Charlie Crist on The Huffington Post

Charlie Crist Phone Message Directed Callers To Phone Sex Hotline

2009-12-05T04:52:52Z

Florida Governor Charlie Crist mistakenly directed callers to a phone sex line in a recording that played when callers to KidCare, the state's child health care program, were put on hold. The governor explained that script he read for the recording was incorrect and that "there was no malice intent." The recording was in use for at least two months. To get to the sex line, KidCare callers had to dial the number listed by Gov. Crist, then call the phone number listed by that recording.

The Palm Beach Post first reported the the mistake and posted a recording of what callers would hear if they followed the steamy phone tree to the end.

Woman's voice:

"Hey there, sexy guy. Welcome to an exciting new way to go live, one on one, with hot, horny girls waiting right now to talk to you."

Apparently, Crist's mistake isn't that uncommon. The Post found four more instances of government publications in West Palm Beach, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Virginia that direct callers to the same number

AOL News reports that the recording has been changed, "Current KidCare callers are greeted by an anonymous, almost robotic voice, which offers sexy guys no help whatsoever."

William Bradley: The Inevitable Fluke That Is Sarah Palin

2009-11-17T12:06:07Z

Five minutes into yesterday's Oprah extravaganza with Sarah Palin, I messaged Steve Schmidt, John McCain's presidential campaign manager: "So how did you know Bristol was pregnant before it was announced?"

His immediate reply: "I didn't, untrue."

Palin had just said that Schmidt, the evident villain of her new book, Going Rogue, and other top McCain advisors had already known that her teenage daughter was pregnant with an illegitimate child and had marching orders for her even before she was picked as McCain's shock vice presidential nominee.

Ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin provides insight into Russian politics.

Palin continued in a similar vein throughout her ballyhooed Oprah interview, constantly hitting the girrrl power/female victimization tropes of daytime TV, casting herself as an individual struggling against male control. Except, of course, for "God and Todd."

It's all a tissue of nonsense when you think about it, including her silly notion that an interview with the anchor of CBS News was supposed to be "light and fun." Whether Oprah really bought the act or not, she appeared to appreciate it. That is, after all, how it's done.

Which took me back to when I learned that the preposterous Palin had become the possible next vice president of the United States ...

Sarah Palin was a fluke. Had to be. A non-serious and irresponsible fluke. That was what I thought when I saw she was about to be named McCain's running mate on August 29, 2008.

I called Schmidt, McCain's campaign manager who I got to know well when he ran Arnold Schwarzenegger's landslide re-election as governor of California, to vent. Schmidt, a hardball if rather gentlemanly operator, had helped McCain spring back into real contention with Barack Obama, jamming the favorite with a series of effective if irritating tactics. (Remember Obama's brilliant international tour, blunted by the mocking TV ad: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world." That was Schmidt.) Such is politics, especially for the campaign with the weaker hand, so no personal venting was called for.

But Palin? I'd scouted her, which amounted to watching a few hours of video footage of her and reading some articles, and she was clearly a totally unqualified, and very vain, intellectual lightweight. And that was being kind. Compared to Palin, George W. Bush belonged on Mount Rushmore.

Palin pretended yesterday on Oprah to have been surprised that CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked her serious questions.

Palin was also, in retrospect, inevitable. Even though she was not the real first choice of McCain, Schmidt, and the rest of the campaign high command. Perhaps because she was not the real first choice.

Here's why.

Two years ago, McCain was struggling along, his once frontrunning candidacy having imploded due to his moderation on immigration and a few other issues and his discomfort from playing the establishment frontrunner. After McCain's campaign collapsed, I'd had lunch with Schmidt, joking that McCain must do as Chairman Mao advised when he said: "The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea."

Schmidt had decided to carry on with what his business partners referred to as his unpaid "hobby," and McCain had decided to do something "Mao-like" or at least a Republican variant. He traveled like a normal person, was very accessible, held free-wheeling town halls in his home away from home New Hampshire and a few other states. Freed from the pressure of being the national frontrunner, he recovered his mojo in a race that was still very winnable for him.

After he won New Hampshire, the far right went crazy, moving heavily into Stop McCain mode. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity inveighed against him at all hours of the day and night. The far right blogosphere was in high dudgeon over this "dangerous liberal" McCain.

The reality is that McCain is a conservative. He's much like Ronald Reagan, who would also face tremendously vicious yip-yap today in the party which purports to venerate him unless he moved further to the right.

The far right settled on the awkward figure of Mitt Romney to stop McCain. For some, like radio host Hugh Hewitt, who wrote a truly amazing biography of Romney (in which the corporate takeover artist flew over tall buildings), it was a matter of heavily willed suspension of disbelief that this Eastern economic royalist/social liberal was really a movement conservative. For others, it was simply a matter of stopping McCain, who once pissed all over their pretensions. Romney had adopted their rhetoric, fraudulent though his positioning was, and for them, that was enough.

With the Republicans' winner-take-all primary ways, and Romney not able to shut down Mike Huckabee, McCain rocked Romney to a dead stop in California and knocked him out the following week in Florida. He did this with the help of moderate Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charlie Crist, both of whom are reviled by the far right.

But the far right, which amounts to a neo-Confederate political tendency, retained a simmeringly mutinous attitude, playing up sizable non-McCain votes as the primaries went on. Though they couldn't ever get behind Huckabee.

An interesting question is why they didn't get behind Huckabee instead of Romney. Huckabee is a real social conservative and a far better natural politician than the generally stiff Romney. But he's more of a populist than a royalist, and expressed concern about climate change. The dominant far right political tendency deeply identifies with entrenched wealth and authority, and disdains squishy notions like peace and the environment. Which is why Dick Cheney, of all people, is a patron saint of the far right.

So McCain and his advisors had a big problem going forward. The far right, with big megaphones in the form of Limbaugh, Hannity, et al was busily proclaiming that they were the real Republicans. And without the so-called "base," McCain had a built-in potshot press every day.

Palin was baffled by questions about the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Schmidt, who'd tooled around with McCain in rental cars and commercial flights during the rebuilding days of the campaign, had taken over its operations. Working with Schwarzenegger, he'd been at the controls of a smoothly running megabucks machine. But this, even after clinching the nomination, was definitely more ramshackle.

Especially compared with the humming Obama machine, raising money at a record clip, with volunteers all over America. Once the tussle with the Clintons was ended -- despite all the silly "Puma" hype, which never really amounted to much, though Schmidt and others had some hopes -- Obama had a happy and united party base on the left and and in the center.

When it came time to pick a potential vice president, the McCain high command had a series of not especially good choices.

My impression was that they liked Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, both personally and substantively. But he was not an inspiring figure and Obama was likely to win his state, as he did, easily.

