Posted on 04/30/2010 10:26:02 AM PDT by rabscuttle385
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Florida Gov. Charlie Crist formally launched his bid for a U.S. Senate seat as an independent candidate Thursday evening, abandoning the Republican primary and casting himself as the outsider in a "broken" political system.
Appearing before hundreds of supporters at a waterfront park in his hometown, Mr. Crist said that voters "want someone who is more concerned with standing up for them than standing up for special interest groups or party."
"People have a right to choose," he said in his brief remarks, which were carried live on national cable television. Then, appearing to take aim both at party leaders and the GOP's tea party movement that had criticized him as too liberal, Mr. Crist added: "It's your decision. It's not one club's decision, or another's. Or a club within a club."
Mr. Crist's decision transforms one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races, and sets up a prominent test of how the GOP remakes itself following major losses over the past four years. The party must determine whether it can retake the majority by nominating candidates with purely conservative views, or whether it should make room for centrists like Mr. Crist, who was a top target of conservative activists for his support of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No,a moral one (assuming he ever *had* any morals).
The NRSC was foolish to ever endorse Crist. John Cornyn is eating some serious crow now, a year later. And the party still won’t get any of my money until they stop backing these RINOs with no real principle.
Rinos don’t like uppity conservatives any more than their friends across the aisle and in the White hut!
The GOP is totally silent about Obama’s police squad being sent to harass the tea party in Illinois. Silence IS consent! The Rinos are celebrating Obama’s threats and attempts to intimidate the voters they hate. I want them all out of office.
Cornyn DID immediately endorse Rubio, along with the whole GOP senatorial election structure.
You are far behind the times.
What will he do?
Siphon support from the Repub candidate.
Which will give the election to the Dem (Fascist) Party candidate.
Who knows? Maybe a sizeable Swiss numbered bank account has been promised him for undercutting his own Party?
Polls show him taking votes from both sides.
The term RINO is too good for him. Maybe he was one once.
He became a DIABLO (democrat in everything but label only).
Now he’s a SEIOP (Self-aggrandizing Independent ObamaPhile).
And PUSS (Prancing unctuous serpentine sumbitch).
That should be SAIOP. ;d
The Crist defection just reinforces a simple lesson about leftist Republicans that many freepers still don't understand. After Jeffords, Chafee, Specter, and now Crist, you still see freepers of the mindset "Gee, a guy like Mark Kirk might agree with the Dems on every important issue, but that doesn't matter because if the Senate is split 50-50, he'll be the REPUBLICAN deciding vote that makes SURE the GOOD guys are in charge. That ALONE is reason to elect his socialist butt in November"
History has proven time and time again that this premise is false.
As a Congressman, Kirk governed well to the left of Crist as Governor, so why is Kirk still in the GOP? The Kirk apologists will honestly argue that it's because Kirk is a loyal Republican at heart. But the simple answer is guys like Specter and Crist knew their chances of winning to the GOP primary were DOA, so they jumped ship and joined their ideological soulmates. Guys like Kirk and Castle are even more wedded to the Democrats, but stood little chance of losing the GOP primary due to a number of factors (second tier opponents, rigged primary process, etc.). The Democrats are damaged goods in 2010, so it's to Kirk and Castle's ADVANTAGE to NOT be part of the "Democrat establishment" in 2010. That's all that matters to RINOs -- gaining power. If they ever need to caucus with the Dems to stay in Washington and keep their clout, they wouldn't hesitate for a moment. I have no doubt that if Kirk lost the GOP primary, he'd endorse Alexi Ginnolanis out of the spite. Kirk is a ideological liberal who wears the "R" label simply because he needed to be one to get his start in Washington (as an aide to Congressman Porter)
Look at Specter's past history, the same thing is true -- when Specter was a RINO he also denounced party switching and even angrily tried to ban it when he lost his committee chairmanship because of the Jeffords defection. It wasn't because he felt "gee whiz, I feel bad that the GOP lost power, something has to be done about this to help my party". It was Specter feeling sorry for himself because HE lost power, and he had to remain a Republican at the time because his owed his Senate seat to the RNC and Bush pulling off all the stops for him. Once Specter himself was in danger of losing the GOP primary and there was no "Republican majority" in Washington to protect him, he was more than happy to do the exact thing he denounced Jeffords for.
