Charlie Crist has gone from popular governor to besieged Senate primary candidate in a matter of months. He’s still on the defensive about his endorsement of the stimulus boondoggle, telling a local editorial board (after trying to scoot away from his embrace of Obama) that he’s really glad he had cheered the plan:
“People are hurting and they’re suffering. I hear about it every day. That’s frankly why I thought the stimulus was so important,” Crist said. “I know there are some in my party that don’t agree with that, but I don’t have the luxury of putting politics over people.”
Well, hardly anyone in his party agrees with him, but at least he’s settled on a position. And now he’s refashioning himself as a hard-core conservative:
“It’s hard to be more conservative than I am on issues — there’s different ways stylistically to communicate that — I’m pro-life, I’m pro-gun, I’m pro-family, and I’m anti-tax. I don’t know what else you’re supposed to be, except maybe angry too,” said Crist, who as a state legislator voted against abortion restrictions and more recently supported increasing cigarette taxes in Florida and the federal $787 billion stimulus package.
Ouch. Well, maybe not all that conservative. Some decried the fact that there is a primary at all, arguing that this was all a horrid notion, having Republicans contest one another for a Senate seat. But it’s turned out to be a pretty good idea, the very thing that was missing in the NY-23 circus. Primaries serve a useful purpose — sniffing out poor candidates, uncovering their foibles, testing party enthusiasm, and allowing the candidates to test-run campaign themes. So far at least, Crist has proved to be a remarkably inept candidate, allowing the lesser-known and lesser-funded Marco Rubio to make his way into a competitive race.
Though the mainstream media and even a few snooty pundits think it’s evidence of the GOP’s weakness, a race like this suggests just the opposite. After all, a democracy is supposed to be contentious, messy, and surprising. And the Florida Senate primary is all of them.
This is so sickening, disgusting and disheartening that even though I want to say something, to comment and to contend, to scream, and then to start to fight back, I’m presently without words or any strategic suggestions to offer – totally attritioned……..for now.
A suggestion though, to Dr Rice who is considering not participating in the conference”if it deteriorates into the kind of conference that Durban 1 was”.
Guess what, it already has, and then some, including the apparent early and active co-opting of the host government .
It is an instructive lesson in Orwellian double talk to review the transformation of the concept of “crimes against humanity” throughout the mid to late 20th Century into “human rights” which in the General Assembly became a means by which dictatorships and totalitarian states could attack the Western democracies under nebulous headings such as “racism” or “colonialism”. Sadly many in Europe and the US adopted this view of human rights, which now seems to especially target the very democracies where the concept of human rights alone retains any practical value. That a conference supposedly called to address human rights issues today inevitably degenerates into an anti-American/anti-Israel hatefest is just continuing a very sorry legacy and should surprise no one. In a truly Orwellian sense, to oppose “racism” in human rights terms is now to practice it.
Given how Dr Rice ignored the apartheid the Saudis imposed on the Israeli delegation in Annapolis, she may not even understand what it is she is considering not participating in.
Who’s calling the shots on whether America should participate in Durban II? Is it Condi Rice? I hope not. There was a time when I would have supported her to be the next President. Those days are gone. Ever since she joined the State Dept I feel like she has been poisoned by that almost anti-American department.
I can hear it now…the opening night everyody singing, “Springtime For Hitler and Germany….”