GOP Civil War: Do Your Part Democrats!

Interesting story in today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune about the civil war competition for power in the Florida Republican Party. In addition to the TINO vs RINO Senate primary battle, a number of other divisions threaten GOP unity.

• Despite an attempt to have Republicans coalesce around Attorney General Bill McCollum for governor, Lakeland Republican and state Sen. Paula Dockery jumped into the race this past week. There will likely be GOP primaries for all three Cabinet posts. Dockery said a main reason for jumping into the race relatively late was her concern about the direction of the Republican Party.

• The state GOP fired its field operations director this week after it was revealed he set up a fake account on the microblogging Twitter site that targeted the Republican Party chairman in Brevard County, who has been critical of party leadership.

• A top Republican Party consultant came under fire last month after it was revealed that he helped set up an anti-Rubio Web site. Even though Rich Heffley is not working on any federal campaigns, Greer reminded consultants this week that they can be fired if they do anything inappropriate.

• Republicans in October set up a fundraising account for the 2010 elections that will be partially controlled by former House Speaker Allan Bense. While setting up a special elections account is not new, the move was done in part to ease concerns from McCollum supporters about how money he raises for the party would be used. McCollum has had to step up his fundraising efforts for the party because Crist now has federal limits he has to follow.

• Several Republican county leaders sent a letter to Greer this past week alleging he is using the party to help Crist in violation of party rules. Greer strongly denied the allegation.

This is the same Jim Greer, if you'll remember, who, in the run-up to President Obama's controversial speech to American schoolchildren said, "I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology." And this guy is with the moderates???

The path ahead for Florida Democrats is clear. Change your voter registration to vote in the Republican primaries to support the anti-establishment insurgent candidates. For Senate, we need to support TINO Marco Rubio and for governor, we need to support state Sen. Paula Dockery.

St. Pete Times: Rubio is a T.I.N.O.

The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that Marco Rubio might be a little "mavericky" when it comes to his "teabaggery". Apparently, the former state House Speaker's image as a pure teabagger might not be so accurate. Among the unsatisfied are the NRA:

"He was a big disappointment to us when he was the speaker,'' said NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer, who saw Rubio do little to help pass a bill allowing employees to bring guns to work. "He talked the talk, but he didn't walk the walk."

As somebody who actually goes to a workplace everyday, I have to say that I am very thankful that my colleagues aren't carrying weapons. So thanks Marco Rubio? Unfortunately for Marco, his ideological impurity doesn't end there.  Hopefully, the anti-tax, anti-earmark Club for Growth--which recently jumped into the primary battle on Rubio's behalf--doesn't find that Marco doesn't mind pork if he his constituents benefit.

The candidate Rubio rails against big-government spending and assures voters that as a senator he won't slip earmarks into the federal budget. As speaker, however, he didn't mind a state budget with $800,000 tucked away for artificial turf on Miami-Dade fields where he played flag football.

The turf (listed as a juvenile crime prevention initiative) was among $50 million in pork targeted to the speaker's home county and more than $400 million in projects and initiatives that Crist vetoed in 2007.

Charlie's friend are also anxious to point that while candidate Rubio attacks Charlie Crist for supporting cap-and-trade to fight climate change, legislator Rubio voted for a measure urging the governor to pursue cap-and-trade.  They are also frothing at the mouth to point out that candidate Rubio attacks Charlie for expanding the state-run property insurance company when legislator Rubio voted for the legislation that allowed the governor to do so.

So it would seem that while Marco Rubio talks the talk--"Obama is a socialist. Guns, guns, guns. Deficit spending is okay for waging holy wars, but not fixing health care."--his record as an elected official indicates that he a T.I.N.O.--teabagger in name only.  

So the race in Florida is turning into T.I.N.O. against R.I.N.O.  This is going to be fun to watch!

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

The teabaggers aren't the only ones who aren't buying Charlie's revision of his endorsement of President Obama's stimulus plan. The St. Petersburg Times' PolitiFact--which won a Pulitzer Prize for "it's fact-checking initiative during the 2008 presidential campaign"--said yesterday that Crist's claim that he didn't endorse the stimulus was tantamount to rewriting history and awarded him the maximum dishonesty score possible.

What is a proper measure are Crist's actions in January and February. Crist broke ranks with many in the Republican Party by publicly campaigning for the stimulus package on television and with the president. He lobbied Florida's congressional delegation to vote for the bill. And he signed Florida's budget, which was balanced because the state received billions of dollars in federal stimulus money. (The stimulus provides Florida $15.7 billion over three budget years ending next budget year.)

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday even acknowledged Crist's support. "I think his words at that (Fort Myers) event speak for themselves," Gibbs said. "I think he was very supportive of the legislation and supportive of the benefits that it would have and has had for — for the state of Florida in seeing positive economic growth."

Facing a primary challenge from the conservative wing of the Republican Party, Crist appears to be trying to rewrite history. But there are mountains of evidence that he not only supported the stimulus, he sang its praises. The meter is ablaze: Pants On Fire.

