I’m somewhat mystified by Kos’s decision to woo Charlie Crist over to the Democratic Party. Kos keeps insisting that Crist has no chance of winning the Republican nomination to run for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida, and suggesting that Crist switch parties. Now, I am not a huge fan of Kendrick Meek and I don’t think he has a great chance of beating Mario Rubio in a head-to-head matchup. But he’d have some chance. And he’s a Democrat. Maybe he’s kind of a centrist Democrat, but this is Florida. I can live with that.
I’m guessing here, but I think Markos thinks the only way we can prevent Rubio from being elected is to get Crist to switch parties and run as a Democrat. Presumably, he’d beat Meek in a Democratic primary (using Kos’s logic) and cream Rubio in the general election. I don’t know about the first part of that scenario. How is Crist going to win a closed Democratic primary against Kendrick Meek? Let’s look at some of the problems he’d be facing.
Crist is not only solidly pro-life, but he appointed the man who coined the term ‘partial-birth abortion’ to the Florida Supreme Court. He’s called for the end of Affirmative Action. He’s proud of fighting against gay marriage and supports the Florida Defense of Marriage Act. He endorsed a Florida ban on gay couples adopting children. He signed a bill that prevents companies from telling their employees or customers that they can’t bring firearms onto their property. He “strongly opposes the health care legislation being debated in Congress.”
That’s just the opposition research I could bring up in fifteen minutes. It seems unlikely that Crist could beat Meek or North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns in a closed primary. Why would Democrats vote for him? I know I wouldn’t.
And that’s kind of my point. What good would Crist be as a Democrat if he were elected as one. He’s got a decent environmental record for a Republican. And he’s not a religious nut (see Terri Schiavo). That’s the most I can say for him.
Would he be better than Mario Rubio? Sure. He’d be better than most Republicans in Congress. That doesn’t mean he should be invited to join the Democratic Party. I can make compromises to keep control of the Senate, but this one seems hackneyed and premature. Maybe Kos just likes taunting the man.
What happened to the better part of “more and better Democrats?”
Markos has assumed for some time that Meek couldn’t beat dead rat in a general election, so if the order of preference is Better Dem – Dem – Rep, Crist makes some sense. Is Meek really that bad? And if so, why is he the nominee?
Meek is a Blue Dog/DLC .. and he’s the only Dem running .. because the Democrats gave up on the race once Crist decided to run .. not knowing .. at the time that Rubio was gonna primary Crist .. and considering Fla. is an expensive state to run a Senate race …
<snark>What are you, some kind of purist?</snark>
Cool. I didn’t know that the tags would work without setting off all kinds of <problems></problems>.
I guess I could have looked at the “Allowed HTML” thingy below comments, though.
Oh, and I bet Markos is just taunting Crist.
I’m so glad you’re around, BooMan. Just when I think the left can’t get any crazier, it does. You remain, as always, a bulwark, and I truly appreciate that.
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Dispenses with women issues and abortion rights. So no surprise there, Markos sees Charley Crist as a candidate for HIS democratic party.
The ensuing pie fights in June 2005 tripled your subscribers here @BooMan.
Well said. That’s a bizarre party, to be honest. I don’t think the guy has an internal moral compass, or it’s not fully working, if he does.
Nitpick: Can we kill the term pro-life. He’s anti-choice.
No doubt he’s anti-life too, in terms of the death penalty, torture, and war…!
YES. That doesn’t get said often enough.
As we chanted in the 2004 March, “pro life, that’s a lie, they don’t care if women die.” Or children after they’re born.
I HATE the “pro life” label.
I vote for taunting.
I hope so. I think he may be. But he’s playing it straight.
Me too. I’m not sure that Rubio will look as good to independents in November as Kos thinks. It all depends on whether Kendrick Meek gets to every county several times, doesn’t go trotting off to the Caribbean, and doesn’t diss either the Gators, the Hurricanes, the Seminoles or the pro franchises. And whether Meek can rev up the Obama organization in Florida.
On second thought, I think Markos is thinking polls rather than policy here. But no one has polled a Rubio/Crist matchup or a Rubio/Meek matchup in the general election. I’d hate to be asking that poll question of people; the response would probably range from amazement that someone would think of that to anger that someone was trying to drive Meek from the race.
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Columnist Markos Moulitsas wrote on July 7, 2009:
You see, Crist is an anachronism in the modern GOP. He’s a moderate with a streak of social liberalism, which places him at odds with the conservative voters who will dominate the closed primary’s electorate. Crist’s strong support among Democrats and independents won’t help him with party regulars, while his centrist record will provide ample fodder for Rubio and his allies to decimate the governor’s standing with the right-wing base.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I think Kos really would like to see Crist switch and run as a Dem. It’s our best chance at grabbing that seat as long as that stiff Meek is the Dem candidate.
And as I point out down below, Crist’s voting record/political beliefs would probably turn left real quick if he switched parties. Party peer pressure in DC is a rather powerful thing.
I know….Charlie needs to stay a Republican and take his lumps from Rubio.
I think Kos just gets carried away with glee at the idea of splitting the Republican coalition. As myopic as that can get, it’s still pretty understandable, IMO.
I don’t read Kos’ post as loving Crist nor wooing him. It simply seems to state that the only way Crist could win is by switching to Democrat. Doesn’t mean that Crist would win as a Democrat. I’ve read Kos’ prior posts and his position seems to have been consistent.
