The Right Riseth-- Rubio Is Just Burying Crist

Mainstream conservatives are pretty far right these days. When people whose world views are even more reactionary than Mussolini's and Otto Von Bismarck's are the "mainstream," you have to start wondering what the lunatic fringe is going to come up with. Look no further than the far right's fave for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida, Marco Rubio. While Lindsey Graham was pursing her lips, stomping her feet and exhorting Obama to hiss more ominously at the Iranians-- who were simultaneously praying to their gods and saints and holy black rocks that Obama would hiss more ominously at them-- Rubio, as I mentioned Monday, was in a twittery fantasy about gun battles in the streets of Tehran.

Already kicking Charlie Crist's butt in county GOP straw polls, Rubio is definitely rising while Crist looks like some patsy of the Insider Establishment. Yesterday Huckabee not only endorsed his old friend Rubio, he savaged the Insider Establishment, joining the Senate's most radical right member, Jim DeMint, is the anti-Crist camp. Watch Huck making Rubio seem like a normal person by blabbling out a batch of tired, failed right-wing talking point:

Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (R) on Tuesday lit into the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) for endorsing Gov. Charlie Crist over another Republican in Florida’s open Senate race.

Huckabee announced his official support for former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) in a video Tuesday. In an interview with The Hill, he criticized the NRSC for turning its back on a true conservative.

“I’m disgusted that they would take a position in a hotly contested race when you have a quality candidate like Marco Rubio, who was the youngest Speaker in the Florida House,” Huckabee said. “This is not just some nameless, faceless guy that decided to throw his name in, who had no chance and no credibility.”

He continued: “I thought that their endorsement not only was premature, but was outrageous. And they ought to get behind the guy who would do a whole lot more, in my mind, to unite and fire up Republicans, and that’s Marco Rubio.”

...“The establishment Republicans have made this endorsement for the same reason that they’re in so much trouble,” Huckabee said. “They go out there and support stuff like TARP bills and stimulus packages, pork-barrel spending and huge debt, and they wring their hands and act like, 'This is not good, but we don’t have a choice.'"

Huckabee forgot to mention that extremists like Rubio can win Republican primaries but can't win statewide general elections unless they're in places like Utah, Idaho or South Carolina. And he forgot to mention that the NRSC begged Crist to run from the moment Mel Martinez realized he would lose the seat if he sought re-election. Crist made his decision conditional on backing from the NRSC and the Party Establishment. Now the lunatic fringe of the GOP-- the Huckabees and DeMints-- are throwing a wrench into the works. And at the rate things are going-- with all the momentum on Rubio's side-- it's starting to look like Crist will actually lose the primary, allowing a joke of a third-rate Democrat to slip into the Senate seat. Rubio is demanding a series of 10 debates, something that would certainly seal Crist's fate and end his career. He's way too slippery to accept, of course.


UPDATE: Another Startling Endorsement For Rubio!

Florida's most radical right member of Congress, Jeff Miller, turned against the Florida insider Establishment, against Beltway Insiders as well, to endorse Marco Rubio. Add him to the rapidly growing list of anti-Crists!