I have watched Charlie Crist for years moving up through the political levels and have several friends who have actually worked with him. The one comment I have always heard is that he is a hypocrite. Several of the latest campaign cards I have received have questioned Jim Davis' values and his commitment to traditional family values specifically. My understanding from other people who know Charlie Crist is that he is gay. I'm bothered by the fact that he pushes the traditional neo-conservative agenda, but may not truly believe it. Is his sexual preference fair-game since he seems to go against what the Republican Party really stands for?

So, we are basing all of this on one poll? Seems somewhat interesting considering that every other poll shows a much wider margin, most, in fact, in the double digits.

Outing the Republican Party-
Is "pink purge" part of the 2008 strategy to hold the White House?

First it was outgoing Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) announcing he was gay. Now Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL). When does the next shoe drop for the GOP?

This is hardly new news or tactics that members of Congress, like America, has a gay population.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) are also openly serving in Congress as homosexuals.

Rumors have circulated the Capitol for years about certain members. Somewhat nasty pamphlets and innuendo surrounded even our founding fathers. It has long been known through his own writings, that Alexander Hamilton wrote to his friend John Laurens, who served with Hamilton as an aide de camp to General Washington, many letters expressing his love for the man. While there has never been any confirmation of a sexual relationship between the two, Hamilton was devastated by Laurens death during the Revolutionary War and the relationship was known and used by Hamilton's political enemies.

President James Buchanan, the only bachelor in the White House, also has had rumors circulated about his suspect preferences.

Why now is there such a rush to judgment?

The Foley-Page scandal is not new either. The now deceased Rep. Gary Studds was censured for the same activities back in the 1970's.

Because the GOP has built such a staunch image of "protecting our values", the influence of the evangelical community on party decision-making, and the assault on gay marriage launched in Congress and dozens of states through amendments and referenda, for this scandal to breach the Republican wall of family values makes the impact more delectable for a waiting media feeding frenzy.

Within hours of the news of Foley resigning, activists from the far right began "blaming his homosexuality" for the behavior Foley exhibited. It's not the man, it his sinful disease. Pastors and reverends scoured news talk shows talking of the sin of homosexuality and even debated with Log Cabin Republicans about the error of their ways and offered aid to assist in their recovery.

It is clear that the all out press to root out gays from the military and now Congress remains a high priority agenda item for the religious right and very little has been said from our President or members of the GOP in congress in deference to the deeds of one man as opposed to the culture of homosexuality.

Governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain stumbled across their explanations, first allowing for the rights of two people to join in private ceremonies but then emphasizing that the bottom line was protecting the sanctity of the institution or marriage (by no means a secular issue other than for tax purposes) which was in shambles long before the issue of gay marriage surfaced. No mentions or denunciations of heterosexual dalliances that have helped lead to an even 50-50 shot at holding a "traditional marriage" together in the United States these days.

So why the continued full court press against gays?

2008 Presidential elections are right around the corner. When the smoke clears from the 2006 mid-term election and the political landscape is set, the race begins in earnest for the White House. No incumbent president or vice president running leaves the field wide open. McCain and Hillary Clinton are the presumed front-runners. How can the GOP run the "values" campaign that has been so successful for them if their house is in disarray? Having gay republicans will turn off their key voting blocs and dry up fund raising. It takes a whole chapter out of the GOP playbook.

Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration have failed on foreign policy and the economy. Values are all they have left to run on in 2008. Conducting a purge of corruption, on both an ethical and moral basis, is required to return the only play in the book left to them. A Democrat-controlled Congress will not aid in restoring peace and a growing economy ala Bush and the right as they see it. They will be blamed for stalling the President's agenda, conducting retaliatory investigations, stymieing court appointments and in short- obstructing the people's business.

Seeing the writing on the wall with the mid-term elections, the Bush White House may have calculated it is a lost cause in the House and are willing to cast it aside as an immoral and unethical blight upon the Bush legacy. A tactic that has a certain Rovian-quality to it as he looks for a new boss come 2009.

Please note that the above postings listed as RMills are not mine.

Posted by: RMills | October 24, 2006 06:25 AM

Davis has had a lot of ads on here in the Tallahassee market, but so his Crist, because this media maket covers a large Democratic area of Leon, Gadsden, and Jefferson counties as well as some more conservative ones as well.

