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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

When Charlie Crist Attacks It Means He is Running Scared

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  October 3rd, 2009 at 06:56 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Charlie Crist is starting to feel the heat from Marco Rubio. Crist, Florida’s Republican Governor, has not yet won a Republican straw poll.

Consequently, he has taken to use Beth Reinhard, a Miami political columnist, to claim Rubio is not a real conservative. Never mind the humor of a liberal trying to claim Rubio is not a conservative. It’s very Wizard of Oz with Crist, typically self-cast in the role of Dorothy, playing the bloated, floating face of the wizard screaming that we pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

And the attack?

Rubio cannot be trusted because he is not rich. Yes, Marco Rubio, the son of immigrants, has a lot of student loans and a mortgage on his house. Therefore, he must not be good with money.

Or in Reinhard’s precise words, “Rubio has hammered Crist for accepting $5 billion in federal stimulus money, but never explained how he would have balanced the state budget without it. The easiest place to be a fiscal hawk is in an armchair. Just ask Rubio, who has more than $900,000 in home and student loans.”

The other criticisms? Rubio championed a state budget that was smaller than what Crist proposed.

Rubio championed greater competition among toll plaza vendors in Florida to lower costs.

And, Rubio wanted to retain conservative staffers in the legislature to fight Charlie Crist’s leftward drift.

If that’s the best Charlie Crist has, people will probably ignore that WB News clip about Charlie Crist that keeps getting circulated on the internet.

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COMMENTS

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  • erp

    I sure hope so.

  • Scope

    We all know that McCain believes himself to be the tit(ular) head of the Republican party. Lindsey Graham told us so.

    http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/politico/rss_politico20091002_mccain_s_mission_a_a_gop_makeover.html

    I have no doubt that Crist was a guest at McCain’s St. Regis event in mid-september, along with all of the moderates he supports. Look at some of the names in this article, Kirk, Whitman, Ward, Tran, Moran. When there is a vaccum, someone will step up to the plate to fill that vaccum. McCain apparently thinks he is the vaccum filler. That man will never give up. My only hope at this time is in a campaign run by Jason Chafetaz. He spent $500,000. on his campaign. Does that mean that every candidate can do the same, no. Does it prove that the voters will look for the right candidate over the rich candidate, maybe. Please our good God in heaven, this really can’t be the best that the Republicans can do, please.

  • mrdose

    Charlie is just another Republican Moderate, dancing with the radicals. The next election landslide will take the weak Conservatives out the door with the Liberals.

  • randy streu

    now, that there sounds like something a DEMOCRAT would do…

    Just sayin’.

  • David123

    Well that depends … on what type of year 2010 is.

    If 2010 is a love-the-stimulus, love the Pelosi-Reid-Obama ideas on healthcare kind of year then Crist will be the stronger candidate.

    However, if 2010 is a hate-the-stimulus, we have severe concerns about the Pelosi-Reid-Obama course for America then Rubio will be the stronger candidate.

    Conclusion: if you’re working for nationwide gains for the Republican Party, you want to bet on Rubio in Florida. Or, looking at Florida and Pennsylvania together – if the Republicans need Crist to be able to win Florida, then Toomey is toast in Pennsylvania.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    For the reasons you state.

    Conservatives will be strong candidates in 2010, but RINOs who supported the stimulus will be weak ones.

    We are down 3 million jobs since the so-called stimulus passed.

  • http://www.meetup.com/dcworksforus Kenny Solomon

    I’m trying to save some cash so I can invest in another PA system (much bigger than the ones I have now), but I can swing a few dollars the way of Mr. Rubio’s campaign.

    Before he leaves office, I bet good ol’ Charlie-boy tries to scuttle our State Constitution and Charter.

    Hey everyone here in Flori-duh…… Y’all help keep an eye on that white-haired deer supposedly caring about his office in Trailerhassee… let’s catch him in the headlights early and often.

    BTW, I’m working with FL-23 Candidate Bernard Sansaricq – I’m his audio guy for district appearances where he needs a sound system. How cool is it to be able to make that kind of campaign donation ! :)

    Cheers !

  • nelsa

    In a letter to supporters, the Marco Rubio campaign sent out this email in response to Charlie Crist’s newest attacks against rival Rubio.

