Is The GOP Lecturing Charlie Crist?
Dan Quayle, Haley Barbour and other Republicans have felt it necessary to lecture the Tea Party movement about not going third party. Actually, I've heard more talk of it from the establishment GOP, than I have from Tea Party people.
Given Crist's veto today and the fall-out now stemming from it, has anyone bothered to lecture him on what an Independent run might do? If he runs as an Independent and wins, a GOP that would welcome him into the caucus in the Senate will be doomed. If Crist bolts, instead of accepting defeat like a man, and supposed Republican, it will confirm what many people think about the GOP and could kick off a disaster for the party heading into the fall.
Mack wrote a terse, two-paragraph letter to his one-time protege that said Crist was wrong to veto a bill (SB 6) that would have made it easier to fire teachers and tie their pay to student test scores.
"As you know, I strongly disagree with your veto," Mack wrote his fellow Republican. "Your veto I believe undermines our education system in Florida and the principles for which I have always stood."
Mack went on to say that Crist's decision to veto the bill was "unsupportable and wrong."
"As you can understand, I can no longer serve as chairman for your campaign for the United States Senate," Mack wrote.
Mack, who retired in early 2001 after a dozen years in the U.S. Senate, addressed the letter to "Charlie" and said he valued their long friendship.
A phone message left on the governor's cell phone and with campaign officials was not immediately returned.
It was a difficult day for the first-term governor, who was also rebuked by his predecessor, Jeb Bush, for the veto. Crist announced the veto only a few hours after a poll by Quinnipiac (Conn.) University showed him trailing former House Speaker Marco Rubio by 23 points in their race to win the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.
That poll, however, suggested Crist could win a three-way contest if he chose to leave his party and run as an independent.
Someone (perhaps myself) should point out to these Republican idiots that the Tea Party is quickly growing in support from disaffected Democrats and energizing the independents and libertarians. A third party is not what they need to worry about, becoming a third party is!
Crist was right to veto that bill. That bill was crap.
There was no plan for compensation criteria. There was no plan for a regimen to track student performance, or to measure accomplishments in nonstandard subjects like music. The funding wasn’t there to come up with a full battery of tests in every subject at all grade levels, and then to administer this monster.
It centralized authority in Tallahassee instead of keeping it where it belongs – in the district. This bill was unconservative. The only thing about it a libtard couldn’t love was that it pissed off the teachers’ union.
Conservatives and Republicans should quit throwing a hissy fit and write better legislation. This bill was garbage.