Charlie claims that his statements praising the stimulus were really efforts to squeeze as many benefits for Florida as possible out of the final bill. While anybody with at least a 3rd grade education can see that that clearly isn't true, Katie Connolly of Newsweek decided to see if his efforts to get the best deal for Floridians really panned out.

But let's assume for a moment that Crist's pants aren't on fire. Let's accept his comment to CNN on Wednesday that "I understood that [the bill] was going to pass, and I wanted to be able to utilize it for the benefit of my fellow Floridians." Well, if that was the case, he hasn't done a very good job. As the Miami Herald reported back in August, Florida ranked last among the states for federal stimulus dollars promised per capita. It also ranked last in spending the federal highway stimulus money it had been allotted.

I checked on the updated figures, and they're not much better. In terms of federal stimulus funds awarded per capita, Florida now ranks 49th out of 50 states, barely beating Pennsylvania. And as far as spending federal highway and bridge money, the state has climbed up to 35th place--a modest improvement, but hardly something to crow about. For someone who calls himself a "pragmatic conservative" and claims he was merely trying make the best of a stimulus package that was rammed down his throat, he didn't exactly deliver.

What Charlie should have done is just be straight with Republican voters. Something like, "I realize that the stimulus bill was unpopular, but my job at the time was to be the governor of Florida. It is my responsibility to make sure that schools stay open and keep police officers on the street. Managing the federal budget is the president's responsibility. As governor, I did what was in the best interest of the state and pushed for a bill that would benefit the people of Florida. I don't like debt anymore than any other Republican, but I make no apologies for doing everything I could to protect Floridians and avoid a budget crisis of our own."

Instead, Charlie chose to lie and his actions are reinforcing this idea among conservatives that moderate Republicans are willing to say and do anything to get elected and that their moderate political views are actually compromises intended to make themselves more attractive candidates. That might well be true, in Charlie's case, but rather than defending an unpopular position and recasting it as an effort to protect Floridians, he tried to lie to a base that already didn't trust him and abandoned the political centrism that endeared him to independents and Democrats. Sorry Charlie, this lie was fail!

More Teabaggers Turn on Charlie!

The Republican Majority Campaign PAC, which spent more than $8 million on the 2008 campaign, has jumped into the Florida Republican Senate primary.  They released a web ad yesterday attacking the candidate who didn't mean to endorse President Obama's stimulus package when he said, "We know that it's very important that we pass a stimulus package."  Click here to listen to Charlie's explanation for his change of heart new interpretation non-endorsing endorsement.  Whatever it is, the Republican Majority Campaign PAC isn't buying it.  They've just released a web ad attacking Charlie Crist for his support of President Obama.



Also jumping on the "Dump Charlie" bandwagon is the Family Research Council, which announced it's endorsement of Marco Rubio yesterday.  Whether it was the rumors about Charlie's sexuality, his tepid support for the gay marriage ban in 2008, or just a desire to jump on the teabag bandwagon, the Talibevangelical Right has also turned on Charlie.

Perhaps sensing that the conservative base is turning on the leadership, Texas Senator John Cornyn, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, backed off the committee's endorsement of Charlie Crist, promising not to spend any money in the primary and even offering some warm words for Marco Rubio.

"The first lesson is that competitive primaries are generally a good thing," Cornyn said. "To me, that's the overarching lesson to be learned out of the 23rd. When 11 people get behind closed doors and pick the nominee ... the grassroots are going to find an alternative."

Cornyn said the NRSC is only endorsing in races where -- like in Crist's case -- the candidate specifically requests its stamp of approval. He said that -- notwithstanding any endorsements -- his group would even offer advice on hiring and strategy to GOP challengers, like Rubio, who haven't been endorsed.

Asked what endorsements mean, then, Cornyn said some candidates may want the backing to help line up support and financing. Beyond that, however, he said NRSC endorsements won't mean very much in practice.

"Endorsements, frankly, are overrated.... They can to some extent be a negative," Cornyn said, noting that candidates in New Hampshire, California, and Colorado, for example, have asked the national party to stay out of their races.

"People shouldn't read too much into endorsements by the NRSC. We are encouraging people we think are the strongest candidates to run."

So the organization that helps Republicans get elected endorsed Charlie Crist because he asked them to?  That's the criteria for getting a "stamp of approval" from the NRSC?  It looks the GOP establishment is as afraid of it's base as the 80% of Americans who don't think that health care is a conspiracy to kill old people and want theocracies to stay in the Middle East.

Crist: I Teabag "80%" of the Time!

So last night it was teabagger against moderate at the Alachua County Republican Party's annual fundraiser. Never heard of Alachua County? There's a good reason. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere. But last night, there was a showdown between the Charlie "I was for the stimulus before I was against it" Crist and Marco "I am Rush Limbaugh's bitch" Rubio.

The high-profile Senate race provided an extra helping this year. Rubio gave the event's invocation, but first made comments along his campaign theme of being the race's true conservative.

"It's very simple: We already have a Democratic Party in America," he said. "We do not need two Democratic parties in America."

