Dems to Crist: Butt out and back to work

UPDATE: Crist, Howard Dean and Michigan Sen. Carl Levin will be guests on This Week with George Stephanopoulos Sun.

Florida Democratic party communications director Mark Bubriski scoffed at Crist's suggestions that the state might help fund and run Democratic primary re-vote. Just another effort by Crist to get more media coverage, Bubriski said.

"The state of Florida does not have the money to pay for this election and the Democratic party of Florida is not asking the state to pay for it. We're concerned about the money the Republican legislators are trying to cut from education, health care,'' said Bubriski. "You can't turn on a cable tv station without seeing him. Cameras are knocking people out of the way to get to Charlie Crist and he's loving it. He needs to get back to work to fix this Republican recession."In fact, yesterday John  McCain nearly got bonked on the head by a TV camera trying to get past the Republican presidential nominee to talk to Crist. Check it out here.

Comments

John Who?

Nothing wrong with the Governor trying to make sure Florida is treated fairly in the elections process by both parties...this wouldn't be an issue if the Democratic Party wasn't run by a bunch of bafoons who are out of touch with mainstream American...people like...Mark Bubriski.

Stick a fork in the Dems---they're done! If anyone could screw up an election leave it to out State Democratic Party.

3:04 Not "your" State Democratic Party. Go back to your corporate handlers and await the coming GOP 1000 year reign. Meanwhile we'll work hard to keep the memory of your beloved president fresh in the minds of the voters.

Ha ha ha. Every single PR play Cristi has carried out has worked out so far and made others look foolish. Instead of bashing Cristi, the Dems should seek to make him Hill or Osama's VP.

oh this is great! had a great laugh at this one. all the work he's doing to build the dems is coming back in his face - even the dems are telling him to get back to tally now and fill the "empty chair". crist is turning into the dems party crasher - not invited and not wanted

"This is just another PR play by Crist. You can't turn on a cable tv station with him, and seeing knocking themselves out of the way to get to Charlie Crist. He needs to get back to work."

Could not have said it better myself. Except how can Chuck get "back" to work... when he hasn't actually "started" to work in the first place?

RECALL "THE PEOPLE'S MISTAKE!"

Gov Crist never said Florida was willing to pay for new elections.

He said he was open to ideas of new elections as long as we don't have to pay for it.

HE WANTS JANUARY 29TH VOTES TO COUNT.

"HE WANTS JANUARY 29TH VOTES TO COUNT."

THEN HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SIGNED THE LAW CHANGING THE PRIMARY DATE!

CHUCK IS A WALKING CONFLICT!

RECALL "THE PEOPLE'S MISTAKE!"

[Pat]

Crist needs to mind his own business, he is a rotten governor as it is! When can we begin the recall?

[ricco]

Governor Crist wants to be Vice President Crist. If having another election in Florida causes turmoil among the Democrats so be it.

Hillary/Obama or riding a car off a bridge. Wait Vote McCain/Crist 2008

SAVE AMERICA!!!!

[rhonda]

THE PEOPLE'S GOVERNOR IS HOTT AND HIS NEW LADY FRIEND WOULD MAKE AN EXCELLENT FIRST LADY

GO CHARLIE GO CHARLIE GO GO GO!!!!!

5:03, did you just advocate an assassination?

[Simon]

I cannot believe Florida is screwing up ANOTHER presidential election. Please people, it's not that difficult.

Actually, 4:07 p.m., you are wrong. That pathetic excuse for a governor said yesterday that he was willing to pay for part of it if the democratic party would as well. There was a record turnout of voters for the January 29th primary. Either count those or don't but stop with this already. The 'governor' and his entourage in Tallahassee are responsible for this whole mess. Try accepting responsibility for your part in changing our primary date. If Howard Dean wants to continue to be the big bad boss that he has always thought he was, let him. When push comes to shove, they'll realize they need the delegates in order to settle it. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THERE BE A DO-OVER AND NO WAY IN H3LL SHOULD FLORIDA TAXPAYERS BE EXPECTED TO PAY FOR ANY PART OF THIS. Grow some Charlie. Your parents thought they had a son...

[Sinergee2008]

As a Floridian I am still more worried about how I am going to pay my taxes and homeowners insurance than whether or not my vote will be counted. Our elections system has already proved flawed indeed in not one but the past two presidential elections.
DO WHAT YOU PROMISED US IN ORDER TO GET ELECTED CHARLIE.
Keep your nose out of the general election and put it back in your own backyard where things really aren't all that much better. Tackle the insurance companies CHARLIE not your rival political party.

7:42pm,

you are wrong

Gov Crist said he'll use FL resources to help administer the election if the Democrats will pay for it.

What that means is that FL will allow use of election sites and other administartive resources. Rest assure, running a state election will cost lots of money probably up to $25-$30 million. Gov Crist says Floridians will not pay for that.

I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

[Olivia]

OMG all these republicans are so transparent. You want to seat the delegates, Charlie? Really? Since they don't count and there was no campaigning here. Yeah, that's fair. Just another example of good old republican politics. "Let's give the delegates to Hillary and that way my running mate and I can mop up the floor with her in November". Nice.

[zenator]

It would be a simple matter for the DNC to raise $10mm in soft money to finance a new primary election in Florida and Michigan. So the money is not the problem:it is the excuse.

