Rove Hearts Rubio! Another Signal From The Bush Family Circus?

I doubt Florida Gov. Charlie Crist sat down with his beard lovely new wife last night to watch the HBO debut of Outrage, the powerful and hard-hitting film in which he stars. He has more on his mind than a post-political stage and screen career. The Republican Senate nomination he was assured he had all sewn up is slipping out of his grasp. First it was only certifiably-- according to Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) -- insane Jim DeMint who broke with the Republican Party hierarchy to endorse Crist's brash young extremist opponent. But the pace of endorsements for the anti-Crist has picked up precipitously, and yesterday the anti-Christ himself weighed in.

Karl Rove donated a thousand dollars to Marco Rubio's campaign, which has plenty of enthusiastic teabagger support-- nationally-- but not much money. Rove's support is looking like a tacit endorsement from Jeb Bush (whose son, Jebby, already came out for Rubio). That whole "sisters under the foreskin" thing is completely passé-- and not just with Rove. Even Crist's oldest pal, ex-Congressman Mark Foley (now a Hate Talk radio host), is leaning towards Rubio!

Many believe this is Jeb's way of quietly telling influential Florida Republicans that he'd prefer Rubio but doesn't want to alienate Crist since he's still the heavy favorite in the primary. For Rubio, he needs to show some viability and that begins with his next fundraising report. But the most important fundraising report might actually be by the end of the year when you'll truly be able to see how Rubio's been able to use the Jeb neutrality (support?) to his advantage. Remember, Jeb is to Florida Republicans what Reagan is to the party nationally, he's held in THAT high of regard.

And that leaves Crist wondering how many Florida HBO subscribers discovered last night that he's a big ole hypocritical closet queen. Those who missed it have all month to watch the reruns-- and then newspapers that usually don't talk about Crist's little closeted life are reporting about the movie.

Outrage, a documentary that claims to expose closeted homosexuality among elected officials who have taken stances against gay rights issues-- including, it says, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist-- will make its cable television debut tonight.

The film was in theaters last May. HBO is scheduled to begin showing it at 9 tonight.

Director Kirby Dick said the message remains as important as ever. He said gays and lesbians are locked in the largest civil rights struggle in the United States today and his film examines hypocrisy among lawmakers that has set back the movement.

"This is one of the real problems with the closet-- when people vote against who they are for political gain or maybe to fight a rumor," Dick said in an interview with the Times-Union.

Kirby was critical of Crist because of the governor's support for Amendment 2, the constitutional provision, backed by a voter referendum in 2008, that effectively precluded same-sex marriages in Florida.

Crist's bachelor life had prompted rumors about his sexual orientation that he couldn't escape even after his December marriage to businesswoman Carole Rome. He has previously denied the rumors, as have many of his supporters.

A call to the governor's office for this story was not returned.

How odd; he's usually so chatty! Last night Marco was confused. So he sent out that tweet above asking his 5,478 followers if this profile by Arian Campo-Flores is good or bad. Well, Rubio isn't well known outside of teabagger and far right activist circles, so almost any publicity is good. And Campo-Flores has some disparaging things to say about Crist (RINO, "colossal disappointment," etc.) and some complimentary things to say about him ("handsome," "spirited," and a very un-Republican ability to speak without notes).

The problem is that Campo-Flores does what the reactionary media choir hasn't done-- he gets beneath the surface and says the thing about Marco that everyone who has ever gotten to know him says: no substance, extremist, narrow, right-wing ideologue...

By courting the right wing of the party so assiduously, he risks alienating everyone else. Moreover, he confronts in Crist a nimble politician who has managed to maintain solid approval ratings amid a devastating recession. And he must contend with a vast deficit in fundraising (he pulled in only $340,000 in the second quarter, compared to $4.3 million for Crist)...

Rubio hopes to tap that vein of indignation. On the stump, he rails against ballooning deficits that have been fed by Democrats and Republicans alike. He advocates an array of tax cuts and says he likes the idea of a flat tax. He considers a cap-and-trade scheme anti-competitive and job-destroying. On immigration, he says he would have voted against legislation that created a path to citizenship for undocumented individuals. Rubio casts himself as unbending in these beliefs. “Too many people don’t have principles,” he said in an interview, seemingly alluding to Crist. “If you’re not guided by principles, you can basically stand for anything... depending on the year, depending on the polls.” Yet Rubio doesn’t come across as an angry firebrand. He cloaks all of these stances in the rhetoric of aspiration and opportunity, of American entrepreneurialism and exceptionalism.