The next Republican civil war
A brewing melodrama in Florida
The next Republican civil war
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
How quickly the calendar turns. Scant weeks ago, it appeared that Pennsylvania would be hosting the ultimate Republican steel-cage death match between its dominant conservative wing and its recessive moderate wing. But the anticipated Senate primary duel between conservative Pat Toomey and moderate Arlen Specter was short-circuited by Specter's abdication. Conservatives were thus deprived of the opportunity to demonstrate their ideological purity by knocking off Specter and nominating a guy who is virtually unelectable statewide in 2010.
But conservatives can now take heart, simply by shifting their focus 1000 miles to the south. In the swing-state of Florida, they will have the opportunity to knock off a popular, electable Republican in a Senate GOP primary, and instead nominate an ideological conservative who would give the Democrats a chance to pick up yet another Senate seat. This scenario is not exactly the winning formula for a party comeback, but apparently it would allow the conservatives to marinate in their purity as the party shrinks further.
Charlie Crist, the moderate Republican governor with the deep tan and the 71 percent statewide approval rating, announced yesterday that he will run next year for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Mel Martinez (who was deemed unacceptable by the conservative base because of his support for path-to-citizenship immigration reform). Crist has two assets that Republicans dearly need these days: he attracts Democratic and independent support (at a time when the Grand Old Party is increasingly saddled with its image as the Cheney Limbaugh Party), and he is a proven fundraiser who can raise the big bucks necessary to blanket Florida's multiple media markets (thus freeing up the national Republicans to focus their money efforts on Ohio, Kentucky, and Missouri - states where the GOP is at serious risk of losing more Senate seats in 2010).
The hitch, naturally, is that Crist is deemed by conservative activists to be unacceptably impure, and thus a threat to wind up in the Senate and become the GOP's new Specteresque irritant...which is why they're already lining up behind the upstart conservative challenger, the guy who will play the Toomey role in Florida. That would be Marco Rubio, the former state House Speaker, a young, eloquent Cuban-American who spent yesterday in full campaign mode - twittering that Crist is a faux Republican, telling Fox News that Crist is a faux Republican, and releasing an ad that shows Crist cozying up to Barack Obama (the ultimate sin).
Right now, it's hard to imagine that Rubio can defeat Crist. The governor has universal name ID (whereas Rubio is not even in public office anymore), and the early polls show Crist winning the primary in a landslide. But that contest is 15 months away, plenty of time for Rubio to work the conservative base. Democratic connoisseurs of Republican infighting will have ample opportunity to sit back with popcorn and enjoy.
Indeed, Crist has already failed the right's key litmus test; a few months ago, he not only decided to take all the federal stimulus money that had been earmarked for Florida, he actually shared a platform with the president and told NBC that "in the Florida way, we work together in a bipartisan fashion." Such behavior - agreeing to take billions of dollars to help the beleaguered citizens of his state - has naturally garnered kudos from a landslide majority of Floridians, but Crist's move could be a deal-breaker for the conservative voters who will dominate the Florida GOP primary...a contest that will be closed to Democrats and independents.
Actually, Crist's stimulus stance is merely the latest perceived miscue. Even though Crist has won some conservative praise for his fiscal policies, there is already a long list of heresies:
Crist appointed a black Democrat with a strong civil rights record to the state Supreme Court; he thinks that global warming is real, he wants a big reduction in auto emissions, he sponsored an environmental conference keynoted by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and he once discussed green issues with Sheryl Crow; he doesn't believe that Roe v. Wade should be overturned; he refuses to push for a state constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage ("I'm a live-and-let-live kind of guy"); he supports voting rights for felons who have completed their sentences ("I believe in forgiveness and atonement"); he wants to raise more state revenue by expanding legal gambling; he has taken on the insurance companies by slapping a lid on homeowners' insurance premiums.
