Gingrich Goes After Romney for Having Moderate Charlie Crist Advisors
Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons
Newt Gingrich continues his campaign to brand (and not without reason, actually) former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney a — get ready, hide the kids from this word, hope it won’t get this site deleted from the Internet — moderate (there I said it). And it may well work in Florida but the Republican Party could be facing some real collateral damage come November:
Once the Republican presidential campaign came to Florida, it was only a matter of time until someone played the Charlie Crist card.
In an attempt to tarnish Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials, Newt Gingrich on Tuesday connected Romney to Florida’s former governor, the once-ambitious moderate who fell so far out of favor with the GOP that in 2010 he left the GOP.
“We discovered last night that Mitt Romney has picked up Charlie Crist’s campaign manager,” Gingrich said Tuesday at the Tick Tock Restaurant in St. Petersburg. “I thought that told you everything you need to know about this primary.”
“As governor of Massachusetts [Romney] was pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, pro-tax increase and pro- gun control,” he said.
Fair enough. That is Romney’s record, even though Romney now treats his record like a guy who has a CD player treats old vynl records.
But here is Gigrich taking it a step further:
“Now that makes you a moderate in Massachusetts but it makes you pretty liberal in a Republican primary. That’s probably why he hired Charlie Crist’s staff.”
Question: why in the world would anyone who is a moderate Democrat, moderate independent voter, moderate Republican vote for a candidate or party that holds them in such clear, utter contempt? Not that Crist isn’t low hanging fruit for anyone wanting to appeal to conservatives in Florida:
In tying Romney to Crist, Gingrich reached for the simplest, most direct and deadliest weapon available to him: In Florida conservative circles, there’s no more reviled figure than the state’s former governor, who went from prospective national candidate to GOP pariah in record time.
As recently as 2008, his endorsement was highly coveted in the GOP presidential contest. But by 2010, after supporting the Obama administration’s stimulus program and gaining a reputation for flip-flopping, Crist’s support on the right collapsed. Viewed as the embodiment of political expediency, his seemingly insurmountable lead in the 2010 Senate GOP primary vanished as Marco Rubio, once a long-shot challenger, captured the imagination of the tea party movement and national conservatives. With no viable remaining route to the GOP nomination, Crist switched to run as an independent and lost to Rubio in November.
With his Crist slur, Gingrich sought to frame himself as this year’s Rubio, the Florida insurgent who bucked the establishment by harnessing conservative grass-roots energy. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond even compared the ex-speaker with the celebrated freshman senator in the spin room after Monday night’s NBC News/Tampa Bay Times debate.
But if you think Rubio is running around campaigning for Gingrich, think again. He’s neutral in the primary race, but in recent days has scolded Gingrich.
Rubio was not happy over Gingrich’s attack on Romney regarind Crist. And he has some issues with that guy who wants to “change the planet”: he thinks Gingrich needs to change some of his attack lines:
Sen. Marco Rubio scolded Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign over a Spanish-language radio ad that accuses rival Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant”
“This kind of language is more than just unfortunate. It’s inaccurate, inflammatory, and doesn’t belong in this campaign,” Rubio told The Miami Herald when asked about the ad.
“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”
Rubio’s sharp rebuke comes a day after he subtly corrected Gingrich for comparing Romney to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, branded by conservatives as a turncoat who left the party before Rubio beat him in 2010.
The criticisms from someone of Rubio’s stature in the Republican Party comes as polls show a near-even race, albeit with Gingrich surging.
Rubio plans to stay neutral in the race. He’s a potential running mate whom both candidates would love to have on the ballot. And he’s gaining iconic status among many national Republicans who see him as a face of the future in a nation that’s growing more Latino.
And Gingrich is not doing so well with Latinos in Florida:
Mitt Romney has a 15-point lead over Newt Gingrich among Hispanic voters in Florida, where the next primary showdown will take place Tuesday, according to a new poll.
Among the Latino voters in the Sunshine State, 35 percent of Hispanic Republicans said they would back Romney, compared to 20 percent who said they would vote for Gingrich, an ABC News/Univision News survey found Wednesday. However, about one in five Hispanic GOPers in the state said they were still undecided.
The problem with Republicans is the way their campaign is playing out they are going to totally turn off moderate voters. Moderates may lean to the left or right. It is not a monolithic group. But many moderates do use the word with some pride and the fact that it oozes from Gingrich’s and other GOPers lips like saying “@!#%(&!!” (this is a family oriented site) can be deadline come November). Conservatives cannot win with conservatives alone. Gallup:
Americans’ political ideology at the midyear point of 2011 looks similar to 2009 and 2010, with 41% self-identifying as conservative, 36% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.
If this pattern continues, 2011 will be the third straight year that conservatives significantly outnumber moderates — the next largest ideological bloc. Liberalism has been holding steady for the past six years, averaging either 21% or 22%, although notably higher than the 17% average seen in Gallup polling during the early to middle ’90s.
Longer term, the Gallup ideology trend, dating from 1992, documents increased political polarization in the country. The percentage of moderates has fallen to the mid-30s from the low 40s, while the combined percentage either liberal or conservative is now 62%, up from 53%.
Again: why would moderates vote for a candidate or party that holds them in utter contempt. Can the GOP win by getting conservative and liberal votes?