On the topic of how centrist Crist would be, it’s worth noting that our current Democratic Senator, Bill Nelson, can be frustrating himself as an appeaser who seldom leads on any issue. For example, from Nelson’s own website,
IMHO, Crist is toast. In some respects, he over-achieved when he was elected Florida Attorney General (before being elected governor). He led a charmed life landing on stepping stones to higher offices.
In this last step, he probably reckoned (correctly) that FL would greatly benefit from Obama’s stimulus bill and so openly supported that stimulus bill. But he misjudged the political winds blowing from the right. It’s a wonder that he made that error, because those winds have been blowing ill towards him for a couple of years now–at best, he only had lukewarm support from Jeb’s supporters.
I think the argument Kos makes is that he’ll vote more in line with Democrats should he switch parties. It’s the same argument that Machine-Dems in PA are trying to make for Specter. “He’s a Dem now, he’ll vote with us!”
Both seem dubious.
Though, personally I don’t think Meek has a shot – at all. If Crist switches, we get a semi-moderate Republican who we can pressure to vote with us on some issues. If he doesn’t, we’ll get Rubio, who is a f*cking crazy wingnut. I don’t know if I’d “invite” Crist to the party, but I’d begrudgingly accept it…you know, like the GOP accepts Black Republicans.
He’s assuming that once Crist becomes a dem, he’ll be a good dem or risk getting primaried himself down the road. I agree its extremely cynical and sort of disgusting, but that’s sort of where things are at right now.
I think the relevant question is not why kos is trying to get crist to switch, but why is Meeks the only dem running? If Rubio is the nominee, any dem with a pulse has a legitimate shot. Why isn’t there a progressive at least making a run at it? Is there anybody like Tasani (for those not from NY, he’s a liberal running against Gilibrand) running in Florida that the netroots could get behind? I don’t think progressives will gain any traction in the party until we have a few more bodies in the Senate. At this point the netroots have evolved such that any progressive with a solid resume running for office can, with a little bit of online advocacy, raise a not insignificant chunk of change to at least be somewhat relevant in a primary.
Hell, I’d be fine if the unions and the netroots made some sort of backroom deal to support a primary candidate against every conservative dem running in 2010 and 2012. Sure, we’d lose most of them, but we’d probably win one or two and the message it would send to every conservative dem would be invaluable.
Why? … because DC Dems cleared the field for Meek .. and they did it at the time that Rubio hadn’t entered the race .. and the DC consultants probably gave Rubio little chance .. shows how much the consultants know
got this bit of Florida history on JJP:
In Florida, I understand the wooing of Charlie Crist to switch parties.
During Crist’s run for Governor, the Dems at headquarters in Tallahassee had a meltdown. Crist’s opponent Jim Davis had former state Sen. Daryl Jones as LtGov on his ticket. Jones was Florida’s first Black candidate for lieutenant governor. Rather than throwing all of their support behind the Davis/Jones ticket after they won, the Dems in Tallahassee split, those that left (IIRC most were Davis’ opponent Rod Smith supporters) created a bipartisan group to support Crist.
So, it is not as odd as one may believe that Crist could change parties. Besides, given their history, I simply do not believe FL Dems in Tallahassee would wholeheartedly support Meeks.
just thought it was interesting news to pass on.
Look at Arlen Specter or a variety of other “moderate” politicians who change parties. Often, when they change parties they go from voting 70% with their old party to voting 70% (or more, sometimes MUCH more) with the new party
If Crist ran as a Democrat, you can bet that he would not be a Ben Nelson/Mary Landrieu Republican. If anything he’d be fairly similar to Bill Nelson or Bob Casey.
BTW – the bigger question is why the FL Democrats don’t have a more viable candidate than Kendrick Meek? The guy has so far made NO impression on FL voters or the netroots. He is Coakley part two.
I would have loved to see Robert Waxman jump into this race.
OK, I pose this question to those of you that are far better at politics than I. I am not being snarky, this is a real question. How do the Democrats manage to screw everything up so consistently? We can’t find a decent candidate to save our lives (Coakley, Deeds, Meeks), we can’t convince the very people that we are trying to help that we are not out to kill their grandparents, we can’t pass the legislation we want with staggering majorities, we can’t successfully primary lousy incumbents (the teabaggers can), we can’t make the anger at Bush last longer than 6 months. What is wrong with us?
Don’t forget .. the Teabaggers have corporate … and sugardaddies funding them .. we don’t have that .. I mean where are the real left leaning institutions? .. the ones that exist don’t have much power at all
And everyone knows that George Soros is a traitor to his class.
IMHO, these two pieces of writing may offer a basic clue to our political life, which is only a manifestation of national character.
Together, they address a crippling mix of psychic passivity & pervasive exposure to media-induced reality, which is a matter of social engineering by corporate interests.
Really, what do we expect?
Maybe he’s hoping Crist will have some influence on his appointee (George LeMieux) in the Senate?
If Crist switches parties then he will become one of the left-most Democrats in the Senate. Talk to people who were/are in government in FL about how Crist got down in the FL Senate…
Same as the old village. It’s downright Broder-esque, but online, and younger. So what if it’s slightly more lefty? Same old shit. They just want a teat on the old sow.
Now that he’s behind in the polls, here are ten ways
Charlie Crist can turn his campaign around.
http://bit.ly/cLl5iF
It’s called Concern Trolling.
Crist would move left as a DEM. Most folks who switch parties vote differently – 538.com did a study on this a while back. Crist would have to move left – otherwise he wouldn’t survive a DEM primary. Plus, Meek has been really centrist for the House district he’s represented for years. I actually think that Crist would be a better senator than Meek – I really do. Crist would flip on social issues – he’s already good on issues of racial equality.