Crist gave a speech running through a long list of positions to prove his conservative bona fides, from support of gun rights to tax cuts. But he received a less enthusiastic greeting than Rubio from the grassroots activists in attendance, even getting a small smattering of boos.

In comments to reporters before the event, Crist said party members should put aside differences. He invoked Reagan's old saying that a "person that agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend."

But Charlie has forgotten that even if you are with the GOP 80% of the time, if your nose is up Obama's ass the other 20% of the time, you are undermining the "Obama is Muslim and health care is a secret plot to kill old people" teabagger movement. Just as a white man was tainted by a single drop of black blood in pre-Civil Right's Era America, so is a Republican who strays from the anti-tax, anti-Obama, Talibevangelical right for even a moment.

Watch Out Charlie, Michael is Coming!

Just a day after Michael Steele defended moderate GOP Senator Olympia Snowe and threw an elbow at prominent conservatives who drove moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava from the race for Congress in New York's 23rd Congressional district, the GOP Chairman now appears to be on board with purging moderates who support President Obama's economic policies. From Politico:

"[C]andidates who live in moderate to slightly liberal districts have got to walk a little bit carefully here, because you do not want to put yourself in a position where you’re crossing that line on conservative principles, fiscal principles, because we’ll come after you,” Steele told ABC's Top Line in response to a question about Republicans who support the White House's stimulus and health care plans.

“You’re gonna find yourself in a very tough hole if you’re arguing for the president’s stimulus plan or Nancy Pelosi’s health plan. There’s no justification for growing the size of government the way this administration and this Congress wants to do it.”

Note his emphasis on fiscal principles. Is the new message that members can stray on social issues--abortion, gay rights--but not economic issues? If so, that is good news for the economic and social libertarians in the party--the Meghan McCain wing, if you will--and bad news for the social conservatives--the "earth is only 6000 years old" wing. Could this open up a new front in the GOP UNcivil war? This keeps getting better and better!

Club for Growth Goes After Charlie

The Club for Growth has been considering jumping into the Florida Republican Senate primary race for the last few weeks. They've spoken very highly of the Marco Rubio since he announced his bad back in May.

“His fiscally responsible, pro- growth approach in the State Capitol stands in stark contrast with other elements of the state government, led by Charlie Crist” said Club for Growth President Chris Chocola.

Governor Charlie Crist, also a potential Republican Senate candidate, has come under fire recently for supporting President Obama's reckless stimulus package.

“America faces the prospect of unsustainable spending under President Obama, making it all the more important to support candidates who will reduce the debt and lower the tax burden,” said Chocola. “Speaker Rubio’s announcement is good news for Florida’s families and businesses, and I welcome his entry in the race.

According to Newsweek, Charlie and his crew have been anticipating such a fight and are ready for a fight with Marco Rubio.

Crist partisans sound like they're ready to pounce. As Peter Wallsten noted in a Wall Street Journal piece today, the campaign's oppo researchers are operating in high gear. Among the tidbits they've uncovered: a YouTube video in which Rubio seems to concede that emission caps would become reality, the same caps Rubio has been lambasting Crist for supporting at one time. There's also Rubio's advocacy, during his time in the Florida House, of substituting an increased sales tax for property taxes. That offers Crist an opening to attack Rubio as a tax-hiker. In short, the gloves are coming off.

While Charlie can try and paint Marco Rubio as less than pure on taxes, he still has a problem with the teabaggers--his support of President Obama's stimulus package. Remember when Charlie and Obama joined forces at a pro-stimulus package rally in Fort Myers in Janauary?

"We know that it's important that we pass a stimulus package,'' Florida's popular Republican governor said amid "Yes, we can!" cheers as he introduced the Democratic president. "This is not about partisan politics. This is about rising above that, helping America and reigniting our economy."

Well, that was in February. This is November. It's been nine whole months since February and so much has changed since then....like Charlie's memory of that infamous rally in Fort Myers. Apparently, Charlie never wanted the stimulus to pass. He just felt that it would be great to have the money.

On Wednesday night, Crist told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he ``didn't endorse'' the stimulus bill and he wouldn't have voted for it. The Associated Press, however, pointed out that Crist had once told AP that he had ``endorsed'' it.

SNIP

On Thursday, when asked by state Capitol reporters if he were changing his position, Crist said, ``I don't think so. I don't think so.''

Why the sudden change in position memory? Perhaps it was a poll that showed that 66% of Florida Republicans felt that Charlie made a mistake in embracing President Obama's stimulus package. Unfortunately for Charlie, the Club for Growth isn't his explanation. The organization released an ad today attack the governor for his support of the president's economic policies.



Somebody pop some popcorn! The teabaggers are going all in against Charlie Crist. That doesn't mean that Democrats can just sit by and do nothing. We need to do our part to defeat Charlie Crist. The only way to vote in the Republican primary next summer is to change your voter registration to Republican. I realize that the idea of joining the GOP might make your skin crawl. It certainly has that effect on me. But remember the big picture here. Buy joining the GOP, you will help the tea-bagger insurgents bring down the party establishment and sew further chaos. So please, switch to the GOP and help destroy as many moderate Republicans as possible.