Free Republic

Florida governor and Republican-turned-independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist said in an interview on an Orlando television station today that he would have voted for the health care overhaul passed earlier this year - and then promptly claimed he "misspoke" and actually opposes the bill. "I would have voted for it, but I think it can be done better," Crist said in the interview, the relevant portion of which which you can see at left. The comment seemed to reflect a change in position by the governor, who had stated previously he would have opposed the bill. Not long after the...

Amid revelations about how Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio wielded his Florida GOP credit card as state House speaker (not exactly conservatively), it seems some of his most vocal conservative supporters are plenty forgiving. Rubio agreed to reimburse the state party about $3,000 after the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald bureau revealed that while House speaker he double-billed the state party and Florida taxpayers for eight flights between Miami and Tallahassee. Club for Growth spokesman Michael Connolly: "Sounds like Marco is doing the right thing reimbursing taxpayers for the $3,000. Hopefully Gov. Crist can do the same thing about that...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told The Hill he’d be “glad to try to help” out Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) in his Senate race but he hasn’t been asked. Crist is in a tough primary battle with former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) for the state’s open Senate seat. “Sure, I’d be glad to try to help him,” McCain said in an interview with The Hill Wednesday but added Crist hasn’t yet asked for his help. Crist and then-Sen. Mel Martinez (R) gave McCain a critical endorsement in the waning days of Florida’s GOP presidential primary in 2008 that...

Charlie Crist apparently wants to cast himself as a reasonable moderate in the Florida Republican primary for the open Senate seat. That may be understandable with Marco Rubio’s rise as a conservative star in the national political fundament, but it takes more than gainsay to make an argument for moderate positions. Call this a Kirk Watson moment; when the Palm Beach Post challenged Crist’s insistence that he wouldn’t scrap ObamaCare by asking him to identify anything he liked about it, Crist came up empty (via Newsbeat1): Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, told The Palm Beach Post editorial...