    The Rubio team does not seem intimidated by the tactics. In fact, they hit back twice as hard asking for Crist to debate the issues. Crist has continued to hide from any debates.

    Full email here: http://voterubio2010.blogspot.com/2009/10/marco-rubio-hits-back-twice-as-hard.html

  • JadedByPolitics

    http://www.gainesville.com/article/20091004/ARTICLES/910041003/1002/stormpost&tc=email_newsletter

    “Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, 51, a Hollywood ophthalmologist, is also accused of committing fraud when he claimed that he had used his money and clout with Charlie Crist and other high-ranking Florida officials in a bid to thwart investigations into Mutual Benefits Corp., a Fort Lauderdale life insurance company.”

    I think by the time we get to the 2010 elections there will a taint so bad on Crist that Rubio will be the guy to beat!

  • http://www.meetup.com/dcworksforus Kenny Solomon

    Wait until you read the rest of what this (alleged) piece of local-to-me garbage (allegedly) did over the past bunch of years.

    Because of this one article, I just made ANOTHER donation to Mr. Rubio’s campaign. That’s two donations in one week.

  • Robert A. Hahn

    Rubio has a home mortgage? Oh my goodness, what’s next… don’t tell me… he has children in school?

    Here’s something else nobody knows: never mind a mortgage, does Crist even own property in the state he governs? He supposedly “has a condo” in Pinellas County, but the only property owner named Crist that the appraiser there knows about is his father, Dr. Charles Crist, who owns a nice house there with his wife.

    As for Charlie, it appears he acquires property the John Kerry way: he marries it.

  • JadedByPolitics

    diary from you on all the PROBLEMS that Crist has down there in Florida as I am sure Marco Rubio is as well. I cannot wait for you to make TOXIC Gov Crist! It is the Conservatives in the Republican Party that MUST define the liberal R’s so that everyone in every state knows how bad they really are and of course then donates to the Conservative!

  • http://www.wingnutsandmoonbats.com peterq

    The Nat Rev story on Rubio a few weeks back was very good, informative.

  • AceInTX

    I don’t think Erick was “Attacking” Windsock Charlie for being rich…if I read english half way correctly he was attacking Crist for attacking Rubio for not being rich…there is a difference!

    and I note you ignore Crist’s appeal to big government by attacking Rubio for not supporting his slopping at the federal trough!

    Crist is a joke and Cornyn should be in the stocks in the middle of town square for jumping on his bandwagon!

  • AceInTX

    instead of jumping behind the Democrat with deep pockets who calls himself a Republican

  • http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

    seems more purplish to me

  • BlackConservative

    Not to sound overly racial about it, but the Cubans make it red and the seniors do too. Crist rode the coattails of Jeb, and has run maddeningly to the Left since he got in. He’s still riding Jeb’s coattails, its just the fact that party leadership thinks we need liberals to win purple to red states, even though we just ran a liberal nationally and got thrashed in all of the purple states. Give them a choice, and not an echo, and they’ll vote for a true rock ribbed conservative.

  • scarlos

    but you see the Senate race is essentially a lock for the eventual Republican nominee, as the Democrats are running nothing but jokers as their candidates.

    I’m just holding out for Jeb Bush to endorse Rubio. He does that and Crist doesn’t stand a chance.

  • http://www.meetup.com/dcworksforus Kenny Solomon

    BC, I beg to differ on that….. greatly.

    Down here in South Flori-duh, there’s Century Village, Wynmoor and other really big “55-and-older” subdivisions.

    They went (no joke) about 80%-to-85% for our Dictator-In-Training-Pants.

    But for some reason, all the “O” bumper stickers are off the thousands of their cars now. Can’t figure out why either.

    You should see the lovely looks I get when I wear my t-shirt that says, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Sarah Palin”.

  • mom2oneson

    There are a lot of Northest liberal transplant permanent snow birds type of democrats in South FL. The exception would be the northwest part of FL where there are a lot of retired military..those counties are the “most” red. I wrote this last week on another Crist bash thread but there is a Walgreens or CVS on every corner and a big part of local economies are dependent on medicare like physician offices, drug stores and hospitals. I think many are OK with a RINO since so much of their well being is dependent on gov benefits.
    I’m 100% behind him but many people have not heard of Rubio. Even the more educated about politics than most folks like homeschoolers and pro-life groups like Crist.

