After months of speculation — and a high-profile stint campaigning for President Obama — former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist signed up Friday night to become a Democrat.
Here is a compilation of analysis and reaction to this dramatic, but unsurprising development:
Influential Florida-based blogger Sarah Rumpf is unsurprisingly unsurprised:
“Anyone who posted this news on Twitter as “BREAKING” as anything other than tongue-in-cheek should be thoroughly mocked, as this was one of the most predictable moves in politics since dinosaurs crawled the earth.”
One blogger on the conservative site RedState wrote that Crist has acted exactly the way that self proclaimed moderates within the Republican party typically act:
“They are willing to be Republicans until they lose a primary challenge and then they quit because ‘the Republican party left me.’ It also goes to the utter lack of principle that permeates many of our political organization. In 2009, the feckless John Cornyn’s National Republican Senatorial Committee endorsed Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio.”
Brian Hughes, a consultant to the Florida GOP is having fun with Photoshop and the picture of Crist at The White House.
Patrik Jonsson of the Christian Science Monitor, however, sees Crist’s switch as a natural curve, boosted by hardball GOP politics, including allegations Crist himself has leveled that GOP hardliners willfully suppressed the vote last month, albeit to no avail.
Progressive blogger Ben Kirby ” hopes the Democratic faithful might maintain just a hint of skepticism about the newest member of our Party”:
And by “faithful,” I mean those who just finished walking neighborhoods for Obama… and who walked those same neighborhoods in 2008. I mean those who campaigned for Kendrick Meek when Charlie Crist was telling Republicans he would caucus with them if elected (and then followed that by saying “who cares!” when asked who he would caucus with, giving Marco Rubio a too-good-to-miss entree into one of the best political ads, maybe ever). I mean the Florida Democratic faithful who poured their souls into a failed recount effort in 2000. I mean the faithful who still remember the Bob Graham days, the Lawton Chiles days.
I hope we Democrats can maintain just a touch of skepticism, even as we, in true Southern form, welcome Governor Crist to the Party.
Kartik Krishnaiyer of the Political Hurricane echoes Kirby’s hesitancy:
To many of the rank in file, Crist appears to be a combination of an opportunist and a sore loser. Whether this is a fair assessment of Crist is up for debate. But no question exists that the former Governor must show a significant change even from his 2010 positions as an Independent US Senate candidate to win a Democratic Primary.
Meanwhile, some Democratic elected officials from Crist’s hometown of St. Petersburg appear eager to welcome him to the Democratic fold:
@DarrylRouson: Glad to have @charliecristfl in our party #bigtent
@KenWelch: @charliecristfl Welcome on board my friend!
@Kriseman: Charlie Crist has declared himself a Democrat. The Democratic Party should welcome him and anyone else dissatisfied w/ GOP.
Of course, several Republican lawmakers, many of whom did not care for Crist when he was in the GOP, are taking shots at the former governor:
Rep. Larry Ahern: “I’m glad to see Charlie finally made it to Washington and the White House. All he had to do was forsake his morals, principles and values and join the Democratic Party. For a someone like Charlie, that has to seem a fair trade.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz via Twitter: “He’s running out of parties to double-cross.”
Rep. Carlos Trujillo: “Such a mockery of the political process.”
Republican activists are having a field day on Twitter:
@ChrisLatvala: So when does this Jim Greer trial start? Charlie sure does know a good leader when he sees one.
@Hannaman00: Charlie Crist is everything people despise about politics. He will lose once again as Democrats have principles too.
@Reaganista: Thanks for proving me right again!
Republican consultant Mike Murphy tweeted quite a zinger:
“The Great Imposter … at it again.”
