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The Party's Over:
How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat
by Charlie Crist


(Click for Amazon book review)

OnTheIssues.org BOOK REVIEW:

This book is the story of Charlie Crist's migration from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. His rationale, stated right up front in the Introduction (p. 3), is that "Ronald Reagan, the man whose optimism inspired me to enter politics, famously said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party, but the party left him. Well, listen, I can relate. I didn't leave the Republican Party. It left me." Crist details throughout the book that the key reason he ran for Senate as an Independent in 2010 is because of GOP hyper-partisanship: "I couldn't shake the feeling that the great middle of the Republican Party had somehow evaporated; that decent, solid, middle-of-the-road Republicans had somehow been replaced by a new breed--narrower, more rigid, less generous, and more extreme."

That all sounds very noble, but of course there's a more pragmatic rationale too: In 2010, Crist was running against Marco Rubio in the Senate GOP primary, and was losing to the Tea Party favorite. (Crist lost in the 3-way general election, with Rep. Kendrick Meek running under the Democratic banner). And now in 2014, Crist switched to Democrat because he could not win back his gubernatorial seat as an independent, so he's using the Democratic Party apparatus to fight his gubernatorial successor, Rick Scott, another Tea Party favorite. In other words, Crist's migration from Republican to Independent to Democrat is mostly about fighting the Tea Party.

Crist attributes his loss to Sen. Rubio to "The Hug," when as Governor of Florida, Crist welcomed President Obama to Florida as part of Obama's tour pushing the 2009 economic stimulus package, and the President briefly embraced Crist as Obama was taking the stage to speak after Crist's introduction. As Crist describes it: "As hugs go, it wasn't anything special. It was over in a second--less than that. I didn't think a thing as it was happening. But that simple gesture ended my career as a viable Republican politician. It changed the rest of my life." (p. 158). Marco Rubio used "The Hug" in an anti-Crist campaign website in 2010: "On November 3, the Rubio campaign launched a new website, www.CharlieAndObama.com. The home page featured a photo of me welcoming the president in Fort Myers, leaning in for our brief grab-and-go. 'Get the picture?' the caption read." (p. 203).

While we don't deny that "The Hug" changed Crist's life and was instrumental in his migration to Democrat, it did not lose him the race against Rubio. Senator Rubio was then -- and still is -- the Tea Party darling, and a very attractive candidate beyond the Tea Party too (he's Hispanic in a state with a large Hispanic voting population). And Rubio is not an extremist, as Crist portrays as his reason for leaving the Republicans; Rubio is a moderate on immigration and on Social Security, among other issues; our VoteMatch rating describes Rubio as a "Populist-Leaning Conservative". Crist's new opponent in 2014, Governor Rick Scott, is more accurately described by Crist as an extremist too.

Crist has a lot to say about the 2000 election (when George W. Bush beat Al Gore for the presidency, amid widespread accusations of voting irregularities and intentional voter list reductions), at which time he was serving as state education commissioner. That means he had nothing to do with what he calls "the debacle of 2000" (p. 91) but he had a front-row seat on the sidelines. Crist writes, "The echoes of the 2000 election would bounce around Florida for many years to come... I developed a whole new appreciation for the importance of fair and competent elections. And I vowed, if I ever got the chance, I would do whatever I could to help Florida achieve a system we could all be proud of." This really is Crist's pet issue: he worked hard at it while Governor, and denounces what Jeb Bush and Rick Scott did while they were governors:

-- Jesse Gordon, editor-in-chief, OnTheIssues.org, April 2014