Obama can play this to his advantage if he needs to. "Too many people in Washington want to play political games even in this time of crisis. But out in the rest of America, Democrats and Republicans can agree that we need to face this crisis directly, and face it together."

Hear hear! Of course Crist is going to put the stimulus package ahead of party-line dogma; he's trying to govern a state hit perhaps the hardest by the collapse of the housing bubble. Check yesterday's story in the NY Times, and an article in the latest New Yorker, for the grim details. When he saw his fellow Republicans cut aid for the states out of the bill, I can just imagine what he thought, and it isn't printable here. GOOOOO CHARLIE!

Obama really does need 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. The knuckle-draggers just proved it. But if the president can reliably crack McConnell's grip, if only on cloture votes, his reputation for political far-sightedness will match or exceed that of Bill Clinton.

In my dreams, Franken is seated and the new seat-warmer senator from NH (Good old what's her name), not needing campaign contributions from Cornyn & Co, decides to caucus with the Democrats.

Frist is not the only moderate Republican on the planet; I live next-door to many of them. In fact, they make better neighbors than low-life Democrats such as myself.

Who's kidding whom? After the bill comes back from conference, the BREAKING NEWS on CNN will be "Crist feels betrayed by the changes!" The bill will pass, but there will not be a single Republican who will be on record as supporting it, including Collins, Snowe or the Pennsylvania flip-flopper.

"[...] and it makes the congressional GOP look like they're off on the fringe, too extreme even for senior elected officials in their own party."

It doesn't "make" them look like that. They *are* like that. Anyway, I'll go out on a limb & predict that Crist won't be the only Republican Governor with positive things to say about Obama's version of the stimulus. It's really easy to dig in your heels & crow all about your newfound commitment to fiscal responsibility, but it's quite another when you're sitting governor of a state that can no longer provide the basic services voters have come to expect -- if not completely depend on.

Did the congressional Repubs even talk to their state organizations? The congressional Repubs just threw them under a bus when they cut a ton of proposed state funding; did they think the governors and the rest of the state officials were just going to lie there and take it?

And concidering the mess in the Governators state , who long before Arnie extends an olive branch. You go - house and senate repugs, marginalize yourselves even more.

Wasn't it McCain that said the stimulus proposal did not have bipartisan support. I guess the gang of 36 GOP Senators who believe in Hoover economic policy are the only Republicans that count!

...Crist breaking with his party...

From the sound of things coming out of Florida, the only thing Crist is "breaking with" is Florida's voodoo Congressional delegation and a collective pile of Rush Limburger's "dunghead" groupies.

The bill will pass, but there will not be a single Republican who will be on record as supporting it, including Collins, Snowe or the Pennsylvania flip-flopper.

Danp - I think you're wrong about that. While I could see the Republicans in Congress doing as you describe, Crist won't. Because the issue ISN'T that this goes against Republican ideology, because Republicans DON'T HAVE any ideology. Sure, they imagine they do, but they spent the last eight years proving that they stand for absolutely nothing but powergrabs and greed.

Congressional Republicans only oppose this bill because they're simpleminded idiots who can't think of any better way of gaining power. They're in a direct power struggle with Obama and the Congressional Dems to prove they're still relevant, and they're doing that by sidelining themselves; not the first time Republicans supported a counter-productive agenda that blew up in their faces.

But non-Congressional Republicans aren't in this power-struggle. They aren't in direct battle against Obama. And if anything, they're in direct battle against the Republicans in Congress, who are sidelining them and denying them any say in this matter. They want this money because it helps them pay the bills without cutting spending or raising taxes. So that helps them look like good ideological Republicans without having to actually fulfill the ideology. And so they're going to be siding with Obama on this. And Republican voters should be doing the same.

Sure, there are going to be a few Republican governors who want to win this for "the team," but they're wrong. The "teams" aren't Republican v. Democrat. It's Republican Congressmen v. Everyone Else. And the sooner they realize what's really happening, the better. If they care about good government or saving their political necks, they'll be on Obama's side. After all, even Republicans in Congress made the wrong move on this. People not engaged in their fight have even less reason to support them.

The only people that truly benefit from this fight are talkshow hosts like Limbaugh and O'Reilly. They need a good fight to hype. It was a screw-up for everyone else.

I'm going to suspend my campaign and go to washington to straighten this mess out.

What I find encouraging is that the Senate "centrist" aren't being lionized in the press as they usually are. I see a lot more scepticism about whether their cuts made any kind of economic sense.

Obama is also coming on strong. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see a final bill closer to the House version. Things are looking a little better.

The Republicans will out him.

I think the calculus for Crist and for other Governors and State Chairs: Do i want to be a leader of the Party everyone is watching on the national newsd or do i want to be the leader of the Republican Party? They can remake the national party having sucessfully managed their states through the crises while maintaining socially conservative credentials. It is the only way to emplete because the odds are -- if the country craters, your state craters too.

Obama knows this and has known this. He is so much smarter than the tools on the Hill it is frigthening.

Crist knows that he can run for president as a succesful governor of on the big key electoral states. He can lose the Iowa caucus and no one will care.

Not just the right move for the Country, but the right move for him politically.

He just leapfrogged Mitt, Palin, and Huckabee.

well played Charlie.

orange

eric

Rather than bipartisanship, won't this indicate more defections from republican groupthink. Let's not start throwing the bastards life preservers yet.

I'm really surprised that Ahhnold hasn't interjected himself into this food-fight. California is sailing over a cliff (you may have heard something about our plight - it's been in all the papers). What was once the World's 6th largest economy is now rivaling to be its 1st largest basketcase.

I know the Guvernator will be foursquare behind Obama when comes to strengthening environmental standards (lower Co2 emissions, et al). Sure would be nice to have his (relatively) mainstream voice on the airwaves chastising the Troglodyte wing of his party for cutting off our air supply in the current crisis.

They can remake the national party having sucessfully managed their states through the crises while maintaining socially conservative credentials.

I'm with eric on this one.

The original McCain strategy might have worked if not for his need to mollify his own right wing by cleaving more closely to Bush; and the original Palin rationale was not her flaming culture-war-mongering but her practicality and hard-line against corruption.

Crist is doing much the same thing here, banking on the idea that path to Republican renaissance will be competence and pragmatism rather than ideological purity. That way he can run something like this: "You might like Obama personally and think he's well-intentioned, but he's still a Democrat, and what America really wants deep down is a Republican who can govern effectively. Like me, Charlie Crist."

Mitt Romney should have tried that same tack. Remember how when he ran against Ted Kennedy some of what he tried was running to his left.

I think this strategy will always have a hard time getting traction in a Republican primary, but at this point it's one of the only ways a Republican is going to get anywhere in a national election.

Repub Reps, and to a lesser degree, Senators, only need answer to Limbaugh. Blame/credit is pretty dilluted as to how this shakes out on a local level. But at the State level, a Governor's reputation, status, or maybe even career could be on the line.
Limbaugh needs only his rhetoric. Repub legislators need little more than Limbaugh's approval. But a Governor has the reality of a budget to contend with.

Bravo, Gov. Crist and go Mr. President!

Today's townhall was superb.

Tonight we are watching the press conference at our school district headquarters prior to our school board meeting. We need that state stabilization and school construction "upward adjustment" before we have such a sharp "downward adjustment" in jobs (teaching and construction) as well as the length of the school year.

Crist is, after all, the governor of a large state... Indistinguishable from the third world and thus in need of foreign aid from Washington.

Stay tuned for the Strike Farce's investigation of Crist's kitchen counter tops.