{"id":1858,"date":"2010-04-16T10:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T14:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/16\/is-charlie-crist-the-republican-partys-joe-lieberman\/"},"modified":"2010-04-16T10:25:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T14:25:00","slug":"is-charlie-crist-the-republican-partys-joe-lieberman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/16\/is-charlie-crist-the-republican-partys-joe-lieberman\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Charlie Crist the Republican Party’s Joe Lieberman?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
There’s a fascinating political fight developing in Florida these days. Moderate Republican Governor Charlie Crist is getting trounced in the GOP primary for that state’s open Senate seat.<\/p>\n

Conservative challenger Marc Rubio is blowing Crist away in the polls and outstripping him in fund raising.<\/p>\n

To borrow a phrase from the national lexicon, Crist is getting Scozzafavaed. <\/p>\n

But Crist may be preparing to take a page from the playbook of former Democrat Joe Lieberman.<\/p>\n

Lieberman, you’ll remember, was bumped from his party’s line by liberal challenger Ned Lamont in 2006.<\/p>\n

But he shrugged off that defeat and ran as an “Independent Democrat” and won the general election handily.<\/p>\n

Lieberman continues to serve as a thorn in the side of the Democratic leadership, regularly poking criticism at President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

There’s evidence that Crist could soon be filling a similar roll. Think of him as an MSNBC Republican to Lieberman’s Fox News Democrat.<\/p>\n

This week, Crist vetoed a teacher-salary-and-benefits bill that Republicans loved.<\/p>\n

It’s a bizarre political move for a guy still hoping to shore up your Republican base.<\/p>\n

Unless, that is, Crist has given up on his party and is preparing the ground work for a very different kind of election.<\/p>\n

Polls show that he just might pull off an independent run, beating both Republican and Democratic challengers.<\/p>\n

In addition to shifting the political landscape nationally, that kind of upset win might also continue the slow devolution of the GOP.<\/p>\n

With tea parties, social conservatives and Glenn Beck roaring on one flank and disgruntled moderates simmering on the other, Republicans face a real challenge keeping all the pieces together. <\/p>\n

In a year when all signs point to a GOP resurgence, this kind of in-fighting could be the one thing that preserves Democratic dominance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a fascinating political fight developing in Florida these days. Moderate Republican Governor Charlie Crist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}