GOP Self-Destruction Continues as Crist to Run as Independent

[Michael Tee]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/charlie-crist-for-florida_n_555412.html

Why not?  The GOP brand is becoming toxic.  This is kind of bizarre - - as the GOP self-destructs because of the wackos within, Obama is losing his mojo through his irrational fear of them and he, Reid and Pelosi are setting up their own downfall by alienating a base that was ready for bold action and isn't getting any.

What a time for Third Party action, and where in hell are they???

[BT]

Crist is running as an independent because he was losing to Rubio. That is why he vetoed the teacher merit pay bill and that is how he got a major influx of in kind ads from the Fl. Teachers Union.

[Kramer]

The GOP is pushing away the undesirables. Actually the GOP has put up with crap like Crist for far too long. The voters are pushing out the liberals and taking back the Rep Party. Too bad Democrats don't have them kind of balls.

[Plane]

[Why not?  The GOP brand is becoming toxic.  This is kind of bizarre - - as the GOP self-destructs because of the wackos within,

You don't beleive the party can be strengthened with purges?

[Michael Tee]

Wow, I just thought it was self-evident how a guy like Rubio is dividing the GOP and basically hastening its demise, and here I see even something so obvious is being denied.  

To plane, I am taking your comment about strengthening by purging as a kind of sardonic joke on your part, it is funny, and I'm sure you don't see any real comparison between the threats faced by the GOP in Florida in 2010 as being in any way comparable to the threats faced by the CPUSSR or the USSR itself in the mid-1930s.  

Rubio is an ideologue who is going to split the GOP right down the middle.  He and wackos like him should have been drummed out of any influential positions in the Party as soon as they opened up their mouths.  OF COURSE Crist vetoed the education bill - -

<<Phone calls and e-mail ran 65,259 against to 3,090 for the bill.>>
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/15/1581102/crist-vetoes-florida-teacher-pay.html

Simplistic solutions to complex problems seem to have limited appeal, but if Rubio and whatever right-wing wackos support him want to ride this one to their political graves, I guess in the long run, it can only be all to the good.

[sirs]

Ignoring for the moment that this topic was already initiated earlier, what's going to be Tee's comeback if Rubio wins?  GOP stole the election?

Ami or Bt, can you mark this thread so we can automatically come back to it following the Florida elections??

[BT]

Rubio is an ideologue who is going to split the GOP right down the middle.

You base this slur, on what, exactly?

[Michael Tee]

Basically on their positions regarding the President's stimulus plan.

[sirs]

A nearly unanimous position on Obama's stimulus plan is "splitting the GOP right down the middle"?

On what planet would that be?

[BT]

Basically on their positions regarding the President's stimulus plan.

Do you honestly think the bailouts and pork ridden stimulus programs were targeted properly?

[Plane]

Wow, I just thought it was self-evident how a guy like Rubio is dividing the GOP and basically hastening its demise, and here I see even something so obvious is being denied.  

To plane, I am taking your comment about strengthening by purging as a kind of sardonic joke on your part, ....

Ah! sharp eyes there.

Generally, purges are bad news except in the special sort of case in which the whole nation has only one genius in it capable of running it.

But the split in the Republican party is on the line of whether Republicans should be more like Democrats and also more co-operative with Democrats.

So why have Republicans at all? We could all be Democrats as we were in 1830 all politics would be within the party. The single party would be for all.

Well,..... that actually didn't work out all that well, the resulting paralisis and  public dissatisfaction contributing to the unpleasantness of the 1860s .

      No one party can disagree with itself enough to represent the whole nation. For a two party system one might think the ideal would be one party that appealed to fifty percent and another party that appealed to the other fifty percent, this is not far from what we have got.

     Unfortunately the closer we approach this ideal , the greater diffrence is made by mavericks ,tiny  third partys , wafflers and the unfaithfull.

Also the more diffrence small scale cheating can make.

I think there is room for a large third party , if we don't acheive this we will continue to often have elections decided by margins smaller than the margin of error.

[Michael Tee]

<<Do you honestly think the bailouts and pork ridden stimulus programs were targeted properly?>>

That's like asking if somebody's emergency tracheotomy was done properly.  Nothing's perfect.  The fact is that things have to be done to save a life and afterwards one can debate, was it well done, was it botched?

I guess anything of that scale, in retrospect always is going to show flaws.  The real issue is, was it in general well-conceived or ill-conceived.  I think at this point it was a lifesaver.  Moreover, given the practical necessity, only an ideologue could have objected. 

There are legitimate questions about the stimulus - - does it only paper over the underlying problems, leaving them to explode anew further on down the road?  IMHO, we don't know.  I would think that the stimulus alone can't solve the underlying weaknesses that led to the breakdown in the first place, that it must be accompanied by wide-ranging reforms.  But the problem here is that the same people who opposed the stimulus are going to oppose the needed reforms, which are chiefly in the form of more oversight and regulation of the corporate and commercial sector.  If the Party of No is successful in killing reform, then their view of the stimulus as doomed to long-range failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[sirs]

A nearly unanimous position on Obama's stimulus plan is "splitting the GOP right down the middle"?

Didn't think you could answer that one

[Xavier_Onassis]

Rubio is an ultra-rightwing pro-blockade corrupt dork. The legislature declared war on all the state teachers, and Crist rightfully vetoed a terrible law. Rubio does not belong in ANY legislature, nor should the voters be forced to vote for him.

[sirs]

Who the hell is forcing anyone to vote for anyone??