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You are here: Home / Politics / Crist, this is complicated

Crist, this is complicated

by | 39 Comments

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I doubt Mel will produce any Shatner-worthy speeches, but this does produce an interesting situation:

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Florida, will announce that he is resigning his seat, three GOP sources tell CNN.

The sources said that Martinez will officially announce his intention to step down on Friday. The Florida Republican, first elected in 2004, announced in December of lat year that he would retire in 2010.

Florida law states that Gov. Charlie Crist may temporarily appoint someone to the vacant seat until the next general election. As of Friday morning, it was unclear what Crist would do. Crist announced in May he would not seek another term as governor, and instead would run for Martinez’s seat.

Of course a care-taker will be given the seat (as should always be the case, IMHO), but the honorable thing would be to appoint Marco Rubio.

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    jcricket

    All we need is for Eric Cantor to resign too and I don’t think there’d be a “minority” (religion, race) Senator left in the GOP.

  2. 2.

    robertdsc

    An ad for SarahPAC appears! /chuckle

    I wonder if Crist will appoint himself as the replacement.

  5. 5.

    Sentient Puddle

    Depending on how much trouble he thinks the primary will be, I don’t think it’s entirely unlikely that he would appoint himself just for the sake of incumbency power (someone double-check all the negatives in that statement to make sure I said what I think I said, please). By the same token, I really really don’t think he’d appoint Rubio. It might be honorable, but come on, he’d just be shooting himself in the foot.

  6. 6.

    whatsleft

    DougJ – surely you meant that as sarcasm, right??? I suspect that Charlie will in fact find himself to be the perfect “seatwarmer”, hoping that inertia will keep the “Senator” in front of his name.

    Maybe he’ll appoint Alex Sink? That would really put the cat among the pigeons!

  7. 7.

    Brian J

    Was that suggestion concerning Rubio sarcastic, or were you being serious? I don’t see why he should get the seat over someone else.

  8. 8.

    jcricket

    @Napoleon: I know Christians don’t all see Mormons as one of them, but after Prop 8, I’m pretty convinced that all white, conservative, Christians can be put in the same boat as “not minorities” :-)

    Seriously, it’s gonna be a lonely Hanukkah for Eric Cantor.

    I think it would be awesome for Crist to appoint himself :-)

    And what’s with the gay rumors – obviously he hasn’t come out and there’s no incriminating evidence on record (which is pretty impressive). But in a way this is good. He’ll get elected. Then get caught diddling some page in the bathroom or brushing his hand up against Barney Frank during conference committee. And then tearfully resign, ushering in another Democratic Senator :-)

  10. 10.

    Rosali

    Thanks for the Mel thread. I desperately want to believe that he just got tired of all the anti-immigrant, racist rhetoric of the GOP and decided to get out but he stuck it out just long enough to for Justice Sotomayor. I believe the ugly discourse was responsible for him resigning as head of the RNC and now the Senate.

  14. 14.

    Ash Can

    I said this in another thread, but I’ll repeat it here: Martinez is Hispanic, represents a state with a substantial Hispanic population, and made this announcement the day after being one of the few Republicans to vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation. I’m wondering if the Sotomayor issue made him take a good, long look at his party and he ended up just saying “fuck it.”

  16. 16.

    Fwiffo

    I can’t recall a recent case of the “persistent” rumors about certain politicians turned out to be completely off base. I don’t know for a fact that it’s true in Crist’s case, but it would be the least surprising thing ever.

    Remember that whole thing where Roger Stone had photos of Crist “caught” making out with his beard? Hilarity.

  17. 17.

    gypsy howell

    Why is it that my first thought on hearing a republican “resigning immediately” is “wooo! Must have been a DOOZY!”

    Is it door number 1, door number two…?

    Door #1) Engaged in prostitution with a woman (and it would have to be really embarrassing, way worse than Vitter)
    Door #2) Found with gay lover
    Door #3) Was ringleader for Mark Foley’s pedophilia ring
    Door #4) Lots and lots and lots of child porn found on computer
    Door #5) Gigantic corruption scandal coming down the pike
    Door #6) Indictments to follow

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate

  23. 23.

    The Grand Panjandrum AKA Americans for America

    @Ash Can: That thought ocurred to me. The only thing this guy has left is his reputation and being an elected official associated with the GOP brand has got to be gut wrenching to any decent human being. When the GOP cast out the Birchers they were a very tiny percentage of the party. Today the birthers and their sympathizers are in the majority. Ouch!

  26. 26.

    Joey Maloney a/k/a The Bard Of Balloon Juice

    @jcricket:

    And what’s with the gay rumors – obviously he hasn’t come out and there’s no incriminating evidence on record (which is pretty impressive). But in a way this is good. He’ll get elected. Then get caught diddling some page in the bathroom or brushing his hand up against Barney Frank during conference committee. And then tearfully resign, ushering in another Democratic Senator :-)

    Crist has never formally come out – and he even married a beard – but I’m told it’s a very open secret in the circles he travels. I don’t think he suffers the kind of repression that have provided so much entertainment and schadenfreude for us; rather, he keeps up just as much plausible deniability as he needs in order to get by in non-batshit-insane Repub circles.

