See ya, Charlie. We hardly knew you

RedState:

Charlie Crist Will Drop Out of the Senate Race

The Crist campaign says it is not true, but the writing is on the wall. Again and again the media turns against Crist.

Another blow to the Crist campaign came today as the Republican National Committee’s War Room sent out this unflattering story about the failures of the Crist campaign.

The RNC did that.

But Crist valiantly made a blow stand this evening in Pinellas County. It is his home county. After seeing Marco Rubio win every single straw poll of every single county in Florida that has had them so far, Crist knew that tonight he would win the Pinellas County GOP straw poll. It is, after all, his own freaking county.

Crist lost. The vote was 106-54 in Marco Rubio’s favor. In Charlie Crist’s home county.

Charlie Crist is going to drop out of the U.S. Senate primary in Florida. The writing is on the wall. It reads “Mene Mene Tekel Parsin“.

Charlie can stay or he can go.  Either way he is going down. 

By the way, losing in Pinellas kind of makes Charlie the McGovern of Florida.

See also:

Babalu  The trouble with Charlie Crist

Hello from the frozen tundra formerly known as Florida

The original photo is courtesy of tbo.com-the frozen sentiment is all mine.

Alan Grayson Volunteers to Write the Forward to Dick Cheney's Book

The Hill:

The Prince of Darkness himself might be best-suited to write the foreword to former Vice President Dick Cheney's forthcoming book, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) suggested Monday.

Given the size of his ego it doesn't surprise me that Grayson thinks that he is best suited to write the forward to Cheney's book and he may soon find himself with extra time on his hands.

Florida State Legislator Aims to Knock Off Alan Grayson

For a while, potty-mouthed Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida has seemed like one of this cycle's most vulnerable. He represents a district that is usually pretty Republican (Obama carried the district by 5 percentage points) and that Republican Bill McCollum represented for a lot of years. Grayson's style in office has been the opposite of a centrist, carving out his niche as the sneering and obnoxious id of House Democrats. Yet the GOP had trouble finding a top-tier challenger, someone who has run a race or two before and who has a good reputation in that section of Florida.

Now they've found one: Florida state representative Kurt Kelly, who's making it official today.

Prediction: Grayson's sorry ass is going down.

Gov. Charlie Crist Leaves Tallahassee and Moves to Some Place Called 'Da Nile'

Exhibit A from the St. Pete Times:

"All in all, I think it's been a good year — a good year in challenging times," Crist said. "These are tough times. It sure hasn't been dull, to say the least, by any stretch."

If Good Time Charlie thinks it's been a good year he sure hasn't been hanging out in Florida.

Lets review:

He miscalculated the danger of his "man hug" with President Barack Obama in support of the Democrats' stimulus package. He signed a no-new taxes pledge only to raise taxes weeks later to balance the state budget. And the biggest contributor in his campaign for U.S. Senate, Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein, was charged in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

Speaking of that stimulus package that Crist supported and then denied that he supported and then denied that he denied supporting, what has Florida gotten out Crist's great big ol' man hug?

When Crist took office in 2007, the unemployment rate was 3.3 percent — less than a third of what it is now as more than 1 million Floridians can't find work. One in every 705 Florida homes was in foreclosure when he took office. Now the foreclosure rate is 1 of 165, according to RealtyTrac data service. (emphais added)

Even Crist's staunchest critics say many of Florida's woes are largely beyond his control. But they question whether Crist did what he could when he could. When the economy deteriorated, Crist paid visits to regional unemployment centers and held roundtable discussions with veterans and real estate agents, but he didn't propose and implement specific policies to halt the tide of foreclosures and layoffs. (emphasis added)

Crist has put his vastly unpopular "green policies" on the back burner but he himself admits that it is only a temporary move. He is currently touting "light rail" as his signature program. Apparently he is unaware that government backed railroad transportation has had a long history of abject failure.

Most damaging for Crist is the perception that Crist really doesn't stand for anything and that he is one of those politicians who sticks his finger in the air in order to determine the direction of the political winds. Consider this:

Newly married to New York socialite and businesswoman Carole Rome, Crist spent the days just before 2009 hunting for Christmas gifts in the rural North Florida antique mecca of Havana. There Crist ran into a local who paid him such a compliment that he pulled a reporter aside and made her repeat it. (emphasis added)

"I believe he's a closet Democrat," Shirley Aaron said.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Crist said. "We have, in Florida, Republicans and Democrats and independents, but we're all Floridians first."