Huckabee was a good campaigner and had good rapport with McCain. But you certainly couldn't have a creationist on the ticket. Right? And the Talk Radio Wing of the party hated him.

Palin now bashes the Wall Street bailout as an Obama scheme. Last year, when it was pushed through by George W. Bush, she backed it, but thought that it was about health care.

Romney was, let's say, not personally popular in McCain Land. The two seemed to viscerally dislike each other on stage, making the Obama-Hillary dynamic look like occasionally bickering lab partners. But he could bring some very big money to the table, if no real advantage in terms of states.

McCain wanted to tear it up and be the maverick by picking Joe Lieberman. Al Gore's running mate of 2000 would be his running mate of 2008.

But that wouldn't fly, as Team McCain learned when they took some soundings in the party. As much as much of the left hates Lieberman -- without whom, as Obama shrewdly realized, there would be no 60-vote Democratic majority in the Senate -- he is a dangerous liberal to the far right. Sure, he's a neo-Likudnik hawk. But beyond that he is essentially a moderate corporate liberal Democrat. And that is totally unacceptable to the Taliban of America's far right.

Other folks mentioned, the Rob Portman types, were largely unknown and were in no way game-changers.

For that was how the pick came to be framed.

Palin complains now that her brilliance was bottled up by Team McCain.

Most of what the McCain campaign did in the general election can be understood by understanding this: The presidency of the United States in 2008 was Barack Obama's to lose. That's the way the dynamics of history played out in 2008. If Obama became seen as a plausible president -- and McCain and his top people never bought the "birther" nonsense or the rest of the "Manchurian Candidate" fantasy so prevalent on the far right even today, though they played around with that fire -- and didn't make a big mistake, he would be the next president.

Unless they could alter the equation, distract from Obama's luster, trip him up. And they would need a big turnout of core conservative voters to be in the ballpark.

In that context, essentially a context of desperation -- and let's remember all the handwringing about Obama's chances amongst liberal Democrats going on throughout all this -- Sarah Palin made sense.

Except that she really didn't. Because she had no idea what she was talking about. Which is why I knew she was dead amongst independent voters, who don't necessarily like fancy credentials but demand basic knowledge.

And yet she really did make sense, very much so, politically, within the context of the Republican Party. Both through process of elimination -- see above -- and in terms of activating conservative activists and turning on grassroots conservative contributors.

I thought from the beginning she would backfire, and wrote it again after she gave her big speech at the Republican national convention, which had most pundits swooning. And that proved to be the case.

Palin brought a lot of energy -- mostly of the angry, backlash variety -- to the McCain ticket. But in the end, because of her fundamental ignorance and negativity, she made it impossible for McCain to win.

Now, let me say that I have always liked McCain. I don't agree with him on everything, to say the least, but I think he is a good man in a very flawed system.

I had hoped for a different sort of campaign between my favorite Democrat and my favorite Republican. That was too idealistic of me. For that sort of campaign would have guaranteed an Obama victory. Naturally, McCain decided not to play along, as, like most politicians, he would rather take a shot at winning than settle for an honorable defeat.

That also brought us Sarah Palin.

But what really made Palin the inevitable fluke that she is is the nature of the current Republican Party.

A once great party has turned into a neo-Confederate political party, looking for a very shallow, mean, dishonest, know-nothing version of Ronald Reagan. And in Sarah Palin, it has found it.

America doesn't buy her as a potential president. Especially after she bizarrely quit as governor of small state Alaska halfway through her only term.

But in a multi-candidate winner take all GOP primary scenario, she could definitely walk away with the party's presidential nomination. And in the meantime, her poisonous brand of charisma will continue to infect Republicans, meaning that all of national politics will continue to be infected with a vicious virus of dishonest, know-nothing hyper-partisanship.

You can check things during the day on my site, New West Notes ... www.newwestnotes.com.

David Frum: GOP Headed For "Bloodbath" In Florida

2009-11-17T08:33:18Z

Conservative David Frum wrote on CNN Monday night that Republicans are headed for a "spectacular bloodbath" in 2010.

The Republican fratricide in the Nov. 3 special election in upstate New York may prove just an opening round of an even more spectacular bloodbath in Florida in 2010.

In New York, Republican feuding lost the party a seat in the House of Representatives. At stake in Florida is not only a senatorship -- but very possibly Republican hopes for 2012 as well.

Frum points out that Marco Rubio, the conservative candidate challenging Gov. Charlie Crist for the Senate, has won an enthusiastic national following by opposing stimulus funds. He has the endorsement of the Club For Growth. But he's getting little support with actual Florida voters.

The race has already gotten heated -- at a GOP fundraiser, Rubio said, "It's very simple: We already have a Democratic Party in America. We do not need two Democratic parties in America." His campaign was cheered when the moderate Republican candidate dropped out of a special House election in New York because of a conservative challenger. That challenger lost to a Democrat in a district that has gone Republican since 1872.

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Castellanos Whacks Crist, Questions Palin's Appeal

2009-11-13T08:59:55Z

One of the Republican Party's most respected and relied-upon consultants has serious reservations about two the party's biggest names.

Alex Castellanos, a conservative media strategist and regular presence on CNN, raised questions of Sarah Palin's viability for office and took major swipes at Florida Senate candidate Charlie Crist during an appearance at Bloomberg News' Washington Summit Thursday.

The harshest lines were saved for Crist, who Castellanos said was not really a Republican.

"Nobody is running out the Charlie Crists of the world," Castellanos said, when asked about the shrinking GOP tent. "Look, if Barack Obama stood up tomorrow in the Democratic Party and said: 'I got a great idea. George Bush's tax cuts. They are terrific. They are the best thing ever. I'm for that.' What do you think would happen to him in the Democratic Party? He would have stepped out of the mainstream of the Democratic Party at that point. Charlie Crist happens to be the guy who stepped out of the mainstream of the Republican Party."

"The Republicans are actually very unified at this point," Castellanos added. "You see it, recently, in Florida, where the fella who is out of the mainstream is one guy. It happens to be the governor, unfortunately for him. But Marco Rubio [Crist's challenger for the Senate seat] and every Republican in the state doesn't quite understand why... the governor there voted to support this huge stimulus."

Crist, of course, never voted for the stimulus bill. He merely expressed appreciation for the help the president was providing his state. For that acknowledgment, he has been branded a heretic within the GOP. As for the Bush tax cuts, despite Castellanos' assertion, a dozen Senate Democrats did support the measure and none were seriously punished for it.

But Castellanos wasn't done throwing haymakers at fellow Republicans. Asked if former Gov. Sarah Palin, about to embark on a book tour, was she the future of the GOP, Castellanos was skeptical.

"[She's a] fascinating character and that is what the news loves to play," Castellanos observed. "I think [Obama] is stopping by Alaska as he begins this week-long trip to Asia. I don't think he is going to announce that he is resigning from politics," he said, in reference to Palin's abrupt resignation from office.

