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Crist, Palin Differ On Path For GOP

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By WILLIAM MARCH

wmarch@tampatrib.com

Published: November 16, 2008

MIAMI - Republicans gathered last week to talk about what went wrong in the Nov. 4 election and how to fix it, and the two highest-profile leaders - Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - offered sharply different recipes for a comeback.

Crist's message: Racial inclusiveness, bipartisanship and civility offer the clearest path for the GOP's road to recovery.

"It worked in Florida," Crist said. "It could work nationally."

Palin put forward a harder line: Tough adherence to the party's ideological principles.

Republicans, she said, should start on the road back by dogging the Obama administration and Democratic Congress on taxes, health care and energy, making no concessions.

"Now it is time for us to go our own way ... confident in the knowledge that there will be another day. We'll rise to fight again," Palin said.

The occasion was the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Miami.

GOP governors were among the few bright spots in a dismal election for the party, mostly holding their own and controlling 22 statehouses. With a Democrat in the White House and decreased minorities in Congress, governors will be among the party's top voices.

Among them: Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota.

But Crist and Palin were the top draws - Palin for the excitement she brought McCain's campaign, and Crist for his political success in the nation's biggest swing state.

Inclusive Crist

That success, Crist said over and over, came from a new kind of Republicanism he's fighting to put into practice in Florida, and that he says the party should practice nationally.

Virtually every time he spoke, Crist threw in the word "inclusiveness." Unlike other attendees, he didn't look for chances to trash Democrats, or blame the party's problems on the press.

"In my administration," he said in a discussion forum, "I've appointed African-Americans that also happen to be Democrats to head some of our agencies. ... If you show them that you really care by inclusion, it's hard to have a counterargument that you don't."

In Florida, he said in a CNN interview, "We have a hopeful, optimistic, bipartisan, almost nonpartisan way of getting things done."

Republicans don't always like hearing about appointing Democrats or toning down partisan rhetoric.

"Our country may have elected a president on the basis of some pretty prose," Texas Gov. Rick Perry told the crowd at the conference's closing dinner, "but Republicans are still the victors on the battlefield of ideas ... Republican leaders are still the best hope to restore our country."

Crist is accustomed to taking heat for practicing in Florida what he preached at the conference.

He's been blasted by some in his own party for taking such steps as agreeing to a Democratic request to extend early voting hours to cut down on long lines - a move some Republicans said would only help more Democrats vote.

"If his own name had been on the ballot, he wouldn't have extended early voting," charged Ana Navarro, a Miami GOP consultant and Hispanic co-chairman for John McCain's Florida campaign.

"He needs to get his own house in order before becoming a national figure," she said.

'Let's Show Him The Way'

Palin, meanwhile, said Republicans shouldn't give an inch on issues. She praised Obama, but added, "Let's help show him and Congress the way."

Asked what she would do about the party's losses among women and Hispanic voters, she responded, "You know, I treat everybody equally ... I'm going to work with this group of governors to serve all Americans, not letting gender, race, background, get in the way of doing what's right for Americans as a whole."

And Palin was among the few conference speakers who praised President George W. Bush. "He succeeded in keeping America safe from another attack," she said. "God bless George W. Bush and thank you Mr. President."

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.

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