This race will be very interesting. Davis did a lot better in the panhandle than people expected winning some conservative counties. He has also spent a lot of time campaigning in the panhandle and could pick up a good bit of blue dog democrat support.

I do think that the homosexual rumors have hurt Crist in this race. All of the evangelicals I know, don't like him and said that they would either vote for Davis or not vote. Tom Gallagher did a lot on the Crist homosexual whisper campaign.

Normally in this kind of political climate I would say that the Dems would take this race, but the GOP machine is much better and more organized than the Dems here in Florida. The race is currently a tossup.

Bush is flip-flopping on a massive scale regarding his "stay the course" mantra. Makes Kerry's "I voted for it before I voted against it" look tiny in comparison. And the R's called him weak and indecisive?

"President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as "stay the course." A complete distortion, they say. "That is not a stay-the-course policy," White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday.

Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Well, maybe from Bush. "We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed," he said in Salt Lake City in August.

"We will stay the course." ( 8/30/06 )

"We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq." ( 8/4/05 )

"We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the president or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We're just going to stay the course." ( 12/15/03 )

"And my message today to those in Iraq is: We'll stay the course." ( 4/13/04 )

And so on."

Incompetent. Impotent. Incoherent.

'A leading House Republican is urging Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to revamp the U.S. strategy against heroin production in Afghanistan, saying record opium poppy harvests show efforts to target farmers are not working.

Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said in an Oct. 12 letter to Rumsfeld that the U.S.-supported poppy eradication program in Afghanistan is a failure.

The "opium crisis" has "increased violence and terrorism against coalition forces there, and is now threatening to totally corrupt all of the new Afghan democratic institutions we support," Hyde's letter said, echoing concerns voiced by many U.S. officials -- including Rumsfeld -- that drug money is aiding a resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Hyde's letter followed a report by the United Nations last month that said an estimated 407,724 acres of opium poppy were grown in Afghanistan this year. That's up 59% from 2005 and more than double the acreage farmed in 2000, before the U.S.-led assault on the former Taliban government.'

Chris, I'm afraid that Republicans really have the handle on anger. Very angry people...

'Lieberman reversed himself yet again on Iraq. In the debate, he said that the situation only started getting worse in February. Yet in the primary debate, Lieberman said that "the situation in Iraq is a lot better." This guy's a professional liar. He saw the polls, changed his strategy because he knew that voters realized the situation was bad. It's good he's getting angry and sloppy, and I imagine it has something to do with the possible criminal activity involving his petty cash disbursements.

Here's a little tidbit. After the debate, Lieberman went up to Lamont and said "You goddam sonovo*itch!" And then he went on to said something along the lines of 'how dare you accuse me of voting for the Energy bill because of campaign contributions?'

Lieberman is angry again. Nice.

And he fully embraced his pro-war stance, in contrast to the ads he's been running about wanting to end the war and bring the troops home. It's clear that Joe will just say anything.

---

Thomas Rankin, the Libertarian running for Wyoming's lone U.S. House seat, said Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., threatened to slap him after a televised debate.
During a debate Sunday that also included Democrat Gary Trauner, Cubin and Rankin had a testy exchange over campaign contributions Cubin received from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Rankin, who has multiple sclerosis and uses an electric wheelchair, said Monday night in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the confrontation occurred immediately after the debate.

"My aide and I were packing up to leave the debate, and Barbara walked over to me and said, 'If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face.' That's quote-unquote," Rankin said.'

--very gracious. threatening a guy in a wheelchair. vicious bullies.

Looks like more of the Abramafia to get nailed....

U.S. News and World Report whispers:

'The FBI and Justice Department appear to be expanding their probe into the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in hopes of nabbing another member of Congress and aides, according to sources involved in the case. . . .
"We thought it was wrapping up, but they've indicated that it is really about to expand," said one source involved in the case. "It's not ending anytime soon or even when he goes to jail."

It's long been reported that Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) were on the Justice Department's short list. Is that list getting longer?'