"I think it is going to be very tough for Sarah Palin, who has stepped back from the governorship under the explanation that her state would be better off without her, to now explain why the other 49 states would somehow be better off with her," he concluded.

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Hilary Kramer: Utilities Under Siege

2009-11-12T12:45:38Z

Utilities stocks were traditionally considered one of the best places for investors to put their money. Dividends were dependable and investors knew that these "boring" companies would always come through with consistent earnings. But now, many of these utilities are experiencing a double-whammy of financial and political pain.

Many utilities have suffered double-digit decreases in revenue simply because customers are losing their homes to foreclosure and small businesses are shutting down in historically record numbers. To make matters worse, these battered utilities have become hotbeds of controversy and political dog-fighting as politicians attempt to prevent these regulated utilities from raising rates.

For example, FPL Group, a regulated Florida-based electric utility, is embroiled in a soap opera-style battle with Florida Governor Charlie Crist. In order to protect their credit rating and embark on $16 billion in infrastructure upgrades and new projects, FPL requested what they consider to be an essential $1.3 billion rate increase.

Gov. Crist, trying to position himself as protecting Floridian's pocketbooks, responded to this request in an insidious, aggressive manner. Instead of reappointing two former regulators whose terms were expiring, he appointed two new commissioners to the Public Service Commission (PSC). Benjamin Stevens, the former chief financial officer for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office, happens also to be the 50 percent owner of Rick's Cabana Lounge, a nightclub in Pensacola that features strippers and dominatrix entertainment. Stevens is also listed as the owner of Ben Bartows Bar LLC, which shares the same exact address as the sex club.

David Klement, the other new member of the regulatory board now salaried at $520,000 over the next four years, is a former editorial page editor for the Bradenton Herald.

Even surrounding the original remaining four board members, there is controversy. Perhaps the most egregious commissioner in this whole debacle is Nancy Argenziano. She and Gov. Crist are of like mind when it comes to FPL. It was recently revealed that she sent thousands of text messages over the past two months which are based on or reveal proprietary and confidential information about cases before the regulatory board. The Associated Industries of Florida has called for an investigation, saying that the "discovery of thousands of private [text] messages suggest Commissioner [Argenziano] violated oath, law and PSC standards on numerous occasions."

Overall, the outcries regarding Gov. Crist's interference in rate regulators' decision-making has caused outcries from the blogs of Florida to Wall Street. "Political intervention in the utility regulatory process is detrimental to credit quality, sometimes resulting in adverse rate case outcomes. In some cases, this has led to multi-notch credit rating downgrades of utilities in states where this has occurred," writes Moody's analyst Michael Haggerty in a recent report.

The "heightened rate case risk" has also led to a number of somber analyst reports and credit downgrades from utility analysts. Atlantic Securities lowered their target price on FPL shares to $47 citing a "disappointing outcome" to the rate case and citing that even FPL describes the regulatory environment as "vitriolic."

Earlier this week, just as President Obama was flipping the "on" switch at FPL's DeSoto solar plant in central Florida, Gov. Crist won his fight to delay the vote on the rate case until January 11 of 2010 - the time when both new appointees will have already been officially sworn in.

On October 27, Citi's utility analyst, Brian Chin, wrote that he expects FPL's shares to "underperform" and that "the extension of the timeline keeps the door open for further politics to be injected in the case and the outcome of the rate case now becomes subject to the judgment of two new and untested commissioners who were appointed by a state governor entering a political race."

FPL isn't the only utility struggling with their regulators, either. Progress Energy, another Florida utility regulated by the same board, has asked for a $500 million rate increase. This will be decided at the same time as the FPL decision in January.

Pinnacle West, an Arizona-based utility, is another example of a company that has struggled with their rate regulators. Pinnacle West currently has a proposed settlement with their regulators which requires a rate freeze until mid-2012. This creates some relief on the part of Wall Street analysts such as JP Morgan's Stefka Gerova, who now believes Pinnacle West may be able to avoid "contentious regulatory proceedings for the next two and a half years." However, there is serious concern that modifications to the proposal - a possibility given the current climate - will harm Pinnacle West's financial status and health.

All of these situations has weighed heavily on the stock price of these utilities. FPL has seen their shares fall from a 2009 high of $60.61 on July 24th to a low of $50.75 on Thursday, November 12th.

Energy regulators in this country should be guardians of the public trust and competent enough to ensure our long-term energy needs are met. In many of these recent cases, it appears neither is true. In the end, the story always ends the same. When strip club owners get to set rates for utilities, it's a safe bet that businesses can't flourish and customers won't be served effectively. And, worst of all, the taxpayers will foot the bill.

Obama Appointments: This Day In Pointless Obstruction

2009-11-12T11:17:06Z

If you thought that the filibuster was the only means by which senators could engage themselves in self-indulgent and pointless political warfare, think again! There's also the hold procedure, by which individual senators can obstruct an executive branch appointment just because they feel like it.

The most recent example is the case of Tom Shannon, a former Bush State Department appointee who has been appointed to serve as the Ambassador to Brazil by President Obama. For reasons that defy understanding, Senator George LeMieux (R-Fla.) has decided to place a hold on Shannon, because, as Dave Weigel reports, he needs to "discuss [his] concerns" and "fully vet him." This follows a long hold placed on Shannon by Jom DeMint (R-S.C.), who did so in order to show his displeasure with the administration's approach to Venezuela and Honduras.

Matt Yglesias weighs in:

Neither DeMint nor LeMieux invented the abuse of the hold procedure, but the Republican Party of the 111th congress has taken this to such new heights that it's about time the Senate take some responsibility and start organizing itself like a legislative body of an important country and not like a country club. The ability for one senator to delay confirmation of key executive branch personnel indefinitely for no real reason has never been a good idea. At times, this power has been abused to advance policy goals I believe in. Oftentimes it's used to advance bad policy goals. More recently, it just seems to be being used as a matter of principle--maximum feasible obstruction. It needs to be changed.

There's a certain amount of irony involved in LeMieux placing a hold on Shannon, since LeMieux is only in the Senate because Florida Governor Charlie Crist wanted to "place a hold" on that Senate seat.

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Susan J. Demas: How Sarah Palin and Tea Partiers Are Blowing Up the GOP

2009-11-09T13:20:31Z

Wingnuts of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but election ... after election ... after election.

That's the lesson from the far right's stinging defeat in yet another Republican congressional district this week. Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman harangued GOP Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava into dropping out -- hailed as a huge victory for Real Republicans -- and then the clueless teabagger-cum-carpetbagger went on to lose the upstate New York seat to a little-known Democrat.

Brilliant strategy.