If Crist knew or cared about the profound ideological differences between the two political parties he wouldn't feel complimented by being called a closet Democrat. But for Crist, ideology is only skin deep and can be easily shed when it no longer suits Crist's needs.

Now that Crist has tanked in the polls, he is trying make up his lost ground but pretending that everything is just fine in Florida won't get him very far. Come the August primary Florida voters will be voting on whether they believe things are just fine and who they will trust to represent them. I don't expect that a year from now Crist will be sounding as enthusiastic as he is trying to sound now.

Cross posted at Not One Red Cent

Marco Rubio on Fox Business

Watch Marco Rubio's appearance on Fox Business:

Rasmussen Has Rubio in a Tie With Crist

The latest Rasmussen poll has Marco Rubio tied with Charlie Crist in the Republican race for the US Senate:

Governor Charlie Crist and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio are now tied in the 2010 race for the Republican Senate nomination in Florida.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely GOP Primary voters finds Crist and Rubio each with 43% of the vote. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

Crist’s support has fallen from 53% in August to 49% in October. Rasmussen Reports noted at the time, “The fact that Crist has fallen below 50% in a primary against a lesser known opponent suggests potential vulnerability.”

Rubio’s name recognition has grown in recent months and he is now viewed Very Favorably by 34% of Likely Primary Voters. That’s up from 18% in August. As his name recognition increased, Rubio’s support in the polls has jumped from 31% in August to 43% today.

Crist, well known throughout the state, has seen his ratings go in the opposite direction. Just 19% now have a Very Favorable opinion of him, a figure that represents a double digit decline since August.

I'll be attending a Plant City Tea Party tomorrow where Rubio is scheduled to speak. Plant City is a fairly small, mostly rural area best known as the "Winter Strawberry Capital of the World." Rubio's willingness to venture into smaller venues is one of the reasons his poll numbers have risen so quickly. I've heard him speak at one prior event and he showed a genuine interest in listening to the voters and answering any questions put to him. He's a far cry from the typical politician who jumps up on stage, gives a speech lacking in particulars and rushes off to the next engagement.

I'll have more on Rubio tomorrow night.

h/t Richard McEnroe at Not One Red Cent

Bama Wins

Congrats to Carol at No Sheeples Here, Stacy at The Other McCain and Alabama fans everywhere. My favorite Gator proves that he is one classy guy.

What a Difference a Senate Race Makes

Yesterday I took a short break to grab something to eat at a buffet close to the hospital where my father is staying. I picked a copy of the St. Pete Times to read while I ate (I quit reading the Tampa Tribune over a year ago). There was Charlie Crist on page one under the headline: Charlie Crist sheds environmentalist image. Well, heh, Charlie Crist has been desperate to shed several aspects of his image since Marco Rubio came out as a viable challenger for the Republican candidate for the US Senate race, the environmentalists are just the latest Crist constituency to find themselves under the bus.

From the Times Piece:

"(Charlie Crist) was more green than any governor had ever been before," said David Guest of Earthjustice, an environmental law firm.

But since he launched his bid for a U.S. Senate seat this year, Crist has left environmentalists feeling jilted. He canceled his climate summit. He didn't fight the Legislature's move to end funding for the popular Florida Forever environmental land-buying program. He signed a controversial bill changing the state's growth management law. And he has all but endorsed a proposal to allow drilling for oil near Florida's gulf beaches.

What happened to the man they once called "Governor Green"? A tough primary challenge from Marco Rubio.

Of course Charlie insists that he is the same Governor Green he always was but he says he's putting the environment on the back burner while he works on the state’s economic problems. As a Floridian I am glad that the Governor is finally recognizing that the state has economic problems but I find it disingenuous that his epiphany only came after Rubio posted his challenge.
Crist has toned down his rhetoric in an effort to preserve his viability in the race against Rubio. Should he prevail he will revert to the same old Charlie:

Guest predicted that, if Crist beats Rubio in the Republican primary, he will revert to his old positions.

"I don't think Charlie's green politics were gambit," he said. "I think that was the real Charlie."

Guest is correct about the real Crist. Florida can’t afford to send the real Crist to the Senate.

This just another Crist flip flop for the election's sake.