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001859.php

Rob - It is not unusual for the Dems to write off most of NE Florida. Florida statewide races are not decided here anyway, this is a fairly solid Republican area. Also, Davis did not do well here in the primary - so he is probably concentrating on South and Central Florida. The FL Times-Union (which has a rabidly right wing editorial slant) today reported a Florida Chamber of Commerce poll (not exactly an unbiased group) that shows Crist ahead 49-38. The report did not contain any information on when the poll was conducted nor on its methodology.

Crist's Lover Id'd
http://www.RumorMills.net

Crist's Lover Id'd
http;//www.RumorMills.net

Election Alarm!!!

For uncensored news please bookmark:

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http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
www.wsws.org
www.takingaim.info
www.onlinejournal.com

These polls are certainly hopeful for democrats, however, people keep forgetting about the rethuglicans controlling the elections.I refuse to use any electronic voting machines until they have the same security as the ATM machines at banks. My wife called the elections office a few weeks ago to get absentee ballots sent to us, and they said they could send me one,but not her , as she wasn't registered.Her name was purged from the voting roles. We drove to the elections office in Orlando so she could get registered again ! They said the computer shows her as having moved to Jefferson County wherever the heck that is, neither one of us ever heard of it. She told them we have not moved any where & live at the same address since we voted last in 2004.The repugs are up to their old tricks as usual. There is too much at stake for the busheviks to relinquish power to the dems. I have a feeling that many people will be disappointed when they go to vote on election day and are told they can't because they're not on the voting roles. If the repugs steal another election, I believe it's time to start our own civil war in this country & eveyone head to D.C. to over throw this "dick"tatorship !!!!

I'm sure there are many reasons as to why Davis is coming back into the race and Crist is starting to fall.

Whether it be the issues like reason pointed out, the Foley Scandal, the Harris Disaster, or gay rumors about Crist, the fact is the polls are tightening. Davis has begun to introduce himself and I'm sure that will help his polls numbers as well.

Jim D If I was Davis and only had 5 mil in the bank, I'd run most if not all of my commericals in markets that have the majority of democratic strongholds and the more moderate territory in the state. Maybe your area of conservatism just so big that Davis's ads just aren't reaching you.

It could be the rumors of Crist's sexuality. Could be the Foley scandel. Could be Harris' poor showing the senate race. It could be these things, but I doubt it. I'm guessing people of Florida will vote based on what Crist and Davis are promising. Could it be that Crist has began to change his story a little bit? His assertion on one hand that civil unions should be recognized, then his phone calls to certain conservatives that "traditional marriage should be protected" and "life of the unborn should be protected." Can we say "flip-flopper"?

I certainly will help and support Davis for the Florida Governors office.
We the People need a change in the State of Florida.

I will pledge money and my help to push the election in davis way. We're just fed up with the republicans their just plain Silly!

All of may family are *PO* at the Mark Foley scandal, the folks at work and the community is talking about punishing the repug's come November and (08).

I think the repug's really did it with the Mark Foley thing. They Lied to the American people and had the nerve to try and cover it up.

And the all great lobby for the Gay Marrage Ban? but the repug's have Conservitive / Closet Gays on Capitol Hill?

Silly republican's they talk with two mouths.

I dont trust them anymore.

FL Gov. race is only slightly starting to gear up. There has not been much of a focus to date. Unlike some areas of the US, FL always seems to break late in election cycle.

That said, enthusiasm for either FL candidate is very weak. Davis is not motivating Dems. The GOP machine in FL could easily walk away with this race. The only way Davis wins, is for the Dem base to get out and vote. They only reason given for Dems to vote in FL thus far has beeen Katherince Haris on the ballot....not necessary the reason to vote but a small reason to go vote.

I live just S. of Jax near St. Augustine and I haven't seen much of presence of either one. I've seen some Crist signs but very little of Davis. I was in Orlando a few weeks and saw the same thing. Nobody where i work seems that interested in the gov race. Early votings starts today in my county (St. Johns) and i'm curious to see what the turnout is.

I'm in Florida, a dem who plans on voting for Davis. The Crist ads have been almost painful, to the point where I wince when I see them. That said, Crist has been flooding the airwaves but the ads themselves are easy to tune out because they are just so over the top.