But it's one we've seen from Republicans over and over again, thanks to the shadowy anti-tax group Club for Growth. Its first scalp was in Michigan -- moderate former U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz (R-Battle Creek), who was ousted by preacher Tim Walberg in the 2006 primary.

For the extreme right, victory was sweet. And short-lived.

Walberg managed to do two years later what Republicans thought impossible when they carved out the 57-percent GOP district -- relinquish it to a Democrat. And not some Blue Dog, Dem-come-lately, but Mark Schauer, the pro-choice minority leader of the state Senate with a penchant for voting for tax hikes.

But that was just the beginning. Obsessed with hunting RINOs (Republicans in Name Only), CFG has bagged an impressive list, including U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), U.S. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.), U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.) and now Scozzafava.

There's just one problem. All of these seats are now held by Democrats, who thank their lucky stars that there are 40,000 gullible conservative ideologues willing to bankroll a group that's done almost as much to help their cause as silver-tongued President Obama.

So what is Club for Growth, really? Think of it as the spiritual godfather of the Tea Party movement -- they were baggin' before baggin' was cool (and sponsored by Fox News).

Officials claim ad nauseum, as President Chris Chocola did recently to The Atlantic, that there's no litmus test on social issues, but that seems laughable. It's worth noting that both he and former CFG Chief Pat Toomey (whose greatest accomplishment is turning Sen. Arlen Specter into a Democrat) were religious right darlings in Congress.

Like Hoffman and Walberg, Club-endorsed candidates almost unfailingly are anti-abortion hard-liners who will rant about the evils of gay marriage all day long if you ask. Besides CFG, their biggest backers are Right to Life, the Minuteman groups and gun-rights organizations who (coincidentally, of course) all launch strikingly similar attacks.

Hoffman went into Tuesday the odds-on favorite. Pundits were already crowning him the Tea Party King and a sign of impending doom for the Dems next year. Club for Growth officials puffed up their chests let it be known that they were a-comin' for GOP Gov. Charlie Crist down in Florida.

But a funny thing happened. Hoffman lost, thanks in no small part to Scozzafava's endorsement of Democrat Bill Owens (just as Schauer can thank Schwarz for his seat).

But you'd never know it from the alternate-reality universe of the extreme right. Erick Erickson of Redstate.com immediately declared Owens' win a "huge victory for conservatives."

Yes, there's nothing like the convoluted wisdom of someone who fails to realize Orwell was being ironic in "1984" with the slogan, "Ignorance is strength."

But no one can top the scatological acrobatics of Rush Limbaugh, who accused Scozzafava of "widespread bestiality," adding that she's "screwed every RINO in the country." Now that's quality programming for the family values set.

Of course, it was the rabid, pitchfork-waving horde of Rush, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey and the once-respectable Tim Pawlenty that screwed the party here. Blather all you want that Scozzafava and Owens are one and the same, but those of us in the real world know that the average member of Congress will vote with his or her party at least 80 percent of time.

Ronald Reagan knew that. But then again, he was interested in winning and governing, not leading a conservative circle jerk.

Club for Growth is uncowed, ready for jihad against Crist, Carly Fiorina in the California Senate race and a host of other Republicans whom leaders deem insufficiently batty. Being fundamentally nihilistic, CFG disciples don't care if they lose 10 races, so long as they eventually win one.

Their intimidation campaign is working. Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele quickly warned the anemic GOP minority in Congress to "walk a little bit carefully" on votes. Translation: Vote for ideology, not your districts' interests or feel the purge, baby.

Although centrist Illinois U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk knows he'll never get the Club's blessing for Obama's old Senate seat, he's scrambling to lock down an early Palin endorsement to inoculate himself against right-wing venom. It's a curious twist, since when the Chicago Tribune asked him in '08 if the sassy former Wasilla mayor (population 6,700) was qualified to be a heartbeat from the presidency, Kirk sagely replied, "Quite frankly, I don't know."

This is a game moderates are bound to lose. The deck is stacked against them in primaries dominated by pro-lifers and Tea Partiers. They exercise outsize influence, not just because their obnoxiousness makes for good tee-vee, but because centrists inexplicably don't vote in primaries.

But reality sets in come the general election, when extremists are a minority -- and typically a small one at that. Suddenly, reasonable Republicans and independents come out of the woodwork. And to the spoils go the Democrats, who look comparatively sane.

There is a way for moderates to fight back, but it's a nuclear option. Why not let CFG puppets take GOP primaries and then run well-known moderates as independents in the general? They might not win, but they'd at least guarantee the Kool-Aid drinkers would go down.

Bet that would grab the party poobahs' attention. Kind of hard to ignore folks with their finger on the button.

Feds Raid Offices Of Florida Lawyer And Political Booster Scott Rothstein

2009-11-05T17:15:32Z

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal agents seized computers, bank and investment records, cash and even the key to a Ferrari during an all-night search at the office of an attorney suspected of operating a massive fraud scheme.

The firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, released a 10-page list of items taken by FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents who completed their search at 5 a.m. Thursday at the Fort Lauderdale office. More than 40 boxes of records were seized.

Crist Denies Stimulus Support

2009-11-05T09:50:33Z

(AP) TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Charlie Crist is saying he did not endorse the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, a statement that might confuse some voters.

Crist appeared with President Barack Obama in February to support the bill, asked Florida members of Congress to vote for it and previously told The Associated Press that he would have voted for it if he had been in the Senate.

But when the Republican governor talked about the bill Wednesday on CNN, he said he didn't endorse it. Crist told CNN he understood that the bill was going to pass and wanted to use it for the benefit of Florida.

Crist has tried to distance himself from Obama and the stimulus bill since entering the 2010 Senate race in the spring.

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Club For Growth Hunts Republicans Who "Don't Fit The Bill"

2009-11-03T17:28:03Z

After pumping more than $1 million into an upstate New York House race to elect the Conservative Party's Doug Hoffman, the Club for Growth is on the hunt again.

Chris Chocola, president of the conservative political action committee, made it clear the PAC is looking for more GOP targets who don't embrace the Club's limited-government approach.

Jonathan Kim: ReThink Review: Outrage -- One Reason Why the Bird/Shepard Hate Crimes Act Took So Long

2009-11-03T15:48:07Z

How do you get republicans, who take such pride in their talent for "supporting the troops" and "defending America", to vote against a defense bill in the midst of two wars? Make it a defense bill that defends gay people!

That's right -- 35 republican senators voted against the defense bill because it contained a provision called the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would make it a federal hate crime to assault someone based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity. This legislation has languished in Congress since 1998, the year that Shepard, a gay Wyoming college student, was kidnapped, tortured and killed by two men because he was gay. That same year, Byrd, a 49-yr-old black man, was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to death by white supremacists.