And that doesn't include the innuendo about Crist's private life. Rubio won't need to touch it; his Christian conservative allies will take care of it. They can even reference Outrage, a new movie documentary about closeted gay politicians, which names Crist as one such denizen. That's not the ideal profile for a candidate in a Republican primary. Crist insists he is straight, but he is widely disbelieved. Conservative journals have long used code while writing about Crist; early last year, The National Review, in an attack piece on Crist, mentioned that, around the time he was graduating law school, "he married his college girlfriend. They divorced half a year later, and he's been single ever since."
Actually, Crist recently got married again, but a lot of conservatives think it's only for show. By contrast, Rubio is being touted as a fertile heterosexual; in the words of The Weekly Standard magazine, which has an adoring profile in its latest issue, Rubio "married his longtime girlfriend Jeannette, once a Miami Dolphins cheerleader and now the mother of their four young children."
Top that one, Charlie.
Given Rubio's personal profile, and his core conservative convictions on everything from immigration to the environment to abortion, his followers are incensed that the Washington Republican establishment has so speedily embraced Crist. Fifteen minutes after Crist announced his candidacy yesterday, the GOP's Senate campaign arm - the National Republican Senatorial Committee, led by Texas Senator John Cornyn - rushed to embrace Crist and pledge its support in the 2010 GOP primary. It's unusual (or it used to be) for the national party to take sides in a primary, but Cornyn has the wild and crazy idea that maybe the Republicans should staunch their intramural bloodletting and support candidates who can actually win in politically diverse swing states.
Cornyn got nowhere with that one. A twittering activist at the conservative American Spectator promptly declared yesterday that it's time to "fire Cornyn," a blogger at the popular redstate.com wrote that Cornyn's rejection of Rubio was akin to "a stick in the eye," and another blogger at the website urged all conservatives to financially boycott Cornyn's campaign committee. Meanwhile, online yesterday, talk-show host Glenn Beck summed up his feelings about Crist thusly:
"BARF."
Let the games begin.
Comment removed.
Hey, SMike, what is a "liberal welch"?— Djoko Pritza- SMike, I don't see any bragging or boasting at all in Polman's piece. I also don't see any word about Republicans going extinct. What I do see is a spotlight on an election that will be telling about the party that you are so obviously in love with even though they didn't do a very good job of executing their own supposed values when they had power. When you call something like this a "hit piece", you lose credibility. This kind of exaggeration belongs among those small minded thinkers who are too lazy to see anything but their own perspectives and want to make politics into wrestling entertainment. There is work to be done, not just elections to be won.— puttinonthefoil
- 'Pubs won't win until they take the first step --- realizing that it won't happen until it moves to the center (See Dems from 1978 through 1992). Judging by the hardliners here, there's more defeats ahead.— yobill626
- Djoko: I think he meant, "Libeal BELCH" --- which is what the Left will be doing after feasting on Republican carcasses over the next 6-8 years.— yobill626
- Comment removed.
- wwwbd? what would will bunch do?— beeron
- Yobil626- I meant "liberal welch." As in to sit and do nothing and collect other peoples hard earned wages so that slackers can have health insurance, beer money, a roof over their head, and take a couple courses at the community college. And this is the part where you will tell me that you are certainly none of those things and that you only believe in spending other people's money liberally for the causes you support. I think liberals should get out of everyone else's wallet, pay your taxes, and learn how to spend less than you take in. To be fair Republicans need to learn how to balance a budget as well but we are not the ones running the show right now.
- More evidence that the NYT is biased and not a reliable paper anymore: 1. "In its closing months, the Bush administration is pulling out all the stops in its eight-year effort to undermine the Endangered Species Act. In mid-August, the administration proposed two dangerous regulatory changes. One would free the government from considering the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on polar bears and other imperiled wildlife."--editorial, New York Times, Oct. 25, 2008 2. "Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has upheld a Bush administration finding that the Endangered Species Act is not a suitable tool for restricting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases threatening the polar bear and its habitat. We agree, with this codicil: . . ."--editorial, New York Times, May 13, 2009— CD75
- Langx-So let me get this straight. Private citizen Joe Wurzelbacher askes then Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama a tough question and a liberal administrator takes it upon herself to launch an illegal investigation into Jo Wurzelbacher? Then a gay panel judge askes Miss California a question on gay marriage that is virtually the same answer that Barack Obama has given on the subject then liberals take it upon themselve to besmierch the character of Miss California because they did not like the answer. Is this what it has come to? Liberals will destroy anyone who's speech is not deemed liberally correct? The left in this country has become our Taliban. So quick to castigate anyone who does not agree with their views and will use whatever means of destroying anyone who is not with the liberal agenda.
