March 2, 2009
Republican pundit Mike Murphy drove the message home on the March 1 telecast of NBC’s Meet The Press. Demographics have changed since the Republican heyday of the Reagan era. The Republican mission, message and strategy must adapt to our changing world.
On the other hand, last week brought us the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Convention) with its unique focus that has no relevance to current reality. The Democratically-inclined pundits on MSNBC were delighted by the CPAC festivities. These commentators were left with visions of Sarah Palin as the 2012 Presidential candidate, dancing in their heads.
We’ve seen and heard plenty of opinions about the current leadership vacuum within the Republican Party. Almost by default, he who makes the most noise, Rush Limbaugh, has found himself as the new, de facto leader of the Republicans. Although he is not a candidate for anything, he enjoys more of a papal role with the diehard Republicans. His message is amplified by people like Chris Matthews on MSNBC (who regularly discourses about how the Republicans always swing back to the “hard right”, when a moderate Presidential candidate fails). Matthews then describes John McCain as the failed “moderate” and proceeds to (hopefully) set the stage for a “wing nut” Presidential candidate such as Sarah Palin or Bobby “The Exorcist” Jindal. In either case, Obama gets re-elected — even if unemployment is at 42 percent and the Dow Jones is at 369.
The problem with Chris Matthews’ logic is that McCain pandered to the hard-right “base” in his quest for the White House and could not really be considered as a truly moderate candidate. The Republicans could wise-up and move toward the center by 2012. Besides: They have no choice.
Here in Florida, we have a fait accompli. Our next Senator, replacing the retiring Republican Senator Mel Martinez, will be our current Governor, Charlie Crist. Governor Crist is a moderate Republican who enjoys a 73% approval rating. Crist’s support of President Obama’s stimulus bill resulted in his appearance in Ft. Myers on February 10, to introduce the new President to an adoring crowd. Governor Crist took lots of heat for that, from know-nothing conservative pundits. Charlie Crist is laughing all the way to the Senate. As the February 24 article by Aaron Blake on The Hill website pointed out: the Democrats don’t have any strong challengers. It’s a lost cause. Here, “on the ground”, everyone knows it.
Meanwhile the “liberal” media are busy snarking at Crist, repeating the “gay” rumors that circulated prior to his recent marriage. This hostility is probably due to the fact that Crist is on the record as opposing any change to Florida’s existing ban on gay adoption. Any useful resemblance to former Republican Senator Larry Craig’s hypocrisy on gay issues would be a convenient “G-bomb” to throw into an election campaign. The Huffington Post is big on these “gay” rumors, as is the current incarnation of Wonkette. What those people don’t know is that the rumors never seemed to matter. For example: I’ve known and worked with many conservative Republicans who assumed those rumors were true. Nevertheless, they still supported and voted for Charlie Crist. It didn’t matter to them, nor did the issue ever matter to any significant number of people in this State. Governor Crist had been married to a woman named Amanda Morrow in 1979. That marriage lasted one year. On December 12, 2008 he married Carole Rome. Many of the rumor-mongers claim that this was a “staged” marriage, to advance Crist’s political career. Nevertheless, you can trust my opinion, as a heterosexual bachelor of approximately the same age as Governor Crist … If he is trying to “fake” a marriage at this point in his life … You will see him running out of the Governor’s mansion within a very short time, yelling: “All right! I’m GAY! I CONFESS!!! I’m GAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!”
I don’t believe we will see that happen. Beyond that, I’m really disappointed that purportedly “gay-friendly” media would be taking these cheap shots at Charlie Crist. He is going to be our next Senator and he will win because a majority of Democratic voters will support his candidacy. Deal with it.
The next question is whether the Republican party will finally figure out, after the 2010 election, that there is a trend here. Republicans are faced with the likelihood that future campaign strategies will nullify the efforts of extremists whose political ambitions have been based on the existence of the political primary system. As Newsweek‘s Howard Fineman has often discussed, the political primary system, by its nature, results in extremists from both sides getting much better traction than they would have in an open election. Politicians are on to this. Watch for more centrists running as independent candidates — and witness the disintegration of the “wing nut” dominance within the Republican Party.
A Question Of Timing
May 11, 2009
Josh Kraushaar has reported for Politico that on Tuesday, May 12, Florida Governor Charlie Crist will announce his intention to run as the Republican candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Mel Martinez. Kraushaar explained that Crist would become the Republican Party’s “most high-profile recruit of the 2010 election cycle”. He went on to point out:
The timing of Crist’s announcement is rather interesting, in light of the fact that he is prominently featured in Kirby Dick’s new documentary film, Outrage, which opened on Friday. Andrew O’Hehir interviewed Kirby Dick for Salon.com. This is what the filmmaker had to say about his new movie:
Rumors about Governor Crist’s lifestyle have circulated here in Florida for many years. Many of my conservative Republican friends have always believed those rumors, although the issue never stopped them from voting for Crist. Once he became identified as a potential running mate for John McCain in the 2008 election, Governor Crist got married. The timing of that event made many people suspicious. With Crist’s imminent announcement of his intention to run for the Senate, the question of timing has come up again. Will he distract attention away from the questions raised by the film, Outrage . . . or will the timing of his announcement enhance the magnitude of those concerns?
Bob Norman is the writer for the Broward and Palm Beach County edition of the New Times who was interviewed by Kirby Dick for the movie. The filmmaker retraced some of the reporting done by Norman about Charlie Crist back in 2006. Norman’s reports were based on information provided by two campaign staffers for the infamous Katherine Harris: Jason Wetherington and Bruce Jordan. In his recent New Times article about the film, Mr. Norman was careful to point out that the claims concerning Governor Crist’s preferences remain open to question:
Jason Bellini provided a video report on the release of Outrage for The Daily Beast, which included an interview with Kirby Dick. Bellini also provided an analysis of the mainstream media’s reaction to the film’s focus on Governor Crist. For the most part, the mainstream outlets wrote off the claims as unsubstantiated rumors.
Aaron Blake reported for The Hill, that Charlie Crist’s Senate campaign could threaten the Republican Party’s control in Florida because a “domino effect” would result if he were to vacate the Governor’s office. The GOP managed to consolidate its power here in the 2008 election, despite the fact that Barack Obama won this state. Blake provided this perspective from a Republican insider:
If allegations of hypocrisy and concealment of a secret gay lifestyle get serious attention in Charlie Crist’s 2010 Senate campaign, Ms. Navarro’s analogy might be very appropriate.