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Whatever
In February, when rumors first circulated that Charlie Crist would bolt the GOP and run as an independent should Marco Rubio best him, I said that if he did so, he must honor all requests for refunds on campaign donations, and should proactively offer such refunds. Now that Crist has bolted, folks like John Cornyn are already asking for their money back and the Crist campaign appears to be doing what I said they must by honoring those requests.
Added: Rubio says that Crist's move "has nothing to do with ideas or principles or ideology; it’s about, quite frankly, political convenience. It’s about someone who wants to continue his career in politics and doesn’t believe he can do that this year within the Republican Party." Quite. Meanwhile, Crist defends his decision on the tenuous theory that "[o]ur political system is broken." As I've noted before, people tend to blame the system when they don't get what they want, because if the system worked, it would give them what they want, wouldn't it? So Crist's rhetoric isn't new, but it is unusually brazen, insofar as it is unusually self-serving: generally people use it when they didn't get a political outcome they wanted, not just when they don't get a job.
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I will come down on another
I will come down on another side. Yes, Charlie wants to win. He does know he can not win in the current environment in the Florida GOP. Running as an independent is a very difficult thing to do due to lack of party resources. In Florida, it is an expensive state to run in. I actually like this. I have always hated the primary system anyways. I would prefer an Australian rank type voting system myself. At least the people will have a choice between three different ideas. The more choices the better to me. Can't say any of the three are fantastic; but at least it won't be just left vs right talking points in the conversation.
Maybe, but...
It's an act of supreme disloyalty to the Republican party as an organization. He was MORE than happy to take their money and be part of the party back when the NRSC was trying to anoint him the winner, over the objections of local Florida GOP voters who wanted to support Rubio. Now, when he realizes that he can't win in a primary fight (one in which HE had the strong fund-raising advantage at the beginning), he decides to to jump ship. And rather than run on a campaign of ideas, his campaign has mostly focused on personal attacks on Rubio, so you really can't paint this as "principled moderate" taking on "rabid right-winger," because he himself has not been making that case.
I'm going to expand on this point in a front page post soon, but if all of the supposedly "moderate" Republicans jump ship to suit their own political convenience, then there will be ZERO reason for any of the conservatives to ever try to get those moderates elected. Crist is looking out for Numero Uno here, and nobody else. He's an opportunistic weasel. Why should anybody trust him on anything?
Seriously, why would you trust him to do ANYTHING that he promises to do at this point? He's betrayed his party, dealt a SERIOUS blow to the national party structure that backed him so strongly earlier (which from my standpoint may not be a bad thing, but if you claim you want to see the GOP as a party support more moderates, you should be concerned by a stab in the back like this from a self-proclaimed moderate, as the NRSC will be very hard pressed to ever support somebody like Crist again), and gone against the opinions of most of his colleagues and long-time political supporters. That he hasn't betrayed YOU yet just means that he hasn't had the opportunity to.
He's an opportunist, nothing more.
I accept he is an
I accept he is an opportunist. I just don't think it is a bad thing sometimes. My beef is not on the national GOP. It is strictly a state issue for me. I don't trust the Florida GOP as it is now constituted. I watch the Legislature closely on a regular basis. I find the entire operation morally bankrupt at the moment. Party or not, Charlie Crist has been the only person who has made sense most of the time the last two years. Sure I think he is dead wrong on a couple of things. I just find him doing the right thing more than the other guys.
What it comes down to for me is that I shed no tears for political parties anymore. I know they are there; but if they were gone tomorrow, I would probably be happier. I am not into the pay to play thing anymore. I only vote. If I want to help a candidate, I will donate time. Is Crist clean? Hell no! But the Florida GOP (and likely the Florida Dems if they have any organization, which is in doubt) is about as clean as the Gulf of Mexico of the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama right now. So it is hard for me to say that one snake is any different from the other snakes of the same species right now.
Cynical to the max, I know. It is where I feel like things are right now.
even if
Even if there's the odor of opportunism, Crist's actions are still entirely consistent with caring more about the people of Florida than about the sanctity of 2-party politics. So there's zero surprise that party loyalists have their panties all atwist.
But maybe, just maybe, possibly, Charlie Crist really did get into politics to serve the people, not to "be a republican." If so, then while he has clearly betrayed the republican party, he hasn't betrayed the people of his state in any meaningful sense whatsoever.
Personally I couldn't give a sh!t less that Charlie Crist has betrayed his apparent blood lifetime oath of loyalty to the Republican party. The only question left, I guess, is whether Joe Lieberman is going to help him out with the jewish vote.
If Crist wins
If Crist wins, does this show that the system "worked?" Wouldn't it in fact show that Crist had to go outside the usual channels to give the people their preferred choice.
IMO, if Crist wins, he's 100% vindicated, and will have succeeded in demonstrating that the two-party system has shortcomings.