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Magazine Preview - The First Senator From the Tea Party? - NYTimes.com The First Senator From the Tea Party?
By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: January 6, 2010
Charlie Crist?s perma-tanned face bears none of the strain you would expect from the archetype of the embattled Republican. Politicians are supposed to keep up appearances, but Crist is especially convincing, one of the more earnest politicians you will see, whether or not he means it.
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Nigel Parry for The New York Times
Charlie Crist at the Westin Colonnade hotel in Coral Gables, Fla.
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Nigel Parry for The New York Times
Marco Rubio at his headquarters in Coral Gables, Fla. Mike Huckabee says he may be the face of the future of the Republican party.
?Are you kidding? It would be an honor,? the governor of Florida tells a guy wearing a kilt who had asked for a photo.
?Thank you for coming to Pensacola, Governor,? a woman says.
?Call me Charlie,? he insists. ?Please! Just call me Charlie. It would be an honor.?
Many things are an honor to Crist ? if they are not a ?pleasure? or a ?privilege.? On a chilly-for-Florida Thursday night in early December, Crist was addressing the annual Lincoln Day Dinner for the local Republican Party in the northwestern outpost of Escambia County in the Florida Panhandle ? nearly as close to Cincinnati as it is to Miami.
?God bless you here in the Panhandle, for your values,? Crist tells the crowd.
Crist, who is 53, is a compact and sunbaked raisin of a man with a shock of white hair, a beak nose and dark Mediterranean eyes. His grandfather, a Greek immigrant, shined shoes for $5 a day in Altoona, Pa., after leaving Cyprus at age 14; his father, a family doctor, shortened the last name from Christodoulos and settled in St. Petersburg when Charlie was 4. If the Crist family owned a Greek diner, Charlie would be the ma?tre d? who delivers you to your favorite table, asks about your mother and tells you to not miss the rice pudding.
The people of the Panhandle are ?the greatest people I have ever met,? he says. He likes people, no doubt ? ?the people?s governor? is always reminding ?people? how driven he is to help ?the people? of Florida, in accordance with the ?will of the people? who gave him ?the pleasure, the privilege and the honor? to be their governor so he can ?help the people.? As recently as last spring, Crist?s standing in Florida and with Republicans nationally was as golden as his skin. But these days not all of the people are happy with Charlie Crist. And a lot of them are in his party.
To many Republicans, the governor?s biggest sin was his support for the Obama administration?s $787 billion economic-stimulus package. That?s what comes up the most, although a fair number of conservatives also blame Crist for his seemingly decisive endorsement of John McCain three days before the Florida primary in the 2008 presidential campaign, effectively handing the state to an eventual nominee for whom many conservatives had little use. They see Crist?s career as pockmarked with instances of consensus-seeking, deal-making and bipartisanship ? three particularly vulgar notions to a simmering Tea Party movement on the right. Conservatives have tagged Crist as being part of that pariah breed of Republican today: a ?moderate.? Or worse.
By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: January 6, 2010
Charlie Crist?s perma-tanned face bears none of the strain you would expect from the archetype of the embattled Republican. Politicians are supposed to keep up appearances, but Crist is especially convincing, one of the more earnest politicians you will see, whether or not he means it.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image
Nigel Parry for The New York Times
Charlie Crist at the Westin Colonnade hotel in Coral Gables, Fla.
Enlarge This Image
Nigel Parry for The New York Times
Marco Rubio at his headquarters in Coral Gables, Fla. Mike Huckabee says he may be the face of the future of the Republican party.
?Are you kidding? It would be an honor,? the governor of Florida tells a guy wearing a kilt who had asked for a photo.
?Thank you for coming to Pensacola, Governor,? a woman says.
?Call me Charlie,? he insists. ?Please! Just call me Charlie. It would be an honor.?
Many things are an honor to Crist ? if they are not a ?pleasure? or a ?privilege.? On a chilly-for-Florida Thursday night in early December, Crist was addressing the annual Lincoln Day Dinner for the local Republican Party in the northwestern outpost of Escambia County in the Florida Panhandle ? nearly as close to Cincinnati as it is to Miami.
?God bless you here in the Panhandle, for your values,? Crist tells the crowd.
Crist, who is 53, is a compact and sunbaked raisin of a man with a shock of white hair, a beak nose and dark Mediterranean eyes. His grandfather, a Greek immigrant, shined shoes for $5 a day in Altoona, Pa., after leaving Cyprus at age 14; his father, a family doctor, shortened the last name from Christodoulos and settled in St. Petersburg when Charlie was 4. If the Crist family owned a Greek diner, Charlie would be the ma?tre d? who delivers you to your favorite table, asks about your mother and tells you to not miss the rice pudding.
The people of the Panhandle are ?the greatest people I have ever met,? he says. He likes people, no doubt ? ?the people?s governor? is always reminding ?people? how driven he is to help ?the people? of Florida, in accordance with the ?will of the people? who gave him ?the pleasure, the privilege and the honor? to be their governor so he can ?help the people.? As recently as last spring, Crist?s standing in Florida and with Republicans nationally was as golden as his skin. But these days not all of the people are happy with Charlie Crist. And a lot of them are in his party.
To many Republicans, the governor?s biggest sin was his support for the Obama administration?s $787 billion economic-stimulus package. That?s what comes up the most, although a fair number of conservatives also blame Crist for his seemingly decisive endorsement of John McCain three days before the Florida primary in the 2008 presidential campaign, effectively handing the state to an eventual nominee for whom many conservatives had little use. They see Crist?s career as pockmarked with instances of consensus-seeking, deal-making and bipartisanship ? three particularly vulgar notions to a simmering Tea Party movement on the right. Conservatives have tagged Crist as being part of that pariah breed of Republican today: a ?moderate.? Or worse.
