“Florida is a hill to die on for conservatives.”

[seafan]

Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Rubio.

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R) said on Monday that he would welcome the endorsement of ex-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska).

The conservative insurgent candidate challenging Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) said that Palin's endorsement would be more than appropriate because they agree on nearly every issue.

..... The Hill, November 10, 2009

.....

Rubio says he largely supports the tea party protesters, many of whom have cast health care reform as a socialist takeover. (The feeling is mutual: FreedomWorks, the conservative lobbying group that has helped organize the protests, is planning to mobilize thousands of volunteers on Rubio's behalf.) Asked if he would welcome the support of former GOP vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Rubio offers an unqualified yes, adding that "I can't think of anything her and I disagree with off the top of my head." ... CBSNews, November 9, 2009

Marco Rubio


Gov. Charlie Crist


Former state House Speaker Marco Rubio and Gov. Charlie Crist’s battle for a U.S. Senate nomination is just one of many contested Republican primaries in Florida. The battles in a GOP-dominated state reflect a party split over its identity and message.

TALLAHASSEE - A year before one of the most wide-open elections in state history, Florida's Republican Party has splintered over everything from philosophy to questions over how the party is being run.

The divide goes beyond former House Speaker Marco Rubio's challenge to Gov. Charlie Crist in next year's primary for the U.S. Senate. There are also divisions over party leadership and party message that have resulted in the unusual sight of contested primaries in five statewide contests. Those factions include Crist loyalists, allies of Bush upset with Crist, as well as some who are loudly critical of Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer.

While tensions have simmered since Crist veered onto a moderate, and occasionally populist, path starting from nearly his first day as governor, it was Crist's decision to forgo a second term and seek the U.S. Senate that has helped move these battles out into the open.

Mirroring a national debate, Florida's GOP is split over whether to move further to the right, embracing its conservative roots, or to expand its tent to reach more moderates and independents.

..... Sarasota Herald Tribune, November 8, 2009

Some Republican leaders prefer not to discuss Sarah Palin, Politico, May 3, 2009

In the latest instance of a high-profile GOP member taking a passing swipe at the party's 2008 vice presidential candidate, former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney jokingly dismissed Sarah Palin’s inclusion on Time’s list of influential people in an interview broadcast Sunday.

He asked, was “the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?”

Romney, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” was replying to a question from moderator John King on whether Time’s inclusion of Palin and talk show host Rush Limbaugh on their list of “The World’s Most Influential People” was good or bad for the Republican Party.

Romney, who has not ruled out another White House bid, said he wanted more influential Republicans on the list before adding pointedly: “I think there are a lot more influential Republicans than that would suggest.”

.....

But Romney’s quip reflects the deep unease among many in the GOP establishment about the continued high-profile of Limbaugh and especially Palin. There is almost a sense of exasperation among many party elites over the media coverage the two polarizing figures get — attention which, in Palin’s case, is widely seen as a product largely of her good looks and tabloid-fodder family troubles.

“She’s bigger in the media than in reality,” lamented veteran GOP consultant Mike Murphy.

But Jeb Bush is in a quandary:

The active involvement of George P. Bush and Jeb Bush Jr. in the race raises the possibility that their father could endorse Marco Rubio down the road and give his campaign added momentum, though the former governor has dismissed those suggestions.

.....

Jeb strongly dislikes Crist.

Jeb is Rubio's puppeteer.

Sarah Palin is cannibalizing the dwindling moderates left in the GOP.

So is the right wing Club For Growth.



“Florida is a hill to die on for conservatives,” said Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative blog RedState.com, which leads a daily drumbeat against Mr. Crist.


Republicans heading for a spectacular bloodbath in Florida, David Frum, November 16, 2009

Marco Rubio has fiercely denounced Crist's support for the Obama stimulus. His campaign ads show images of Crist and Obama side by side and damn the stimulus as "trillions in reckless spending" and a "terrible threat to a fragile economy."

Rubio's last term in the Florida House ended in January 2009, so he did not share responsibility for the state's fiscal crisis. But when asked by reporters what he would have done differently, Rubio has suggested that he would have refused the federal stimulus dollars and instead cut up to $6 billion out of the $65 billion state budget. When asked where precisely he would have found those savings, Rubio demurred: "I don't have the budget in front of me."

These answers have gained Rubio little traction among Florida voters, where he trails Crist badly in all demographic categories. Rubio even trails Crist by 10 points among Hispanics, despite his Cuban ancestry and fluent Spanish.

But Rubio's message of uncompromising, unremitting opposition to President Obama has won him an enthusiastic following among conservatives nationwide.

Rubio's national base is generating national dollars. Writing on FrumForum.com, the website I edit, Tim Mak reports that Crist has raised less than one-quarter of his money from outside Florida. More than one-third of Rubio's money has come from out of state. Only 13 percent of Crist's out-of-state dollars come from the Washington area, as compared to 22 percent of Rubio's.

The candidate who purports to speak for populist rage in fact turns out to be the candidate of a national political leadership. They used to have a saying in Tammany Hall: "It's better to lose an election than lose control of the party" -- and control of the party is precisely what is at stake in Florida 2010.

.....

Yet Jeb Bush plays coy when asked if he supports Rubio.


You're not fooling anyone, Jeb.






One problem for Rubio, who has said he would love Sarah Palin's endorsement: Rubio is dazzled by Palin's radical conservative wingnuttery, but his mentor Jeb Bush, as is Romney, is reported to 'Hate' and 'Despise' Sarah Palin and is embarrassed about the stilettoed wolf killer.

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.

Jeb Bush, your entire GOP cesspool is disintegrating, and there is not one damn thing you can do to revive it.


Only one thing would improve on this outcome, and that is the day you are driven out of Florida, cuffed in the back of a squad car.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. I hope this turns out to be an understatement...

[tsuki]

2. I don't know. Florida is well on its way to becoming the first theocratic

corporate state. Everything is being "privatized". And the Big Scaries have moved in big time to rake up the spoils.

[AlinPA]

3. Why won't Rubio win the election? It is not clear to me, FL is a republican state.

[bleever]

4. Poor Charlie.

A reasonably good guy who has bent over (backwards) to appease and cater to his party's center, while his party's center has been imploding, black-hole fashion, receding at astronomical speed away from any semblance of reasonableness or centrism.

I hear Robert E. Lee was a good guy, too. But the wrong side of history is the wrong side of history.




ed: pic

[lpbk2713]

5. I thought Rubio was fucked up in the head.

Now this confirms it.