The problem is that Hillary would likely carry both Fla and Michigan.

8:26
What do you care? The Democrats gave up their voice when the super delegate tactic was put into place.
Do you realize that by having super delegates, it doesn't matter what the popular vote is, or what the delegate count resulting from the primaries or caucuses. The super delegates (who are all political), can vote for whomever they choose and negate the choice of the voters.
So get over blaming anyone but the Democrats and their rules.

[tom]

Crist is turning out to be another George W. Bush only the state of FL gets to enjoy the Republickin nightmare. He is turning out to be a true politician who only cares about himself and his cronies.

10:05
As opposed to the Clinton's who only care about themselves?
Get real.
I do agree, however, that the Governor should not waste my tax dollars on another election. Count the votes that were cast, and seat the delegates, or don't do either---just don't spend any money from the state on it.

[jim]

Go Charlie!!!!

Democrats, an envious bunch!

[rhonda]

HILLARY IS A MONSTER, A SCARRY MONSTER!

[McCain like Europe better than Americans for Military Work Profits]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Angry Boeing supporters are vowing revenge against Republican presidential candidate John McCain over Chicago-based Boeing's loss of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the parent company of European plane maker Airbus.
There are other targets for their ire—the Air Force, the defense secretary and even the entire Bush administration.

But Boeing supporters in Congress are directing their wrath at McCain, the Arizona senator and nominee in waiting, for scuttling an earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers. Boeing now will miss out on a deal that it says would have supported 44,000 new and existing jobs at the company and suppliers in 40 states.

"I hope the voters of this state remember what John McCain has done to them and their jobs," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., whose state would have been home to the tanker program and gained about 9,000 jobs.

"Having made sure that Iraq gets new schools, roads, bridges and dams that we deny America, now we are making sure that France gets the jobs that Americans used to have," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. "We are sending the jobs overseas, all because John McCain demanded it."

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a competition with Boeing Feb. 29 to build the refueling planes in one of the biggest Pentagon contracts in decades. The unexpected decision has sparked outrage from union halls to the halls of Congress over the impact on U.S. jobs, prestige and national security. EADS and Northrop say about 60 percent of their tanker will be built in the U.S.

McCain said he is keeping an open mind on the contract, but in the past he has boasted about his role in blocking an earlier version of the tanker deal that gave the contract to Boeing. The deal was killed in 2004 after a former Boeing executive improperly recruited an Air Force official while she was still overseeing contracts involving prospective Boeing deals. The former Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, and a top Boeing executive both served time in prison, and the scandal led to the departure of Boeing's chief executive and several top Air Force officials.

McCain has run ads touting his role in fighting "pork" such as the tanker project and cited the deal in a recent GOP debate.

"I saved the taxpayers $6 billion in a bogus tanker deal," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoing the thoughts of many congressional Democrats, sees McCain's role in a less positive light. She said the earlier tanker deal was "on course for Boeing" before McCain started railing against it.

"I mean, the thought was that it would be a domestic supplier for it," Pelosi told reporters. "Senator McCain intervened, and now we have a situation where the contract may be—this work may be outsourced."

Even Boeing's Republican supporters are critical of McCain.

"John McCain will be the nominee and I will support him, but if John McCain believes that Airbus or EADS is the company for our Air Force tanker program he's flat-out wrong—and I'll tell him that to his face," said Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican whose district includes a Boeing plant that could have gained hundreds of new jobs from the tanker program, said McCain's role in killing the earlier deal is likely to become an election issue. Both of the leading Democratic candidates for president, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have criticized the Air Force decision.

"I think we absolutely will hear more about it," Tiahrt said. "We'll hear it mostly from the Democrats and they have every right to be concerned."

McCain called such criticism off base.

"In all due respect to the Washington delegation, they vigorously defended the process before—which turned out to be corrupt—which would have cost the taxpayers more than $6 billion and ended up with people in federal prison," he said. "I'm the one that fought against that ... for years and brought down a corrupt contract."

Keith Ashdown, with the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Boeing executives who broke the law were to blame for the demise of the tanker contract—not McCain.

"This was theirs from day one," he said. "This idea that any lawmaker is to blame is a joke."

Still, Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University, said McCain's opposition to Boeing could hurt him with voters in Washington and other states affected by the tanker program. Boeing would have performed much of the work in Everett, Wash., and Wichita, Kan., and used Pratt & Whitney engines built in Connecticut. Significant work also was slated for Texas.

"If he can be painted as somehow being associated with job losses ... it could hurt him on the margins," Donovan said.

McCain's role in the tanker deal did not bother Alabama politicians, including Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who endorsed McCain three days after the Air Force contract was announced. The EADS-Northrop tanker, based on the Airbus A330, will be built in Mobile, Ala., where it will produce 2,000 new jobs, and support 25,000 jobs at suppliers nationwide.

March 7 - 8:25 p.m. - Here it is...

Crist said he would consider a "blend" of private dollars and taxpayer dollars, but Bubriski said the state party opposes public money for the election when education and health care face funding cuts.

Crist sux and should be sent packing out of Florida before he makes such a mess of things that we will never recover.

[ALW]

The simple fact is that even if you allow all the delegates from FL and Michigan (where only Hillary was on the ballot) to be seated at the convention as decided on 1/29 it wouldn't make any damn difference. Do the math. We don't need a re-vote or caucus it wouldn't change anything!