Republicans Need More Crist and Less Limbaugh, Cheney and Palin

US News and World Report ^ | 5/13/09 | Bonnie Erbe

[pissant]

The GOP needs more Charlie Crists, fewer Rush Limbaughs, Dick Cheneys and Sarah Palins as it seeks, phoenix-like, to rise from the funeral pyre.

Crist has agreed to do the party a major favor and run for the Senate, instead of for reelection as Florida governor. As CNN reports:

The Senator from Texas and chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee on Tuesday reeled in a big catch as popular Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced he'll forgo a re-election bid and instead run for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Mel Martinez.

Crist is a moderate, a tree-hugger (by Republican standards, anyway) and supports civil rights, unlike high-profile members of the Bush administration (Cheney et. al.) who seem to revel in trashing them. From Time:

Crist is a peppy populist who has bucked his party on the environment, civil rights and the stimulus bill.

Go, Charlie! You're just what the party needs to start reopening the doors of the big tent.

[PerConPat]

You know, of course, that Hatch, like Arlen Specter, started out as a Democrat...

Heh, Heh...I'll tell you what I know; it's contained in a quote attributed to Abe Lincoln: “Politicians are a set of men who have interests aside from the interests of the people and who, to say the most of them, are, taken as a mass, at least one long step removed from honest men”

Nice talking with you...Good night.

[El Gato]

The GOP needs more Charlie Crists, fewer Rush Limbaughs, Dick Cheneys and Sarah Palins

Umm... who is Charlie Crist?

[americanophile]

...no, I thought the sarcasm palpable enough not to require a label.

[CyberAnt]

I loved this line: “Crist has agreed to do the party a major favor and run for the Senate”

ROTFLOL!!! I think we could do without that “favor”.

The last thing the GOP needs is another moderate!!

[puroresu]

The media are in full Orwellian mode right now, painting the GOP as having moved far to the right, when in fact both parties have moved to the left. Obama is the most leftist president we've ever had. Pelosi is the most leftist House Speaker in history.

The Democratic caucus in the House & Senate has fewer moderate or conservative members than at any time in its history. In the Senate, there are no conservative Democrats. Not even one. And there's only one that could be considered moderate (Ben Nelson of Nebraska). There are maybe three others who are mostly liberal but every once in a while cast a conservative vote on an issue important in their state (Landrieu, Webb, and Byrd).

The GOP contingent in the Senate has two outright liberals (three before Specter departed) and a whole host of mushy moderates (Graham, Voinovich, Martinez, Luger, Bond, Bennett, Hutchison, Murkowski....). It's far more “big tentish” than the Democrats are.

Is there any Republican Senator as conservative as Jesse Helms was? Probably not. DeMint might be close. But look at all the 100% ideologically pure doctrinaire leftist Senators. Leahy, Kerry, Kennedy, Whitehouse, Reed, Dodd, Schumer, Lautenberg, Mikulski, Brown, Levin, Durbin, Feingold, Boxer, Reid, Murray, Wyden.....the list goes on.

If the most conservative Republican in the U.S. Senate was a pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, global warming believer who favored socialized medicine, and if the Democrats were mostly avowed Marxists, Bonnie Erbe would warn that the GOP was moving to the “far right”, and until they recruit some candidates who favor confiscation of all our firearms, they'll fail the big tent test.

[gimme1ibertee]

guess they think the RINO’s will listen to them.

RINOs,maybe,but not conservatives. Go Sarah!!!!

[gimme1ibertee]

I loved this line: “Crist has agreed to do the party a major favor and run for the Senate”

Yes....PLEEEEEEZE stop doing us favors, RINOs!

[Sans-Culotte]

“Don’t listen to Rush, Palin and Cheney” = “Don’t throw me in the briar patch”.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Go, Charlie! You’re just what the party needs to start reopening the doors of the big tent. .................... OH YEAH, BUT WHICH PARTY WILL BENEFIT THE MOST? lol!!

[MHGinTN]

There is a fundamental difference in having a tent where certain defined values are the planks upon which the tent draws strength, and having a tent with no floor which the McCains and Crists keep trying to toss over folks who don’t want in the tent because they already have one that stinks equally.

[upcountryhorseman]

If you don’t understand “Conservatism”, go join the pinko’s!

[ExTxMarine]

I can accept that, but unfortunately, the left have been selling that shill for over 20 years and I am afraid that many are starting to believe it!

[mission9]

If Charlie is not a RINO, then tell me why Charlie supports cap and trade? And how are you going to guarantee that he will not vote with Olympia Snowe?

[blackie]

“PBS is a collection of witless socialist morons with delusions of philosophical grandeur, greedy fingered slavering redistributionist tree-dwelling hominids who believe that if they don’t control all the money, all the money isn’t being controlled properly....”
~ Larry Leonard ~ Oregon Magazine

[Rome2000]

CHARLIE THE TUNA CRIST IS A BIG GIANT GAY WEIRDO SUNTANNED RINO who signed primary enforcement seatbelt legislation that the leftists have been trying to get passed for years.

We're going to crush this MF like a bug.

Charlie Crist dissapoints Libertarians and Libertarian Republicans with tougher new Seat Belt law.

In a move that could hurt his chances for an expected Senate run in 2010, or possibly even for President in 2012, Florida Governor Charlie Crist plans to go against one of the foundations of the libertarian civil liberties agenda later today.

The Governor plans to sign a "primary enforcement" bill for seat belt use for the State of Florida. This means that cops will now be able to stop motorists for no other reason than to harrass and ticket them for not wearing a seat belt.

According to the Orlando Sentinnel:

Not everyone likes the legislation. J.J. McCurry, chair of the Libertarian Party of Florida, supports seat-belt use. He just doesn't want a law requiring it.

"If there isn't a victim and it isn't immoral, then it isn't a crime," said McCurry, of Winter Park. "We don't think adults should be ticketed for not wearing a seat belt. ... It's another law just belittling adults making adult decisions."

Crist is hurting efforts for GOP outreach to Libertarians in the State. Further, he now risks losing votes of both libertarians within the GOP and Libertarian Party members in future runs.

This simple act, negates just about everything good Gov. Crist has done on property rights, and taxes during his tenure, and acts essentially as a slap in the face to his libertarian supporters.

[hgro]

Bonnie is BALMY.