  • mom2oneson
  • AceInTX
  • AceInTX

    which is what makes the old guard push for Crist so galling…there is NO tactical reason for taking Crist over Rubio…the money thing doesn’t wash either since Rubio could rais all he needs to win…this amounts to the Liberal establishment of the party thumbing it’s nose at the majority of the party pure and simple…THIS IS THE BIGGEST PROOF that they care about their power and their place at the trough and getting a pat on the head from the Democrats and the so called objective media than they do about policy, this country, or the Constitution we’re all supposed to be governed by!

  • AceInTX

    The make declarations that the conservative can’t win and set to making sure the conservative is never allowed the money or a platform to even test the waters…they control the funding…they run the fundraisers and they control the conventions…That is why so few have heard about Rubio…and why vew will unless wee educate them!

    Here’s more…

    I’m someone who’s tried to work his way up from the bottom in Texas and I’ve watched this for 10 years now in Washington…it’s very easy to be a precinct chair in Texas since most precinct conventions are unattended…and the party does NOTHING to advertise how someone would get involved because they don’t want a bunch of new people getting involved and rocking the boat…then you get to the district conventions…where the clicks form…you’ve got your annual officers and leaders at the district convention who have control of who get’s nominated to what committees….who get’s placed in what committees…and etc. These are the gate keepers who have been involved the district for decades and they pick the people coming up who will replace them. These are folks who have there roots in the milk toast Eisenhower days who have no interest in conservatism and see anyone who would protest the statist proclivities of both parties as a nuisance and a threat to be killed in the crib. They make sure very few rock ribbed conservatives will break into the district leadership thus into the state convention and leadership there…and so on it goes.

    ONce at the state level…and after the bulk of the conservatives have been weeded out at the district convention the same purifying fire is applied to the State delegation until you get top a moderate to liberal leadership in the State parties who both vote for the chairman of the RNC…as well as carrying on to the national conventions.

    I can’t speak for Florida…but that’s deep red Texas in a nut shell. I came into this in Texas in 1998 in the run up to the 2000 elections and spent a lot of time working with folks who were around in 1994 when Republicans went from having not one single state wide office in the R column to sweeping every single Democrat out of state wide office in a couple short cycles. This is when the grass roots turned out at conventions state wide in huge numbers…by the time I came around…those numbers had dwindled back to the point where it was just the Old Guard around then…I’ll never forget my stunned confusion at the bitterness and contempt that was spewed at the unwashed masses that had turned out and turned Texas on it’s head by turning it from Red to Blue…I wasn’t as vocal then as I am now…in fact…this is why I’m as vocal as I am now…so I took it all in…I made some headway at first…but as I became more vocal..and objected more and more to the apeasment mentality I saw in the Republicans I saw around me…I was pushed more and more into the back ground to the point where I went from being on the credentials committee as a volunteer in 2000 to being asked to sign in delegates and pass out schedules in 2008.

    It’s all about networking. if you plan to advance in the party…you’d better put your conservatism to bed and keep your mouth shut…you do what you’re told…when you’re told…and if you rock the boat..and challenge anything the old guard doesn’t like…you get to wear a red letter from then on…they’ll block you at every turn. This is one of the ways moderates and liberals maintain top down control of a majority conservative party…and they show no sign of letting go despite their miserable failures of recent years…

  • AceInTX
  • AceInTX
  • AceInTX

    I know he’s made very possitive statements anyway

  • AceInTX
  • mom2oneson

    I was getting too many email from his campaign and unsubcribed but I remember one from Jeb.

  • edniceville

    It must be remembered that Crist got elected because he looked more Conservative than his Democrat opponent. Most of us up here in the “Great Northwest” (as this part of Florida is now wishing to be referred to) held our noses and voted for Charlie as good little Republicans were told to do. I was never “a fan”. Florida can become a ‘Red State’, and should. But as long as we have people like Charlie, Grayson, Allen Boyd and Bill Nelson around, we can, by no means, call ourselves a ‘Red State’. Hopefully, the other seniors around the state, particularly those down around Kenny and up in The Villages will wake up and smell the coffee and finally realize that they have been sold down the river and the days of “Soylent Green” may be soon upon us. This will go a long way toward helping Conservatives take back Florida and the rest of our country!