If you believe that will be the winning coalition then I can sell you this for $100.
9 Responses to “Gingrich Goes After Romney for Having Moderate Charlie Crist Advisors”
Republicans have proven over and over that they can find defeat in victory in more ways than one can imagine.
They had Reid staked out in Nevada and then picked probably one of a handful of candidates that could not win.
They had the Delaware senate seat in the palm of their hands and they picked the only candidate that “dabbled in witchcraft” and lost.
Then one by one, any of the Republicans that could have easily defeated B.O. decided for one reason or the other to not seek the nomination. This made it appear Romney had it and was running a national campaign.
But once again he found a way to turn apparent victory into defeat. With little to hide, he decided he was not going to release his tax returns, making it look like he had something to hide. So off goes his weak support and on comes Gingrich.
So now the Republicans appear to be choosing the less likely of the two weak candidates that can defeat B.O. Once again they are going down the path of self distruction.
So the liberals wil stay with B.O., the ultra conservatives will stay with Gingrich and the Moderates will hold their noses and vote for B.O. again or not vote for President at all. And if Gingrich is the nominee, the conservative leaning turnout could be weak enough to allow for a large number of seats to switch parties as well as allow democrats to retain those seats thought to be vulnerable.
All this while moderates are still searching for the true centrist candidates that really represent their views.
But should we expect anything else from the Republicans?
Centrism seems to be obsolete– can a centrist even win the presidency anymore? My answer is probably not because centrists don’t win primaries and especially in the GOP the label centrist is a losing proposition. The GOP shoots itself in the foot by insisting on pure conservatism. The few candidates that pass this test fail to appeal to the majority of the country.
bluebelle,
My sense is that you are right. The grip that the two parties have on our system force extreme candidates to be nominated and then the public feels they must choose between one or the other, thus forcing out any centrist voices. That would suggest that a centrist movement could emerge if the right person emerged that people could rally behind.
However, I do struggle to understand polls like this: http://www.gallup.com/poll/139877/near-record-say-democratic-party-liberal.aspx
Looking past the headline, if we define a centrist as people that think both that the Democrats are too liberal and the Republicans are too conservative, this poll suggests that there are not many of them, surprisingly. In fact, if you make a few reasonable assumptions about these numbers, mathematically you end up with a negative number of centrists! (obviously that indicates that the assumptions aren’t 100% correct, but the point still stands I think.)
Personally, I’m more interested in independence than centrism. A candidate from any ideological background wins my respect, and maybe my vote, if they demonstrate that they can think through a problem on their own even if the conclusion leads them against their own party. So far, only Ron Paul wins that respect (my vote TBD).
Whatever the criteria is for being a “moderate”, I doubt it includes being a blatant and unabashed flip-flopper – although there are certainly other reasons why Romney is no moderate. Pretty funny to see Newt trying to make the word a pejorative, but republicans have quite a history of trying to change the meaning of words.
Why should Newters attack on Crist hurt in in the closed Republican primary. Now in the general election, Newter siding against Crist, who many run against Skeletor for Florida governor would be a bigger deal. The far Right in Florida sees Crist as a RINO…
Put yourself in Newt’s shoes. This is his last shot at the Presidency and he has to win the nomination before he get to fight Obama.
You don’t sit out some of your best players in the NFC championship because you are afraid they might get hurt before the Super Bowl.
Newt needs to win the nomination by any means possible and then deal with the aftermath later.
Now anyone with a political future or anyone that cares about the Rep party should think differently, but Newt fits neither category.
as for centrist… moderate…
I don’t like either word.
Centrist implies you are stuck between the two polls, constantly moving to the middle of where the extremists set their baseline. I refuse to acknowledge that either poll is legitimate.
Moderate well…by definition is without passion. And like many here, I believe strongly and with much passion.
Independents will decide the Nov. election. You have a group of independents that are so because they are ill informed and quite apathetic. And a group this is well informed, extremely upset, and wondering how we can kick both parties out of the system.
zephyr- I strongly doubt that Romney has ANY core ideology. He’s a corporatist– a businessman through and through– the social conservative stands mean nothing to him – which in turn results in a loss of authenticity that Republican voters are always noticing.
Romney’s world is all about maximizing profits for the investor class. Nothing wrong with that– just not the right message for the 99%. If you look at his demos in SC – he won most of the members of the 200k and up club.
adeline’s dad– Yes RP has demonstrated that he can think independently — BUT has failed to be effective. In all his years in the House he has only sponsored one bill that ended up passing. One out of over 400.
Also, I have a big issue with his vision of returning all the political power to the states. There are many states that need a watchdog– I wouldn’t want to remove the extra layer of protection that the Feds provide on product safety, food and drug testing, civil rights enforcement, voting rights enforcement,environmental protection, etc etc.
OTOH- I agree with him on the War on Drugs– not criminalizing drug users and the desire to end our expensive and expansive wars of aggression.
I’m beginning to wonder if Newt cares at all for November and just wants to win the GOP nomination to stick it to his conservative detractors out of sheer pig headedness. When the moderate/independent demographic is growing fast while the left/right shrink, he plows right on ahead with trying to demonize everyone who is sick of all the demonizing. Deluded tone deaf self righteous windbag. Oh wait, was that demonizing?