Republican-controlled Congresses during the Clinton and Bush Jr. administrations (along with the threat of a Bush Jr. veto) kept this legislation from a presidential signature, which still had to be attached to this year's defense bill to ensure it wouldn't be blocked by a republican filibuster.

Why do repubs hate this hate crimes bill so much that they would risk their "I support the troops!" credentials by voting against it? Their justifications have ranged from the hypocritical (abuse of Senate procedure) to the nonsensical (being gay is a choice, whereas religion is not) to the irrational (the bill will prosecute "thought crimes").

But the main reason is because hatred/fear of gays is running neck-and-neck with hatred/fear of government for the most defining, unifying characteristic of the "modern" republican party. Gay marriage or anything that would lead to increased acceptance of gay people is considered unacceptable and a danger to America. This was perhaps best exemplified by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) who claimed that the Shepard/Bird hate crimes bill would lead to legalized necrophilia, bestiality, pedophilia, and somehow, Nazism (though Gohmert is not the first republican to make these comparisons). It has been the repub party's go-to surefire way to energize their base and get them to the polls.

That's right -- as this latest vote proves, republicans now hate gays more than they love militarism and love pretending they give a damn about soldiers.

How did the republicans get this way? Don't they have any gay friends or colleagues who could set them straight (no pun)? As Kirby Dick's excellent 2009 documentary Outrage shows, they probably do, whether they be gay staffers, members of the media, or even fellow repub congressmen. But as the film points out, many of these gay republicans are so profoundly closeted that they attempt to disguise their sexuality by fighting against every piece of legislation that could be construed as helping gay people, from gay marriage to gay couples being allowed to adopt to the Shepard/Bird hate crimes act. By doing this, these closeted repubs effectively distort the debate on gay rights because their votes have little to do with justice or sound policy analysis and everything to do with their own shame, hypocrisy, and the GOP's desire to pander to their homophobic base.

Watch my ReThink Review of Outrage below.

For more political movie reviews, visit ReThinkReviews.net.

Matt Mackowiak: Crist's Senate Candidacy Undercut by Claims, Power Grab

2009-10-29T16:34:45Z

As
the open U.S. Senate race in Florida heats up, the record of incumbent Governor
Charlie Crist is rightly being examined by the news media, conservative
activists and Florida voters.

The
deeper one digs into his record, the more skeptical they become.

While
Crist once rode sky-high approval ratings, today he’s facing fire from all
sides as unemployment in Florida has reached 11 percent, the housing bubble
burst in South Florida, and the state faces a bleak economic picture. Meanwhile, the state’s Chief Executive has
his eye on another office.

With
the surging candidacy of Florida Speaker of the House Marco Rubio (R-FL), Gov. Crist
recently moved his Gubernatorial Chief of Staff over to manage his U.S. Senate
campaign. With this decision, it’s clear
where Gov. Crist’s priorities lie.

Conservative
columnist Reihan Salam recently wrote in Forbes magazine
that Gov. Crist may be “America’s worst Governor.”

In
recent weeks, we have seen two important examples of Crist’s dubious claims and
self-dealing.

First,
in an attempt to shore up his conservative credentials, Crist utilized his huge
cash advantage to air radio advertisements 11 months before the primary. In the ad, Crist claims to have cut
government spending by 10 percent ($7 billion) is his first term.

But
a fact
check by the St.
Petersburg Times called Crist’s claims “barely true,” given that the State
Constitution requires a balanced budget and with the Florida economy
contracting Crist had no choice and little to do with the cuts.

About
Crists’s claims, Florida TaxWatch CEO Dominic Calabro said, “This is not a
concerted effort on the part of our Governor and Legislature to cut the
budget. It’s because of the worst
economy Florida has had since the Great Depression.”

Second,
apart from the Florida economy, Gov. Crist has also clumsily attempted to stack
the deck of an independent regulatory body to overturn a likely agency decision
that he disagreed with.

Gov.
Crist announced on October 1 that he was denying a request for re-appointment
of two members of the five-member Public Service Commission (PSC), which
oversee the public utilities in Florida, and instead deciding to “clean house”
and appoint two new members of the board in the middle of complicated hearings.

This
announcement, viewed independently, falls within his powers as the Governor.

But
the PSC was in the midst of considering rate requests, the first in two
decades, from two utilities, which they claim will increase efficiency and
result in cleaner, stronger and smarter energy infrastructure in this rapidly
growing state. Also at stake are the
credit ratings of both utilities if their cash flow is not maintained through
their rate increase proposal.

The
notification of the proposed rate appeal, which requires approval from the PSC
to take effect, was first made in late 2008 as the existing rate term expires
at the end of 2009.

With
explosive population growth and the need to foster economic development,
Florida should be particularly sensitive to ensuring that their infrastructure
is meeting their needs. But at the heart
of this case is the long and combative relationship Gov. Crist has with the
Florida utilities. In 2005, as Attorney
General he challenged a rate hike for new power plants and maintenance. In 2006, at the last minute, he made known
his opposition to a utility request for customers to cover storm costs, which
resulted in a partial denial from the PSC and reduced earnings.

One
reasonable question to ask: why did the Governor appoint two new members in
October for board seats that would not be available until Jan. 1?

It
appears that Gov. Crist, who publicly opposes the proposed rate changes,
attempted to sideline two current members of the PSC with the hope that it would
affect votes set for Nov. 19 and Dec. 21, before their terms expire. One of the board members resigned immediately
and now Gov. Crist put his selected applicant in place before the November vote.

On
Oct. 2, Gov. Crist even asked the PSC to delay their rate case decision until
his appointees took office in January. On
Oct. 27, the PSC agreed to Crist’s demand and will delay the rate decisions
until at least Jan. 4.

Besides
the suspicious timing of the appointments and the delay sought, Gov. Crist then
tried to claim that the question of rate increases was never brought up before
he announced his two new appointees, David E. Klement and Benjamin “Steve” Stevens.

According
to the Orlando Sentinel, Gov. Crist said he did not pose any
rate-increase litmus test questions to Klement or Stevens, though he has
clearly and publicly signaled his desired outcome. "I did not pose that
question," he said. Such a
statement requires willing suspension of disbelief.

This case may have a chilling
effect in Florida. Government officials,
even those at independent regulatory bodies, must toe the line of the Governor
or risk being professionally embarrassed, undermined or passed over.

"I think it's no accident that all these
shenanigans and sideshows are happening because we have these two rate
cases," PSC Chairman Matthew Carter has said.

In choosing to run for the U.S. Senate seat
before completing his first term as Governor, Charlie Crist has brought
scrutiny, pressure, and examination onto his record of public service.

And while many Washington Republicans initially
backed Crist for political reasons, they now have cause for worry about the
Governor’s political prospects.

Matt Mackowiak is an Austin
and Washington, D.C.-based GOP political and communications consultant and
founder of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC, and was Press Secretary to two U.S.
Senators from 2005-2009.

