Pragmatic Crist launches offensive blitz

TAMPA Bruised from a pummeling in polls and conservative media for six months, Gov. Charlie Crist is fighting back in the Republican U.S. Senate primary.

With his 18-year political career in peril, Crist, who has never held back from negative campaigning, is attacking opponent Marco Rubio.

He has ceased the frontrunner's strategy of ignoring Rubio, and criticizes him at every opportunity - though Crist usually calls him as "my opponent" or "the speaker."

On the positive side, Crist is pushing the pragmatic image that got him elected governor, emphasizing it as a difference between himself and the proclaimed conservative purist Rubio.

Crist has been moving in this direction for two or three weeks, but the new strategy hit the forefront this week in Crist's State of the State address Tuesday night and in a National Review interview Thursday, when Crist launched his sharpest attacks yet.

In the speech, he repeatedly urged legislators to temper political rhetoric with practicality, a clear reference to the primary race.

"Taken to an extreme, conviction becomes inflexible, even destructive," Crist said. "We do a disservice to the people who elected us ... to elevate ideology over problem-solving."

The lines drew applause from Democrats but silent stares from many in Crist's own party.

In the interview, he called Rubio's claim to conservatism the "greatest fraud perpetrated on people," and added, "When this guy calls himself the real conservative in the race, I've got to point out that it's the opposite."

Rubio's campaign calls Crist's tactics a sign of desperation by a losing candidate trying to reinvent himself.

It pleases Crist's allies, however.

"I definitely think he needed a change. He was trying to be almost oblivious to the attacks, and that definitely hasn't worked," said lawyer and ex-legislator Curt Kiser.

Recent polls have shown Crist as much as 18 points behind among GOP primary voters; the Real Clear Politics Web site gives Rubio an average 12-point lead in recent polls.

Crist's career might survive a close loss to Rubio, Kiser said, but probably not a double-digit defeat in his own party's primary.

In the National Review interview, even as he was bashing Rubio, Crist denied he was going negative.

"That's not my nature," he said, adding that he was "going accurate and honest."

The consummate politician

Crist is known as the nicest of political nice guys in person, but his campaigns have often included negatives:

•In his first run for public office, winning a state Senate seat in 1992, Crist ran a radio ad in which he reworded the "Beverly Hillbillies" theme song to make fun of alleged absenteeism by his GOP primary opponent, state Rep. Jeff Huenink.

• In 2000, running for education commissioner, Crist ran an ad condemning Democratic opponent George Sheldon for a 1970s arrest for driving while intoxicated. Crist pulled the ad after news broke that George W. Bush, then running for his first term as president, also had a 1970s DWI arrest.

•In his 2006 race for governor, Crist pounded Democratic opponent Jim Davis with TV commercials featuring an empty chair to dramatize charges that Davis missed votes in Congress.

"People have always underestimated Charlie Crist's toughness," said Brian Ballard, a long-time political ally and occasional adviser. "Sometimes his niceness gets equated with weakness or softness. He relishes a good fight."

If he's stepping up attacks on Rubio, Crist also seems increasingly willing to stand by parts of his own record that could be vulnerable among conservatives.

His support of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan is the biggest brush Rubio uses to paint him a liberal.

In a CNN interview in November, Crist sought to distance himself from the plan - "I didn't endorse it," he said - even though he clearly supported the idea. Tuesday night, Crist didn't back off the stimulus. He staunchly defended it and accused critics, implicitly including Rubio, of hypocrisy.

"A few governors may have rather loudly condemned the stimulus money, but that did not stop any of them from quietly accepting it," he said.

As Crist's campaign frequently points out, Rubio has said that as governor, he would have accepted some of the money; Rubio responds that accepting the money once the program has been enacted is different from supporting it.

Two news events have given Crist ammunition: revelations of Rubio's use of a Republican Party credit card for what appear to be personal expenses, and the indictment of former House Speaker Ray Sansom.

Crist's campaign says Sansom was Rubio's "handpicked budget chief" when Rubio was state House speaker. Sansom is accused of tucking $6 million in the state budget for an aircraft hangar to benefit a political contributor.

Crist also draws parallels because both Rubio and Sansom got jobs at hometown colleges - Florida International University in Rubio's case - after the schools benefitted from appropriations during their time in power. Rubio, unlike Sansom, hasn't been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the FIU appropriations, and says he scrupulously paid personally for credit card charges other than legitimate party business.

Unfortunately for Crist, he also has some ties to the credit card and Sansom incidents.

Crist didn't veto the airplane hangar project, and he chose state party Chairman Jim Greer, who ran the party while much of its financial meltdown was happening.

Crist of old reappears

That isn't stopping Crist, however, from harping on themes of government corruption, trust and personal responsibility in his campaign - terms aimed at Rubio.

The campaign tack revives memories of the Charlie Crist of 2006.

Facing a primary opponent who sought to appeal to the party's conservative base, Tom Gallagher, Crist proclaimed himself the conservative heir to former Gov. Jeb Bush, but didn't back off his moderate stances. He emphasized his willingness to work across party lines with Democrats and proclaimed himself a civil rights leader; he called himself pro-life, but said he didn't want to tighten restrictions on abortion.

He crushed Gallagher with 64 percent of the vote.

The political climate, however, was different then, said University of Central Florida political scientist Aubrey Jewett.

As the Bush presidency wound down in declining poll ratings, "Republicans and conservatives felt beleaguered," Jewett said. "They were worried about winning the general election. They figured Crist could win in an era that was not entirely favorable to them."

Today, he said, "They feel emboldened and confident they could win with a very conservative candidate."