Posted on 11/06/2006 8:15:17 PM PST by floridareader1
PENSACOLA, Fla. – A few years back, the popular Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was preparing for an election-eve "fly-around,'' a victory lap really, in which the governor would draw thousands to airport rallies. Charlie Crist, the Republican candidate for attorney general, wanted to climb on board to share in the love. But Bush had no room for Crist on the plane.
Today, President Bush has arrived in Florida for an election-eve rally for the Sunshine State's Republican ticket – a rally at which Attorney General Charlie Crist, running for governor to replace the retiring Jeb Bush, was supposed to introduce the president.
The Crist campaign says he can't fit the far northwestern panhandle outpost of Pensacola into his schedule. Others see one more Republican running from Bush, and into the arms of the more popular McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona planning a campaign for president.
Republican Charlie Crist is a no-show today at the president's rally planned for the Republican candidate for governor in Florida. But Katherine Harris, far right, is here to bask in the president's appearance -- despite the fact that Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, tried to push her out of the Senate race. Photo by Mark Silva
"Now that the president is so unpopular, Charlie refuses to stand side-by-side with him," Rep. Jim Davis, the Tampa Democrat running for governor in a contest that apparently favors Crist, said over the weekend. "It says when the going gets tough, Charlie won't stand up."
Karen Thurman, the state Democratic Party chairman, put it this way today: "Charlie Crist and President Bush say, 'stay the course,' but clearly Charlie Crist has 'cut and run' from the president today.''
(Excerpt) Read more at newsblogs.chicagotribune.com ...
Seems petty of him.
The Crist campaign says it made a calculated decision today.
Crist chief of staff George LeMieux says: "My job is to make the best decisions to make sure that Charlie Crist wins on Tuesday, and that's my focus, and that's why we've made the decision.''
LeMieux also told the Orlando Sentinel that he wasn't going to divulge the details of the conversation that he had with the Bush campaign about all of this. "I keep those conversations private,'' he said.
Crist insists it's all a question of eleventh-hour scheduling in a vast state, the nation's fourth-largest, with 11 far-flung "media markets.''
"We've got to be in a lot of markets,'' Crist explained of his seven-city schedule today.
Yet Pensacola's market is among the most Republican. There is nothing to be lost in an appearance with the president there, in the heart of a region that is home to many members of the military and retirees from the military. After the election of 2000, when Florida's vote was disputed for 36 days, Bush picked Pensacola for his maiden voyage to the state as president – the one place where he was certain to be most welcome.
Ironically, however, the Pensacola News-Journal has endorsed Democrat Davis in the contest for governor, whom most polls portray as hard-pressed to beat Crist on Election Day. Crist could be holding as much as a 10-point lead over Davis, according to at least one poll.
Which further begs the question: What has Crist got to lose by appearing with Bush today? MacManus suggests that Crist has been running well among independent voters and even among some Democrats, and that a lot of these so-called "swing voters'' tend to be late-deciding voters. The last thing these late-deciders in Central Florida need to see, perhaps, is television coverage from Republican Pensacola of Crist introducing a president whose job-approval is running pretty low in Florida, as it is nationwide.
"I think that may be some of it,'' MacManus says with the cautiousness of a true professional.
Yet this governor's race is probably not even close.
"No, not really,'' MacManus says.
And Pensacola is a clear win for any Republican. "It would be a natural place to want to be seen,'' she says. "I can't understand it.''
The retiring Jeb Bush probably is having a hard time understanding it as well, having delivered his brother for his party's ticket on the day before the election. Asked about all of this, he replied simply: "See you this afternoon.''
So don't go by the president's printed schedule today when attempting to sort out the final campaign day's events: It still states that Crist will introduce the president in Pensacola today, just as Asa Hutchison will introduce the president in Arkansas and Gov. Rick Perry, who stands to become the longest-serving governor of Texas, will introduce Bush there.
Asked why the president had saved this last day of hard campaigning in which partisan control of the House and Senate is at stake for governor's races in three states, the White House said it had long promised Perry the campaign-closer in Dallas tonight, it owes Hutchison for his long service in the Bush administration and it wanted to offer the party's ticket in Florida a boost. Florida has been very good to George Bush.
It's the entire ticket that benefits from the president's appearance, of course – not merely the gubernatorial candidate – in the White House's view. That means the candidate highest on the ticket who stands to benefit from Bush's visit today is Harris, whom Jeb Bush flatly has said cannot win.
Asked about Harris' appearance at this rally, the White House said that the party's entire ticket was invited, and that includes Harris. And Crist.