Downfall Parody Injects Confusion, Offense Into Crist/Rubio Race

2009-10-29T13:16:31Z

I crossed paths today with a news report from CBS Channel 4 in South Florida that was headlined, "Video Portrays Charlie Crist As Hitler." Immediately, I thought the worst: that I was about to read yet another story of conservative extremists -- recently given to painting Hitler 'staches all over the people and places and things they didn't like, in the eloquent dialogue of Beckian outrage -- had declared Charlie Cristallnacht!

Reporter Tim Kephart teed up the report thusly:

Given the state of politics in America, it's not surprising that the vile face of Hitler has been injected into the race for Florida's soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat. Florida Governor Charlie Crist and former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio are vying for the seat and a new YouTube video is portraying the sitting governor as Adolf Hitler.

But while such contemporary invocations of Hitler are cheap and vile and constant enough to warrant a reminder of Godwin's Law, the mention of a "YouTube video" suggested to me that the piece was about to take a turn. And sure enough, it did:

The video uses video footage from the movie, Downfall, which was released in 2005. The movie was a docu-drama about the last ten days of Adolf Hitler's life. It showed his madness as the Allied powers closed in around Berlin like a vice in late April of 1945.

WATCH:

Ahh. Okay. Wait a minute. This reporter is missing some context. While the news has been filled all year with talk of Hitler comparisons of the worst sort, parody videos involving the movie Downfall are another beast entirely. As they say, KNOW YOUR MEME! And so, here's Virginia Heffernan, meme-knower of the New York Times, to explain:

On YouTube, we're in a bunker, and the enemies are always, always closing in. The ceilings are low. The air is stifling. A disheveled leader is delusional.

This is the premise of more than 100 videos on the Web -- the work of satirists who for years have been snatching video and audio from "Downfall," the 2004 German movie of Hitler's demise, and doctoring it to tell a range of stories about personal travails and world politics. By adding new English-language subtitles, they transform the movie's climactic scene, in which Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz) rails against his enemies and reluctantly faces his defeat, into the generic story of a rabid blowhard brought low.

In the original scene, Hitler is told that his reign of power is over; he then deafens himself to reality, eloquently savages everyone who cost him his dreams, vows revenge and finally resigns himself to private grief. The homemade spoofs plug into this transformation just about any hubristic entity that might come undone: the subtitles speak to the plight of governments, soccer teams, football teams, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Adam Sandler.

The meme of the parodies -- the cultural kernel of them, the part that's contagious and transmissible -- has proved surprisingly hardy, almost unnervingly so. It seems that late-life Hitler can be made to speak for almost anyone in the midst of a crisis.

And recently, Constantin Films, which produced Downfall attempted to get YouTube to take down the many extant parodies under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (which led Electronic Frontier Foundation's Brad Templeton to produce his own Downfall parody, parodying Constantin's effort).

Now, Heffernan readily admits that the videos, for some, "can be hard to take." And understandably so! They call to mind Adolf Hitler, for example! Heffernan's Times colleague Robert Mackey has reported on how these parodies tend to offend Holocaust survivors. The Los Angeles Times's Robert Lloyd, noting that the meme "continue a tradition of trivializing an evil man," rightly states that a parody is only as sharp as the mind behind it:

Like most every other tool, venue or network on the Internet, the Hitler meme adapts itself to a host of contradictory uses and opinions; it serves the insightful as well as the random, the righteous along with the wrongheaded, the clever with the stupid.

But the many Downfall parodists have, in Heffernan's words, transformed the original into "a closeted Hitler comedy" over time. And all things being equal, the proper read of the parody isn't that the parodist is making a one-to-one comparison between the subject of the spoof and Hitler, but rather comparing the unraveling of someone's real grand plan, with the over-the-top melodrama of Ganz's portrayal of Hitler, as his plan unravels in the movie.

None of which excuses the fact that anytime Hitler is invoked, there will be people who take offense. And none of that precludes the possibility that this parodist actually thinks of Charlie Crist as a Hitler figure. But the reporter has made no attempt to divine whether or not that's true, and there's no extant information on the producer of the Crist/Downfall video that offers a clue, in any case. But, barring future revelations, I think the fairest take on the matter is that the intent here is not to say Crist=Hitler, but rather, to make a situational comparison between Crist and the scene from Downfall (and, by the way, if you watch the video carefully, it doesn't really read like some piece of agitprop from the Rubio campaign, which has, for its part, denounced the parody). Journalistically speaking, the story is an example of the way Internet memes exist in a world of their own and disseminate themselves along their own specific vectors, and this makes them difficult to discern by reporters who aren't immersed in the culture.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Crist, Obama Hug Haunting Florida Governor In Senate Primary

2009-10-25T08:52:36Z

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republican Gov. Charlie Crist probably wasn't worried that literally embracing President Barack Obama back in February and strongly supporting the $787 billion federal stimulus package would hurt his U.S. Senate campaign.

Sure, the hardcore party base wasn't happy, but the appearance was an opportunity to win over Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans who voted for Obama. The president's approval ratings were high, and any Republican thinking about running for an open seat in 2010 stopped thinking about it when Crist signaled interest.

Senate Guru: Marco Rubio Will Defeat Charlie Crist in the 2010 GOP Senate Primary

2009-10-23T20:22:55Z

[Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru.]

First, conservative Republican former state House Speaker Marco Rubio handed Charlie Crist embarrassment after embarrassment by obliterating Crist in numerous straw polls across Florida, confirming that Florida's conservative Republican base overwhelmingly prefers Rubio to Crist as their nominee, no matter what the DC GOP establishment and NRSC might try to dictate to Florida Republicans.

Second, Rubio shattered expectations by raising about a million dollars in the third fundraising quarter of 2009, demonstrating his campaign's viability.

And now, them polls are tightening:

Rasmussen Reports

	August 2009	October 2009
Charlie Crist	53	49
Marco Rubio	31	35
Crist Lead	22	14

In just two months, according to Rasmussen, Rubio cut Crist's lead by about one-third and pulled Crist under 50%. But maybe that's not enough data points for you.

Quinnipiac University

	February 2009	April 2009	June 2009	August 2009	October 2009
Charlie Crist	53	54	54	55	50
Marco Rubio	3	8	23	26	35
Crist Lead	50	46	31	29	15

According to Quinnipiac, in two-month intervals between February and October, Crist's lead over Rubio has sunk from 50 to 46 to 31 to 29 to 15.

Crist should be awfully worried. And he is. He is going to lose the 2010 Republican Senate primary to conservative underdog Marco Rubio.

Tea-Party Activists Complicate Republican Comeback Strategy

2009-10-16T08:17:15Z

The rise of conservative "tea party" activists around the country has created a dilemma for Republicans. They are breathing life into the party's quest to regain power. But they're also waging war on some candidates hand-picked by GOP leaders as the most likely to win.

