Tuesday, February 02, 2010

The Fires Of The Stake


Prince of Georgia Politics, Tom Crawford has declared Florida Republican Charlie Crist's bid for the Senate dead. He's probably right.

How does a rock star GOPer with a 70% approval rating, the man who delivered Florida for McCain go from a 30 point lead to a 12 point deficit in a matter of months?

It certainly wasn't his support of the largest property tax rollbacks in Florida history. It certainly wasn't his support of a bill to ban gay adoption. It certainly wasn't his pro-life stance.

Rational analysis would conclude Charlie's dive into the abyss was the result of the catastrophic economic collapse. Florida's revenue formula based on property taxes, when suddenly no one was building houses, and tourism, twarn't nobody going to Disney World, meant the Sunshine State took exploding economic lava bombs straight in the shorts.

But we are not dealing in the rational world, so set these facts aside and step on to the e-ticket ride that is current Republican politics.

Charlie was undid by a hug.

Unlike his fellow Republican brethren who bellowed far and wide against the federal stimulus, then eagerly wallowed to the trough to partake of the "socialist" slop, Charlie openly declared it was the correct policy.

Then he hugged the man who brought the manna from D.C. Charlie hugged Obama and the witch burners ran to gather kindling.

And now he will burn.

Daily, we hear the witch burners cry the dogma of the purge. Only the true can remain. Only those who kneel, weep and prostrate themselves at the the golden raimants of the revered father of modern conservatism deserve redemption.

Only the stained dare touch the leperous Democrats. Only the infected show the buboes of the stimulus. Only the heretics preach surrender to terrorism evidenced by the closing of Guantanamo, moving the trial of Khalid Shief Mohammed to New York and allowing a trial for that fool who blew up his underpants.
Another important measure we have developed in our overall strategy is applying the rule of law to terrorists. Terrorists are criminals. They commit criminal actions like murder, kidnapping, and arson, and countries have laws to punish criminals. So a major element of our strategy has been to delegitimize terrorists, to get society to see them for what they are -- criminals -- and to use democracy’s most potent tool, the rule of law against them.
Ronald Reagan's top State Department Official on terrorism said that.

There is no place for Charlie Crist in today's Republican party.

There wouldn't be room for Reagan either.

He would be primaried.

UPDATE: I originally wrote Reagan said the above quote. It was actually L. Paul Bremer, talking about the Reagan Adminstration's policy in dealing with terrorism.

9 comments:

possum said...

Buboes rhymes with Dubose.

Alan said...

Hear, hear!

And I've been wondering, where in the spectrum DOES moderate lie these days? Is it Left of Obama yet?

Dave Bearse said...

Great quote. Can you provide information as to when and where it was uttered?

griftdrift said...

Actually I was wrong. It wasn't Reagan directly but one of his top officials on terrorism, L. Paul Bremer.

http://www.disam.dsca.mil/pubs/Vol%2010-2/Bremer.pdf

However, the point remains the same.

Unknown said...

it's worth noting that a lot of the right has never completely embraced crist as one of their own so much as tolerated him b/c of his electoral success, there have been coughcough-issues, with him for years...

griftdrift said...

What issue would that be, Jay? The blatant bigotry against homosexuals in the right wing of the Republican Party.

Unknown said...

i don't think i need to mention anything specific, that's kind of the point it has almost always swirled around in the background and, unfortunately, for some members of my party it has been part of their problem w/ him

Joeventures said...

Perhaps the specific issue here is competence.

griftdrift said...

No it's not Joe.

As Jay said, the religious right in Florida have been gunning for Charlie for years.

They attempted to defeat him in the 2008 primary with Mike Gallagher. They started the usual whisper campaign about his sexuality. Charlie stomped them and they've been furious ever since.

Now a cascade of factors has left him bleeding and the Christianists in the Sunshine State smell and opportunity to finally claim his scalp.

And despite the fact that Jay won't say it out right, bigotry is the foundation of this entire plot.

And our own Erick Erickson is right in the middle of it. Alluding to allegations of scandal when other the recent problem with a developer/contributor in Miami, Charlie has been crystal clean. When Erick began making his statements there was nothing.

No. The only "scandal" is Charlie has been accused of being a homosexual. Never proven. Never even had any evidence. Just rumored.

It is plain ass bigotry hiding under cutthroat politics. Nothing more. Nothing less.