  • AceInTX

    hmmm

  • sharonmcp

    I voted for ‘ol silver and bronze in the last election – it won’t happen again. As soon as I heard about Crist’s support of Obama’s stimulus package and his (Crist’s) ties to ACORN, he became just another wheel in the Dem’s political machine. We need to keep hammering those ties to the Florida voters, if they become widely known, it will be “sorry Charlie” after the next election. http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2009/09/charlie-crists-acorn-issues.html

  • mmarabians

    Christ in Trouble?

    Conservatives in Florida, know he is a RINO! We are determined to defeat him in the Primary!

  • LDahl752

    but, this should get you to the article: http://snipurl.com/sc5sy

    I doubt McCain will ever understand the necessity of finding more true conservatives to seek elected office. Conservativism is not dead; nor, does that mean we exclude any particular group. We don’t need to be “moderate” to reach out to minorities. And, would he please stop already with this plea for “bi-partisanship?” Someone, please tell me what that’s done for the country? Just one example would be helpful.

  • LDahl752

    Too many are retirees from the northeast. And, don’t forget all those who voted for Gore and didn’t have the strength to fully punch out “chad.” Those who voted for Gore believed his lies about Bush’s desire to fix Social Security. So, I’m just not sure about the seniors there. They seem to dislike the healthcare reform plans, but they don’t worry much about unemployment, unless it gets so bad that the entire state economy is suffering well into next year.

  • LDahl752

    Too many are retirees from the northeast. And, don’t forget all those who voted for Gore and didn’t have the strength to fully punch out “chad.” Those who voted for Gore believed his lies about Bush’s desire to fix Social Security. So, I’m just not sure about the seniors there. They seem to dislike the healthcare reform plans, but they don’t worry much about unemployment, unless it gets so bad that the entire state economy is suffering well into next year.

  • mmarabians

    We support RUBIO!

    Ole Jeb, better come out STRONGER for Rubio! He at least said to take a good look at Rubio, which better be only a FIRST STEP!

    And YEP, we are Senior Citizens!

  • mmarabians

    We support RUBIO!

    Ole Jeb, better come out STRONGER for Rubio! He at least said to take a good look at Rubio, which better be only a FIRST STEP!

    And YEP, we are Senior Citizens!

  • LDahl752

    Could it be the NRSC wants another “moderate” like Martinez in that seat? And, if so, why? Rubio is so popular across the country. You think Cornyn just didn’t know who he was or anything about him?

  • mmarabians

    Christ appointed his buddy to the senate. Does that mean he gets a lifetime pension for serving 18 months?

  • mmarabians

    Christ appointed his buddy to the senate. Does that mean he gets a lifetime pension for serving 18 months?

  • LDahl752

    and thank you!
    Really, if all conservatives stay focused on pulling the GOP back from thinking we need to “support” the phonies, we can restore credibility to the Republican Party. I’m so sick of moderates. Even the word, “bi-partisanship” makes me cringe these days, as it has never, ever worked in our favor, or in the best interests of the country.
    The libiots NEVER care about bi-partisanship. In fact, they probably are laughing behind the R’s backs each and every time one of them makes the effort. They don’t care about what is the right thing to do for the country. They care about amassing more power and more huge voting blocs by promising everything and delivering nothing.

    Why the R’s are afraid of just standing up FOR their constituents and what is the CONSTITUTIONAL thing to do remains a mystery to me. We need to let all of them know that it IS NOT ABOUT THEM OR THEIR NEXT RE-ELECTION. They need to know we are watching every vote. And, if they vote for anything that is harmful to the USA, they will have heck to pay next time they’re up for re-election.

    I’m sick of this. I want my country restored to a functional and prosperous republic. Marco Rubio, I believe, represents my views and my hopes to get us back on the right path. Crist can pound sand for all I care.

  • randy streu

    Read the user name next time.

    I’m in the Rubio camp. I misread Erick’s post, actually. I didn’t see the “NOT’ in the post, and assumed Crist was attacking Rubio FOR being rich.

    My bad, but still — don’t start in on the whole troll thing. I think I’ve sufficiently established my Conservative cred around here. ;)