After getting pounded by Marco Rubio and his supporters throughout the Florida GOP for the past few months, Governor Charlie Crist is beginning the counter-attack.
Speaking to the St. Pete Times editorial board yesterday, the guv defended the questions about his conservative bona fides, saying,
"It's hard to be more concervative than I am on issues – though there are different ways stylistically to communicate that – I'm pro-life, I'm pro-gun, I'm pro-family, and I''m anti tax. I don't know what else you're supposed to be, except maybe angry too."
Crist sounds fired up, which has taken a long time coming. Perhaps it was his hitting rock bottom a few weeks ago, when he essentially lied to CNN's Wolf Blitzer when he said that he never endorsed the stimulus plan, and the subsequent humiliation in press reports that pointed that out that has led to this more aggressive stance. The Times lists his support for the stimulus package, as well as supporting cigarette taxes and voting against abortion restrictions while in the legislature as issues that presumably show him not to be a rock ribbed conservative.
As has been reported ad nauseam in recent weeks, national Republican groups will be watching the Florida Senate race closely as a barometer of the battle between conservatives, and, well not completely conservative candidates ( in his decisions in the past year and surely the next, Crist has not acted moderate at all).
Crist spoke yesterday in Broward County, where he's finally showing up to the (local) party – Rubio has won 14 straight straw polls taken at local county Republican party gatherings, but Crist, in his discussion with the Times editorial board, dismissed those votes, saying,
"there are a lot of Republicans that don't have the inclination to go to executive committee meetings,'' he said. "There is wide swath of republican voters out there that don't necessarily listen to cable tv all the time."
The Governor also hit his Senate challenger on the sacred issue of taxes, telling the Times:
“Until somebody is clearly defined, if they say certain things on the stump, then that individual can become what people want him to be, even if it isn't necessarily the case. I mean, he's voted for tax increases several times.''
Those who read political blogs and watch the cable casts are in many cases devoted conservatives who are turned off by Crist and excited by Rubio. And Crist has a lot of the establishment behind him.
But as many reporters in Florida continue to speculate, will the Big Dog in Florida GOP politics, Jeb Bush, finally come out of the shadows and give Rubio a full fledged endorsement? Probably not anytime soon (there are 10 months left before the primary).
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2009.