Haven't heard any rumours concerning Crist's sexual orientation.

yea...what blowhards...the south is still gonna win the war...what idiots...

NotJack in FL, you dont like Davis' ads? I actually liked this one:

http://www.jimdavis2006.com/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=genericContent&htmlKey=davispay

I dont know that much about either candidate to be honest, but just looking at the two guys' credentials, Davis just seems far superior. Nevermind party affiliation. Davis just appears to be the better candidate for the office. To me that's a no-brainer.

The Republican Party. Hideous wreck. And we've been saying it for years.

I HEARD THE QUINNIPAC POLL HAD THE CRIST-DAVIS NECK & NECK. BUT SOME POLLS ALREADY SHOWED THE DEMS TIED OR AHEAD FOR ATT GENERAL AND FINANCIAL OFFICER. DAVIS' BLACK LT GOV RUNNING MATE WILL CERTAINLY BRING THE BLACK VOTE OUT IN FORCE. CHRIST HAS NO SO FLORIDA SUPPORT OR RUNNING MATE - NOT POPULAR WITH CUBAN COMMUNITY WHO RESENT TAKE-DOWN OF POPULAR STATE SENATOR BY UPSTATE REPUBLICANS.

IF THE DEMS WIN - FIRST MOVE SHOULD BE TO FORCE REDISTRICTING TO BRAKE THE INCREDIBLE GERRYMANDER THE REPUBLICANS PUT IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE AND THE HOUSE. THEN REAL INSURANCE REFORM & PROPERTY TAX REFORM (ENORMOUS STATE SURPLUS GOING TO HELP JEB BUSH'S BUDDIES LIKE CODINA REALTY)

DAVIS IS RAISING MONEY NOW, BUT CHRIST HAS MEGA BUCKS. THE REAL SLEAZE WILL NOW COMMENCE. CLAY SHAW V RON KLEIN ADS ARE TRASH ON BOTH SIDES...HARD TO BELIEVE THEY COULD BE WORSE, SHAW IS RUNNING FOR HIS 14TH TERM!

A short diversion to the North: Another Connecticut Turnpike observation - End-to-end trip this weekend, no Lieberman bumper stickers seen, no Lamont bumper stickers seen. One W'04 and one Jim Webb (the car had Virginia plates) were the only ones other than a couple of local candidates.

Maybe campaigns aren't spending money on bumper stickers the way they used to.

Feels as if I'm getting whiplash going from one new topic to another today. Is this another River Ramble, where no one thread gets to develop?

I'm always amazed at the fixation ofmany posters on this blog about the sexuality of politicians. I'm not a fan of "outting for the sake of outting" because I think that it is extremely arrogant of the person who does it. However, I do acknowledege that if a politician supports anti-gay agenda, and is gay themselves, that is about as close to the Height of Hypocrisy as you can get.

However, posters here have gone almost apoplectic in the past couple of weeks about how we were "just minutes away from Larry Craig being outted." That Rove, Rep. Hastert and Sen. Graham were Gay because, "everybody knows it." That meets the gossip Burden of Proof, and none other.

If somebody has proof that Crist is gay, then just "out" the damn guy. Otherwise, you're just participating in what amounts to sleaze politics.

Rob Bartlett on Imus this morning, as Ted Kennedy singing "Happy Days are here again; another Republican's been found Gay again!"

At least Bartlett is a professional comedian.

The Davis ads are bleh, nothing, ciphers. There's been no positive motion from his direction. I say that as someone who will vote for him. We await the debates. Though I would never vote for Crist, I'm seconding or thirding or whatever the notion that Charlie Crist is far too single, thin and neat for many voters here and may be losing altitude to misperception and consequent unfairness. Though he looks like a Montgomery Wards suit model or the guy at the top of the wedding cake, the unmarried Crist, to me, gives off more of a true politics nerd or asexual vibe. The new numbers are all about Foley; some homophobia has surfaced among voters who tend to vote against their own interests anyway.

Crist still leads Davis 46 percent to 44 percent, but that is down considerably from 53 to 43 percent bulge the Republican enjoyed just two weeks ago.

--unfortunate wording, chris.

