Today has not been too kind to Florida Governor (and NRSC recruit) Charlie Crist. His path to coronation as the next U.S. Senator from the Sunshine State hit a rather large snag today.
CNN reported this morning that Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and once-and-future Presidential aspirant, will endorse conservative former FL House Speaker Marco Rubio within the next few weeks.
This comes on the heels of an intriguing endorsement earlier today: that of
Jeb Bush Jr. The ill will between the younger Bushes and Crist is nothing new: as Senate Guru reported today, Bush son and "rising GOP political star" George P. Bush did not hesitate to clip Crist at the knees back during the stimulus fight:
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is only a "light" version of a Democrat, former Gov. Jeb Bush's (R) son claimed Saturday.
"There's some in our party that want to assume that government is the answer to all of our problems," Bush said at a meeting of young Republicans, as reported by the Orlando News. "You know who I'm talking about," he added, referencing Crist.
Let's set aside the Bush sons for a moment (though one does have to be intrigued by their machinations here, leading one to wonder WWJD--What Will Jeb Do??).
The big catch here is Huckabee.
The NRSC will no doubt try to minimize the impact of this. They will point out that Rubio was an early endorser of Huckabee, and this is a simple act of reciprocity.
Bah. This is a big deal, whether the NRSC wants to admit it or not.
Huckabee is a legitimate national political figure. Cracks about Limbaugh and Gingrich aside, Huckabee is one of the few guys in politics who could, with some justification, claim to speak for the Republican base. And he just defied his national party by endorsing an insurgent candidate in one of the most high-profile open Senate seats in America.
The right-wing base of the GOP seems to be "going Galt" from their own party. Rubio's campaign is predicated on the idea that there is an internecine war within the Republican Party, and that Charlie Crist in the United States Senate would somehow be a defeat for the conservative cause writ large.
And now he has one of the nation's most well-known conservatives standing behind him. It is a tacit endorsement that moderate ascendancy in the GOP is no longer the sign of a big tent, but rather a sign of weakness.
This also, looking forward, has some 2012 implications, as well. Huckabee, it would seem apparent, is interested in a second bite of the presidential apple. Polls show him at or near the top of the depth chart for the Republican's potential 2012 WH lineup. He wouldn't be doing this if he thought that endorsing Rubio would cost him politically. On the contrary, Huckabee might be calculating that endorsing the conservative insurgent over the moderate establishment choice will pay him big dividends in 2012.
And THAT is the story--this move by Huckabee is evidence that one of the top names in the GOP thinks that doubling down on the right wing is the smart bet for 2012. Both of the Democratic campaign committees, to say nothing of President Obama, have to be pretty happy to see that.