The American Spectator

Political Hay

TAMPA -- Retiring Florida U.S. Senator George LeMieux probably won a few local Republican hearts and minds Friday, and maybe some useful friends if he decides to run for the Senate on his own in 2012.

LeMieux laid his conservative bona fides before more than 200 who braved a rainy Friday night -- Tropical Storm Bonnie lurking just to the west of here -- to attend the Hillsborough County Republican Party's Issues and Ideas dinner. He has some fences to mend.

LeMieux, who was Governor Charlie Crist's chief of staff, campaign chairman, confidant, and friend (not to mention a mere pup at age 40), was appointed by Crist to the U.S. Senate in August of 2009 to finish the term of former Senator Mel Martinez, who had resigned. Crist is seeking that Senate seat, and LeMieux promised before his appointment that he would not run for the seat himself in 2010. This raised howls of protest from Floridians of all political persuasions and charges of political cronyism from the media. (I piled on.)

So LeMieux started out with a hill to climb to show Floridians that he was more than Crist's seat-warmer and horse-holder. He's gone at this by amassing a conservative voting record and by whooping up issues and taking stands dear to the hearts of the Florida Republican base. And at least as important, when LeMieux's former benefactor left the Republican Party to run as an independent against conservative former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio for the Senate seat, LeMieux did the honorable thing and endorsed Rubio.

This wasn't easy for LeMieux. In his remarks Friday night and in our conversation earlier in the day, he made it clear that he while he thinks Rubio is the solid conservative Florida and the nation need in the Senate this year, LeMieux and Crist are still friends.

"I think Marco will win," LeMieux told me. "This is obviously awkward for me because the governor is my friend and I'm very appreciative of him for the opportunities he's provided me. I just couldn't make the decision he made to leave the party because I believe in the principles of our party, now more than ever."

Talking with the faithful during the pre-speech cocktail hour Friday, I learned LeMieux's connection to Crist and the manner of his appointment still rankled. So even after a warm introduction by respected County Chairman Deborah Cox-Roush, the applause greeting LeMieux was tepid.

"My mother said when you make a mistake you should admit it," Cox-Roush said in her intro. She conceded she hadn't favored LeMieux's appointment, but likes the job he's done. "I'm proud to call him my United States Senator now."

LeMieux didn't avoid the subject but went right to it, saying the controversy over the way he was appointed "gives me a stronger desire to earn your trust."

Friday LeMieux laid out his view of the state of the nation and what he believes needs to be done, a view that resonates with most red-meat Republicans.

"The Democrats are trying to convince us that government is the answer to every problem. They have a fundamentally different view of the role of government than Republicans have."

LeMieux conceded that Republicans "lost their way" for a while. "We were spending too much too." But he says he is convinced the Republicans in Congress and the new class of Republicans who will be sworn in after the 2010 elections "have learned their lesson."

LeMieux identified incontinent government spending and out-of-control debt, which he called "very alarming and drastic," as the critical problems the nation faces. "This is unsustainable -- we have to elect people who understand this. It's slipping away from us." He received his only standing-O of the evening when he identified Marco Rubio as one candidate who gets it and who needs to be sent to Washington to help turn things around.

LeMieux said the way the federal government runs itself, the way it puts together a budget, or more accurately fails to put together a budget, is shocking. "It's a crazy way to run a country."

At the end of his conservative cri de coeur, it was clear that with this crowd he had a least partly overcome the manner in which he arrived in Washington. The hand he received when he finished was much warmer than the one that greeted him.