Politics is dirty and hard-nosed. Anyone who enters this arena should know that.
But then there are gutter politics, and Governor Charlie Crist is behind it.
Crist had a year of political blunders which include supporting, to not supporting, to again supporting Obama’s stimulus bill and he insinuated that Rubio’s use of the Spanish language is some sort of concerete proof that, because he is of Cuban descent, he’s untrustworthy.
Recently two top staffers, Pablo Diaz, Crist’s political director and Sean Doughtie, his media consultant who worked for Crist for years, both resigned their posts for “new opportunities.”
Marco Rubio, Crist’s opponent and the former speaker of the house in the Florida state legislature, was shunned by the GOP establishment. John McCain and several other establishment figures rushed to endorse Crist, Florida’s orange man. And McCain reiterated today his support and would campaign for Crist if he needed him.
The NRSC also foolishly intervened in the primary and had the audacity to tell the people in Florida Charlie Crist should be their GOP nominee for the US senate.
Thanks to Erick Erickson of RedState and people of the blogosphere as well as Senator Jim DeMint, they quickly and rightfully chastized the NRSC and buoyed Rubio to become the front runner of this race after a year.
But, Rubio bears much of the credit for being an unabashed Reagan conservative and a fresh face among a dull GOP that is entrenched with bureaucracy, the status quo, and dull characters. His record and articulation of conservatism, especially as demonstrated at CPAC, gave him rise.
Now Rubio is 18% ahead of Crist in the latest Rasmussen poll.
After months of desperation, Crist’s campaign went under the belt and released classified documents from the Republican party of Florida revealing Rubio used the party’s AMEX card for personal expenses.
There is no excusing what Rubio did. But Rubio’s campaign released a statement explaining that he did reimburse the party:
When it came to incurring expenses, I erred on the side of caution and maintained two operating principles: If it was questionable as to whether the expense was state or Party related, I tried to err on the side of saving taxpayer money by charging that expense to the Party. If it was a question between Party expenses or personal expenses, I tried to err on the side of protecting Party money by paying personally for those charges directly.
During the period in question, there was no formal process provided by the Party regarding personal charges made on an AMEX account. At no time during my four years as a cardholder did the party ask me to provide additional information about, or personally pay, any of the charges I submitted for payment. I always took it upon myself to identify and directly pay American Express for all non-official expenses.
But don’t let those pesky details of Rubio paying back his expenses get in the way of the smear job created by the Crist campaign.
Nor should we mention some of those minute details of extravagant expenses by Jim Greer, a corrupt political hack appointed by Charlie Crist to become Florida’s Republican State Party Chairman. In turn Greer appointed Delmar Johnson as executive director to be the chief purchaser for Greer and Crist’s expenditures for two years. Among many of the personal expenses, it includes:
$100 flower arrangements for Greer and Crist’s wives.
A $15,000 charter jet to George LeMieux, Crist’s appointee to the US senate, swearing in
$1,800 for in-flight catering for Crist
Did Crist or Greer pay back the party? Not that I know of.
Currently in the political rumor mill, Crist will most likely pull a Lieberman and run as an independent.
Even Senator Jim DeMint a day ago released a web ad on the highly trafficked Drudge Report asking viewers whether Crist will switch parties.
Most likely, Crist will leave the GOP. He has no chance to win the GOP primary especially with his record of supporting cap and trade, the stimulus, raising property taxes in Florida, appointing liberal judges in Florida’s Supreme Court, and even more so the fact that he has Marco Rubio as an opponent who is rightfully touted as the “Tea Party Candidate” and the “bright future of the GOP”, even “the next Reagan.”
How can Crist even consider that voters will trust him? Leaving the GOP is a blatant ploy of political expediency. His waffling on the issues and nasty tactics can’t possibly win over voters, especially centrists and the sweeping anti-incumbent mood.
Might as well lose on your own accord, I guess.