Mark Leibovich is a tremendously talented political journalist. His opus on the Rubio vs. Crist race was, however, pretty disappointing. Part of the problem is that while many in the Tea Party movement back Rubio, he doesn’t reflect its sensibilities as well as Rand or Ron Paul or Gary Johnson or Jim DeMint. Granted, Rubio is a great admirer of DeMint. Yet there are clear differences in their respective approaches to governing, as demonstrated by their respective records.
And that’s another thing: many observers — including liberal columnists like Joe Klein and E.J. Dionne — portray the opposition to Crist as part of an unhealthy “purgist” mentality among hard-right conservatives. Then again, it could be Republican primary voters, a large and diverse group in Florida, who want to register their objections to an incumbent who can fairly be described as a miserable failure as governor. I wrote a column describing Crist as “America’s Worst Governor” a few months back, and, though it may have verged on hyperbole, I think I made a pretty compelling case.
Incredibly, Crist demanded that Florida use one-time funds to pay for 12% of the state budget. When Republicans in the state legislature took the difficult step of passing a budget that included unpopular spending cuts, Crist turned around and vetoed hundreds of millions in cuts, despite the continuing deterioration of state revenues. It could be that Crist believes that the federal government will simply pass a stimulus plan every year, one that will grow ever larger without consequence to Florida taxpayers. This, of course, can’t possibly be true. As a result, Crist has committed Florida to a fiscal nightmare, one that will lead to draconian tax hikes and spending cuts long after he makes a break for the U.S. Senate or finds some other comfortable sinecure thanks to the good graces of his many wealthy friends.
This is, to be sure, a more complicated narrative than Tea Party loon vs. sensible moderate. But it has the added virtue of being true.
Leibovich doesn’t fall into the same traps as Klein and Dionne, and that is admirable. He does neglect the disastrous state of Florida’s public finances and how it reflects broader tendencies in the country that some people, many of them on the right, think are let’s just say mildly problematic. Instead, he focuses on “The Hug” between Crist and Obama.
In fairness, Leibovich is following campaign activists. But it’s worth keeping in mind that the folks who show up at rallies and wear star-spangled top hats at tea parties aren’t the voters who will determine Crist’s fate in a Republican primary. Rather, it’s the rank-and-file suburban homeowners who sense that they’ve been sold a bill of goods by a slick-talking politicians who offered nothing but tax cuts and spending hikes, and then cheered when the federal government came to the rescue.