Charlie Has Way Too Much Time On His Hands

The unemployment rate for Florida is currently 11.2 percent. Florida has the third highest foreclosure rate in the nation. Floridians are hurting. Under the circumstances, you'd think that Gov. Charlie Crist would have his hands full but based on a post by Pat at And so it goes in Shreveport it appears that he has way too much time on his hands:

If that weren't enough, Crist is now acting as his own press secretary:

In terms of press coverage lately, Crist has been having a bad stretch -- largely of his own doing. (The stimulus support he insists he never gave, Obama man-hug tape notwithstanding; his insistence he didn't know Obama's recent Florida itinerary; the uproar over an anti-Rubio Web site that had the participation of an RPOF paid consultant; and public floggings by former press buddies Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews, etc.)

Crist also lately has been acting as his own press secretary -- calling the Times' Adam Smith to set up an interview on Political Connections, and arranging the Times' recent interview in Gainesville with himself and first lady Carole Crist. The governor also recently instructed reporters to call his cell phone directly -- rather than using a "go-between" in the press office.(The emphasis is mine)

I freely admit that I don't know the inner working of being a governor, and maybe all governors pass out their personal cell phone numbers out to reporters, but I doubt it. Given the dire straights that this state is in, maybe Charlie should less time campaigning and more time governing.

Just a Beautiful Day

Today was a perfect Florida day. Temps were in the low 90s and the breeze wafted off the bay all day. I love Columbus Day. It is a fed holiday so the credit union where I work is closed but everyone else is working and the schools are in session. The result was almost total peace and quiet. There were no cars on my street and no boats on the water. The only sounds were the birds and squirrels. Beautiful.

They say there is a cold front coming and that we could drop in to the seventies. Sigh. I guess even here the seasons have to change. The water hyacinth in my little pond must know that the end of the warmth is coming because several of them burst in to full bloom today.

Back to work tomorrow.

Will Crist Make The Best Choice For Himself Or Florida?

Via Memeorandum:
When Mel Martinez announced that he would not be finishing his term as Senator from Florida those of us in my corner replied with a “WTH?” Now that the chatter has gone from zero to sixty in a blink of the eye, everyone wants to know, who will Gov. Crist appoint? The question becomes all the more important because Crist is running for the seat himself, giving him the incentive to appoint a “seat warmer”.

Chris Cilliza at The Fix lists the likely choices:

• Jim Smith: A former secretary of state, attorney general and party switcher (he went from Democrat to Republican after a failed primary run for governor in 1986) Smith was seen as the odds-on favorite on Friday.

Okay, he has been a Republican since 1986 but there is something unseemly about a politician who changes sides only because they’ve lost out in there original party.


• Bob Martinez: Martinez, the former mayor of Tampa and governor of the Sunshine State from 1986 to 1990 (he also switched from Democrat to Republican, in 1983), is still very much in the mix, and would allow Crist to keep that seat in the hands of a senator of Hispanic background

What is it with Charlie Crist and switch hitters? Anyway, Martinez was well liked as mayor of Tampa and is considered a fairly staunch conservative (at least compared to Crist).

• Allan Bense: Bense, the former speaker of the state House, is a trusted conservative from the state's Panhandle and has been mentioned for statewide office several times before. (National Republicans tried unsuccessfully to recruit Bense to challenge Sen. Bill Nelson in 2006.)

A good conservative. A good choice.

• George Lemieux: Lemieux is Crist's most loyal deputy, having served as his chief of staff in the state attorney general's office and having run Crist's campaign for governor in 2006. Lemieux was rumored as a potential candidate for the open attorney general job in 2010 but decided against a run.

A seat warmer. Loyal to Crist which means he would be a less than conservative senator.

• Jeb Bush: Bush, the popular former governor

Be still my heart, Christmas in August. Don’t see it happening but a girl can hope.

I’ve made no secret of my support for Marco Rubio in the Rubio/Crist match up. While I don’t expect Crist to do it, he could tamp down some of the RINO talk by appointing a solid conservative. Whoever gets the nod, it will say a lot about Crist himself.

Only In My Beloved Florida

This is why Florida has its very own tag on Fark:

Man Blames Child Pornography On Cat

Yes, you did read that right.

JENSEN BEACH, FL – A Martin County man accused of downloading child pornography blamed the crime on his cat, deputies said.

According to a sheriff’s report, Jensen Beach resident Keith Griffin told investigators that pornographic images downloaded when his cat jumped on his computer keyboard while he was downloading music.

Griffin is charged with 10 counts of possession of child pornography. He is being held on $250,000 bond in the Martin County jail. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

Sheriff’s officials said a family friend is now caring for the cat.

Sheesh, what is it with men named Griffin?