‘Lonely’ status for candidate Crist stems from governing politics, not people

By Kay B. Day

Gov. Charlie Crist (I-Fla.) did an interview by phone with The Hill, saying, “When you’re not affiliated with a party, it can be very lonely, particularly initially.”

But if truth were to rear its lovely head, the loneliness might be better attributed to the governor’s various reversals on policy as well as his decision to hang onto campaign funds solicited as a Republican candidate.

Crist said the GOP has been “drifting so far to the right.”  He didn’t feel “comfortable” anymore.

The discomfort was predictable, though not for reasons Crist cited in the interview.

As recently as December, 2009, Gov. Charlie Crist defended former RPOF chairman Jim Greer during an interview with the editorial board of the S. Florida newspaper The Sun-Sentinel.That discomfort may have been sharpened by the fact Crist lost ground to former speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio in the US Senate race. Rubio has moved ahead in polls against all odds—grudging acceptance by big media, defying top national GOP leadership, dodging fallout from the Republican Party of Florida meltdown caused by chairman Jim Greer’s strange (some might say wondrous) handling of Party finances.

The interviewer didn’t mention that to Crist—his potential for losing as a source of his Party switch. Had he felt victory within his grasp, he would likely still be a Republican despite the fact his handpicked chairman is in a lot of trouble with the feds.

Crist personally nominated Jim Greer for RPOF chair in January, 2007. The St. Petersburg Times said Crist did that at Disney World—hindsight tells us that was an ironic venue. The paper noted, “Crist predicted Greer will be a great chairman, and applauded his friend's promise to grow the party…”

There are numerous other reasons our governor could feel lonely. Rubio’s press team pointed to a Crist decision in a recent release: “Crist bizarrely vetoes his own budget request.” That summary alludes to Crist’s veto of approximately $9.7 million in state funding for Shands, Florida’s preeminent teaching hospital.

In Jacksonville Shands is the hospital where the uninsured go.

Rubio is correct Crist included the Shands funding in his ‘People’s Budget’ request.

And there’s a devastating downside—this could lead to a reduction in federal money of up to $12 million or more. Rubio said Shands CEO Tim Goldfarb wrote a memo stating Crist’s veto would “dramatically impact the hospital’s ability to care for under-insured and uninsured patients.”

That decision appears to be purely political.

Rubio’s release points to numerous other decisions like this one—Crist pledging to Fox News' Chris Wallace he would run as a Republican, pledging to refund campaign contributions and after schmoozing with the AFL-CIO in Florida, “sounding open to Card Check.”

Those are just a few ‘Cristian’ waffles, aside from his cave-in on an educational bill, a cave-in most insiders knew was aimed at securing the teachers’ union lobby vote.

The governor is lonely because he is governing our state from a position as senatorial candidate rather than as the visionary governor we thought we voted for. I’ve been disappointed in politicians I’ve voted for (and talked others into voting for) before. But Crist is one of the most disappointing.

Some reading this will say my negativity is because I’m a Republican. I am a registered member of the GOP, but those who know me also accept that I criticize my own Party’s leaders when I think they act unwisely. My negativity to Crist has to do not only with his jumping the Party ship. It has to do with the way he is managing our state.

Despite his embrace of Obamanomics, Crist has steered the wheel as Florida’s unemployment rate increased. At the moment Florida's unemployment rate sits at around 12 percent, partly due to temporary census worker jobs. There may also be an uptick as resorts hire help for the summer tourist season.

And knowing all this, knowing the impact on the uninsured and the under-insured, Crist vetoes money for the hospital that treats that constituency, and in the process, costs us more federal money after he praised taking federal money?

It’s lonely when you govern from a platform of politics versus a platform of principles. Florida would be better served if our governor stepped down.

[Disclosure: TUSR editor Kay B. Day supports Marco Rubio for the US Senate and she has contributed to his campaign.]
 

Update on Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 11:56AM by Kay B. Day, Editor

This release in from The Heartland Institute:

Crist Errs in Vetoing Insurance Bill

TALLAHASSEE, June 1, 2010 – Analysts at the Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank, today said Gov. Charlie Crist’s veto of SB 2044 will add a big burden to the state’s taxpayers and consumers.

 “Consistency has never been one of Governor Crist’s strengths, except when it comes to consistently putting politics over the best interests of the state. The much-needed property insurance reform package he vetoed today would have helped stabilize the state’s shaky property insurance market and was a compromise that received wide support from both parties. It was even backed by his own Office of Insurance Regulation,” said Christian R. Cámara, the director of Heartland’s Florida Insurance Project.

“This veto illustrates Crist’s desperate personal conflict between what’s right and wrong for the state versus what’s good and bad for him politically, and it clearly shows that his priorities lie with the latter,” Cámara said.

Eli Lehrer, national director of Heartland’s Center on Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate, said Crist’s veto shows the Florida governor was looking for headlines instead of policy solutions. “The bill that Crist vetoed was an exceedingly modest, incremental effort at reform that would have helped prevent insurance companies from going insolvent and leaving it to the state’s taxpayers to rescue their customers. The governor is vetoing it only as a way of getting his name in the paper,” said Lehrer. “The people of Florida will suffer as a result of his actions.”