The American Spectator : Pants on Fire

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Pants on Fire

By Larry Thornberry on 11.13.09 @ 6:08AM

Is the Charlie Crist model of reasonable Republicanism defunct?

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Crist hasn't helped his conservative bona fides by hanging out with and being photographed over the past two years with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Kennedy, Jr., rocker Sheryl Crow, Laurie David (she produced Al Gore's hysterical screed, An Inconvenient Truth), Robert Redford, the Prince of Wales, and other leftie luminaries. It's much harder to find a likeness of our Charlie with conservative leaders.

With Crist it isn't so much that he's wedded to moderate or liberal positions, it's that it is becoming increasingly clear he has no core political philosophy at all other than the devout belief that he should continually hold public office. Crist could be the poster boy for the ambitious but soulless politician who on the major issues of the day feels very strongly both ways. There's no there, there.

Rubio has nine months left to get his story out. If the current trend lines continue, and as we all know they don't always in American politics, Charlie Crist could have gone in three years from a template for the Republican future to an also-ran looking for a real job. It's not always easy being a template.

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topics:
Charlie Crist, U.S. Senate Races 2010

About the Author

Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (18) | Leave a comment

Steven Czonstka| 11.13.09 @ 6:39AM

The straw poll in Okaloosa County was not a poll of the REC. It was a poll of the attendees at an event, Countdown to Election 2010, which was open to the public for a $20 admission fee that provided a straw poll ballot. The event was sponsored by the REC. The REC will conduct its own straw poll at its meeting on Nov 16.

RustyG| 11.13.09 @ 8:17AM

Interesting. Are you predicting different results?

Arthro| 11.13.09 @ 8:23AM

I'd say Crist is done. His problem isn't just about claiming to be a conservative shen we know he's not. It's about his lying and his assumptio that people in Florida are stupid enough to believe him when the videotape says he's lying. His is a poster child for the worst in politicians. He needs to go.

Howard| 11.13.09 @ 10:01AM

Politicians like Crist have few or no core beliefs. He is an empty suit who thought Liberalism was on the ascent, hence his being photographed with Obama early on. Now that the winds are changing, he is now a "conservative". I do get a kick out of liberals instructing Republicans and/or conservatives as to what is best for us. They want us to be very slightly more conservative than them, but, still support their agenda; for the good of the country. The GOP had that leadership in the 1970's and 1980's under Bob Michel. He seemed to relish permanent minority status.

Richard Baker| 11.13.09 @ 10:01AM

He'll be able to work on his suntan full time next year.

Dustoff| 11.13.09 @ 10:36AM

I heard Crist is upset that Rubio has a better tan??? LOL

Margie| 11.13.09 @ 11:37AM

The conservatives will be winning from now on. Thanks to the good and hard working Americans all over this great Nation who are "Mad as Hell, and aren't gonna TAKE it any longer!"
Crist is going to go the way of all Libs, the way of the Dinosaur.
God Bless America!

Tish| 11.13.09 @ 11:46AM

The Republican and conservative activists -- not always the same in Florida -- are mad and fired up. They appear ready to do the grass-roots work to help Rubio.

baluca| 11.13.09 @ 1:22PM

If Rubio delivers a speech of a lifetime at CPAC, which he keynotes, Crist will be a burnt Crisp.

Joan| 11.13.09 @ 3:25PM

Tish - you are correct, but not just in Florida - There are many thousands of us in Alabama who are fed up with the Republicans and prefer to consider ourselves conservatives - also working for "conservatives" - no longer the Republican Party. They have taken advantage of us no less than the Liberals and it's time they were taught a lesson...If you aren't with us, you are against us.

James| 11.13.09 @ 4:26PM

Crist and McCollum both cannot run froim the truth. The truth is both have become the hand puppets of major donors. From the Big Sugar Bailout ( "everglades preservation") to the Developer/Frieght Baiolut ( Sun rail) they are big government liberals.. And dont forget their Stnaki Land scnadal where they steered 5.9 million of Florida Forever preservation funds to a major donor/ and developer Mori Hosseini. They sold us out!

fallen earth chips| 11.14.09 @ 3:11AM

I heard Crist is upset that Rubio has a better tan??? LOL.

Judy| 11.15.09 @ 8:46AM

Rubio has strong conservative convictions and he is very passionate about them. Crist just goes with the flow with whatever the popular polls show. This type of politics is on the way out as Charlie is! The Republican Party lost its way due to politicians like Charlie, conservatives are taking it back to its true roots in a big way this coming 2010! McCollum is the true conservative over Dockery, Bill has always been a hard core conservative!

Osamas Pajamas| 11.15.09 @ 4:48PM

Here's a litmus test for every political candidate, bureaucrat, and public servant to sign --- to see if they have the cojones --- and the interests of the individual American citizen at heart.

This stratagem would weed-out the entire Democrat party and all the parties of the left and the so-called "extreme right" ---- they're really racist anticapitalist leftists anyway ---- and 60% to 65% of the Republican party, and possibly 10% to 15% of the Libertarian party. I'm betting that the American people are a lot more libertarian than their government is.

"I subscribe to the perfectly-natural and universally-valid human rights of life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of personal happiness. The first article of private property is "the self" ---- and all human rights are derivatives of and flow from the foregoing cardinal rights. These rights are the inalienable gift of nature, or of nature's God, and they belong to all human beings, everywhere."

Yi Ha ***
Minister of Information
Peoples' Capitalist Republican of Whizbangistan

*** Pronounced "YEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

Cris Worth| 11.16.09 @ 8:31AM

You danced around the fact Gov. Charlie is pro-abortion. Why the omission Larry?

Lieuer Euy| 1.17.10 @ 7:44AM

I have surfed the net more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. It's worth enough for me. Thanks.

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