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Is the Curtain Falling on Charlie Crist's Harry Houdini Act?
Sunday CNN interview a new low for U.S. Senate candidate
Around the State
You have to ask yourself.
Did you watch his performance on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday?
I’m beginning to think that thick coat of Teflon covering Florida’s governor, the independent duck-and-dodge candidate for U.S. Senate, is finally breaking down. And it’s happening before our very eyes.
Crist didn’t just look like a candidate without a party Sunday, he looked like a man without a principle to his name.
There were moments in the 15-minute segment when I was actually embarrassed for Crist. He couldn’t for the life of him explain why he said one thing in October or March when he was a Republican, and another thing since he became a left-leaning independent.
His lips moved, he was forceful, he said nothing.
Again and again CNN commentator Ed Henry tried to keep him on point. But each time, Crist contorted his way out of it – or tried to – replying but rarely answering Henry’s question and always ending with an insincere hosanna to the only people he claims he answers to – “my fellow Floridians.”
We’ve seen this performance before. But usually the commentators aren’t as persistent as Henry was and Crist is allowed to pontificate heroically from the middle. This time he was caught saying nothing, meaning nothing and, I am convinced, believing nothing.
As an independent, “I feel like an umpire calling balls and strikes,” he said proudly, describing it as a good thing. He didn’t explain how he could help his “fellow Floridians” behind the plate, if he wasn’t in the game as a real player.
Nor would he admit, when Henry asked him, that the people of Florida have a right to know who he would caucus with if elected, the Republicans or the Democrats, that his decision could change the balance of power in the Senate and alter that chamber’s legislative agenda.
Henry had to remind him that another independent, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, discovered that if he failed to caucus with one of the two major parties, he would be ineligible to receive committee assignments. He would be virtually powerless.
“I don’t have to say who I will caucus with,” Crist replied, ultimately returning to his litany: “I will caucus with the people of Florida.”
On other questions Crist had to explain why he flip-flopped like a flounder in a row boat. For example:
On Sarah Palin: In October 2008 Crist said the now-former Alaska governor “would do a great job” if she were president. On Sunday, he wouldn’t commit to repeating that statement. In fact, he refused to talk about it. “What’s important to me,” he said, “are the Sarahs in Florida.”
The Sarahs in Florida?
On health care: On Friday he told an Orlando TV station that he would have voted for President Barack Obama’s health-care bill had he been in the Senate at the time. Immediately afterward, he issued a retraction. “I misspoke,” he said, claiming he wouldn't have after all.
When Henry questioned him on that particular flip-flop, he said he would have voted against the bill, but he would have tried to fix it “and go forward.”
“This is about doing what’s right for the people, this election is about the future.”
Give it a rest, Charlie.
This is about doing what’s right for Charlie Crist.
The only thing that’s about his “fellow Floridians” is their vote.
If Charlie Crist believes in something for Florida, if he has a dream, if he sees a destiny for the 27th state, if he has a plan for reinvigorating America and instilling hope in a people who want to overcome and move on, he isn’t saying and he isn’t showing.
And it’s becoming increasingly apparent, even to those who once believed in Charlie Crist, that his Houdini-like contortions and his ambitions are all he’s got. There’s nothing behind them.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
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