Senator John McCain is continuing to demonstrate that he has changed dramatically from the “maverick” he once claimed to be!
Always seen as a man of principle, he has now decided that with Governor Charlie Crist down in the polls in the Florida Republican Senate primary race with former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, he will abandon the man who had more effect on him winning the Florida Presidential primary in 2008 than anyone else, and therefore, promoted him for the GOP Presidential nomination!
Apparently, McCain does not believe in loyalty to those who endorsed and worked their heart out for him for President! He is running scared in his own primary against conservative J. D. Hayworth in Arizona, and realize that Hayworth is supported by the same Tea Party activists who are backing Rubio in Florida. He is out to save his own neck, and therefore is very willing to throw Crist overboard! This is disgraceful behavior! 🙁
The irony will be that McCain may very well lose his primary, and I suppose then he will back Hayworth for his Senate seat, huh? Meanwhile, it is likely that Charlie Crist will run as an independent, and have a decent shot at winning the Senate race in Florida in a three way race with Rubio and Kendrick Meek, the Democratic Congressman from Miami.
This attack on the part of the GOP establishment, including the total abandonment of Crist by the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, is a sign of just how far to the right the Republicans have gone, and it should be alarming to mainstream Republicans who know the tradition of the party as one which had outstanding moderate leaders throughout its history!
Any sympathy one might have for McCain in his tough Senate primary is now lost, as he deserves to be defeated by the very extremist movement which is destroying the mainstream tradition of the Republican Party!
True justice would be that McCain loses, and somehow, Charlie Crist triumphs in his Senate race as an independent! But were that to happen, would the GOP welcome Crist in their Senate caucus? That is hard to imagine, so it may be that he would caucus with the Democrats and give a final kick in the rear end to the party that abandoned him for a right wing extremist! Rubio condemned the Governor for accepting with thanks the economic stimulus that Florida so desperately needed in 2009, and cannot, unfortunately, count upon in 2010, and certainly not beyond, if it is left up to the Florida Republican party and its Tea Party followers, led by Marco Rubio.
It can be hoped that the Republicans in Florida lose seats in the legislature after trying to destroy education in the state, and for Crist to win and ally with the Democrats and do what is good for the state of Florida in the future! Do not underestimate the potential of Charlie Crist!
If Crist can’t win the Republican primary he doesn’t deserve Republican support. How difficult is that to understand? Nominations aren’t bequeathed. They are earned and Crist failed in that respect no matter how you wish to spin it. If you want an explanation its pretty clear. Crist was an opportunistic who embraced the wrong policies at the wrong time and now he’s paying the price. Living in the era of Obama if anyone thinks a conservative Republican is too conservative for this country just hasn’t been paying attention.