Sorry, Charlie: John Cornyn declares the NRSC to be irrelevant
NRSC's Cornyn to Charlie: just pretend we're not even here...
Despite the fact that he turned out to be right about New York 23 — Dede Scozzafava was a solid local candidate, who might have won that race had the entire Republican establishment not turned on her, while Doug Hoffman was as much a carpetbagger as the RedStaters and Palins who tried to shoe-horn him into office — and despite the fact that the jihadis strategy of purging so-called RINOs in favor of unelectable wingnuts proved to be a spectacular failure (resulting in a Democratic pick-up of two more House seats) … John Cornyn has decided to fall on his knees before the teabaggers anyway, starting with walking … no, make that running … away from Florida Governor Charlie Crist. From Politico:
National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (R-Tex.) says he won’t channel cash into any primary pitting Republican vs. Republican — including the heated Florida Senate primary between Marco Rubio and Gov. Charlie Crist.
“As far as what’s happening in specifically Florida — we made a decision to endorse Gov. Crist at his request. But we’e really not involved in the primary,” Cornyn told Manu. “That’s up to the voters in Florida.”
When he asked Cornyn, “But you are at least raising and spending money for Crist?” Cornyn shot back –
“No, we won’t be doing any of that until after the nomination. Our job is to elect Republicans so voters in Florida will have a chance to sort that out.”Cornyn elaborated on those comments to ABC’s Rick Klein early Wednesday, telling him: “We will not spend money in a contested primary… There’s no incentive for us to weigh in… We have to look at our resources. . . . We’re not going to throw money into a [primary] race leading up to the election.”
Asked to explain the sudden timidity of the NRSC, which after all DID endorse Miss Charlie for the Senate, Cornyn simply brushed off his organization’s endorsement as basically not worth having, and he blamed Charlie Crist for having it in the first place:
Cornyn said the NRSC is only endorsing in races where — like in Crist’s case — the candidate specifically requests its stamp of approval. He said that — notwithstanding any endorsements — his group would even offer advice on hiring and strategy to GOP challengers, like Rubio, who haven’t been endorsed.
Asked what endorsements mean, then, Cornyn said some candidates may want the backing to help line up support and financing. Beyond that, however, he said NRSC endorsements won’t mean very much in practice.
“Endorsements, frankly, are overrated…. They can to some extent be a negative,” Cornyn said, noting that candidates in New Hampshire, California, and Colorado, for example, have asked the national party to stay out of their races.
“People shouldn’t read too much into endorsements by the NRSC. We are encouraging people we think are the strongest candidates to run.”
Well, I’m sure Gov. Crist thanks you. This one was so odd, even the fascists smelled a rat:
So . . . um . . . the NRSC didn’t really want to endorse Crist, but Crist very much wanted them to so he could look like the establishment guy? That’s what I take from this. If Crist wants to own the mantel of “GOP Establishment Candidate,” let’s tie it around his waist and throw him in one of Florida’s many lagoons.
Make no mistake about it, the only reason that endorsement happened was not to help Crist, but to stop donors from giving money to Rubio. Now that this is no longer a reality or possibility, the NRSC is throwing Charlie to wolves.
The message from John Cornyn to everyone seems very clear, “We’re not as screwed up as the NRCC and will not be playing in Florida.”
And of course, Col Von Erickson interprets that to mean that really, New York 23 was a win for the wingers (but then again, he also doesn’t get that Michelle Bachman is nuts…)
UPDATE: Florida Dems are pouncing; asking whether Crist will have to return the 10 grand he got from the irrelevant NRSC:
“After announcing yesterday that the NRSC won’t be spending money to fuel the Republican ‘Civil War,’ people around Florida are wondering if Chairman John Cornyn will put his money where his mouth is. They are asking, ‘Will Chairman Cornyn demand that Charlie Crist return his $10,000 check,’” said Eric Jotkoff, Florida Democratic Party spokesman. “Over the last few weeks, the people of Florida have abandoned Crist with his approval rating now down to 42% and the Governor was labeled ‘America’s Worst Governor’ by Forbes Magazine. Now in another serious blow to his campaign, Crist’s Washington Republican base has cut off his financial support after ‘Big John’ Cornyn woke up to the fact that he can’t just get back on his high horse and demand the tea party types follow his decrees to get behind Crist.”
Oh, it’s getting ugly…
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