- puttinthefoil- Polman runs a hit piece on Republicans about every other day. To wit with the resurgent Taliban, insourmountable debt, 9% unemployment, record deficits, government run healthcare, and insolvent entitlement programs. Naw!... lets write a column on how fascinating it is to have a primary were two people from the same party with differing views run agains each other. As if this has never happened before.
- liberal wrote about Polman.."He is an electoral politics expert; that's his shtick. Like many of us, he probably knows jack about healthcare.". That may be true, but it never stopped him from writing about Bush's failed policies in Iraq (what does Polman know about war strategy); about Bush's failed handling of Katrina (when did Polman ever manage a natural disaster); about Bush's treatment of detainees and Guantanamo (did he ever visit the facility?); about Bush's and the Republicans wreckless spending and huge deficits; about Bush's imperial presidency. Now, we have a President who wants to limit pay in financial companies even if they did not take TARP money; we have a President dictating to a state what it can pass in its budget (see California and SEIU); we have a President violating the "absolute priority rule" and the Contracts Clause of Article V of the Constitution in the handling of Chrysler; we have a President who violated NAFTA with the stroke of his pen; we have a President flip flopping on military commission trials, "torture photos", indefinite detention, and the keeping of detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan without habeus corpus rights; we have a President budgeting deficits of over $1 trillion and increasing the debt by close to $10 Trillion; we have the Speaker of the House lying about what she knew and when she knew it about the harsh interrogation techniques; and Polman writes about Charlie Crist? I suppose, liberal, if all of these acts had been carried by the previous administration, Polman would be writing about Diane Fienstein wanting to be governor of Pennsylvania. Also, one fourth of overseas absentee ballots (mainly from active duty and reserve troops), went uncounted in the 2008 election. At least according to the AP report.— tom - wilmington, de
- Correction....Diane Feinstein wanting to be governor of California, not Pennsylvania.— tom - wilmington, de
- smike, thanks for the help, it was getting lonely in here amongst the koolaide drinkers:) janann, I could care less what they say on the radio and the liberal mainstream media in this country is a known fact when even left-leaning Saturday Night Live is busting their chops over it! I am beginning to think half of the radio guys audience are dems who stew in their own juices over what they say(do what I do & telling by their ratings what most of the country does when MSNBC is at it, turn it off:). Did we see in the headlines today that Pres. Obama may bring the prisoners of Gitmo to the states, but just hold them indefinitley without a trial, etc.? That policy sounds familiar, doesn't it? The President will also block the release of 'torture' photos, reversing his previous position! Thus proving that it is much harder to make the decisions as leader of this country than it is to throw rhetorical bombs from the campaign trail or write in a blog such as this:)— NEPhilly
- Aother pertinent example....In his report of the stimulus package, Biden stated that the stimulus has "created or saved 150,000 jobs". As noted by the AP Factchecker, the economy has lost 1.3 million jobs since February (when the stimulus was passed). The administration has promised to "save or create" 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days. Even if the economy loses 5 million more jobs during that time span, Obama can claim to have saved some jobs. Of course this probably does not count the 80,000 people hired by the government for the 2010 census, right? I love the rationale that "yeah, things are bad, but if we did not spend $800 Billion it could have been worse". I am sure all those unemployed people love hearing how jobs were "saved". Had this been the previous administration, we would be reading how they were loose with the facts (heck, even the AP writes about it). Yet we get, like swedesboro said, more about two candidates vying in a primary who have different opinions. Gee, that is rare in our form of elections.— tom - wilmington, de
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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