Marco Rubio is Jeb's crony, running as the dream of the teabaggers. He goes and speaks at their rallies. He is getting all kinds of attention from the extreme right wing.
His opponent for Senator from Florida, Governor Charlie Crist, just does not know how to handle it. Instead of letting his moderate side show, he is trying to move to the right of Marco....and that is just not possible.
Howard Troxler does a good job of pointing out the ridiculous nature of Crist's attempts to out Rubio Rubio.
Weird statements show Gov. Charlie Crist is suffering a case of Marco-itis I know what you are thinking. You are starting to think that you might love Marco Rubio better than Charlie to be the next Republican candidate for U.S. senator.That is exactly what is worrying the governor. That is why the governor has become weirdly untethered, like a breakaway balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. The governor's people are chasing him from below, trying to grab the ropes.
Everybody loves Marco.
Where Marco goes, people adore him. They put him on the cover of magazines. They interview him on Fox. They hold straw polls in his honor. They laud him in the Panhandle, as long as he doesn't get all South Florida-y.
They love him because Marco is conservative. Conservative, conservative. He wants to cut our taxes. In fact, he does not think we should have to pay any taxes at all. He is in favor of growth. He is in favor of the opposite of whatever the president is doing. He is a real conservative.
Charlie is nervous. He wants to be a real conservative too. So he reminds everybody, hey, I cut taxes, didn't I? They dropped like a rock!
I love Howard Troxler's columns, and he makes a good suggestion for Charlie to follow.
A level-headed person, not made giddy by Marco-mania, might remember that Charlie has $1 zillion in the bank and is trouncing Marco in the election polls and it will still take a miracle, or at least a nuclear intervention by Jeb Bush, for that to change.
Nonetheless, the current story line is that Marco has the big mo. So Charlie is off his game. He is acting goofy and saying pants-on-fire things.
He is trying to out-Marco Marco. But really, all he has to do is out-Charlie Marco.
Unfortunately Crist is getting bad campaign advice, and he has harmed our state very much by his actions lately. He has tried so hard to prove how conservative he is that he has nearly sold the state out to developers. He has ignored the financial mess our state is in.
Crist has turned Florida over to developers and put control of our water in the hands of 5 people.The power of wetlands in the now lies in the hands of 5 people.
The governing boards' authority on permitting and wetland destruction now rests solely in the hands of the five district executive directors - for all practical purposes, a unelected statewide water board. Even better for the developers, builders and other growth-industry interests, the executive directors are not required to conduct their business in public.
The emasculation of the water district boards is just the half of it. Despite the lawmakers' assurances that no water transfers would take place, the water management districts - led by the executive directors - are feverishly developing plans to pipe water from where they have it to where they don't. The St. Johns River Water Management District has been the most aggressive, with Executive Director Kirby Green ramrodding through a highly unpopular plan for 500 miles of pipeline that would carry water from the Ocklawaha River in Marion County and the St. Johns River to the thirsting Orlando metropolitan area.
He turned our state into a rich resource for developers...they have few restrictions.
Three journalists rip Crist's decision on giving developers power.From the Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune editorial board: "Now that Gov. Charlie Crist has signed into law a major weakening of growth rules, Hillsborough and other urban counties appear to have lost the power to force developers to help pay for new or improved roads." "Toothless growth law".
From the Orlando Sentinel
Mike Thomas: "Charlie Crist and his Republican cohorts just depressed the future value of your house. They did this by gutting the state's growth-management law. We tend to equate rampant paving with crowded schools, traffic jams and environmental destruction. But this time around, the impact extends to home prices." "Crist & Co. pave way for lower home values".
From the Miami Herald
It poses such a threat that even some pro-growth commissioners on the Miami-Dade County Commission approved a resolution asking the governor to veto it. One of the bill's biggest flaws is removal of state oversight of a Development of Regional Impact. Until now the Department of Community Affairs has had authority over DRIs, which are just what they imply: developments of such large scope that they impact an entire region.
They bring more traffic, more demand for classrooms, more use of water and sewer systems. Their swelling of the local population can even affect hurricane evacuation times. ...
Mr. Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate, has made a bad call at a time when his leadership was most needed.
Crist has the big money and he has the lead in most polls, but Marco Rubio is a handsome young man who panders to the religious right. He is getting their attention and money and accolades.
Adam Smith of the St. Pete Times tells Charlie Crist how to beat Marco Rubio. It all makes so much sense. Crist needs to listen to Adam.
Gov. Crist, here are 5 things you need to do to beat back Marco Rubio1. Govern. Enough with the constant fundraising trips to places like Vegas and Arizona, and with the superficial photo ops. Put your head down and actually accomplish something.
2. Aggressively start questioning Rubio's record. The new hero of national conservatives is a lot better with rhetoric than accomplishment, so it's perfectly fair game to raise the same empty suit questions about him that his allies raise about you.
3. Lay off the "I'm more conservative" stuff, because nobody buys it. (I say Amen to that.)
4. Show some principle. Even it doesn't poll well with likely GOP voters, take a stand on something. Declare you don't want drilling 3 miles off the coast. Or that you still support cap-and-trade policies because you support market forces. Or that, like Bush, you're not afraid to criticize your party's anti-immigration rhetoric. Just show some spine and conviction on something.
5. Very quietly start recruiting a stronger Democratic candidate.
Here is Adam Smith's advice to Rubio:
" So what's the advice for Rubio to win this race?
Keep doing exactly what you're doing, former Speaker Rubio, and hope Crist keeps doing exactly what he's doing."
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