Freepers who support Kirk honestly believe Kirk is the kind of guy who thinks "Hey I don't like those right-wingers, but gosh darn I will vote for a conservative majority leader anyway because I can't let an all-out American-hating socialist like Dick Durbin run this country". But the opposite is true. Guys like Kirk would run over their own grandmother if they needed to do it in order to keep their power in Washington. These are the worst kind of politicians -- they have no principles except for doing whatever to takes to benefit their own career.
So no, there's no danger that the DIABLO nominees we have now are going to pull a Charlie Crist before November, as long as they're ahead in the polls they'll be more than happy to tell you what good "moderate Republicans" they are and they're going to "reform" things. But six years in a lifetime in Washington, and the moment the tide is in the Dems favor, you'll find out just why DIABLOs are called that.
I agree with what you said. This is Charlie’s doing, he did it for selfish reasons. He was not forced out like a Chafee type would have been. Either way, now he has to face the music.
What really have you proved, BillyBoy, by this analysis (which seems good, but doesn’t contain any contrary examples of which there are many - RINOs who never switched parties or Democrats who did)?
I am not a Kirk supporter. I am a conservative and a pragmatic one. I would have loved to be able to support a conservative candidate with a real chance of winning, but the egomaniac conservatives couldn’t agree on a single candidate and we got Kirk - who Illinois Republicans supported overwhelmingly (where were all the IL conservatives or did they sit this one out as well?).
You’ve created a Faustian bargain straw man. Currently IL has a choice for Senator - Kirk or Alexi. It is, as is often the case, a choice between the lesser of two evils and the calculus is simple: Kirk embarrasses and further wounds Obama and moves Republicans closer to majority rule in the Senate - that’s the realpolitik of it all - nothing more.
The rest is immature conservo-fantasy and sounds like liberals whining about nuclear power, oil spills, overpopulation, etc. Maybe, might, could, possibly, etc. are no way to make decisions. Anything is possible, adults deal with the probable.
It is certain that if an IL conservative votes third party or sits out their vote counts as nil. Given the hard Left make up of our state (despite your protestations look at the election numbers from our most recent IL GOP senate primary) that means Alexi is our next IL Senator. Simple and the real political calculus.
Is it what I want? No. Is it reality? Yes.
BTW Crist is a DIABLO and that’s a funny acronym. Is it your invention?
I think Mark Levin came up with DIABLO.
As far as the state party is concerned Charlie Crist is dead to them (they took down and are selling an oil painting of him that hung in party headquarters) but evidence conflicts on whether or not he’ll remained a “registered Republican” according to news article he said he’s not while a news release from his campaign says he is.
Anyhow that’s irrelevant, a potted plant would crush him in a primary now if ever ran for office as a Republican in the future.
He’s not quite as liberal as Kirk (he’s still pro-life I think) but he’s suckier than I first thought.
“Anything is possible, adults deal with the probable.”
Indeed. I think there’s a good probability one day a Senator Kirk may leave the party like Crist and Specter.
I think there’s a good probability one day a Senator Kirk may leave the party like Crist and Specter.
You've got a seven month timeline to be concerned about. He'll not switch parties for five years after his victory. That may give us IL conservatives time to regroup and find a better candidate, maybe.
He can switch whenever he feels like it. Jeffords had been re-elected 6 months earlier when he switched.
He may never do so, the Maine Twins still haven't. But the point is I don't trust him.
"we got Kirk - who Illinois Republicans supported overwhelmingly (where were all the IL conservatives or did they sit this one out as well?)."
We've already been over that.
Well I don’t trust him either, but I’ll not sit it out or vote a Dem in by my action/inaction.
What are IL conservatives doing about capturing local elections and our statehouse?
Well I don’t trust him either, but I’ll not sit it out or vote a Dem in by my action/inaction.
What are IL conservatives doing about capturing local elections and our statehouse?
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