by Smitty
Stacy is probably about to blow a gasket from the last fortnight’s activities, starting in Searchlight, Nevada, going through the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the really important stuff like Smittypalooza, and, finally the Tax Day Tea Party. But he did make his midnight deadline for The American Spectator. Here is a taste, but read the whole thing:
Palin headlined a rally Wednesday in Boston, not far from the site of the original 1773 Tea Party, but didn’t make it to D.C., where the mid-day event at Freedom Plaza was followed by an evening rally in front of the Washington Monument that drew a crowd estimated at 25,000.
“I’m really happy with the turnout,” said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, main sponsor of the later rally.
Thursday’s attendance was a fraction of the massive crowd that attended last year’s September 12 rally in front of the Capitol, but that was a Saturday, not a weekday when millions of Americans were struggling to finish their federal 1040 forms in time for the midnight tax-filing deadline.
“The crowd is energized,” Kibbe said. “I think the message, after [last month’s passage of] ObamaCare, is that [Tea Party activists] aren’t… backing down, they’re not going home. They’re mobilizing and they’re going to make November 2 a referendum on ObamaCare.”
FreedomWorks has been involved with the Tea Party movement from the beginning. Kibbe noted that Mary Rakovich, an activist from Fort Myers, Florida, who had been trained by his organization, helped organize a February 2009 protest against the stimulus bill that was then pending in Congress. Rakovich gathered fewer than a dozen conservatives for that protest at a joint appearance of President Obama and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. But from that tiny demonstration grew a groundswell of activism that has, among other things, pretty much destroyed any possibility that Crist can win the GOP Senate primary, despite backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Hot Air linked Politico, on the topic of Charlie Crist:
But with Crist now trailing badly in the polls – and rumors intensifying that he will abandon the GOP primary fight – Cornyn says the governor will face an intense backlash from the Republican establishment if he runs as an independent.
“I would think that would be the end of his political career as a Republican,” Cornyn, chairman of the NRSC, told POLITICO. “So I doubt that will happen. My hope is that this is all resolved in the Republican primary by Florida voters.”
Cornyn said that Crist would be a “man without a party” if he decided to mount a three-way race against Rubio and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek, who is pursuing his party’s nomination in the state.
“And I think he’s got other potential and aspirations, so I think from that standpoint, it would be a bad decision,” Cornyn said.
The decision would only be bad from the standpoint of Crist. Others might see it as splendid. It would open up more time to work on the golf swing for ol’ Charlie. Or maybe Crist could take up blogging with a fellow Charles.
