TAMPA — What can stop Charlie Crist now? The Terminator
has his back. Yes, the one and only Ahnuld has taken time away from
pondering what on earth to do about his bankrupt state to boost
another failed governor’s failing independent campaign for the U.S.
Senate. Professional courtesy I guess you’d call it.
If you think about it, they’re a natural team (even if one
of them is built like a stretch Hummer and the other is so skinny
he has to run around in the shower to get wet). Both men have
retailed baseless environmental alarums for votes, both are about
as popular with the Republican base in their states as tooth decay,
and, most importantly, both of their terms as governor expire
shortly after the election and neither has the least prospect of a
further political career. Ahnuld at least can fall back on acting.
Floridians will simply say, “Hasta la vista, Charlie” to Crist
after he loses the Senate race to conservative Republican Marco
Rubio November 2.
Restrained as I always am in political comments, I read
nothing into the fact that Governor Schwarzenegger chose to endorse
Governor Crist via Twitter. So please hold those tasteless jokes
about one Twit endorsing another.
In his Twit, sent from Europe from where Ahnuld was
avoiding Sacramento, he praised Crist as a “great leader” who
“works with both parties.” Florida Republicans may have difficulty
remembering when Crist last worked with them, and in any case
nothing much resulted from Crist’s labors. Since Crist took office
early in 2007 Florida’s unemployment rate has more than tripled and
home foreclosures have gone, excuse the expression, through the
roof. (Perhaps this is why Crist avoids Tallahassee as much as
Ahnuld avoids Sacramento. In the last two years there have been
more sightings of Elvis in Tallahassee than of Crist working in his
office.)
The buffed one added, “Our country needs someone like him
in DC right now.” Perhaps Ahnuld is too busy with the spiraling
problems of California to notice that Washington is already full of
vacuous and principle-free career politicians like Crist, this
being why so many voters are so scratchy this year.
On receiving the endorsement, Crist replied with this
little air kiss: “Governor Schwarzenegger has led California
through extraordinarily difficult times in a bipartisan way. We
have worked together on such crucial issues as reducing climate
change and promoting alternative energy. I’m honored to have the
support of this independent leader,” Crist wrote.”
I guess this is a soft way for Crist to say that Ahnuld’s
policies and his record in office have been as incoherent and
achievement-free as his own. Having just survived another Florida
summer, I can say the climate here is the same as it was before
Ahnuld and Charlie put their hearts and minds to it. And whatever
they’ve done on the energy front hasn’t led to the production of a
single extra kilowatt hour of electricity or a single extra
half-gallon of anything combustible.
Though Charlie and Ahnuld have done nothing about the
climate (and seem unaware that they couldn’t even if they wanted
to), as well as less than nothing to produce more energy, they’ve
certainly demagogued the issues in an attempt to win the granola
vote.
In a two-day climate dog and pony show called by Crist in
Miami in the summer of 2007, Ahnuld was a guest speaker. He showed
how deeply he has studied the complex chemistry of climate by
revealing, “We have to say hasta la vista to greenhouse
gasses.”
Well, that clears it up. At this séance,
Crist issued an executive order to put Florida on a carbon cap and
trade system. Fortunately, this daft order required legislative
action, and a lucid Florida Legislature refused to go along with
the gag. A very expensive gag it would have been too.
Also at the Miami “climate change summit” were various
activists, palmed off by Crist as climate experts. One of these was
Robert Kennedy Jr., son of the former presidential candidate,
attorney general, and Kennedy family consigliere. Kennedy
demonstrated the kind of practical, even-handed, bipartisan
approach Charlie says he wants to bring to Washington by claiming
that anyone who rejects the global warming hysterics worldview and
agenda is a “traitor.” And check out this more recent measured
Kennedy remark about Rubio: “Mr. Rubio has a radical vision, a
narrow vision, an I-can-be-as-stupid-as-I-want vision of this
country.” Bobby Jr. has now
endorsed Charlie.
Charming. I’m sure there are some Floridians
who will be tempted to give Crist another look when they learn that
these two moderates are now on Team Charlie. But even if both of
them decide to vote for Crist this will do little to alter the
formidable arithmetic facing the Crist campaign.
Rubio, who has run on opposing the Obama agenda, putting
an end to federal turbo-spending, and defending American
exceptionalism, is saying what the biggest fraction of Florida
voters want to hear this year. As a result the Real Clear Politics
average of polls give Rubio a monster lead at 45 percent, with 28.8
percent for Crist and 21 percent for Democrat Kendrick
Meek.
Crist can turn his positions on issues around in short
order, and has done so frequently. But with help from the likes of
Ahnuld and Jr., he won’t turn these kinds of poll numbers around in
less than three weeks. Not even if his excellent string of C-list
endorsements continues and Bill Ayers decides to join Team
Charlie.