In upstate New York, Dede Scozzafava, 49 years old, is the choice of local party leaders to defend a Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, an abortion-rights candidate who could appeal to independents. Doug Hoffman, 59, is a local accountant backed by tea-party activists who has jumped into the race declaring himself the real conservative.

Tea Partiers Turn On GOP Leadership

2009-10-12T09:44:20Z

The grassroots anti-tax, anti-government movement sweeping through Republicans nationwide is proving a thorn in the side of the national party as the loose coalition known as "tea partiers" or "tea party protesters" draft guerrilla candidates to take on GOP-approved incumbents.

Senate Guru: More Indications of Charlie Crist's Vulnerability

2009-09-14T13:10:08Z

{Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru.}

About two weeks ago, I wrote a post entitled "FL-Sen: Marco Rubio Crushing Charlie Crist Among Florida Republican Grassroots." I went through seven Republican County Committees in Florida that have either censured Gov. Charlie Crist, come very close to censuring Charlie Crist, or held a straw poll in which Gov. Crist was crushed by his 2010 Republican Senate primary opponent, conservative former state House Speaker Marco Rubio. While Crist enjoys the higher profile, heftier fundraising, and backing of the Republican establishment in Washington D.C., it's clear that significant resentment toward Crist exists among Florida's grassroots conservatives.

No matter how much money Crist raises (and he will considerably outraise Rubio), nothing can change the fact that die-hard conservatives in Florida neither like nor trust nor support Crist. If Rubio can adequately mobilize these conservatives and build their ranks by effectively highlighting where Crist dumps overboard conservative ideological orthodoxy, Crist can lose the primary. Finally, the traditional media is beginning to take notice.

Julie Farby: The Higher Power of Those in Power

2009-09-08T16:57:13Z

For a country founded firmly on the separation of church and state, America's colorful flock of lawmakers and politicians sure know a thing or two about God almighty. Especially when it comes to asking his Holiness for all sorts of favors to help them in their mortal quests (whatever they may be).

Like hunky Florida Governor Charlie Crist whose close, personal relationship with God may or may not be what's responsible for keeping Florida safe from hurricanes and other scary storms since he took office in 2006.

Of course, Crist isn't trying to take credit for this miraculous phenomenon or anything (he'll leave that to God), but it just so happens that he's had prayer notes placed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem (the holiest Jewish place in the world!) each year he's been in office and not a single hurricane has dared hit Florida since.

Coincidence? I think not!

"Do you know the last time it was we had a hurricane in Florida?" Crist asked a group of real estate agents. "It's been awhile. In 2007, I took my first trade mission. Do you know where I went?"

To Israel, duh! Where he high-tailed it straight to the Western Wall to insert his personal note to the Creator to save Florida from nature's evil wrath.

"Dear God, please protect our Florida from storms and other difficulties. Charlie."

But that's not it! Every time someone, anyone, he knows goes to Israel, like Sen. Nan Rich last year and "a friend" this year, Charlie gives them a note -- but not just any note, mind you. The SAME note with the SAME prayer as when he first tucked Florida's well-being in her holy cracks back in '07.

"You can do it on the Internet now, but I'd rather have it physically in there," Crist joked. He had decidedly less to say on the one golden rule religious leaders have about how "the note placed between the stones of the Western Wall are between a person and his maker. It is forbidden to read them or make use of them." Ugh, Rabbis can be so particular sometimes!

Who knows God's mysterious ways better than Minnesota's own deranged messenger of divinity, Michele Bachmann, whose presidential hopes depend on none other than the Supreme Being himself?

"If I felt that's what the Lord was calling me to do, I would do it," she said. "When I have sensed that the Lord is calling me to do something, I've said yes to it. But I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it."

What a gal! But some heretics and godless Democrats say this unstable GOP wonder woman doesn't have a prayer in hell to make it on the national political scene, but then again they don't have a personal relationship with El Savior now do they?

"They want to make sure no women, no woman becomes president before a Democrat woman and so they’re doing everything they can to, I think, sabotage women like Sarah Palin, perhaps women like myself, or similarly situated women, to make sure that we don’t have a prominent national voice."

Hey, no worries Michele. You know better than anyone that God will decide which crazy lady gets to be lady-president first, not a bunch of stupid voters (who know nothing of HIS work anyway).

Just look at Sarah Palin. She's not worried about such small, earthly concerns. Why would she be? Not when she has preacher Bishop Thomas Muthee of the Wasilla Assembly of God church protecting her from un-American threats like goblins, demons and "every form of witchcraft."

"Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold," Sarah said. "And he was praying 'Lord make a way, Lord make a way' ... He said, 'Lord make a way and let her do this next step.' And that's exactly what happened."

It did! Except for the little fact that not even the main man himself (praise his name!) could save a certain elderly running mate from being embarrassed by an uppity young man named Barack Hussein Obama and his devoted throng of pious voters.

During a presidential rally for John McCain last October, Rev. Arnold Conrad called upon the good Lord to get involved in the campaign because, "There are millions of people around this world praying to their God -- whether it's Hindu, Buddha, Allah -- that his [McCain’s] opponent wins for a variety of reasons...And Lord I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you would step forward and honor your own name in all that happens between now and Election Day."

Hmmm. Guess he must have gotten Him on Sunday.

Senate Guru: Marco Rubio Crushing Charlie Crist Among Florida GOP Grassroots

2009-09-02T12:01:59Z

{Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru.}

The most telling polling item I have seen in 2009 regarding the 2010 Republican Senate primary between Gov. Charlie Crist and conservative former state House Speaker Marco Rubio is the following tidbit from a late-June Mason-Dixon poll:

Among Republican voters who recognize both candidates, 33 percent back Crist and 31 percent back Rubio.

Crist has been acknowledged to have near-universal name recognition among Floridians, while Rubio is working to introduce himself to many voters - even many Republicans - for the first time. However, among Republicans who know both men, we have a statistical dead heat. This bodes well for Rubio, indicating that, as he increases his name ID, he will continue to sap support from Crist and even things up.

Consider who would know both men best: the Republican grassroots of Florida, the activists who work to get these men elected. Among these activists, these voters most in-the-know, Rubio actually crushes Charlie Crist. The rundown so far:

Pasco County, June 2009:

[Rubio] won a straw poll, 73-9, at a meeting of the Pasco County Republican Party, which backed Crist in a rare primary endorsement in 2006.

Lee County, July 2009:

Last weekend the Lee County Republican executive committee held an informal "straw poll," and Rubio beat Crist by a 7-to-1 margin, similar to a recent Pasco GOP straw poll.

