Anybody else – during these turbulent economic times – find themselves taking frequent umbrage at stories that chronicle politicians’ fund-raising? It’s like rubbing salt into recessionary wounds – as well as reminding us that money is the root of all political success.
But especially those accounts that involve Gov. Charlie Crist. He has, obscenely enough, already raked in more than $4.3 million for his 2010 Republican Senate campaign.
That the governor is a pleasantly lightweight empty suit who gives political opportunism a bad name is now a given. Taxes and insurance rates never dropped like rocks. He never got out in front on actually trying to alter this state’s antiquated revenue-raising formula. He signed off on the growth laws-gutting, knavishly-named “Community Renewal Act.” He won’t promote trade with Cuba – and all the economic and jobs’ scenarios that can promise.
Crist did, however, get credit for taking federal stimulus money. That’s how low the accomplishment bar is. But the fed dollars will only serve as a stopgap as the state muddles through the next year and a half. And then, of course, it all becomes somebody else’s burgeoning problem. Nice career move, Charlie.
After one disappointingly lackluster term, Crist is out of here. To a place where he cannot make as much difference to Florida as he could have in Tallahassee. How’s that for chutzpah and irony?
But Crist has raised $4.3 million – in the first 50 days of his campaign. This is a testimonial either to “bundling” lobbyists who want to back an accessible winner, even a GOP-Lite one, or to those who genuinely are enamored of politicians with ideologies of raw expedience. Or to those who will pay any price to help get him out of Florida before the next crisis hits.