The spillover from all this is another question. Democrats are targeting three Republican-held congressional seats in Florida on Tuesday – a piece of the 15-seat net-gain puzzle needed for the party to gain control of the House. Florida Democratic strategist and lobbyist Jim Krog, a seasoned veteran of state campaigns, predicts: "We win all three.''
Long-serving Rep. Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale, one of the targeted incumbents, is among those Republicans who have made it clear in their own ads that they don't always agree with the president.
But the White House is confident that Shaw will survive. The GOP may even save the House seat of former Rep. Mark Foley, the Lake Worth Republican who resigned in the congressional page scandal. The party has a strong candidate in state Rep. Joe Negron – even though the disgraced Foley will appear on the ballot, with all votes cast for him going to Negron.
The one seat that Republicans may well lose in Florida, some experts say, is the Sarasota-area seat that Harris is forfeiting to wage her unlikely challenge of Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, seeking a second term.
Christine Jennings, a banker, is the Democratic candidate for Harris's seat. Experts say voters like women in this heavily Republican district, with a huge population of retirees. Case in point: Katherine Harris, who could have kept her seat if she hadn't decided to take on Nelson.
So as the president takes the stage in the Pensacola civic center, we'll be watching for Katherine Harris. We'll be asking: "Where's Charlie?''
And we'll be watching Jeb Bush, ending an eight-year ride as governor in phenomenal shape – far more healthy, from a political point of view, than that older brother of his whom Republicans are running away from in the closing days of this lollapalooza of a midterm campaign.
While the president struggles for 40-percent job-approval nationwide and even here in Florida, Jeb Bush's job-approval in Florida runs between 60 and 70 percent in most opinion polls, MacManus notes.
"What governor,'' she asks, "at the end of an eight-year term, has higher approval levels than when he started?''
I hate to say it, but the RAT is right. Why Crist did this is beyond me.
IMO it was a huge blunder on his part...
Political stupidity abounds in Washington, on both sides of the aisle...
I think the Chicago Tribune should worry more about their golden boy Obama and less about Florida politics.
Also, have they found anymore of those floating voting booths in lake Michigan?
I voted straight R early but my ? is a valid one.
When will repubs put repubs first and stop worrying about indys and rats?!(are you listening crist,shaw,fake repub kean)
Florida's Attorney General and Gubernatorial front-runner Charlie Crist got some protection from Governor Jeb Bush (seen here with Crist at a September fundraiser) at a campaign stop in Orlando Friday when TV reporter Steven Cooper asked Crist a question regarding his sexuality.
Jeb Bush interrupted the reporter and said: "Put a smile on your face and don't be such a horse's ass."
Bush later reportedly apologized, but the incident once again drew attention to rumors swirling around Crist.
Crist's opponent, Independent Max Linn claimed on a Florida radio show that it was "common knowledge in Tallahassee that Crist is gay." And the Broward Palm Beach New Times recently published reports that Crist has a long-term male lover who is a convicted thief and has had sexual trysts with a young former male field director for the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris.
Gov. Bush snaps at Orlando reporter [florida times-union]
Jeb Bush Defends Charlie Crist's Sexuality [wonkette]
Crist MIGHT be ahead, but he is ahead because Jeb Bush helped solidify the state for the Republicans. Not because he's so damn wonderful himself.
I don't like Crist, but that doesn't really matter.
What does matter is what Crist does if he wins. Will he safeguard the gains Jeb made, or will he destroy the inbuilt Rep gains Jeb worked hard to create. This type of attitude on Crist's part does NOT bode well. Just look at Ohio and Taft for the damage a Govenor can do. Now it would be hard to be THAT bad, but Republicans cannot afford to allow anyone to harm the voter advantages they now have in that crucial state.
I suspect Jeb is going to keep a close eye on Crist.
I will vote the straight GOP ticket this time, but I still don't like Crist a lot. He is no Jeb Bush.
The stupidity here was by a local politician by the name of Crist.
-----
Yes, that is what the post says...and hence, my response. There are stupid Repubs as there are stupid libs.
Another RINO not worthy of office.. too bad the alternative is even worse!
A couple of months ago I went to a Republican meeting where Crist spoke and, frankly, he creeped me out. Smarmy and insincere ... a caricature of a career politician. Tomorrow I'll vote straight ticket, except I'll be voting Max Linn for gov.
I personally don't like the guy - but I held my nose and voted a straight Republican ticket.
George LaMieux, mentioned as Crist's chief of staff, used to be head of the Broward County GOP. I remember him refusing to take a stand when the Broward County School Board made the Boy Scouts persona non grata because they refused to allow homosexual scoutmasters. LaMieux just wanted to avoid all controversy in the matter.
Not a good sign . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.