  27. 27.

    Sloth

    Martinez is Hispanic, represents a state with a substantial Hispanic population, and made this announcement the day after being one of the few Republicans to vote in favor of Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation. I’m wondering if the Sotomayor issue made him take a good, long look at his party and he ended up just saying “fuck it.”

    You know, you look at where Obama is polling now and you wonder what happens in 2010 and 2012.

    Then you reflect that probably the economy kicks back into gear just a bit, which is likely.

    And that the republicans are acting like a bunch of angry white men. And people tend to vote against the angry guy.

    And their geographic problem.

    And their total lack of ideas or solutions.

    And their demographic problem.

    And you probably conclude that “fuck it” is about the right response. Get out of the GOP while the getting is good.

  28. 28.

    DougJ

    You missed an easy title for this thread

    Yeah, I knew there was one and I just couldn’t bring it to mind!

    Thanks.

  29. 29.

    gypsy howell

    @Sloth:
    “Get out of the GOP while the getting is good.”

    If that were all there was to it, why not pull a Specter? Why resign?

  30. 30.

    Tom Betz

    Katherine Harris could be the smartest appointment. Crist would ensure that Harris and Rubio would split the winger/wacko vote, letting him cruise to a primary victory with the remaining sane Republican vote.

    All five of them.

    Uh, okay, maybe it wouldn’t be the smartest move.

  33. 33.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Sloth:

    I agree, I think he was disgusted by the way the majority of his party treated Judge Sotomayor. In fact it may even have been him on MSNBC last night that said “it says to hispanics no matter how well qualified you are, no matter to what heights you have risen, you are still not good enough” and said to himself “fuck it I ain’t sticking round with these sons of bitches any more”. I certainly wouldn’t blame him.

  34. 34.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    And you probably conclude that “fuck it” is about the right response. Get out of the GOP while the getting is good.

    Maybe Huntsman could use some help in China. It is a very big and complicated country. They could split up and one of them could represent the US in the Mandarin speaking provinces and the other could cover the Cantonese speaking areas. If in the future yet another GOP governor decides to pack his bags, they could probably fit them in helping out in one of minority tribal autonomous regions. It could be a sort of diplomatic Noah’s Arc of moderate Republicans riding out the storm.

  35. 35.

    suzib

    I don’t understand: is all this resigning some kind of GOP strategy, or are the rats really deserting the sinking ship? To me, Occam’s Razor suggests the latter, but I live in the reality-based community, so my reasoning skills don’t work on the other side of the rainbow….

  36. 36.

    Anne Laurie

    Why do I feel like these loons are resigning in advance of some sort of secession?

    Because a progressive can dream?…

    Maybe Huntsman could use some help in China. It is a very big and complicated country. They could split up and one of them could represent the US in the Mandarin speaking provinces and the other could cover the Cantonese speaking areas. If in the future yet another GOP governor decides to pack his bags, they could probably fit them in helping out in one of minority tribal autonomous regions. It could be a sort of diplomatic Noah’s Arc of moderate Republicans riding out the storm.

    Worked for that fella Poppy Whats-His-Name, didn’t it?

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @jcricket:

    He’ll get elected. Then get caught diddling some page in the bathroom or brushing his hand up against Barney Frank during conference committee.

    Are we presupposing unacceptable behavior because he’s an elected official and we all know how randy they are, or because he’s believed to be a closeted gay man and we all know how randy they are?

  38. 38.

    PaulW

    Of course a care-taker will be given the seat (as should always be the case, IMHO), but the honorable thing would be to appoint Marco Rubio.

    As a resident of Florida, may I be the 38th to say: ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN VULCAN MIND?

    Rubio is part of Jeb Bush’s crowd. DON’T YOU FRAKKIN PUT SOMEONE IN DEBT TO THE BUSHES ANYWHERE NEAR AN ELECTED OFFICE! DeMint and Armey are already officially backing him for the Senate primaries. Okay? Get an idea yet of who this guy is?

    He’s a tax-cutter. A no-matter-what, let’s-shrink-government, cut-all-taxes conservative of the Club for Greed crowd. And you want him not only to get a head start of sitting in that office but you want him up in DC adding to the Obstructionist woes we’ve got now. Gee. Thanks.

  39. 39.

    Tax Analyst

    gypsy howell said:
    “Why is it that my first thought on hearing a republican “resigning immediately” is “wooo! Must have been a DOOZY!”

    Is it door number 1, door number two…?

    Door #1) Engaged in prostitution with a woman (and it would have to be really embarrassing, way worse than Vitter)
    Door #2) Found with gay lover
    Door #3) Was ringleader for Mark Foley’s pedophilia ring
    Door #4) Lots and lots and lots of child porn found on computer
    Door #5) Gigantic corruption scandal coming down the pike
    Door #6) Indictments to follow

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate”

    Gypsy, you forgot the door with the Double-Wetsuit. Order the Deluxe Double-Wetsuit now and get a free caboose filler.

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