Highlands County, July 2009:

If Republican Executive Committees decided statewide primary elections, Charlie Crist's senate campaign would be in big trouble. The Pasco and Lee county RECs have held informal straw polls lately, where Marco Rubio blew away Crist among the party faithful. Last night, the Highlands GOP held their own vote that produced 75 votes for Rubio and one for Crist.

Bay County, August 2009:

Rubio got 23 votes; Gov. Charlie Crist received two votes, and two members voted for none of the above. Despite having the formal endorsement of the Republican Party of Florida, Crist has not faired well in REC straw polls statewide, a possible indication that he has not won over the party faithful.

Volusia County, August 2009:

Volusia County's Republican Executive Committee voted this month for a motion to censure Crist for bucking the GOP on issues varying from the stimulus to judicial appointments to his choice for a Southeast Volusia Hospital District Board vacancy.

Palm Beach County, August 2009:

A motion to censure Gov. Charlie Crist for bucking the GOP on a variety of issues failed tonight on a 65-to-65 vote at a Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee meeting, our Jennifer Sorentrue reports.

Broward County, August 2009:

Leaders of the Broward Republican Party blocked, at least temporarily, a move Monday night to have an internal party straw poll between the party's candidates for U.S. Senate.

The effort was pushed by supporters of former House Speaker Marco Rubio, who is competing with Gov. Charlie Crist for the nomination, and resulted in the most raucous Republican Party gathering in years.

The discussion was marked by shouting and angry words between Chairman Chip LaMarca and Rubio fans that wanted a straw poll.

Broward Republicans have been big supporters of Crist's, and Rubio supporters figured that conservative dissatisfaction with the moderate Republican governor might give their candidate a chance to embarrass the governor by besting him in a poll of Republican committeemen and committeewomen.

LaMarca opposed the effort, arguing it would be tantamount to an endorsement from the county party, which he said would be divisive.

LaMarca was deeply involved in the Broward Republican Party's endorsement of Crist over Tom Gallagher in the 2006 gubernatorial primary. LaMarca was the one who made the motion to endorse Crist.

This has been Charlie Crist's summer, getting crushed by Rubio time and time again and facing rebuke after rebuke by Republicans at the local level. To recap:

Pasco County: Rubio wins, 73-9
Lee County: Rubio wins, "7-to-1 margin"
Highlands County: Rubio wins, 75-1
Bay County: Rubio wins, 23-2
Volusia County: GOP Committee censures Crist
Palm Beach County: GOP Committee almost censures Crist as motion fails on a 65-65 tie, still a stinging rebuke
Broward County: GOP Committee attempts a straw poll, blocked only by Crist acolyte eager to avoid embarrassment for Crist

Overwhelmingly, Republican Party activists in Florida prefer Marco Rubio to Charlie Crist, with disapproval for Crist and his policies being so strong that motions to censure Crist either succeed or only narrowly fail by the smallest of margins. These are the voters that know both Crist and Rubio best. Do you wonder why the Rubio camp is able to proceed with optimism in the face of statewide polls giving Crist a clear advantage?

The only question is whether or not the Rubio camp's organization will be effective enough to translate this clear-cut support (and broad discontent with Crist) into a sufficiently strong grassroots army to counter Crist's fundraising advantage and Washington D.C. establishment support. If Rubio does (and I think he can), a major upset may be in the works.

Charlie Crist: God Kept Hurricanes Away From Florida

2009-08-21T16:02:27Z

Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) is really taking his appeals to the state's religious right to a new level, in his campaign for Senate.

Town Hall reports that Crist was speaking to a group of real estate agents, and credited prayer notes in the Western Wall in Jerusalem with preventing his state from being hit by hurricanes during his time as governor.

Crist Touts Health Reform With Tenth Of A Percent Success Rate

2009-08-09T09:30:50Z

A success rate of less than a tenth of a percent might not sound like much, but to Gov. Charlie Crist it's campaign-trail bragging material for healthcare reform.

Crist's new Cover Florida healthcare proposal has signed up only 3,757 people in a state with nearly four million uninsured. Meantime, an estimated 77,250 Floridians have lost health-insurance coverage since Cover Florida began releasing statistics in March.

Dan Sweeney: Idle Speculation: Mel Martinez Is Retiring Early Because He Supports Marco Rubio

2009-08-07T12:10:40Z

Word just came down the wire that Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who had already announced that he wouldn't run for re-election, is stepping down early. My first reaction to this news was, WTF? It makes no sense. None at all. The senator offered the usual explanation for such out-of-left-field moves in politics: "My priorities have always been my faith, my family and my country, and at this stage in my life, and after nearly 12 years of public service in Florida and Washington, it's time I return to Florida and my family," he wrote.

But, come on now, who believes that crap anymore? No one actually steps down because of "faith" or to "spend more time with family" or "the fishing is good this time of year" or "I've got this '69 Camaro Rally Sport fastback on cinder blocks in my garage, and I'd really like to get around to restoring it." Or whatever the lame, half-hearted excuse. None of them make any sense, and what's worse, in this day and age, when the electorate is more informed than ever, these excuses insult our intelligence.

So, what's the point here? Well, when I ask "cui bono?" I come up with a pretty good explanation. With Martinez retiring, it will be up to Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for Martinez's Senate seat, to name a replacement. This puts Crist in an impossible position. If he puts in some drooling, mindless supporter who will serve out the term and then leave the seat open for Crist himself in 2010, he looks like a conniving, Machiavellian politician. If he puts in a competent politician, said politico will want the seat for himself in 2010. And of course, if he nominates himself, he comes off looking like a jackass. There's no good option.

And that, of course, is great news for Marco Rubio, the former House Speaker of the Florida state legislature who is running for Martinez's seat as well, competing against Crist in the Republican primary by running to his right. Rubio has already picked up the endorsements of far-right politicians like Jim DeMint and Mike Huckabee, but with Martinez's early retirement, he may just have picked up his most important endorsement yet.

Update: One thing I certainly should have mentioned in this piece -- Martinez said a couple months ago that he supported Crist.

GOP Leader Blasts Charlie Crist For Skipping Funeral To Fundraise

2009-08-05T09:42:30Z

Gov. Charlie Crist attended the Tuesday memorial for Sen. Jim King in Tallahassee, but by then, it was almost too late for some of the former Republican senate president's close friends. Crist was a no-show at King's Jacksonville funeral over the weekend. Crist was in Aspen Colorado, where he attended a fundraiser for his already-well-funded U.S. Senate campaign. (Crist said he also had a family engagement, but didn't elaborate.)

Charlie Crist's Office Mistakenly Praises Nazi Film

2009-07-25T10:38:09Z

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Despite the content of a letter bearing his signature, Gov. Charlie Crist does not want to share an anti-Semitic movie with all Floridians.

Crist's office sent a letter thanking John Ubele for providing the governor with a copy of the film "Jud Suss." The film is recognized as one of history's most incendiary.