"That means on election day, Floridians will have a choice between a strong, progressive Democrat who fights hard for everyday Floridians and two registered Republicans who together were the architects of Florida's failed economy, who both are embroiled in a tax evasion scandal, and who both favor more tax breaks for corporate special interests and the wealthy as their only economic proposal"
It's a sign of the times that an ethically challenged, if not completely corrupted politician like former House Speaker Marco Rubio was the blunt instrument the right wing of the Florida GOP used to bludgeon Crist out from under their taut little tent. No room in there these days even for shades of conservatism - much less for actual diversity and debate.
Rubio is a guy under investigation by the Feds - both the FBI and the IRS - for possible criminal activity related to his misuse of Republican Party credit cards. And the bills he ran up were paid for by donations from party faithful, unbeknownst to them of course.
Top Crist allies, including disgraced former GOP chairman Jim Greer, are also subjects of the same ever-widening investigation into rampant Republican Party corruption.
One of many ironies in this intriguing campaign is that Rubio has portrayed himself as a political "outsider", when in truth, he is a big-time insider who made hundreds of thousands of dollars as a lobbyist for eight years - five of them while he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives, lobbying for a firm that represented dozens of clients who did business with the state.
Rubio has sold hardcore conservatives and the Tea Party crowd quite the bill of goods about being "one of them". But a hilarious blog on Charlie Crist's website blows that image right out of the murky water, pointing to Rubio's moderate (ouch!) past positions on issues like immigration, taxes, and climate change.
Speaking of Crist"Any moderate Democrat who considers voting for this two-faced hack - whom leading national magazines and newspapers have labeled amongst America's worst and most overrated governors - must promise to first visit his website. See the box on the middle left side of the page, labeled "THE CHARLIE CRIST CONSERVATIVE RECORD"? If you're thinking of voting against your own party and against your own interests, do not pretend it's because Charlie Crist is a "Moderate". A few moderate decisions on education or environmental affairs do not a Moderate make - not when you're a loyal tool of Special Interests who keeps raking in campaign contributions from - and lowering taxes on - large corporations, real estate developers, and rich folks.
Crist and Rubio are flip sides of the same tired, tarnished, tawdry conservative coin - which has at least made for entertaining political theatre as they've had at each other.
Meanwhile, Kendrick Meek has just kept working hard, as he noted yesterday:
"While the other side was locked in a battle over whose philosophy is more conservative, we were busy gathering over 145,000 petitions from Floridians to get on the ballot."
Meek made history by becoming the first U.S. Senate candidate to get on the Florida ballot through a grassroots petition drive. With the help of all those voters out there who are sick and tired of the same old self-serving, unethical, ineffective brand of politics being peddled by Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio, Meek can achieve two more major breakthroughs: becoming the first African American U.S. Senator in Florida's history, and starting a new statewide trend of honest, ethical people of great character and integrity getting elected to our highest levels of public office.
Charlie Crist, Kendrick Meek & Marco Rubio - High Stakes & Clear-Cut Choices In Florida's 2010 U.S. Senate Race