I live in Florida and plan to vote for Jim Davis, and Bill Nelson. The people are fed up with super high insurance costs, high energy costs, and especially the FCAT's! Everyone who has lived here long enough knows that Crist was once the Insurance Commissioner, so guess where he gets a lot of his money from? Yep, the insurance "lobbyists!" And everyone is fed up with the FCAT's, that's the worse thing that has happened to Florida's education system. Plus, we all know that Jeb and Dubya's brother Neil's company owns the software for the tests and is making millions off of it! We're fed up and we're going to prove it at the polls!!

From elsewhere in the WaPo: "Independents Favor Democrats Over Republicans Poll Finds Votes Motivated by War Pessimism, Dissatisfation With GOP"

Hmmm, whatever 'dissatisfation' is it must be awfully hard to overcome. Does it have something to do with Denny Hastert's waist size?

This is interesting - I live in a very Republican part of Florida and all I see are pro-Crist and anti-Davis ads. The last poll I saw was about a week ago and it had Crist comfortably ahead. I wonder if the rumors about Crist's sexuality and his relatively moderate social issues stances (pro civil unions) are hurting him with the religious conservatives.

Yes, there have been some odd comments already on this post...but seriously, i do think the Crist is gay "rumors" (they seem pretty substantiated to me at this point) may be dragging his numbers down. Crist rumors have been almost as rampant as Foley's were before his whole debacle. And the religious right, I think, still doesn't trust him after the primary process.

Evidently the libertarian candidate, a long time friend of his, has been publicly outing Crist, saying that he has even met Crist's partners.

If Crist is outed as well as Foley, the bottom may really fall out for R's in FL--taking Clay Shaw and Katherine Harris' seat with him.

Come on Chris, talk about what's really going on in this race--I've never heard of Davis raising anywhere near the amount of $$$ to wage an effective statewide campaign. Foley and the rumors about Crist are bringing him down.

It was inconceivable that Harris's embarrassing performance running for Senate and pagegate would leave the gubernatorial race unaffected. Hastert should have resigned ten days ago. His presence will leave a festering boil on the Republican body politic.

Ever since this race tightened up, the Republican party has been spending its money to air slickly produced, negative adds about Jim Davis containing distorted information about Davis' record in Congress.

Crist is running scared.

Is it a full moon tonight?

Crist apparently is another closted gay hypocrite. In the wake of the Foley mess, the word is finally getting around that the Republicans for a long time have been hiding their gay office holders and top-level staffers, for fear that their conservative (intolerant!) constituents would find out about them. I hope this latest revelation depresses turnout among the right-wing base. The party is over.

"Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. He exercised all the authority of the first beast on his behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. "This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666." -- Revelation 13: 11-18

For students of numerology who can read Hebrew, the value of the letters in the name "George Bush" add up to 666.

Sources close to the late Pope John Paul said the Pope was very concerned that George H. Bush could be the Antichrist. He lobbied the leaders of many Latin American countries to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Just as Hitler used the Reichstag Fire to assume total control of Germany, Wayne Madsen wrote in Counterpunch, "There is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda." There was also the concern that the blood lust evident in Bush as a governor of Texas who executed more criminals than any governor in history would produce a slaughter of innocents. To commit such slaughter in the name of Christ would be an unparallelled blasphemy and proof that Bush was the Antichrist.

CC,
It is nice that Crist has raised 17 million but how much does he have on hand.

Election Alarm!!!

For uncensored news please bookmark:

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
www.wsws.org
www.takingaim.info
www.onlinejournal.com
otherside123.blogspot.com

Rove spin not succeeding. Although Karl Rove is attempting to transfer the Pagegate scandal involving the GOP to the Catholic Church (in the Mark Foley matter) and Democrats running in other states, particularly in Ohio, WMR can report the real child abuse/endangerment scandal in Ohio involves Rove's close friend and operative, Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Blackwell. Our sources in Columbus report that a close ally of Rove and Blackwell, who happens to head up one of Ohio's largest "mega-churches," was caught receiving oral sex in the front seat of his car from a female member of his church. The incident took place in the parking lot of the preacher's Columbus mega-church. What makes the incident even more scandalous is that the female's two young children were in the back seat of the car during the incident. The scandal-ridden GOP administration in Ohio failed to investigate the matter.