Key Republicans in Texas are alarmed by Sen. John Cornyn's
decision, as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial
Committee, to
endorse Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in a contested
Senate race 15 months before the GOP primary.
"If they're going to do it in Florida, what's to stop them from
doing it everywhere?" a Texas Republican source told me late
Wednesday. "It's absurd that the NRSC is doing this. It's an
insult to the base."
Texas GOP chairwoman
Tina Benkiser has not yet commented on the NRSC
controversy. However, heat from conservatives in
Florida -- including bloggers
Doug Hagin and
Andrea Shea King -- has caused that state's Republican
Party chairman to rescind his previous endorsement of Crist,
the
St. Petersburg Times reported Wednesday night:
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, facing intense
and growing backlash over meddling in the U.S. Senate primary, is
backing off.
In a letter to party supporters tonight, Greer defends his
actions but said the party is now "neutral" in the contest
between Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio.
John Mercurio of NewsMax reports that Rubio "plans to run an
anti-establishment, low-dollar primary campaign":
Minutes after Crist announced his bid, Rubio released a Web ad
highlighting Crist’s support for President Obama's economic
stimulus package, a position that doesn’t sit well with many GOP
primary voters. "True bipartisanship is not 'if you can't beat
them, join them,'" the candidate told more than 150 people last
week at the Republican Club of South Sarasota. But while Rubio
offers a contrast to Crist politically, he said he doesn't plan
to run a negative campaign. "I don't have anything against him
personally. I don't believe in order for me to win the debate I
have to convince you the other guy is a bad person," he said.
Meanwhile, the
Broward-Palm Beach New Times reports, the NRSC's
endorsement "may have galvanized the party's conservative wing
against Crist," sparking an online backlash led by
Erick Erickson and
John Hawkins. The stakes in this
battle between the grassroots and the "Republican
Establishment" are clear, as The
American Spectator's Larry Thornberry reported from
Tampa:
You'll never hear an encouraging word from Crist on any
conservative social issue. He's pro-abortion and thinks
marriage-like legal arrangements between homosexuals are fine. He
recently put a liberal Democrat on the Florida Supreme Court. In
Crist's speeches, conservatives will wait in vain to hear any of
their principles promoted. What they hear are endless lullabies
about "bipartisanship," "diversity," and other warm-sounding,
non-sequiturs from the Democratic hymn book. These are just the
most actionable of Crist's sins against conservative principles.
Further developments are likely today. Stay tuned.
UPDATE 5:20 a.m.: Things are happening so fast
it's hard to keep up, and
the Lakeland (Fla.) Ledger missed the news
about Crist rescinding the state GOP's endorsement of Crist. But
the Ledger does capture the essence of the grassroots
complaint:
"I thought the idea is for real Republicans to vote on primary
day, not for so-called party leaders to tell people who to vote
for," said Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Palm Beach Republican
Party, one of several local clubs asking the state party to stay
out of primaries.
The question at stake, according to Republican activist
Aaron Marks of The Next Right, is "Who ultimately controls
the GOP, the grassroots or the machine?"
