Charlie Crist

A new Florida Chamber of Commerce poll suggests Charlie Crist may be widening his lead over Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek in the U.S. Senate race.

Where other recent polls showed Crist barely edging out Rubio, the June 9-13 survey of 607 likely voters by the Florida Chamber of Commerce Political Institute and Cherry Communications found 42 percent backing Crist, 31 percent Rubio and 14 percent Meek. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Has Florida lost it's mind?

Politicians are about the last people we expect to be principled, but that doesn't mean there aren't expectations in place.  Shifting positions to be more acceptable to voters isn't an uncommon thing, but radically shifting positions and doing it frequently is something to worry about.  Pandering to voters is seen as weak, and a terrible way to govern the populace.  John Kerry was accused of flip-flopping on the issues back in 2004, and that attack worked. 

So why in God's name is Crist pulling ahead?

When it comes to unprincipled politicians who whore themselves out for votes I'm hard pressed to find someone worse than Charlie Crist.  His flip-flopping goes all the way back to mid 90's, but it's his latest string of opportunistic crap that crosses the line.  It started out with one act of selfishness, and just snowballed from there:




The result of his betrayal was a refund demand from some donors.  They had supported a Republican, they argued, not an independent.  At first Crist agreed, but of course that changes whenever he realized he needed that money:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced today that he will not refund donations he received from Republican voters before he left the GOP in his bid for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat.

“Our position is that people donated to a good cause and we intend to spend it on a good cause,” Michelle Todd, an adviser to the Crist campaign, said.

The announcement contradicts statements the Crist campaign has made to several newspapers, including the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times. In both publications, the campaign said it would issue “pro-rated refunds” because Crist had already spent some of the money.

At the very least those who donated to Crist could take some comfort in that they donated to someone who would likely still caucus with the Republicans if he won, but Crist soon realized that if he wanted to win he was going to have to win Democrats over to his cause.  Republicans are mostly behind Rubio, and since winning had become the bottom line it wasn't long before that "People of Florida" line made it pretty clear he could go all the way in his defection:

GREGORY: “Would you vote for a Republican or a Democratic Majority Leader?”

CRIST: “I might not vote for either one. I’m going to vote for who I think would be best for the people of Florida. And if that happens to be a Democrat, so be it. If it happens to be a Republican, so be it. But I’ve got to look out for the people of my state.”

Wooing Democrats transformed Crist, although to be fair he had originally changed in order to woo conservatives.  But the back and forth is astonishing.  When he needed to win over Democrats he dropped the pro-life section of his webpage, flipped his position on DADT, and pimped himself out to the White House.  A few months ago you would of thought Crist a solid, if moderate, Republican. 

Today you wouldn't be shocked if he outright joins the Democrats in his selfish bid to gain political power.  And all for what, I have to wonder.  He's clearly ambitious for higher power, but he couldn't possibly think that he could ever run for President, could he?  Then again his strategy is currently paying off, and the voters of Florida are lining up behind the man even though he didn't have the respect to give them a decent lie.  Crist is just about the lowest piece of political scum imaginable, and I'm surprised I don't see more conservatives talking about him.  Florida may deserve this scum if they decide to elect him, but Marco Rubio deserves better and America most certainly does.  Maybe if a bit more attention was paid to his crap he wouldn't find himself up in the polls.