As the current race for the U.S. Senate gets underway in Florida, the only adult in the room is the current office holder: Democrat Bill Nelson.
Former GOP Sen. Stand-In George LeMieux, who was a place holder for Charlie Crist when Crist hoped to be the winner against Marco Rubio in 2010, is now running against Republican Connie Mack IV for Nelson's seat.
Back in 2009, LeMieux was Charlie Crist's BFF when he became his stand-in, but then dropped old Charlie like a bad habit when Wall Street came calling and the powers that be in the GOP excommunicated Crist in favor of then Tea Party "darling" Rubio. Crist was abandoned because he had the gall to hug President Obama in public, and in front of photographers no less. Hugging a Democrat is one thing, but a black Democrat? Well, let's just say, lines were crossed!
Fast forward in the race to 2012 and we have a genuine LeMieux on Mack sandbox slug-fest going on, and it's only February.
First, LeMieux threw a character punch at Mack, citing his record as a bit of a barroom brawler with a past of money and marriage problems. LeMieux used this to brand Mack as "the Charlie Sheen of Florida politics." LeMieux went further, saying that Mack wouldn't be able to get a job as a police officer or a teacher, and shouldn't be able to hold the job of a senator either. LeMieux also provided a statement and time line of "evidence" to back up his claim.
Not wasting any time, Mack fired back at LeMieux by playing a "Charlie" card of his own, the now tiresome one from the "friend of Crist who hugs black democratic Presidents offering stimulus money" deck. A mad typist from the Mack campaign fired off a hasty "Dear George" letter.
An excerpt:
When we first met many years ago, you were a brash and ambitious political operative. You prided yourself in being a take-no-prisoners, bare-knuckled political junkie. All are traits that served you quite well as you made a name for yourself as the mastermind of Charlie Crist’s political machine
But let’s be honest with each other – you know as well as the rest of us that as your power grew, so too did your thirst for more. It’s written all over you......]
[....You probably thought that hugging Barack Obama was a good photo op for Charlie too.
Nevertheless, even with your deep convictions on policy, at some point you realized you could cash in on your long and incredibly close professional and personal relationship with Charlie Crist.
You became one of the wealthiest lobbyists, err “consultants,” in Florida. And even though you were (and if one believes the newspapers, still are) caught up in the lingering scandals with the RPOF and Jim Greer, Charlie appointed you to the U.S. Senate without you ever having previously had a single moment in elective office.
More cattiness ensues, which you can read in full should you choose
here.
Sadly for the angry letter writers in the Mack campaign, they overlooked one teeny, tiny little detail in Mack's past themselves.
It seems Mack endorsed Charlie Crist in his Senate race against Marco Rubio.
Ouch.
Oh, and also, duh?
Perhaps when one lives in a glass house, he shouldn't throw boulders. Doing a little research on your own candidate probably wouldn't hurt either.
And so it seems that Connie Mack and George LeMieux both stick to Charlie Crist like a Republican sticks to a tax cut.