Posted on 05/12/2009 1:36:16 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Charlie Crist is a popular candidate best positioned to keep a Senate seat in Republican hands. But he has also broken with party orthodoxy on environmental and voting rights issues.
BY PETER WALLSTEN
Washington. With the Republican Party diminished in power and embroiled in debate over whether to broaden its ideology or adhere to core ideals, top GOP officials today took the unusual step of inserting themselves into a party primary, picking a moderate U.S. Senate candidate over a conservative in Florida.
In endorsing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the GOP group that sets strategy for Senate races, sided with a popular candidate best positioned to keep a Senate seat in Republican hands as the minority party tries to avoid falling below the critical number of 40 senators needed to block legislation.
But in doing so, the top Republican officials also are aligning themselves with a candidate who has broken with party orthodoxy on environmental and voting rights issues and even appeared with President Obama to support the economic stimulus plan being lambasted by conservatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I am sure Cornyn and the rest of the Republican “leadership” will endorse Arlen Spector next year over any conservative.
GOP
A national party no more.
Yes, being MODERATE has helped the GOP soooooo much lately, hasn’t it?
Why couldn’t these idiots wait until after the primary? Now they have pissed off conservatives and especially Rubio. Amazing the lack of judgment and strategic thinking on these “leaders”.
Spend a few hours looking at their contributors. No friends of conservatism, that's for sure.
I’ve always backed Cornyn as a rock hard conservative with the potential to be a national leader. It is starting to look like I was only half right. Due to the squishy positions he is taking lately, I will have to seriously question voting for him in the future.
You think energy rationing and cap-and-trade is "palatalbe"?
Just wait until it is implemented. You won't be so supportive.
Grew up along Santa Monica’s Sorento Beach and surfed from San Diego to Santa Barbera.
That reminds me, I have not heard from Cornyn on the email I sent him about Specter when he was endorsing him. Must have been lost in the mail!!!!!!!!!
Sorrento was my hang out as a kid. How do you like Florida, by comparison?
We have been watching in horror for the last 2 years as Charlie has stepped from one bucket of dog stool into another. Among the low points, he put the state in danger of bankruptcy by kicking out commercial insurers, made a crooked land deal for millions with a sugar company, and continued a corrupt deal started by Jeb Bush to shovel billions of taxpayers dollars to CSX for a few miles of railroad track. Charlie now has sufficient training to fit perfectly in Washington. Please, elect him to anything to get him out of Florida.
in case me and my family decide to abandon California, what’s the surf like on the Atlantic side of Florida.
Only place worth a darn is Sebastian inlet.
Home of Kelly Slater. So ya know it has to be reasonable.
Still it is no Blacks Beach or Rincon.
“wondering if you could name some Republican politicians who don’t care about the environment?”
GREAT QUESTION!
Crist believes the Globaloney hype and will tax our carbon. That’s not ‘caring’ that’s buying into phony hype.
I thought he would be better than Liddie Dole at NRSC and not make the same mistakes. I was wrong.
I don’t mind if Crist wins the primary, but what is a party doing taking sides BEFORE the voters pick their nominee?
Why not let voters decide...or is that a too disturbing thought for career politicians?
If I thought it had an owl fart’s chance of ever passing, I might have a problem with it. I don’t.
We'd stop doing that if he'd stop acting like a Democrat.
Is anyone that doesn’t do precisely what FR wants him to do a RINO? One of these days I need to write a vanity that asks some of these questions. COnservatives generally stand for low taxes. What if a conservative politician needed to raise them? Is he a RINO now? Suppose he knew a rape victim whose mind was traumatized beyond belief by the resulting pregnancy and couldn’t bring himself to sign an anti-abortion bill. Is he a RINO? This soul-searching for the heart of the “rebranded” GOP is going to have to answer those questions.
It’s the Constitution. It’s not a list of suggestions. Treat it like it is, and you just might be a RINO.
Kept Florida out of a recession? really? The housing market is done in Florida for right now, and if it hadn’t been for the citizens forcing the change in the property tax laws, the state would be more upside down than it is. Please oh please do not endorse him as President. Lets get a businessman to run our country. Someone who is clean and without question. There are guys out there, look at Bloomberg. He is fiscally conservative and more socially liberal. But he stands on the side of being fiscally responsible first, which i think we can all agree with. That is the key to a winner for us. Not saying Bloomberg is the guy, but he is way better than Crist. Newt would be great also, but he has a shady past and the party needs to distance itself from religion, unfortunately if it wants to win in the future.
I am a hardcore conservative but lets realize the state of events in our country and the level of intelligence of the average voter. Our country is filled with stupid people who don’t want to be told what to do. What can you do for them. Making abortion (an abomination) as a key ingredient of our campaign is a sure fire way to drive people away. We are going to lose 3 seats in the SCOTUS with this president, and it is going to give the liberals much more judicial power.
We must defeat the socialists in the next round. Clearly a RINO is the only possible winner, since a staunch conservative isn’t going to win in this environment. Obama presented himself as centrist, but was indeed a socialist. Lets get a conservative who acts like a RINO only, and not a RINO who is a RINO.
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