Report: Crist set to leave GOP, run as an independent
posted at 4:22 pm on February 25, 2010 by Allahpundit
The Hill was hinting about it last night and now, right on cue, the rumors are flying. Honestly, I don’t get it. I get leaving the party to avoid an unwinnable primary against Rubio, but why run as an indie when you could run as a Democrat?
Two highly placed and independent sources, speaking strictly on background, tell me that Gov. Charlie Crist is preparing to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent in the race for the U.S. Senate…
Another well-placed source tells me the reason several Crist campaign staffers left recently is because, being committed Republicans, they refused to take part in an independent Senate run by Crist. That’s not confirmed by an independent second source, but it does ring true.
Now, reports from anonymous sources are sometimes wrong, so I have stopped short of reporting a Crist independent run as a verifiable fact, even though I believe my sources are accurate.
Two precedents here: Lieberman running, and winning, as an independent in Connecticut and Specter running, and likely losing, as a newly-minted Democrat in Pennsylvania this year. Given the difference in results, following Liebs’s lead is a no-brainer, right? Not so fast. For one thing, the general election in Connecticut wasn’t a traditional three-way race. Because the state is overwhelmingly Democratic, it was basically a rerun of the Democratic primary with a marginal Republican wild card tossed in. Under those circumstances, it makes sense for conservatives to vote for the conservative Democrat instead of throwing their vote away on the GOP. In a purplish state like Pennsylvania or Florida, you’re more likely to see a traditional three-way dynamic where committed Dems and Repubs vote for their parties while centrists break every which way. For Crist to win as an indie, they’d all have to break for him. Tain’t likely, especially with conservative enthusiasm in November likely to mean massive turnout for Rubio. Crist will need every centrist Republican he can get plus a huge swath of Democrats, but how does he manage that if there’s a nominee with name recognition — namely, Kendrick Meek — running on the Democratic ticket?
The smarter play is to follow Specter’s lead by going Democrat, kissing up to Obama in hopes that the White House will “pull a Sestak” with Meek, taking his chances with Meek in a Democratic primary if he can’t be bought off, and then hoping that rank-and-file Dems line up behind him with an “anyone but Rubio” vote in November. Even that scenario is unlikely, though. Rubio may be an ideologue but, a la The One, he’s a young, soft-spoken, charismatic ideologue, which makes it harder to goose turnout by demonizing him. In fact, Daily Kos polled a hypothetical three-way race between Crist, Meek, and Rubio back in November and found a tight 32/31/27 split — at a time when Rubio was still trailing Crist head to head by 11 points. There’s been a 30-point swing since then, which makes me think Rubio’s probably somewhere around 40 percent right now in a three-man contest. With prominent Republicans lining up behind him and many Dems bound to vote the party line, how does Crist come up with 41 percent from what’s left?
I was planning to write about Rubio’s credit-card “scandal” before the Crist news broke, but there actually isn’t much to say about it. Read the story, bearing two things in mind. One: According to Jack Funari, who wrote the piece about Crist possibly turning indie, Rubio’s charges on his GOP credit card were actually dramatically less than most Republican pols’. (“From what’s been made public, Rubio’s credit card expenses make him the most frugal of the Republican leaders with RPOF credit cards.”) Two: Since Rubio reimbursed the party for all personal charges, the story’s likely dead — unless there’s some tax angle related to imputed income. Which, per the reimbursement, there probably isn’t.
Exit question: McCain told The Hill this morning that he’d “be glad to try to help” Crist if and when Crist asks him to. Does that still apply if Crist bolts the party?
Related Posts:
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2
Sweet. How sweet it is.
Finally, Obama’s chikkinzzz are coming home to roost.
petefrt on May 19, 2013 at 8:22 PM
This.
When you have to plead incompetence to defend against charges of malfeasance, you know you might be in trouble.
petefrt on May 19, 2013 at 8:36 PM
ear relevant…
driguana on May 19, 2013 at 8:59 PM
Flush this lying tudd down the drain with the rest of the Obamacrap.
kemojr on May 19, 2013 at 9:34 PM
This was Dan Pfeiffer’s week in the barrel, like Susan Rice he was given the White House talking points and sent on a mission. He really needs to get copies of these tapes and watch them and see how foolish and unbelievable he looked and sounded. The White House is losing the little credibility it still had by sending these shills out every week trying to do damage control. Community organizers make poor leaders.
savage24 on May 19, 2013 at 9:42 PM
Pfeiffer’s statement that the law is irrelevant because the IRS conduct was “outrageous” and “inexcusable”, tells us all we need to know about this administration.
However, the follow-up should have been, “On what standard do you judge their conduct to be outrageous and inexcusable since the law is apparently not an appropriate standard?” (At least in Pfeiffer’s mind.)
What this comes down to is this: “if the Administrative deems something “outrageous” and “inexcusable,” then it is declared such. As we have seen in so many other areas, if the Administrative deems something to not be “outrageous” and “inexcusable,” then it is declared such.
In their mind, the law is – in fact – irrelevant. That’s what makes this situation so dangerous.
It’s not socialism. It’s worse.
EdmundBurke247 on May 19, 2013 at 10:36 PM
Irrelevant = “What Difference Does It Make?”
jaydee_007 on May 19, 2013 at 10:41 PM
A fitting capstone to Ed’s story about loss-prevention (aka employee theft) and management’s “permission structure” in this post.
(Not to mention the jaw-dropping statements of Eleanor Clift in this one.)
AesopFan on May 19, 2013 at 11:40 PM
I enjoy popcorn and hope it is a long week.
Drill and Fill on May 20, 2013 at 12:41 AM
Hey give Barky a break. He had to get his sorry ass out to Vegas.
tbear44 on May 20, 2013 at 4:49 AM
Of course they sent Pfeiffer out to do the Sunday shows. He was the most senior expendable staff member they had . . .
BigAlSouth on May 20, 2013 at 5:39 AM
Pfeiffer… The guy with the red shirt in the landing party…
Boudica on May 20, 2013 at 5:53 AM
Perfect!
lea on May 20, 2013 at 7:11 AM
Does anybody else remember the campaign in 2008 when Obama defended his lack of administrative experience by saying he was just so smart and tuned in that his instincts were better than experience. Someone needs to dredge up these sound bites and play then with the current line about the government being too large to control and that the White House only knows what it reads in the newspaper.
bartbeast on May 20, 2013 at 8:43 AM
If where the president was during the Benghazi crisis is “irrelevant”, then he wasn’t where one would expect the Commander-in-Chief to be. So, where was he? Was he watching a movie in the residence? Was he bowling? Or was he having a bi-curious outing with his good buddy Reggie Love? If Obama was AWOL, as I suspect he was, it is he who is irrelevant. This entire stinkin’ criminal Obama Regime must go and now!
SpiderMike on May 20, 2013 at 9:31 AM
If this continues all week, it will be ‘O’ himself doing the rounds on the Sunday talk shows – except for Fox, of course. (‘O’ can do everything better than everyone else as he has been known to say.)
He then gets the extra benefit that no one will challenge him like they have begun to do with his minions.
Carnac on May 20, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2