I guess DeMint meant it when he said he'd rather have 30 true-believer conservatives in the Senate, than a squishy majority.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is set to become the first sitting Republican senator to back Marco Rubio’s long-shot candidacy against Gov. Charlie Crist in the Florida Senate primary, the latest sign of conservative unrest over the Washington establishment’s support of the Florida governor.
According to sources familiar with the talks, DeMint will throw his support behind Rubio, a 38-year-old former Florida House speaker who is positioning himself as the conservative alternative to Crist, in a Tuesday announcement in Washington.
This is the bizarro-world version of the 2006 Democratic primary in Connecticut, and like I did that year, I have my money on the insurgent candidate, Rubio. Heck, the insurgents even have their own version of "The Kiss"!
Never underestimate the power of an image like that one of Obama and Crist about to smooch. Lieberman lost his primary in large part to this picture:
It's a closed primary, so independents and Dems, who seem to love Crist, won't have a say in the matter.
The Club for Growth will undoubtedly throw its considerable fundraising heft behind Rubio, and the conservative grassroots and teabagging crowd already see Rubio as one of their own. Crist, for his part, is a constant target of Florida (and even national) wingnut radio. True blood conservatives either hate him already, or WILL hate him before long.
That leaves Crist with ill-respected national GOP leaders as his "base", and they can be used as a foil to further attack him as a creature of DC entrenched interests. Really, that's not a good place to be in this political environment. More and more conservative politicians looking to curry favor with their shrinking but influential base will cast their lot with Rubio. Don't be surprised if some 2012 presidential hopefulls also roll the dice on Rubio. It would provide instant Conservative cred. I'd certainly do it if I was Palin, Sanford, Gingrich, or Romney.
So yeah, I'm calling this one early for Rubio, even though the task ahead for him will be long and grueling.