Posted on 06/12/2009 4:08:15 AM PDT by MattAMatt
The ultra-conservative wing of the GOP wants to make Florida’s Republican Senate primary a test case of its power. The race pits Gov. Charlie Crist, a moderate who had the audacity to endorse President Obama’s stimulus plan, against hard-core conservative Marco Rubio, a former speaker of the state House. Crist also just signed a new state budget raising the cigarette tax and various fees by $2 billion, an act that further fueled conservative anger.
Even worse, the moderate governor has drawn strong support from current Republican senators. He has been endorsed by Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, and has been promised financial and political support by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Some conservatives are so outraged by that fact that they are trying to organize a boycott of donations to the NRSC.
So what do the Republican voters of Florida think? A new Quinnipiac poll tells the story:
“Gov. Charlie Crist swamps former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio 54-23 percent in the 2010 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today….
“Marco Rubio says there are many Florida Republicans who don’t want Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate. Depending on how you define the word ‘many,’ he might be correct. Unfortunately for Rubio at this stage, many, many, many more favor Crist,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
“Of course Rubio has more than a year until the GOP primary, and he’ll need it to turn the race around,” Brown added. “To prevail, he must get every undecided voter and win over some who favor Crist. Working against that possibility is that among Republicans, the only ones who can vote in the GOP primary, Crist’s favorability is 70-21 percent — compared to Rubio’s 24-8 percent, with 66 percent who don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.”
That’s great. I’m all for anything that threatens the grip of the hard-core right on the Republican Party, even if it also means that Republicans improve their numbers in Congress. It’s not good for the country to have one of its two major parties in effect disqualify itself from leadership by its extremism.
The fact that Rubio got as much as he did is actually a good thing. He’s not very well known whereas Crists fake tan face has been all over the place.
But of course the establishment wants Crist. He’s a scum sucking RINO.
Well, let's see. That most certainly includes the Democrat party. And if the Republicans are extreme about anything these days, it's their extreme uselessness and irrelevance.
Liberalism truly is a mental disease.
“NOW THE LIBS ARE MAKING FUN OF THE GOP! When is everyone going to wake up”
When haven’t the libs been doing that? When are you going to wake up.
I disagree with you. We need to get back to our core values & the libs know it. They are making fun of us now because we are turning and running from our them. You think they have always been making fun of the GOP. Tell that to Reagan. Libs were running scared then.
“Tell that to Reagan. Libs were running scared then.”
Really, I remember it differently. I remember them attacking him constantly. Iran-Contra ring any bells?
Charlie Crist may, or may not be, gay, but if he needed to gain a few liberal votes he might just get down on his knees!
They were not making fun of him though. That was my point. He was threatening & the GOP was strong. Now we are weak & the Libs are not threatened. They are making fun of us.
It’s not good for Atlanta to have its one major newspaper in effect disqualify itself from journalistic credibility by its extremism.
C'mon folks, it's the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation aka Pravda on the Chattahoochee.
Follow the link to the AJC article and see the picture of Jay Bookman.
I suspect he and Crist may share a common proclivity.
I'm sure they both have a wide stance.
Nobody is paying attention because the election is a year and a half away and our attention is focused on Obama’s destruction of the United States of America!
I don’t know ANY registered Republicans that will vote for Crist in a primary (disclaimer: I don’t belong to a country club, so all my Republican friends are just bitter clingers).
This is just another example of the liberal damocrap media trying to decide for us who we should vote for
Anyone to the right of the AJC’s newest god, Hussien Obama, is “ultra conservative.” This Atlanta paper is rapidly going out of business because it is so disconnected with its base in Georgia. It has withdrawn from virtually all circulation outside metro Atlanta and seems to have fewer and fewer pages each day. It recently made a big deal out of hiring a new conservative columnist but he just replaced the one other they had who was retiring. Jay Bookman and Cynthia Tucker represent the far lunatic left, the real mainstream to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. If they need a shove off the cliff, call on me.
Any high school Logic student could tear this article apart for its obvious bias and prejudice. This is NOT reporting, this is setting up the Liberal Agenda.
Saul Alinsky is alive and well and resides in the Media.
There’s still plenty of time before the Florida ‘10 GOP Primary, but Rubio must also not repeat all of the the same mistakes that too many conservatives, at any political level, still make when challenging RINOs! The ongoing political trend continues to favor RINOs over conservatives far too often, and the “RINO GOP establishment” continues to successfully get the majority of support, attention, and money for their candidates over conservatives in too many instances.
Robin Williams STILL makes fun of Ronald Reagan, and he isn’t alone. Leftists always make fun of all non-leftists, no matter who they are and no matter what time in history conservatives existed.
Marco Rubio seems quite capable of taking care of himself.
Moderator, can you please remove this from the banglist? Thanks.
Apparently some dem is trying to foul up the list.
Smug MSM ping!
My vote will go to Rubio.
I stopped reading at “hard right/ultra-Conservative.” There is no such thing.
Well, this is the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation.
The MSM is a joke, ableit a powerful and influential joke.
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