This weekend Dan Gelber, former state senator and failed candidate in 2010 for attorney general, wrote to invite Charlie Crist to become a Democrat. It is very fitting. 

Who better than Gelber, someone who personifies the failures of Florida's Democrats, to reach out to the rudderless vessel that is our former governor? 

Of course, Gelber's invitation has its origins in the Democrats' resistance to coalesce behind one of their own for a 2014 gubernatorial run. I have pointed out to reporters that Sen. Nan Rich should be considered a viable candidate for three reasons: 1) she is actually a Democrat; 2) she has actually declared herself a candidate for governor; and 3) she is a loyal soldier for her progressive, South Florida politics -- a strong region for Democrats.

Rich is certainly not alone. It seems that Rod Smith, the Democrat chairman, and defeated gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink could both be up for a run in 2014. Smith has been a champion for the leftist causes of the party’s base, and Sink has found herself a think tank perch from which to crow.

Gelber, though, all but willing to express the liberal politics to which he and this potential field subscribe, will offer very weak options for Florida voters. So Gelber, like Crist, stands ready to throw principles to the wind and replace them with a perennial losers’ hope for some way to reinvent what it is that Florida voters care about.

How else can Gelber, or any longtime Democratic Party official, explain to rank-and-file members the embrace of a politician who opposed abortion, gun control, and gay marriage while he was an elected official?

Should Democrats resort to an obvious choice of political deal-making over a principled campaign behind one of their stalwarts, Crist is the perfect vehicle. He is the silly putty of Florida politics, he’ll bend whatever direction you want and if you smash him against the newspaper he’ll offer you a poll-tested, mirror version.

Really, the only question for Democrats is, are they ready to let Crist take a position where he can influence how their party is run?

Don’t forget, it was Charlie Crist who plucked Jim Greer up and installed him to manage the books for Republicans. We all know how that turned out.



Brian Hughes is a Republican media consultant based in Tallahassee. He is the president and CEO of Meteoric Media Strategies, a public relations, strategic communications and media production company.