Crist Joins Democrats, Comes Out: U Mad, GOP?
Commentary | So Charlie Crist joins the Democrats and tells us what we already know — the former GOP lawmaker, who broke ranks to support President Obama, has made a permanent and official shift to embrace reason — vocally moving away from the party that has taken a sharp turn to the “very conservative” in recent years.
As Crist joins the Democrats officially, who among us did not (at least fleetingly) consider the old cliche about how if you are not liberal when you’re 20, you don’t have a heart, and if you’re not conservative at 50, you don’t have a brain? It seems Crist is the latest datapoint in an increasing re-commitment to liberal values among baby boomers.
And now that Crist joins the Democrats with a tweet heard ’round the political blogosphere, we’re sure you’re not surprised to hear that his former fellows in Florida’s GOP have embraced the decision with tact and humility, congratulating the former governor on his ideological awakening. Just kidding!
They actually released a statement slamming Crist and saying they didn’t want to be friends anyway. The Florida GOP said in a statement early today:
“Charlie Crist’s first official act as a Democrat was to tell a lie about why he is now pretending to be one … The truth is that this self-professed, Ronald-Reagan Republican only abandoned his pro-life, pro-gun, conservative principles in 2010 after he realized that Republicans didn’t want to send him to Washington D.C. as a senator, especially after he proved he couldn’t do the job as governor.”
Well, if that’s not some break-up sour grapes business, we don’t know what is.
Still, Florida Dems haven’t been tripping over themselves to fully embrace Crist as a leader just yet, and departing Florida Democratic Party chairman Rod Smith quipped recently that just because a new congregant is recruited, “you don’t make them the preacher.”
Crist’s aisle cross has not been addressed in-depth by the former governor following his tweet showing a picture of his shiny, new registration. Do you think Crist joining the Dems is another signal the GOP’s message needs a large-scale overhaul?
