparent favorite among the party bigwigs.
Its time to sent the RINOs packing, and that includes the current chairman, Michael Steele, who has bee a major disappointment.
Our two-party system has degenerated into nothing more than the hard-core socialist party, and the slightly less socialist party.
It sickens me to see so many republicans still willing to vote to aid Obama in pulling off his little coup.
This needs to be corrected, and soon, as we are fast running out of opportunities to reverse course and avoid going over the cliff.
-Dave
Send the RINOs packing, guys.
If you want to keep this seat, Crist is your only chance. The more conservative your candidate, the smaller your chance of winning.
Keep sending Hannity wannabees as candidates and the Dems will hold 70 seats.
What we should be indignant about is the National Republican Senate Committee interfering in the primary. By the NRSC already endorsing Gov. Christ they do not want the Republican electorate decide who the candidate for the senate from Florida should be. It is the top-down mentality that keeps good candidates out. Come on, who would be a better senator today, Pat Toomey or Benedict Arlen? At least Mr. Toomey would still be a Republican.
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